Crime Corner: The Man That Faked His Death to Avoid Mob

On January 7, 1898, a mob of 20 to 30 men stormed the Whitman County Jail, in Colfax, with the intent of lynching two murder suspects. One suspect is lynched, but the other successfully fakes his own death and escapes with little injury.

The two men in question were none other than Charles Marshall, known as "Blacky," and Robert McDonald, known as "Dakota Slim."

The events leading up to the storming of the Whitman County Jail started with the murder of Orville Hayden and the robberies of passersby in the town of Farmington. 

In the early fall of 1897, Marshall and McDonald robbed two Farmington locals. After robbing their victims and forcing them to lie in a fenced corner, the pair waited for opportunistic targets. Two more men came along; one of them was Orville Hayden.

According to reports, Marshall and McDonald drew their weapons and ordered the two men to raise their hands.

Hayden either did not move fast enough or made a move that alarmed his attackers, and one of the robbers shot him. Hayden died from his gunshot wound.

It wasn’t until later that year, in 1897, Marshall was charged with stealing a roll of blankets, though the authorities suspected he was responsible for Hayden's murder.

The reports are unclear on whether authorities initially suspected McDonald of being Marshall's accomplice in the Hayden murder. So the Whitman County authorities concocted a plan. 

They hired a Spokane detective, created a disguise for him to blend in with the other prisoners, and put him in jail with Marshall to try to trick Marshall into admitting guilt. 

Reports at the time say the detective’s alias was "charged" as an accomplice to an unrelated murder. 

The detective later reported that Marshall told him he had murdered Hayden. Marshall also stated that McDonald was his partner in crime.

“After Slim was discharged, I cultivated the acquaintance of “Blacky” and got on very confidential terms with him. About the 18th day of November, one day just after one of the Haydens had been in jail, “Blacky,” said to me that the Hayden boys would not recognize the murderers of their brothers if they saw them. I asked them how he knew that. He replied that he guessed he [Blacky] knew all about the killing,” said the Spokane detective in an article published January 7, 1898, in the Colfax Gazette. “He then told me, without further solicitation, about when he first met ‘Slim’ at Oakesdale, ten days or two weeks prior to the killing. He said he and Slim left Oakesdale late in the afternoon of Friday before the killing at night.”

The story of Marshall’s admission broke through the town and enraged the citizens of Colfax. It was not uncommon for Colfaxians at the time to take justice into their own hands as years prior, a mob formed in June 1894. The mob seized the jail, removed two prisoners, tied nooses around their necks, and reportedly tossed them out of a second-story window. 

When the news broke out about the undercover job from the Spokane detective, murmurs around town sprouted about as it seemed as though history would repeat itself. 

Between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on January 7, 1898, a mob of 20 to 30 men, masked and well-armed, stormed the courthouse. 

Only one deputy sheriff and a night watchman were at the jail. 

The mob eventually broke into the jail and discovered Marshall asleep in his cell. 

Marshall was awakened and begged for mercy. Reports continue to state he was struck on the head with a revolver butt and knocked unconscious. 

In one instance, the mob tied a noose around Marshall’s neck and dangled him at the end of a rope from one of the windows.

McDonald had anticipated the mob and had prepared for them to break in. He had improvised a spear from a sharp knife which he tied to a mop handle with his leather shoestring. 

McDonald also plugged the keyhole into his jail cell with rags. 

As a result, the mob could not get close to McDonald without getting speared and could not unlock the door to get into his cell. 

Despite McDonald’s clever trickery, there was nothing to stop someone in the mob from shooting at McDonald, and someone did.

The bullet braised one of the cell bars and splintered the bar. One of the iron splinters struck McDonald but did not seriously injure him. 

McDonald sank to the floor, exclaiming, "Oh God, I'm killed!" 

The mob believed they had succeeded and eventually retired from the building.

Much good luck to McDonald, as he was later tried for Hayden’s murder and acquitted of all charges.  

McDonald presented an alibi, stating he was in Colfax the night of the murder and was released.

Colfax’s Original Courthouse/Jail House Circa 1954