The Bold Unknown
- Title
- The Bold Unknown
- Source Type
- Newspapers
- Publisher
- Birmingham News
- Publication Place
- Birmingham, AL
- Publication Date
- 12/16/1889
- Transcript
- THE BOLD UNKNOWN" Is Said to Have Been Identified as Ed. Thompson, Formerly of Cottondale. The desperate unknown who stole a witch engine in the Alabama Great Southern yards at Tuskaloosa, Friday aight, is unknown no longer. His name is Ed Thompson. He is said to be three times a murderer and guilty of many deeds of violence and reckless It was not until Thompson got to his father's home near Cottondale on the night of the daring theft that his identity was revealed, and then no one was astonished. Eighteen months, two years ago, or thereabouts, Thompson was employed in the Alabama Great Southern railroad and his family resided near Cottondale. Christmas day, 1887, Ed spent at home, and it was on that day he shed blood enough to stain his name for generations. He got drunk as a lord and at night got into a broil with some countrymen who lived in the vicinity. The result of it all was that Thompson killed three men and then fled the country. He has never been arrested and is this day a fugitive from the law. The next heard of the man he was working as a fireman on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, and as long as he staid out of the country the authorities made no determined effort to capture him. He did not make his reappearance at Cottondale until a few days ago on the stolen engine. As has already been detailed in the News, when he vas cornered on the runaway engine, he took to the woods Since then he has been seen, and he vowed he would never be taken alive, and that police officers would regret an attempt to arrest him. The last seen of him he was in a wagon with a farmer, coming in the direction of Birmingham, and it is supposed he will reach the city some time to-day. Sheriff Rush King. of Tuskaloosa county, is here on the lookout for the man, and is determined to arrest him should he come here.
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