Paul and Jack Fodge were two brothers with dubious reputations. Aged 26 and 23 respectively, both had already spent time in prison. They didn’t exactly exhibit criminal mastermind-ship either when they decided to hold-up a large group of cowboys and their companions at an early, holiday-season dance November 14-15th, 1931.
“Both bandits, who have lived in this vicinity for many years, have served terms in the state prison,” the Prescott Evening Courier related, “while the younger also has done time in the state reform school. At present, he is said to be wanted at the penitentiary as an escaped convict. The crimes of which he already have been convicted include robbery, burglary, and hold-ups, while the younger of the two, who is said to be married, was convicted here several years ago after he had run away with a girl of tender years, establishing her in an unoccupied cabin in the Williamson Valley district, and then stealing and butchering a calf to provide the pair with food.”
Around Prescott the two were widely known by the last name of Stopper. However, this was the alias Paul’s used when he tried a boxing career.
In an effort to try to disguise themselves before the heist, the two applied black face, like performers in a minstrel show. Paul was carrying a 30-30 rifle; his younger brother Jack sported two revolvers: “a .32 calibre revolver on a .45 frame, and a .25 automatic,” the Courier reported. A third man, which the Fodge brothers never gave away and was never identified, had a shotgun, and a fourth, never identified, accomplice as well.
Shortly before 1AM early Sunday morning the two brothers entered the dance which was being held at the Lynx Creek schoolhouse. “Stick ‘em up,” one yelled. One cowboy, seeing the black face, thought it to be a poor prank: “that’s an awful joke,” he said, “cut it out or you’ll scare the women.” Rather, Paul Fodge displayed his seriousness by firing two shots into the floor just in front of the cowboy’s feet, and ordered everyone to line up against the wall.
Instead, “a group of local cowpunchers chose to argue the affair with the young hold-ups,” the Courier stated. The door the robbers used to enter was slammed shut behind them. Cowboys “so seldom take those sort of orders,” the Courier observed, “and the the battle ensued.” Paul tried to shoot out the lights, but got only two.
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Another cowpuncher named Cox was the first to jump the robbers. James Stringfield, who also reached the bandits quickly, suffered a bullet wound in one hip and a knife slash across his forehead. He was later taken to Mercy hospital, and the next day he was said “to be resting easily and in no danger, unless complications result,” the paper explained.
The brothers were completely unsuccessful with their black-face attempt at a disguise, as “several of those at the dance, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Harold Ball, proprietors of the dance…recognized them immediately,” the same paper said. “When the firing in the hall began, Harold Ball, who, with his wife…kicked out a window at the end of the hall, evidently planning to help his guests escape,” the Courier explained. “As his foot hit the glass, a shot was fired down the side of the building, creasing the place,” the paper wrote. “This was fired from a shotgun, it is said. About that time, the officers figure, the elder Stopper, [Paul,] attempt[ed] to escape from the hall…and is believed then to have been shot [through the hips] by his confederate.” Unable to walk, the only thing left for him was a trip to Prescott, an arrest, and a trip to Mercy hospital.
Meanwhile, the blackened face of the younger brother, Jack, was quickly becoming bluer, as his head and face ware pummeled by all who could get close enough to deliver a blow until order was restored.
“When the two bandits were returned to Prescott, about 2:20 o'clock Sunny morning,” the Courier explained, “the elder [Fodge] admitted to Deputy County Attorney W. E. Patterson that he had been wounded while he and his brother were attempting to hold up the dance hall. The younger man…maintained ignorance of the entire affair, saying he didn't know what happened or how he came to be at [Lynx] creek. Neither of the men was drunk, deputy sheriffs said, or showed signs of having been drinking.”
“Jack [Fodge] will be charged with attempted robbery with a gun,” the same paper continued, “the minimum sentence for this being five years in the state prison.” He was put into the Yavapai County jail and held on a $1000 bond, (about $21,750 today.)
Paul, the hospitalized elder, admitted there were two additional accomplices, but denied any knowledge of their identity. “They were added to the gang by his brother,” he said, “and he had not learned their names.” After interrogation, Jack still claimed a loss of memory.
Originally it was thought that Paul’s injuries could be mortal. He did survive the shooting, but was transferred to County hospital. While there, he went under the knife to have 24 shot gun pellets and two wads from a shotgun removed from his wound. The blast broke his hip in two places. “He is not under guard there,” the Courier reported, “his condition, [being unable to walk,] precluding any attempt on his part at escape.”
Meanwhile, Jack was brought before a preliminary hearing where a dozen witnesses testified against him. After offering no defense, his bond was raised to $2500 (over $54,000 today,) and he was bound over for trial.
It was an open and shut case that took the jury all of ten minutes to find Jack guilty. He was sentenced to 5-10 years in prison.
His brother was never brought to trial. After suffering several weeks in the hospital, he ended up paralyzed in one leg. Perhaps the County Attorney considered this justice enough. In fact, Paul ended up being paroled from his earlier sentence.
The story does not quite end there, however. After a little more than a year, Jack escaped from prison. He was on the lamb for eleven months and nearly forgotten until county officers were searching a residential area in Prescott for some “loot taken in a burglary” the night before, the Arizona Daily Star reported. Inside one home they found Paul Fodge, and when they opened a trunk, searching for the money, they discovered a panting Jack Fogle, sweating and out of breath.
Police were completely surprised. His brother Paul and another man were arrested for harboring and protecting a person charged with a felony. But the two were found not guilty of the charge while Jack was sent back to serve the rest of his sentence—over eight and a half years.
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SOURCES:
Prescott Evening Courier, 11/16/1931; Pg. 1, Col. 8 &
Pg.8, Col. 1.
Prescott Evening Courier, 11/20/1931; Pg. 1, Col. 5
Prescott Evening Courier, 11/17/1931; Pg. 8, Col. 5
Prescott Evening Courier, 11/19/1931; Pg. 1, Col. 7
Prescott Evening Courier, 11/18/1931; Pg. 1, Col. 6
Prescott Evening Courier, 11/18/1931; Pg. 3, Col. 1
Prescott Evening Courier, 1/25/1932; Pg. , Col. c2
Prescott Evening Courier, 1/26/1932; Pg. 1, Col. 3
Arizona Daily Star, 2/3/1932; Pg. 6, Col. 6.
Arizona Daily Star, 7/16/1934; Pg. 2, Col. 8.
Arizona Republican, 7/20/1934; Pg. 6, Col. 2
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