The Confessions of 'Hike' Hall
A gray-haired stranger arrested in Toledo, Washington, admits to a string of killings and claims he does society a favor by making men 'good.'
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Marshal Lyons of Toledo has arrested a man familiarly known in his native Lee County, Virginia, as 'Hike' Hall. He is wanted in Lee County for the alleged murder of John Grubb and other serious offenses. Hall admits that he killed Grubb, but claims that he did it in self-defense. He stated to Sheriff Urquhart that he had killed eight men, remarking that some men would never be good until they were dead, and that he had run up against eight men whom he found it necessary to make 'good.' The man is 58 years old and quite gray.
“He stated to Sheriff Urquhart that he had killed eight men, remarking that some men would never be good until they were dead.”
This chilling narrative of a transient 'man-hunter' in Washington state captures the frontier-era fear of outlaws fleeing eastern justice. Today, we might recognize the 'making men good' rhetoric as a precursor to the vigilante violence that often masked deeper cycles of systemic lawlessness and displaced trauma.
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