CHARLES THOMAS WALSZ
Arizona Republican Newspaper, Phoenix
December 2, 1902

Thomas Walsz, a ranchman who lived on the Gila, fifteen 
miles north of this station was horribly murdered sometime 
on Sunday night.  Word was brought here this morning that 
his house had been burned and that he could not be found 
in the neighborhood.  Deputy Sheriff Williams went out to  
Walsz's place this afternoon and found the body in the 
ruins.  Walsz had been shot through the heart.  The 
theory of the officer is that the house was burned to 
destroy evidences of the crime.  That the fire was 
prevented from doing so was due to the falling of a 
chimney across the body, saving it from destruction.

The motive for the murder was undoubtedly robbery for 
Walsz was known to keep large sums of money in the
 house where he lived alone.  He was well known 
throughout this part of Arizona where he had lived 
for twenty years.  He was well to do and unmarried. 
He has relatives living near Topeka Kansas.  There 
is no clue to the perpetrator of the crime but 
Sheriff Stout has been notified and is expected 
that he will be here tomorrow morning.

A Murder's Trail
December 4, 1902

Albert A. Kendrick of Gila Bend was in town yesterday.  
Mr. Kenrick is the first man to come from that part of 
the world since the murder of Charles Walsz.  He said 
that the murder must have been committed on Saturday a
nd that Walsz was probably getting supper at the time 
he was killed.  The door of a storehouse which he 
usually kept locked was open as if he had gone there 
after something to be used in the preparation of a 
meal.  It was found also that he had taken some 
feed to a lot of chickens at a house some distance 
from his residence. He had used a wheelbarrow.  
There was also found a strange track made by a 
sharp pointed shoe.  Mr. Kendrick, E.G. Caruthers 
and Deputy Sheriff Williams followed that track 
until night when it was lost in a cow path.


He was a Horseman
December 7, 1902

Sheriff Stout returned yesterday morning from Gila Bend 
where he went to take charge of the pursuit of the murderer 
of Charles Walsz. He was not captured nor was his identity 
discovered or even suspected. It is only known that the
murder ws committed by a man on horseback and that he left 
in the direction of Sonora or the Papago country.  A.A. 
Kendrick of Gila Bend, who was a member of the first party 
that went to the ruins of Walsz' house said that a strange 
track had been discovered and followed by him and others 
until it ws lost in a cow path.  The sheriff said that 
the next morning the party returned and took up the 
track. It was followed about 200 yards to the top of a 
mesa, where a horse had been hitched. It had evidently 
got away from the rider, for it was trailed by a rope 
dragging for thirty miles.  The horse tracks were 
followed for a short distance to the top of a rocky 
mesa where they vanished.  The footprint of the man 
was small, the size of his shoe could not have been 
more than No. 6.

The only man known to have been traveling in the 
neigborhood was an old traveling tinker who had gone 
on foot from Phoneix to Gila Bend where he arrived on 
Monday morning shortly before the news of the murder 
was received here.

Walsz's Relatives
December 14, 1902

Justice Burnett yesterday received a letter from Mrs. 
Frederick Stotz of Lancaster, Kansas, the sister of 
Charles Walsz who was murdered near Gila Bend two 
weeks ago.  Mrs. Stotz writes that she was prostrated 
by the news of the horrible death of her brother and 
she hopes that his murderer may be overtaken and 
punished.  She and her husband are on their way to 
Arizona now to settle up his affairs.

Relative of Walsz
December 15, 1902

Frederick Stutz and Louis Bubb, brothers-in-law of 
Charles Walsz who was murdered near Gila Bend just 
two weeks ago, arrived in the city yesterday morning 
to close up the affairs of  Walsz in this county.  The 
former lives at Lancaster, Kansas, and the latter near 
Atchison.  They spent the day looking up the records of 
property belonging to Walsz and will leave tonight for 
Gila Bend, accompanied by Judge Burnett who has been 
appointed administrator of the estate.  The brothers-
in-law of Walsz will take the remains back with them 
for burial.  

Judge Burnett yesterday received a letter from E.G. 
Caruthers of Gila Bend regarding the killing of the 
Indian Mateo by him on Saturday. Mr. Caruthers has no 
doubt that the Indian was the murderer of Walsz and 
Ross, the pumper at Maricopa Tanks. His story of the 
death of Mateo is very much the same as that printed 
in the Republican yesterday morning.  He said that at 
the time he fired the Indian was so near him that the
muzzle of the gun  fairly touched his breast. He believed 
that if there had been a delay of an instant his head would 
have been split open.