The Ouachita Telegraph - R. F. Clem Shoots and Kills Bishop H. Wesley

Date: Oct 2000
Submitted by: Lora Peppers <lpeppers@ouachita.lib.la.us>



**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 

The Ouachita Telegraph
Saturday, October 3, 1885
Page 3, Column 1

Homicide in West Monroe.
 On Friday, between 12 and 1 o’clock while Mr. R.F. Clem was engaged in
moving his household goods from his former residence, near the old ferry
landing, he shot and killed Mr. Bishop H. Wesley, who was occupying the
house at the time.
 It is reported that the two men had been unfriendly for some time and that
Mr. Wesley had threatened Mr. Clem and drawn a pistol on him, and that when
he shot him he was attempting to draw his pistol on him again.
 Mr. Clem was standing in the door of an outhouse, where he had stored some
his things when he shot Mr. Wesley, who was coming toward him from the main
house.  The weapon used was a double barreled shot gun, the contents of
which, fifteen buck hot, struck Mr. Wesley full in the breast, causing
instant death.
 Mr. Clem then came across the river and surrendered himself to the sheriff,
stating that he had done the act in self-defense.  A number of citizens, who
profess to be acquainted with the circumstances also claim that the killing
was justifiable.
 On the other hand, there are those who state that he was not; they are
fellow workmen who were living in the house with Mr. Wesley.
 Mr. Clem is now in jail awaiting preliminary examination, which has been
set to come off Monday.
 Mr. Wesley was a carpenter by trade and came to this place from Shreveport
to work on the buildings lately erected for the railroad, after the
completion of which he found employment in West Monroe.  He was born and
raised in Pennsylvania, and was in the Union Army during the late war.  He
was wounded in the hand and drew a pension up to the time of his death.
After the war he was a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, up to about two years
ago.  He was well advanced in years and leaves a wife but no children.

#  #  #