PAT LONERGAN - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 12/15/1884 - HFSID 271076

PAT LONERGAN
Offers to recapture escaped criminal Bill Taylor
Autograph Letter signed: "Pat Lonergan" as City Marshall, 3 pages, 5½x8½. Texarkana, Arkansas, 1884 December 15. On official letterhead to W. T. Gunn, Sheriff of Lamar County, Paris, Texas. In full (Spelling errors in original text): "Your letter of the 13th came to hand this morning and in reply will say the man Bill Taylor broke jail here about Sept 10th went to your county, robed some houses, was arrested and convicted. I think got fore (4) years after which he broke out of your jail (some man got his arm broke the same time) that Taylor got away. He has got a wife by the name of Annie Trigg. If you see the Deputy Sheriff that was up here looking for him he can tell you all about him. Taylor as I said in my last letter is about 400 miles from here. I could get him for about $50. I do not want to make one cent off him. I would tell you where he is but the party that gave him away to me could not work with you, and you could not get him without that party's help. Taylor is a bad man for that reason I would like to see him locked up. Let me here from you soon as possible as he dos not stay in one place very long."  Evenly toned. Fine condition. Accompanied by original, matching envelope (6x3¼), addressed in Lonergan's hand to Sheriff Gunn, 2-cent stamp affixed, postmarked Texarkana, Arkansas, December 15, 1884. Ink note by "W Bains" at right edge of envelope: "Offer the fifty/dollars". Unevenly torn at right edge opening. Evenly toned. Overall, fine condition. Pat Lonergan was elected Marshall of Texarkana in April 1884 and re-elected in April 1885. Two items.