100 years ago in North Idaho: The outstanding poolhall murder suspect was finally arrested

Posse men finally captured Mike Donnelly, the fugitive who sparked a weeklong manhunt after the murder of a Hope, Idaho, pool hall proprietor.

Four posse men apprehended Donnelly when they heard a report that he was walking down the railroad tracks near Laclede, Idaho. They hid themselves at a railroad bridge and watched Donnelly creep forward on his hands and knees. When they confronted him, he surrendered without a struggle.

At first, he denied being Mike Donnelly – he said his name was Ben Clay, and that he got the wounds on his scalp and wrist during a fight in British Columbia.

Later, he admitted to being Mike Donnelly, an escaped convict. But he continued to deny that he had anything to do with the Hope murder. He said he didn’t meet the other fugitive, Robert Ford, until after the “Hope affray,” and that the man who killed W.A. Crisp escaped.

Ford continued to insist that Donnelly was the man who murdered Crisp. While the two were on the lam, he said Donnelly also told him he had robbed a bank in Plains, Montana.

“After he told me that, he kept watch so I couldn’t get away from him right away,” Ford told the Chronicle. “He wasn’t going to take no chance of me squealing.”

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