Let's continue the story of Felix Fourboul Jr. and Senior, and Murder in Old Chippewa Falls. For those coming in late:
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When Sheriff Lund turned up at the Chippewa County jail on Monday November 4th, 1905, one of the inmates - who was also awaiting trial for murder - asked him if he'd seen the big hole in the wall. Indeed, the jail now had a new exit. What it did not have were Felix Fourboul Jr. or Orrin Fuller.
Evidently somebody had slipped them a hacksaw, possibly through an opened window. Over an undetermined period of time the duo had sawed through a bar to the extent that it could not only be dislodged - giving them access to an outside wall - but then used to chisel away at the stone of a window sill and create a hole big enough for them to get through. Hmmm....maybe this is why Felix seemed so cheery when he appeared in court two weeks earlier!
Fuller was felt to be the brains of the operation. But in another puzzling detail, he was in jail only for a relatively minor forgery charge and would have soon been released. Outside help was strongly suspected.
Despite an intensive search neither man was located. Indeed, from the lack of mentions in later years of the paper I suspect Orrin Fuller got clean away. It was easier to vanish 120 years ago. Being a forger probably was a big help.
The trail went cold for years....
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There were of course plenty of rumors. One early suspicion was that Felix had gone north to the Indian Reservation where he would be protected. One commentor said that any attempt to take him from there would be met "..with a Winchester...". I used to work near the LCO Reservation. I'm inclined to agree with this idea.
In actuality Felix Fourboul wandered here and there. Through North Dakota and up into Canada. Eventually he ended up in the small town of Sioux Rapids Iowa. Going by the name "John Compton" he used his previous experience working at the brickyard to gain employ at a similar plant that made brick and tile. He was "hard working, industrious and of good habits". But evidently greed got the better of him.
The account in the paper is a little vague, but it sounds as if Felix still harbored thoughts that his father had done him wrong financially. So he wrote to the Executor of Felix Senior's estate asking for any remaining money. As it happens, this was John Therriault, his former employer who knew him well. This started the wheels of justice moving, and through the cooperation of the postal and law enforcement folks in Sioux Rapids, Felix was apprehended on July 18th, 1910. He cooled his heels a while in their local jail, where it was said that "He was visited by several women and girls who shed copious tears over his hard fate." Again with the Bad Boy allure....
Fourboul was returned to Chippewa Falls where he went on trial in January of 1911. On the 18th of that month he was found guilty and sentenced.
But was justice done?
The Chippewa County Courthouse as it appeared in 1911:
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