ARTHUR THOMAS
Following herewith is a statement by the County Attorney in accordance with Section
47-119, A.C.A. 1939:
The record shows that on or about the 26th day of June,1953, the defendant, Arthur
Thomas, after being found guilty by a trial jury was sentenced to death by the Superior
Court of the State of Arizona, in and for the County of Cochise, for the murder of one
Janie Miskovich. The facts briefly are these:
On or about the 17th day of March, 1953, the said defendant, Arthur Thomas, did then and
there willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, deliberately, premeditatedly and with malice
aforethought, kill and murder one Janie Miskovich, a human being. That on or about the
17th day of March, 1953, and in Cochise County, Arizona, the said defendant, Arthur
Thomas, did kill and murder one Janie Miskovich, a human being, in the perpetration of the
crime of robbery.
The defendant, Arthur Thomas, came to this area from the State of Texas, and was
employed as a day laborer in the Kansas Settlement near Willcox, Arizona.
****
To: Walter Hofman, Chairman
Board of Pardons and Paroles
1628 West Jefferson
Phoenix, Arizona
Dear Mr. Hofman
This office is in receipt of a copy of a letter addressed to you dated October 29th, 1958,
from M. Jack D. H. Hays, United States Attorney. According to this letter a Mrs. Lorraine
Woodard stated to officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Sheriff Jack Howard
of this County showed her a photograph of Arthur Thomas with a rope around his neck and
Ms. Woodard also indicates, according to the letter, that Sheriff Howard testified during
the trial that a rope had not been placed around the neck of Arthur Thomas.
Mrs. Woodard's recollection is erroneous. An examination of the Transcript of Testimony
taken at the time of trial shows that Sheriff Jack Howard did testify concerning the
roping incident. I refer you to Volume VII of the Reporter's Transcript, Page1964 to Page
1983. References to the roping incident are found throughout this section of the Sheriff's
testimony. In particular on Page1964 at lines 5-14 the record shows that Sheriff Howard
testified that a rope was placed around the neck of Arthur Thomas at the time of his
arrest. On Page 1967, line 15, Sheriff Howard again refers to this and again states that
he took the rope off the neck of Arthur Thomas. On Page 1976 commencing at line 16,
Sheriff Howard testifies that Arthur Thomas together with Ross Lee Cooper, was again roped
and that the two men stumbled and fell to the ground and that the Sheriff thereupon
immediately took the rope off the men. All of the testimony of the Sheriff shows that such
a roping did occur but that the Sheriff did not participate in such ropings and
immediately took the ropes off before any harm was done and in each instance expressly
informed those present that ropes were not to be used.
I trust that these references to the Transcript will refute the allegations of Mrs.
Woodard.
Very truly yours,
LLOYD C. HELM,
Cochise County Attorney
return to ARTHUR THOMAS
HAROLD THOMAS LANTZ
Following herewith is a statement by the County Attorney in accordance with Section
49-119, ACA, 539:
The record shows that on or about the 17th day of October, 1950, Harold Thomas Lantz,
after being found guilty by a trial jury, was sentenced to death by the Superior Court of
Cochise County, State Of Arizona, for the murder of one ADA C. PARK. The facts briefly are
these:
On or about the 10th day of August, 1950, Harold Thomas Lantz, a discharged Southern
Pacific Railroad Employee, boarded the east bound Southern Pacific Train late at night in
Tucson, Arizona, without a ticket. A short distance before arriving at the City of
Douglas, Cochise County, Arizona the said Harold Thomas Lantz did kill and murder Miss Ada
C. Park while committing the act of rape upon the said Miss Ada C. Park.
Very little is known about the background of this man in this area and the record of
the FBI discloses that he was previously found guilty in Bucks County, Doylestown,
Pennsylvania, on September 28th, 190, on a charge of assault and battery.
Dated this 28th day of March, 1951.
Return to Harold Thomas Lantz
CARL J. FOLK
Carl J. Folk is presently approximately 53 years of age. In 1930 he was convicted of
the crime of Committing a crime while armed with a Pistol in DeKalb County, Indiana. At
that time, according to the investigating officer, the defendant tied up a young man and
his girl friend with ropes and was in the process of getting her into the backseat for
perhaps some immoral acts, or rape, when the boy was able to get loose and engaged in a
struggle with the defendant.
The defendant fled, leaving his gun, and was later
apprehended and sentenced to the prison of the State of Indiana for one to five years.
In
July, 1949, he was arrested for the crimes of rape and contributory delinquency. However,
before he was tried, on a complaint by the District Attorney’s office at Albuquerque,
New Mexico, he was committed to the New Mexico State Insane Asylum, Las Vegas, New Mexico.
The attorney who defended him in the insanity hearing was also his attorney in the
criminal case. The defendant was only in the New Mexico hospital for a period from
November 1st 1949, to February 4, 1950, when he was released to the custody of his wife
and he has not been under treatment or been returned to the hospital since that date.
As
early as December 3rd, 1949, he was released to his wife for a weekend and was released to
her for various weekends thereafter until he was finally released without being returned
after February 4, 1950. At least one of the doctor's statement with regard to his case
received careful scrutiny from another psychiatrist and that psychiatrist stated that this
one doctor's diagnosis was based on such slim reasoning that it appeared to be a matter of
only wishful thinking.
The defendant was declared sane in April of 1953 based on testimony
given in November of 1952 which stated that he had completely recovered. However., before
this, he was tried for the crimes of rape and contributory delinquency and was convicted
but this conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court of New Mexico on the grounds that
the lower Court should have submitted to the jury the question of whether or not the
defendant was able to cooperate with his counsel at the time of trial. He was later
allowed to plead guilty to the crime of contributory delinquency; the charge of rape was
dismissed and at that line the judge gave him a sentence of five years and the time for
the execution of the sentence was indefinitely suspended.
Carl J. Folk left Texas to go to
Albuquerque to complete a business deal. He first saw the victim, Betty Faye Allen with
her husband, Raymond Bruce Allen, and their small ten month old child at a service station
close to Klines Corners, New Mexico. The Allens ware traveling in a fine trailer house
with a pickup and were on their way from Pennsylvania to California to make a new home.
Mr. Folk at that time remarked that the Allens had A fine trailer. Carl J. Folk passed the
Allens on two or three occasions between Klines Corners and Albuquerque. Then at About the
same hour (5:00 to 6:00 p.m.) that the Allen's arrived in Gallup, New Mexico, the
defendant entered a store near Chambers, Arizona, called Young's Store, this being on
December lst, 1953, and attempted to purchase some small cotton rope but the proprietor
did not have any in stock.
The defendant next appeared at a place called Navajo which is
only about 20 or 15 miles west of Chambers towards Holbrook at about 8:00 o'clock in the
evening. He arrived at Navajo, heading back towards Gallop in an easterly direction, at a
time when the Allens had just left Navajo, heading towards Holbrook and Mr. Folk could not
have helped seeing them. It appears that Mr. Folk was probably on his way back trying to
locate the Allens at the time that he saw them leave Navajo as he was headed towards
Gallup, but he informed the service station attendant that he was actually going to
Holbrook. He gave an excuse for coming back that he thought he was about out of gas, but
he only bought $2.00 worth of gasoline.
The Allens then proceeded westward, arriving at
Good Water, Navajo County, Arizona, about 9:00 o'clock P.M. They ate at the restaurant
there and went to bed. After the Allens were in bed and sound asleep, sometime after the
hour of 11:00 pm on December 1st, 1953, Carl J. Folk, after apparently having placed his
own car off the road about 600 feet, through a fence on a side road, and which said side
road is about one half mile west of Good Water, Arizona, then returned to where the
trailer was parked at Good Water, Arizona, in Navajo County, and entered the trailer house
with some ropes. He told the Allens that it was a stick up and ordered then to roll over
as he was going to tie them up. He tied them, hand and foot, by the ankles and on the
wrists with their hands behind them and had them laying on their stomachs. He asked for
the pickup truck keys and made several trips in and out of the trailer getting the keys
adjusted and getting the trailer hooked up to the pickup , and to check on the Allens.
Before he left Good Water, he had sexual relations with Mrs. Allen. Then the defendant
proceeded with the trailer house and pickup to the point one-half mile west of Good Water
where he had turned off the road with his car. During this period of time he stopped and
reentered the trailer house on a couple of occasions to check on the Allens. It appears
that when he came to the road where he had turned off with his own car he was unable to
make the turn with the trailer house and pickup and as a result parked the trailer house
and pickup in the barrow pit by the road which led to his own car which he left
conveniently parked at a distance of only about 600 feet.
He then reentered the trailer
house, found Mr. Allen was about loose or was loose, retied him very tightly and placed
him in the front of the trailer house. During the night he apparently raped or attempted
-to rape Mrs. Allen on several occasions. He burned her with heat burns in several places
upon her body and caused abrasion burns to exist upon her body in various places. During
this period of time he would demand from Mrs. Allen information as to where more money
was, insisting that he knew that they had some more money. Mrs. Allen screamed and groaned
on many occasions, stating that the defendant was spreading her too far and asking for
help. All this time Mr. Allen was tied and helpless in the other end of the trailer.
The defendant apparently did most of the burning in the neighborhood of 5:15 A. M. or after
because about that time Mrs. Allen screamed for help from her husband and told him he had
to get help. Her husband was able to get his feet loose, and although his hands were very
swollen because of loss of circulation from the ropes he was able to get out of the
trailer house and stop a truck. Three truck drivers came along and Mr. Allen was cut
loose. He immediately ran to his pickup, got a gun, and when Carl J. Folk came out of the
trailer house, Mr. Allen shot at him six times but hit him only once. Allen immediately
entered the trailer house and found his wife lying on the floor in the nude, apparently
lifeless. She had been nude throughout the entire evening having gone to bed nude as was
her custom. She had a sheet wrapped tightly around her neck and was dead.
The time at
which the truck drivers were stopped was a quarter to seven on December 2, 1953. The
doctor's autopsy showed that the woman had been killed by strangulation, and the doctor
further testified that a definite mark left on the woman's throat, was the place where the
pressure was applied, and also stated that the vaginal area showed signs of edema and
trauma. The evidence was conclusive as to the defendant’s guilt. There was also found
in the trailer house a rag saturated with kerosene and also kerosene on the sheets on the
bed and on the mattress, thus making it appear that defendant had intended to kill Allen
and the child after killing Mrs. Allen; then burn the trailer house; leave the trailer
house and get in his car and leave so that no trace would be left of his brutality and the
crimes that he had committed during the night.
It appears that when the defendant found
that Allen was gone he was upset in his time schedule and when he went out to look for
Allen he was surprised at seeing Allen completely untied. He was immediately shot by
Allen. There found in the defendants packet was the bill fold and the money belonging to
the Allens. As to his mental condition which was raised as a defense at the time of the
commission of the acts, we are attaching hereto a copy of the doctors' testimony in the
trial as to the man's sanity, We wish to further state that the man vouched for his own
competency by acting as a witness in the trial and at no time was anything mentioned
regarding any incapacity - as of the time of the trial.
Dated this 18th of February, 1954
Return to Carl J. Folk
