Murder by the Doodlebug Bridge

William Beatson, an Englishman, sold his farm and went to Ohio City to ask his brother-in-law, Jim Parks to make a business trip with him to Pittsburgh.  It took much persuading and at the last minute Jim agreed to go with him and they took off. Beatson had brought along a pocket full of money and a bottle of whiskey that he continued to drink as soon as the train started moving. Before too long, they both fell asleep to the rocking of the train.

Upon arriving in Hudson, the coach attendant called out a change of cars. Awaking, Beatson and Parks followed the line of people exiting the train and boarded the other train car.  When they arrived at a stop in Cuyahoga Falls they realized they’d taken the wrong train. Beatson told Parks that he wanted to head back to Hudson immediately by walking the railroad tracks but Parks wanted to stay the night and catch the first train back to Hudson in the morning. Deciding to get a drink and discuss it, they found their way to the saloon within American House owned by A. H. Hall, and both ordered drinks.  Parks asked the House owner if they could stay overnight and was told that they indeed had rooms available.  Mr. Hall took Beatson’s topcoat and hung it up, but Beatson made it plain that he would not stay overnight. Beatson ordered yet another drink but the tavern owner refused to serve him, saying he was too drunk. At eleven o’clock Mr. Hall asked Parks to get his over-inebriated friend out of his bar. Beatson vulgarly told Hall off and the two men headed for the railroad tracks and began walking back to Hudson.

According to Mr. Parks’ later report, they started up the tracks but slipped and partly fell on the ties so they walked arm-in-arm until they arrived at the stone bridge where they unlocked arms and walked single file, with Beatson going first.

Not far after crossing the bridge Parks fell and knocked the wind out of himself and his nose began to bleed. The whiskey bottle he had taken away from Beatson earlier was in his pocket and when he put his hand in his pocket he cut it badly. Parks laid there for some time, hardly able to breathe. His head rang and he was dizzy. When he came to his senses sufficiently to speak he called for Beatson but there was no answer. He started looking for Beatson and spotted him lying over the embankment on his right under the railroad where the road crosses Gaylord Grove bridge (now Bailey Road). Parks went down the embankment to feel for a pulse. Finding none, he noticed Beatson’s head was smashed.

This gave Parks mixed feelings and worried about what people might think.  He had argued with Beatson in the presence of many people. His past record was bad; he had served seven years in the English prison for poaching and four years in a Rhode Island prison for breaking into and robbing a tomb. Thus on coming to Cleveland, he hoped to start with a clean slate by changing his name from James Dickinson to Jim Parks and forget the past, but it was sure to come up now! With such a past he knew people would not believe his story about Beatson’s fate, so he decided he must hide Beatson’s identity.

According to Parks, he first threw Beatson’s boots into the river and then tore off his clothes after going through his pockets. He removed everything including money and a large gardener’s pocket knife. He tore up the clothes and threw them into the river. He took the knife and by using a rock he found by the side of the road he drove it through Beatson’s neck and finally succeeded in cutting off his head. He then threw the body into the river.

Parks then took off across the bridge and up the road carrying the head until he came to the Ohio & Pennslyvania canal (now the B&O railroad bed) where he threw the head into the canal and sat down to rest. When a canal boat came along he got on and rode to Old Forge (in north Akron). Parks tried to clean the blood off his clothes and when questioned about the blood spots he said he had a bad fall and had gotten a bloody nose. At Old Forge he left the boat and took off across farm fields to Bath Township where he hired Hiram Corey to drive him to Ohio City. He told Corey had did not take a train or canal boat because he was interested in buying a farm and wished to look over the countryside.

When he got home he told his wife he had decided to go back to England and take care of some unfinished business. The next morning when he picked up the Cleveland Plain Dealer he saw a story about an alleged murder in Cuyahoga Falls which included a description of him. It read as follows:

“Five hundred dollars reward! On the night of April 13th, 1853, a man supposed to be William Beatson, a butcher, was brutally murdered near the village of Cuyahoga Falls, Summit County, Ohio. The above reward of $500 will be given for the apprehension and confinement of the murderer, in any jail of the United States or Canada, so that he may be brought to justice. The name of the murderer is unknown but circumstances strongly point to James Parks, alias Dickinson, as the man. The following is the description of the murderer: He is an Englishman about 35 years old, about five feet eight inches high, thick set, high cheek bones, giving his face a very broad appearance; brown hair, whiskers slightly sandy. He has a scar on his nose, and one or two of his front teeth are gone. When last seen he had on a dark cap, black sack coat, lightish checked vest, a new white and red woolen comforter, dark pantaloons with blood on the left leg from the knee down. Any information may be addressed to Michael Gallagher, City Marshal, Cleveland, Ohio, or to the subscriber, Dudley Seward, Sheriff of Summit County, Sheriff’s Office, Akron, Summit County, Ohio, April 16, 1853.”

The discovery of the body occurred on the morning of April 14. Mrs. Eunice Gaylord, who lived on the north side of Bailey Road and the east end of the bridge contacted the Summit County Sheriff to tell him there was a pool of blood on the bridge roadway and the bridge rail. She reported she was home the night before when she heard a noise on the bridge and looking out she saw what looked like two men tussling in the dark. Sheriff Dudley Seward found Beatson’s headless body floating on the river and after an investigation of the area, he put together much of the story. Parks left Ohio City on the 18th of April, heading for England. When he got to Buffalo, N.Y. he was picked up by the law and brought back to Akron for trial.

On the 14th day of his trial Judge Humphreville passed judgment as follows:

“James Parks, you have been indicted by the Grand Jury of this County of Summit, State of Ohio, of the murder of William Beatson. You have had a fair and impartial trial by an intelligent and unbiased jury. They have returned a verdict of guilty against you, and with that verdict the court is satisfied.  You have willingly and deliberately taken the life of a fellow being and in so doing you have forfeited your own. The penalty of the law is death. The sentence of the court is therefore, that you be removed hence to the jail of this county and there safely kept until the 26th day of May, 1854, when you will be taken from thence to the place of execution where, at nine o’clock, you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead.”

After his execution, Mrs. Parks came to the court requesting the money that was taken from Parks upon his arrest, but the prosecuting attorney, Sydney Edgerton ruled the money Parks had in his pocket when arrested was taken by Parks from Beatson and thus Mrs. Parks received nothing.

What do you think?  Did James Parks murder William Beatson or did he do as he claimed, and worried about being accused of murder and simply disposed of him after a fatal fall?