That the Lowry boys, the young burglars and desperadoes who have terrorized this city and vicinity at frequent intervals for the past eight or 10 years, have a capable confederate or agent in Elizabeth City is the theory of J.J. Watson, resident manager of the Richmond Cedar Work, who has been doing a little detective work on his own account.
Mr. Watson’s automobile was stolen from the streets n this city last Thanksgiving night. Mr. Watson has a description of two men who were seen with his car which exactly tallies with the description of Fulton Lowry and a pal, who were caught with another stolen automobile about two weeks ago and lodged in jail in Tarboro. Mr. Watson has also learned from a kinsman of the Lowrys that Fulton Lowry was in Elizabeth City on or about last Thanksgiving Day.
Mr. Watson’s theory that the Lowrys have a powerful ally higher up in Elizabeth City is not a new suspicion. This theory was strongly advanced by other citizens when the Lowry boys were doing their worst in Elizabeth City in the spring and summer of 1917. It was notorious at the time that whenever the police had the Lowrys cornered, some one would give the young criminals a tip. The Lowrys always knew the movements of the police hours in advance. They were never at home when the police searched their home on Pearl St. And it is also notorious that the police never once made a thoro search of the Lowry home until they were practically forced to do so when the house was surrounded by a citizen’s posse which had been organized and directed unknown to the police.
It is also notorious that John Lowry, the elder of the two boys, was permitted to saw his way out of the Pasquotank County mail after he had been convicted and sentenced to 25 years in State Prison. For nearly six months the notorious Lowry boys had been kept in a death cell at the State Prison in Raleigh, pending their trial here. They were kept in a death cell at the State Prison, under constant guard, because the authorities knew that an ordinary jail would not hold them. No one knew their cunning and resourcefulness better than Chas. Reid, the sheriff of Pasquotank County. But Chas. Reid kept the Lowrys in jail here for three days after their trial and conviction before undertaking to return them to the State Prison. He permitted their friends and relatives to pass them packages. Finally he took the guard off the jail. And on Sunday following their conviction Reid entered the jail and left the jail door open behind him. While Reid was busying himself about the jail, John Lowry, who had sawed his way out of his cell, slipped out of the open jail door and hasn’t been seen since.
Fulton Lowry went on to the State Prison. The officials at the State Prison should have known their man and taken care to guard him. But instead of keeping Fulton Lowry shackled or in confinement he was given a free foot in an open camp. He stayed in camp only a few weeks.
For three years after quitting State Prison, Fulton Lowry saw the world as William Fulton, enlisted in the United States Navy. He acquitted himself well enough in the navy and got an honorable discharge. He came back to Elizabeth City as early as last Thanksgiving Day, after having been away for three years or more. He dared not show his face on the streets or communicate with any one except a trusted resident confederate. That he had such a confederate is evident from the fact that he knew exactly the hour that Dr. A.L. Pendleton and his family would be away from home on Christmas night; and in that one hour he and a companion robbed the Pendleton home of nearly $2,000 worth of jewelry, furs and other valuables. Fulton Lowry could not have known the movements of Dr. Pendleton and the lay of his premises if there were not some in Elizabeth City to keep him posted. Who is that some one? The policeman who unravels this mystery will have qualified himself for the office of a police chief at a salary worth while. The Hon. E.F. Aydlett, for many years attorney for the Lowrys, might render the police valuable assistance without seriously injured his reputation for safe-guarding the secrets of his clients.
Chief of Police Leon Holmes of this city went to Oxford, N.C. last week to identify the two thieves held there in connection with the theft of an automobile in that town. Chief Holmes positively identified one of the pair as Fulton Lowry. The other, a slightly taller youth, was not John Lowry, as had been suspected, and Chief Holmes could not identify him.
Fulton Lowry gave his name as William Fulton when jailed in Tarboro. He refused to recognize Chief of Police Holmes and told the Chief that he had never been to Elizabeth City and didn’t know anything about this place. Asked to explain what he was doing with he stolen property of an Elizabeth City man on him, he said, “Slim Jenkins gave me that stuff.” But as to who Slim Jenkins is or how Slim could be located, the deponent said nil.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Jan. 20, 1922
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