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Christopher Evans (February 19, 1847 – February 9, 1917), a native of Bells Corners near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, was an American farmer and teamster turned outlaw. He was the leader of the Evans-Sontag Gang. Evans was accused of robbing the Southern Pacific Railroad in California between 1889 and 1892. After killing a member of a posse outside his home on the outskirts of Visalia, he fled to the Sierra Nevada mountains with his younger partner, John Sontag. While Evans and Sontag hid out in the mountains, writers Ambrose Bierce and Joaquin Miller championed their cause in the San Francisco Examiner. The outlaws evaded capture for ten months, all while being hunted by posses of lawmen, railroad detective, and hundreds of bounty hunters. They had a shootout with a posse at Youngs cabin, which resulted in the death of Wilson, the posse leader, and McGinnis, a former friend of Chris Evans. Later, John Sontag was mortally wounded in what is called the Battle of Stone Corral. Evans was himself severely wounded at Stone Corral, having lost an eye and his left arm. He was taken into custody, but then escaped from the Fresno County Jail while awaiting his trial with the help of an accomplice, Ed Morrell. After escaping for several months in the mountains, Evans and Morrell were eventually captured after being lured into Visalia under the false belief that Evans son was deathly ill. After his surrender, Evans was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California. John Sontag's younger brother, George Contant, testified against Evans and hence acquired the lifelong hatred of Evans' family. After Evans served for seventeen years at Folsom, he was paroled in 1911 by Governor Hiram Johnson, a liberal Republican, who had been elected on an anti-Southern Pacific campaign theme. Banished from California, he died in Portland, Oregon, in 1917, denying to the end that he had ever robbed a train and continuing to assert that he had killed only in self-defense. He also wrote a socialist book which calls for expanded government to check what he viewed as the abuses of the business community. Evans is interred in Portland at Mount Calvary Cemetery. Evans' accomplice, Ed Morrell, served fourteen years total in Folsom and San Quentin. Championed by author Jack London, Morrell was pardoned in 1908 and thereafter became a well-known advocate for prison reform. (en) |
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Christopher Evans (February 19, 1847 – February 9, 1917), a native of Bells Corners near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, was an American farmer and teamster turned outlaw. He was the leader of the Evans-Sontag Gang. Evans' accomplice, Ed Morrell, served fourteen years total in Folsom and San Quentin. Championed by author Jack London, Morrell was pardoned in 1908 and thereafter became a well-known advocate for prison reform. (en) |
