Thomas Logan

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR OUTLAW AND LAWMAN HISTORY

QUARTERLY VOLUME XVIII NO.4

(OCTOBER-DECEMBER 1994)

INCIDENT AT THE JEWEL HOUSE: THE LOGAN-BARIEAU MURDER CONTROVERSY

By Phillip Earl

At the time of his death in an early-morning shooting at the Jewel House, a saloon located in the red light district of Manhattan, Nevada, on April 7, 1906, Sheriff Thomas W. Logan was in his third term in office. Standing six foot four, he commanded as much respect for his size as for his character and courage…

Initial accounts of what transpired that morning were somewhat at variance with later official investigations. A local correspondent for the Tonopah Daily Sun reported that Logan had come to the assistance of May Biggs, proprietor of the Jewel, after she was struck by Walter A. Barieau, a sloe-eyed French-Canadian gambler. As Logan was forcibly ejecting him from the premises, Barieau turned, pulled a gun and shot him four times. Although seriously wounded, Logan disarmed Barieau, the report continued, wrestled him to the side walk and was beating him over the head with the gun when Deputy Sheriff Scott Hickey arrived on the scene.

Editor W.W. Booth of the Tonopah Weekly Bonanza ran a slightly differed version of the shooting. Logan happened to be riding by when hailed by Miss Biggs, he wrote. He dismounted, entered the saloon and told Barieau to be on his way, but the man suddenly pulled a gun, shooting him five times at point-blank range. Booth characterized Barieau as “an absinthe fiend,” adding that he had been in a knife fight at Rhyolite a year previous to the Manhattan incident an was known as “a general all round bad man”

…At the inquest conducted by District Attorney William B. Pittman… the physician testified that Logan had died from a hemorrhage caused by the severing of the superficial artery located in the left thigh… Vivian Carleton told Pittman that she had been awakened by an argument between Miss Biggs and a man in the parlor. “She asked him several times to go,” she said. “Pretty soon, I heard her hollow. In a little time, there seemed to be trouble. May hollowed ‘help.’ I ran out. A revolver went off four or five times. I saw Mr. Logan. He was on top and there was blood al over him.” Asked about the piano player, “Jimmie,” as he was known, Miss Carleton said that she saw him kneeling over Logan. When Pittman asked her how the deceased was dressed, she said that he was wearing a light blue nightshirt.

…The hearing concluded with a brief appearance by Deputy Hickey who related what he saw when he arrived on the scene. He said that Barieau was the only one with a gun. At that point, Judge Chambers asked Hoggott if Barieau desired to make a statement. Hoggott conferred with him a moment and said “I will submit with argument. Chambers then ordered Barieau be bound over to the grand jury on a charge of murder in the first degree.

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