Two of those involved in the robbery and murder of Charles Loebs had been sentenced to life in prison. Several of those suspected of complicity in one or both of the crimes were awaiting trials or sentencing.
Damasio Acevedo, also known as Joe Acevedo, plead guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced to not less than 360 days and not more than one year in the state penitentiary at Florence.
Art Nelson, the former patrolman, refused to plead guilty or admit any involvement in robbery or murder. Nelson knew that the statements of Sundeen and Schiller, who plead guilty and were serving life sentences, could not be used against him without corroborating evidence.
Nelson was held in the robbery case on $10,000 bond based on the testimony of Louis Sundeen.
Alfred Pruitt's trial came first. It appeared that Schiller and Sundeen decided to thwart the county attorney in his efforts to send more the the gang to prison.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Feb. 20, 1918:
PRUITT FREED BY TESTIMONY OF SCHILLER
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Chas. Loeb's Murderer Changes Attitude on Stand and Exonerates Driver of Murder Car; "We'll Fix Him (County Attorney) Again When He Tries Nelson."
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His plot to escape frustrated by the vigilance of Deputy Sheriff Jack Archer, Blackie Schiller, self-confessed murderer of Charles Loebs, now serving a life sentence at the Florence penitentiary, turned on County Prosecutor Kirke Moore yesterday in the trial of Alfred Pruitt, driver of the murder car, and exonerated, instead of testifying against, Pruitt, as the county attorney expected.
As the result, the prosecutor was without ammunition and went to the jury on the statement of Pruitt when arrested, which was very damaging, but lacked corroboration.
After the state had rested, J. D. MacKay, attorney for Pruitt, moved that the case be dismissed before being given to the jury. The prosecution had failed to make out a case against his client or in any way to connect him with the crime he said.
Judge Grants Motion
Judge Pattee granted the motion and instructed the jury to turn in a verdict of not guilty, since the prosecution had failed to make out any sort of a case which could be considered by the jury. He therefore instructed that a verdict of not guilty be written out and signed by George T. Purves, foreman of the jury, and acknowledged by the jurors as their verdict. Pruitt was then dismissed from custody.
County Prosecutor Moore admitted later that he had not made out a case, having relied on Louis Sundeen and Barney Schiller to convict the man.
Over in the city jail, Sundeen, who had not been called to testify, after Schiller had given his damaging testimony, was jubilant at the result.
Sundeen's Sweet Revenge
"And we will fix him again when he tries Nelson," he shouted from the jail door. "Look at the treatment we have been getting. We want some tobacco money and some sugar money. They give you a nickel bag of Durham every Saturday night up there and you have got your own sugar to buy. We want some sugar money and we want some tobacco money."
The real reason why they had revolted from their announced purpose to testify against Pruitt developed the night they left Florence with Jack Archer to come to Tucson in an automobile. In some way Archer got information that the men intended to escape on the way to Tucson. Accordingly, he handcuffed both men. Immediately they protested against the handcuffs, declaring that they went as willing witnesses for the county and the handcuffs were a disgrace to them.
Sundeen dominated Schiller in the argument. When they arrived at Tucson, County Prosecutor Moore talked with them for an hour to bring them back to their original frame of mind and yesterday morning they promised to testify against Pruitt.
Joe Acevedo, who was also brought in with the pair, said he could not tell anything at all against Pruitt.
Testimony "Clears" Pruitt
When Blackie was called to the stand he started out by declaring that Pruitt had been forced to drive the murder car by Butch Sundeen and had been forced to take the murderers out there and back again. He could not remember a number of vital things and volunteered information clearing Pruitt, who, he said, was merely a public chauffeur and knew nothing of the plans to rob the proprietor of the park.
As he was the state's witness, his testimony could not be impeached by the state. Mr. Moore fell back on the confession made by Pruitt at the time he was arrested. This showed clearly that Pruitt knew of the whole transaction. The statement was admitted, after considerable argument, in the absence of the jury. Only parts of it, however, were admitted to evidence.
At the conclusion of the reading, the state rested, while MacKay asked for 15 minutes recess to prepare a motion. At the end of the 15 minutes, he returned and made a motion to dismiss the case for the reason that the prosecution had failed to make out the slightest ground for implicating the defendant.
Judge Pattee granted the motion, and, turning to the jury, informed it that it was seldom that the right to consider a case was taken from the jury, but that nothing had been introduced for the jury to consider in reaching a verdict; that the statement contained nothing that it could work on, accordingly he instructed the clerk to write out a verdict of acquittal and to place it on the record, after the jurymen had accepted it through their foreman.
Well, this is probably what happens when one relies on known criminals for the only real evidence in a trial. Can you really trust them?
Art Nelson's trial was held a week later, but it never really happened at all since the county attorney moved for dismissal, knowing he could not get a conviction.
From the Star, Feb. 27, 1918:
ART NELSON IS FREED; MURDER CASE IS CLOSED
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County Attorney Asks Dismissal Of Case Against Former Policeman, Charged With Conspiracy to Rob Chas. Loebs
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The final chapter of the Charles Loebs muder case was written in the superior court yesterday afternoon, when County Attorney Kirke Moore moved the dismissal of the case against Art Nelson, former Tucson policeman, charged with conspiracy to Rob Loebs, the proprietor of Pastime park.
Nelson was not brought into court, but he was represented by his attorney, Ralph W. Langworthy.
The court granted the motion for Nelson's discharge, and also a motion for the release of J. R. Ross, who had been held in custody as a witness.
The killing of Loebs was declared by Judge Pattee to have been the most dastardly crime in the annals of the state. The round up of the slayers was brought about by unusually clever work on the part of the police and the sheriff's office.
How Case Was Made
On December 23, Loebs was found murdered. Jailer Isaacs, an old man-trailer from New Mexico, trailed the footsteps of the murderers to an automobile track in the road. The same day the car was picked up in Tucson. In the car was Joe Acevedo, driver, drunk. Afterward Alfred Pruitt and two others were picked up, one being lame as indicated by the tracks. Pruitt was held. The others were released.
Patrolman Nelson was caught talking to Acevedo. He was trailed to the house where Acevedo's woman friend, Hattie, lived. There detectives heard him arrange an alibi for his friends Louis Sundeen and Barney Schiller, in connection with the crime. In a few days Sundeen was arrested. Schiller had fled the city. Pruitt, Sundeen, Nelson and Acevedo refused to make statements. Finally a cartridge left on a shelf in a closet in Nelson's house caused him to break down and confess. It was his revolver with which the killing had been done by Sundeen. Schiller was caught in San Diego and brought back. He confessed. J. E. Ross, in whose room in Tucson the murderers hid after the killing, was caught as he was leaving the city.
Sundeen, confronted with Schiller's confession, confessed to the killing. He implicated Nelson, as did Schiller. Sundeen and Schiller pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree and recited the way the murder was committed in the court. Joe Pruitt, driver of the murder car, who had also promised to plead guilty, changed his mind and refused. While he was awaiting a trial, Joe Acevedo pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to rob Loebs and got away with one year's sentence.
Pruitt "Exonerated"
Presently, Pruitt was arraigned for trial. Sundeen and Barney Schiller, brought from Florence, promised to testify against him. However, they became disgruntled because they had been handcuffed when brought to Tucson and had not had sugar and tobacco money while in Florence. Barney Schiller exonerated Pruitt instead of testifying against him. On motion of his counsel, Judge Pattee instructed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
There remained only Art Nelson and J. E. Ross. Nelson, under the advice of his attorney, Ralph W. Langworthy, refused to plead guilty to any charge. After he had been detained in prison for more than a month he was arraigned and his case set for trial. It was postponed. Finally it came up yesterday with the result that, having depended on Sundeen and Schiller for his conviction and having been deprived of that support, the county attorney felt he had no case and asked the dismissal of the charges. As a sequence J. E. Ross also went free.
Nelson has a wife and three children in Tucson. He was formerly a special policeman for the Southern Pacific and had been a pugilist.
So half of the men the police were sure were involved in the robbery and murder went free, but at least the actual shooter was confined for the rest of his life. These people gave no thought to the man they killed or his family and how they would get by without the family's major breadwinner.
The Morgue Lady wonders if Nelson decided that he should take his wife and children and leave Tucson after this. It is likely he would have eventually been implicated in another crime later and police probably kept a close eye on him.
Something has amused the Morgue Lady in reading these old articles. The automobile, often dubbed the "murder car," was even more frequently referred to as simply a "machine." Perhaps the "horseless carriage" was still a novelty out here in the wild west.
Pastime Park is probably the place that was turned into a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients just a couple of years later. That sanitarium then became the Veterans Hospital a few years later.
