____________________________________________________________________________ Arkadelphia Standard - Capt. J.C. Ray and Mr. J.P Hulsey left this place (Arkadelphia) one day last week for Pike County, for the purpose of capturing the desperado Ambrose H. White, charged with murder, and who escaped custody, and has since set the authorities at defiance. They state he was captured just before their arrival there by two brothers named Cox, and afterward in attempting to escape, was shot and killed by one of the Coxes. The circumstances of the capture and killing were substantially as follows: It appears that White had been on terms of criminal intimacy for some time past with a girl that one of the Cox boys wished to marry, but the girl preferring White, was preparing to leave the country with him. This excited the anger (of) Cox, and he, with his brother, agreed upon White's capture. Being on intimate terms with him, they rode up to the house of the girl where White was, and he, being unsuspicious of danger, greet(ed) them kindly. He was sitting on a chair with his gun across his lap, and while one of the Coxes engaged him in conversation, the other got behind him, and at a favorable moment, seized him from behind and pinioned his arms, while the other presented a revolver at his breast and disarmed him. White then tried to beg off, promising to leave the country and not harm them. They refused to release him. When White asked the privilege of getting a drink of water, when on the way to the well, he broke to run, and was shot by one of the Coxes through the body, but ran some distance before he fell. Cox then ran up to him. When White begged him not to shoot him, as he was already a dead man, Cox replied, "No d--n you, you might get up, so look out for your head, here goes" and fired shooting him through the temple, killing him instantly. The other Cox had his hands full in mangaging the girl, who showed pluck and disposition to defend White with her life. Pike County is thus rid of a very desperate and dangerous man, and though his taking off was to satisfy personal revenge rather than violated law, the people of that county have reason to be glad of it. If Pike County can now get rid of the Coxes, it would be all the better for it. A coroner's inquest was held on the body, and the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the above facts. ____________________________________________________________________________ Southern Standard, July 10, 1875, page 4, column 2. Arkansas Gazette, July 11, 1875, page 1. ____________________________________________________________________________ HTML file and design by David Kelley, 1997. All rights reserved.