Part 2: Jewelry heist strikes 1918 Davenport

Editor's Note: See the Feb. 18 issue of The Times for part 1 of this historical feature.

As safecracker Edward Leroy Lucas laid dying in the Lincoln County Jail, he requested officials notify his wife of his pending death. Spokane investigators responded to Davenport with belief that Lucas and C.H. Lea had been involved in other burglaries and crimes across eastern Washington. Two identity and fingerprint experts were dispatched to Davenport and recognized Lea as an escaped criminal from the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

C.H. Lea was found to be a wanted fugitive under several other names like Albert Lewis, Alfred Lewis, Harry Lester, Charles Bishop and Charles Hudson. Lea had previously served two years in Kansas under the name Alfred Lewis after he and two other men armed with dynamite attempted to hold up a mail train in North Dakota in 1908. He was also found to be Harry Lester, who had escaped twice from the state penitentiary in Mississippi where he had been serving a life sentence for murder. Newspapers from the Mississippi area in 1915 show Lester had held up another train and shot and killed the baggage attendant, Peter Marcey, who had attempted to stop the robbery.

The robbery involved Lester's use of dynamite to blow open the safe in the baggage car. Lester initially got away after murdering Marcey by jumping from a moving train. He was later found hiding in a swamp near New Orleans after sustaining internal injuries from his escape. He was taken into custody and required surgery. Lester admitted to the robbery and shooting of Marcey as he lay on the operating table while believing he was going to die. However, he later recovered and was sentenced to life in prison after the jury decided to forgo execution.

He would go on to escape from the Mississippi prison on two separate instances. The first was short lived, and he was quickly taken into custody by law enforcement. Lea (aka Lester) was considered a very dangerous man and on several occasions was found in prison armed with numerous saw blades and other contraband.

His last escape was in 1916 when he pried the floor boards loose at the penitentiary's hospital and left traveling west to Washington. Lester changed his name to C.H. Lea and was known to run with area criminals in the region.

In 1918 Davenport, as Lea and Lucas laid injured from being shot by Marshal Pebles, Lucas could be seen holding a piece of paper. At some point the paper was torn up into pieces and was spread over an area by the wind. Investigators returned to the scene in the daylight and collected what they could piecing the note back together. They discovered the note was an improvised will written on an envelope in which Lea left a Seattle woman named Louise Murray instructions to collect $600 under a safety deposit box in his name at Fidelity National Bank of Spokane. It was apparent that one of the men had been carrying this will and had attempted to destroy it after realizing it could hurt their case.

A story of the will was printed in the Spokane newspaper before investigators had a chance to obtain a search warrant for the safety deposit box. By the time Spokane Police were able to search the box they only found $80 and believed someone had accessed it prior to their arrival. Lea and Lucas were believed to be working with a gang of criminals and search warrants were served on both residences.

Evidence from the residences of Lucas and Lea connected them to robberies in Spokane, Medical Lake, Waverly, Post Falls, Valleyford and Reardan. It was also said detectives believed Lea had been responsible for shooting and killing Colville Marshal Wannenwetsch in Oct. 1917 after he was confronted in a burglary similar to the Davenport jewelry heist.

Lucas's wife denied any knowledge of her deceased husband's involvement in any crimes, and suggested he had only recently met Lea. Lea took responsibility for the jewelry heist saying he wish he had been killed rather than Lucas who never wanted to be involved in his plan to burglarize the store in Davenport.

Within two weeks Lea pled guilty and was sentenced to two 12-15 year sentences for his Davenport crimes. He was transported to the state penitentiary in Walla Walla before being extradited back to Mississippi to serve the remainder of his life sentence. It is currently not known what happened to Lea after that. He seems to have disappeared off the historic record after being transported back to Mississippi and no burial information can be found for him under any of his aliases.

On the law enforcement side of things, the great-great-granddaughter of John Pebles, Jessica Henry (Pebles) grew up in Davenport and had heard bits and pieces of the incident through family lore. She recalled hearing of the legendary shot made by the marshal, and that a reward had been offered for capturing Lea, but he turned out to be ineligible due to his job as an officer of the law. Newspapers covering the incident suggested Marshal Pebles and Sheriff Level would be eligible for a federal reward if it was proved Lea and Lucas had been involved in a series of post office robberies, but no additional information has been found of them ever receiving a reward.

The government may not have rewarded our local heroes, but Charles Myers sure did. For the bravery and efforts Sheriff Level and Marshal Pebles displayed in stopping the heist of his store, Myers presented each with an inscribed gold watch as his sincere thanks. He also awarded a gold watch to Fred Miller who had reported the incident, and a gold brooch decorated with diamonds and pearls to the telephone operator, Minnie Schendel.

Marshal Pebles went on to work for the city of Davenport for over 40 years in both law enforcement and as the superintendent of the water system. He was an immigrant from Austria and became well known locally for making violins by hand. Pebles continued to live in Davenport and passed away at age 80 in 1946. Several generations later, you can still find members of the Pebles family in and around Davenport. Sheriff Level was an early farming homesteader of the area and once served as the Davenport City Marshal as well as his several stints as county sheriff. He was involved in the community of Davenport also, serving on the local school board in addition to his law enforcement roles, and passed away in 1924 at the age of 67.

When you think of the small community of Davenport, a jewelry heist is probably the last thing on your mind, but that's exactly what happened here nearly 103 years ago. You see, criminals don't really care whether you live in a small town or a big city. They only care about an opportunity. Luckily for Davenport, we've always had a group of brave men and women looking out for us; people like Marshal John F. Pebles and Sheriff John A. Level, who in the early morning hours of Monday March 4, 1918 risked their lives to keep this town safe.