Tied to a Tree with no way of Escape

This is a story about my great-great-uncle Lou. I first heard the story from my dad who told the story something like this, “Uncle Lou was chasing the outlaws, then the outlaws somehow handcuffed him to the tree, uncle Lou cut off every branch of the tree to get over it, and he escaped.”

That story he gave only skimmed the surface, so I dived deeper. I read the many newspaper articles written about this event located in the special collections in the SUU library, but it still didn’t give enough information, so I asked the person who had heard it from uncle Lou himself, my grandpa. Listening to grandpa’s version of the story was like being there and seeing the whole thing which allowed me to gain more knowledge about the story. So, with all that being said here is the story of Lewis Root Fife capturing Jack Weston.

It was about 1934, John Walter “Jack” Weston was wanted in half a dozen states for kidnapping, automobile theft, and multiple other crimes that have put a large wanted over his head. It may not be the worst thing Jack Weston did, but it might have been. He handcuffed an officer to a tree with the lawman’s own handcuffs and in the process yelled, “get some gas and we’ll burn the SOB.”

It was a cool morning in the Iron County and Lewis Fife was going around on his normal route through the dirt roads in south west Iron County, Utah, when he came upon truck-tracks that were more than familiar; they were from the trucks that came through to collect the sacks of wool from the sheep, and he had memorized their pattern, and they were headed up into the hills. 

That road was not the route typically taken by the truck, so he decided to follow the tracks up the mountainside which lead him to a small clearing near Homestake Mine. There he found the truck where the stolen goods were located with a man and a woman sleeping near it. Fife expertly parked his car across the road blocking the thieves only exit and went to confront them. He pulled out his revolver, pointed it at the sleeping figures, and examined the pair. 

The young woman, Daisy Butler, appeared to be in a relationship with the man, and the man Fife identified as the outlaw Jack Weston! Fife fearlessly ordered them to get up off of the ground with their hands in the air. They were doing so when the outlaw made a break for it. When this event happened Fife, thinking quickly, shot the moving target right in the stomach. Uncle Lou had never shot anyone before, so at the sight of the criminal falling to the ground in pain, it made him sick and without thinking he ran to his patrol car to get medical supplies to treat the wound of the criminal. When he came back, he was greeted by Daisy, a mere 12-inches away, aiming a shotgun right at him. She fired, but Lou, in order to stay alive, hit the barrel of the gun so the blast skimmed the side of his wrist, only causing minimal damage but catching him off guard. Butler acted quickly, she grabbed the handcuffs off of Fife’s belt and forced him over to a juniper tree with branches about 6-inches in diameter and 6-feet long. Weston was next to his partner by this time and helped her get Lou’s hands around the tree, facing the trunk, and cinched the restraints tight around his wrists, cutting off circulation. 

Weston was aggravated that Fife shot him in the stomach so he said to Daisy, “get some gas and we’ll burn the SOB.” The moll, a gangster’s female partner, brought over a container of gasoline and gave it to the crazy man. Weston then proceeded to pour the contents of the jug onto the ground around Fife. Then a miracle happened, Weston dropped to the ground with fatigue from the bullet wound. Butler was shocked, but she quickly pulled herself together and took Weston over her shoulder, headed to Fife’s patrol car, and drove away. 

Fife was dumbfounded. He was out in the blazing-hot Utah weather, tied to a tree with no way of escape, and all forms of slow painstaking death hanging over his head. But with all the bad he thought there might be some miraculous way out, so he began scanning the area and there, by his foot, was a sharp rock. Grandpa said that he spent about 30 minutes to an hour reaching for the rock but when he got it he set right to work cutting off the branches of the tree, moving up as he went. He worked the whole day and into the night and by the day in the evening the officer brought his bloody cuffed hands over the top of the tree and fell to the ground, free at last. He laid on the ground for the rest of the night regaining his strength, and in the morning he lugged himself to the road.

Fife was a wreck, his hair was messed up, clothes were dirty and torn, and he had handcuffs on which made him look like a runaway prisoner. But still he stood by the road praying someone would stop for him. All the cars that passed by zoomed passed him barely acknowledging the fact he was there. But by some miracle a local was driving down the road and recognized Fife despite his ragged appearance. The driver brought him to town where he cleaned up, gathered up a posse, and went south because Weston’s brother owned a ranch on the Arizona strip, and he would probably go there to recover.

Fife approached the cabin door and banged on it, as if he were hitting Weston himself. It took a minute, but the door finally opened and there, standing in the doorway, was the outlaw’s woman, Daisy Butler. She was flabbergasted to see the man she thought was lifeless in the wilderness. Fife stared at her for a moment, to let it sink in that he was alive and well, then sent the group of men he had gathered to search the grounds, the presence of Butler had confirmed Weston’s attendance as well. In the back of the house they found a mound of dirt that resembled a grave. 

They dug it up, and the dead body found was identified as Jack Weston.

It was later found out that Daisy stopped near St. George to doctor Weston up but failed at the task dismally. Daisy Butler was later discovered to be a woman called Margaret Carter, who left her husband and two children for the most wanted criminal in the west.

And that is the story of how Lewis Root Fife became an instant hero for apprehending, and killing, the criminal John Walter “Jack” Weston.