In the early years of the 20th century, a gang of young desperadoes – known as 'yeggs' in those days – made headline news in Ontario newspapers, including the Guelph Mercury. They were responsible for a crime spree that spread across Southern Ontario.
Newspaper accounts described them as highwaymen, bank robbers, burglars and stick-up men. According to one Mercury article, they “commenced a reign of terror, when townspeople almost feared to go abroad at night.”
Members of the gang included, at various times, Edward Hornbustle and William Hillis of Guelph, teenagers Alvin and William Pepper of Stratford, Frank I. Waterous (alias Frank Waterson) of Connecticut, Herbert Yates (alias Jack Martin, alias Jack Williams]) of Hamilton; Percy Daniels, Joe Bullock and William Stevens of Galt; and the leader: Charles Wilson, alias Foxy Smith.
An account of Foxy Smith’s background written for the Galt Reformer was reprinted in the Mercury.
“The story of Foxy Smith’s life reads like a fairy tale. It cannot be fully told, except by himself. He was born in Galt and lived here most of his life. Even when a youth he evinced a wild spirit. He was an inveterate truant, though clever at school. The teacher who taught him at Victoria vainly tried to brook his waywardness, but he wouldn’t be restrained.”
Foxy was described in the newspapers as a husky young man who, in spite of coming from a respectable family, was just plain bad. He began getting in trouble with the law around the turn of the 20th century, when he and his pals spent time in jail for assaults, break-ins and illegal possession of firearms. Foxy was sometimes arrested for vagrancy, a charge the police often used to hold someone they suspected of involvement in more serious crimes while they conducted an investigation.
Among his other criminal skills, Foxy was known to be an excellent safe-cracker.
Sometime around 1900, Foxy disappeared and there was a rumour he had died in Guelph. That story turned out to be false. Foxy said he had been in the United States, which may or may not have been true.
By 1903 the Foxy Smith gang had pulled dozens of burglaries. Also by that year, several of Foxy’s hoodlums were behind bars.
William and Alvin Pepper were doing seven and eight years respectively in the Kingston Penitentiary. Edward Hornbustle was serving a two-and-a-half year stretch in the Central Prison in Toronto (a correctional institution that would be replaced by the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph). Also in the Central Prison were William Stevens and Joseph Bullock serving sentences of 23 months, and Percy Daniels doing one year.
Still at large and stealing with apparent impunity were Waterous, Yates, Hillis and Foxy himself. But their luck was about to run out.
In March of 1903, Foxy tried to rob a railway agent in Tweed, Ontario, at gunpoint. Instead of being intimidated, the agent knocked the pistol out of Foxy’s hand, grappled with him, and held him for the police.
Foxy didn’t remain in custody for long. True to his nickname, he escaped and then vanished. He reappeared months later in his old stomping grounds around Galt.
Early one August morning, a farmer and his hired hand found three men in their barn not far from town. They recognized one of them as Foxy Smith. The hand seized a pitchfork, but the three men rushed past them and out the door. The farmer and the hand started to chase the fugitives across a field. When the outlaws reached a railway line they stopped, drew guns, and opened fire on the pursuers.
Nobody was hit, and the desperadoes disappeared into the woods. A hue and cry was quickly raised. Armed searchers spent the day tramping through forest and swamp, but Foxy and his companions were gone.
Then Foxy and company committed a series of burglaries in Winchester, Prescott and Chesterville, Ontario. Their loot of about $300 would be the equivalent of more than $10,000 today.
One of the bandits, Waterous, was arrested in Montreal in September. He quickly bought leniency for himself by squealing on the others. He told the police Foxy and Yates had slipped over the border and were in Ogdensburg, New York.
The Ogdensburg police, who were already familiar with Foxy as a safe-cracker, arrested the pair. They caught them with guns, explosives and safe-busting tools in their possession. Canadian authorities applied for extradition.
Ontario Provincial Police Inspector John Murray, Canada’s famous “Great Detective,” was sent to bring the captives home. While Murray awaited the signed extradition papers to come from Washington D.C., Foxy and Yates very nearly escaped when a careless guard left a jail door unlocked.
Murray took the pair to Cornwall without further incident. There, they were tried and convicted.
Foxy and Yates were each sentenced to four years in Kingston. Waterous got three. Then Yates had a lucky break when his sentence was deferred, which meant that in effect he was being placed on probation.
He did not take sensible advantage of the situation.
Yates hooked up with Guelph bad boy William Hillis and some other ne’er-do-wells and robbed a store in Dundas. While making their getaway, one of them shot a constable in the leg.
In December, 1903, police in Hamilton arrested Hillis and Yates. Hillis pulled a gun, but a constable snatched it away from him. They were charged with several robberies, including theft from Yates’ own sister.
In January, 1904, while the two were awaiting trial, Hillis made a spectacular escape from the Hamilton jail – leaving Yates behind. He was recaptured in Flint, Michigan, a month later and shipped back to Hamilton. At the train station, a crowd of youths greeted Hillis with cheers as though he were a returning war hero.
Both men were convicted on numerous robbery and weapons charges, and Hillis on the added offence of breaking jail. However, another criminal was positively identified as the one who had shot the policeman. The judge sentenced Yates to five years in Kingston.
Guelph Mayor John Hamilton and Conservative MPP for Guelph Joseph Downey wrote letters for Hillis attesting to his “good character,” but the judge disagreed. He told Hillis he was a “permanent enemy to society,” and sent him to Kingston for eight years. The yegg from Guelph had drawn an even longer sentence than his crime boss, Foxy Smith.
