The Outlaw Billy Stiles — John Koblas

Skid Row in Los Angeles reeks of a chicken yard. Garbage heaps are often used as shooting galleries by drunkards and public toilets as makeshift bordellos. Dealers of drugs and other illicit commodities peddle their wares in front of churches and in view of the local police station. Women without shelter sleep near the safety of the missions while the mentally ill are left to their demons. The hardcore bums stickmen with glittering eyes and violent impulses stay on St. Julian Street. So why am I here well within the official boundaries of Skid Row? Because, even at this late date 1932 the outlaw Jesse James is still big news. Earlier in the year, I had picked up the latest issue of All-Western Magazine and discovered an article about the night watchman by writer Ed Earl Repp, who on July 8, 1931, had interviewed this man. What I read astounded me. My real name is William Stiles my friends call me Bill or Billy, he told Repp and the mission staff. Yeah, I know I am supposed to be dead shot to bloody pieces by that feisty hardware store dealer, Anselm Manning plumb in the middle of Division Street near the bank. But you gentlemen know seeing is believing, and I ain't dead, 'cause if I was, you'd all be hightailing it down the street. Eight robbers were known to be involved in the holdup, but Stiles professed there were nine himself being the ninth highwayman. Cole, Jim, and Bob Younger were captured near Madelia, Minnesota, while two unidentified men believed to be Frank and Jesse James escaped. Three of the robbers were killed: Clell Miller, Charlie Pitts, and Bill Chadwell alias Bill Chadwick alias Bill Stiles. During Repp's 1931 interview, the man purported to be Bill Stiles claimed that Bill Chadwell and Bill Stiles were two separate outlaws riding in the same gang and not the same person as everyone believed. Eldridge went on to vouch for Stiles's integrity and said no one at the mission had ever doubted the former outlaw's connection with the James Gang. He added, [Stiles] is a straight-forward, clean-cut Christian gentleman, eighty-two years of age and has no reason of trying to identify himself with the group unless he had been connected with them. At the time of his conversion nineteen years ago our Board of Directors and Management went into the matter quite thoroughly and have always been satisfied as to the truthfulness of Mr. Stiles' statement.