Picture from the Past
Murder case was shocking
to town and former sheriff
By John S. Baggerly
After showing Sheriff James H. Lyndon's scrapbook last week in the hands of former Town Librarian John Smuck, it seems appropriate to share Lyndon's most famous--and local--murder case.
That undoubtedly was the McGlincey murders of 1896, during which Col. Richard Perrin McGlincey and his household all found an untimely end. The deaths were at the hands of son-in-law James C. Dunham, who escaped on horseback and was never seen again. The investigation must have been extremely painful for the Sheriff because the Lyndon and McGlincey families visited each other's homes.
The subject of the McGlincey murders prompted Los Gatos historian Bill Wulf to note that "Wanted, Dunham" posters in English and Spanish were circulated and copies of the same now appear in a collection of memorabilia in the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office headquarters. Some Spanish posters may have been circulated south of the Mexican border because one theory had Dunham escaping to Mexico. There was stronger evidence that the suspect had headed into the Mount Hamilton range east of San Jose.
To dispatch six members of the McGlincey household, Dunham allegedly used his bare hands, an ax and two pistols. The person he spared was his own infant son, who lay in his crib next to his mother Hattie--and Dunham's estranged wife--who was choked to death. The baby's name was later changed by other family members. He grew up in San Francisco and inherited part of the family estate.
McGlincey, a Civil War veteran from Virginia, married the widow Ida Wells, who inherited the Sycamore Ranch. She was the mother of Hattie Wells, who in her mid-20s married Dunham. The Colonel made a success of his wife's ranch and was voted the first president of the Campbell Fruit Growers' Association.
The Dunham marriage did not work well, and Hattie moved back home to have her baby. Dunham was commuting by bicycle to Santa Clara University, where he was studying Greek and Latin.
On the night of May 26, McGlincey and Hattie's mother were in Campbell attending a Grange meeting. Meanwhile, Dunham arrived by bicycle at the McGlincey house, presumably to seek a reconciliation with his wife, but things did not go well and he "wrung his wife's neck," according former Campbell Mayor Jeannette Watson's book, Campbell, The Garden City. When a maid rushed into the room, Dunham dispatched her with an ax.
Ida McGlincey, alerted by the commotion, was preparing to see what had happened when Dunham administered a fatal blow with his bloody ax. Dunham waited at the front door He let another member of the family pass, and then struck Col. McGlincey with the ax, but the Colonel escaped to the barn. Somehow, Dunham coaxed the colonel out and shot him. Dunham heard glass break at the rear of the bunk house and stalked a fleeing ranch hand and shot him.
A young neighbor friend of Wells, attracted by gun shots, witnessed this double killing from behind a tree. He saw Dunham disappear into the night on Wells' buckskin mare. He was carrying provisions, which may have been prearranged.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
