The Portland Daily Press

Nemesis
The Tenacity With Which It Pursued Lou Houk.

A pursuit of a criminal as exciting as any romance of detective fiction has just ended in the return of a murderer to Delaware, Ohio, after years of tireless effort. This is the notorious Lou Houk, a most dangerous, because fascinating and unscrupulous criminal, whose successful daring long ago won him the title of the "three card monte king." The crime for which he is now to be tried occurred in a smoking car near Delaware in January, 1875. He and his "capper," a fellow named Houghton, had inveigled a commercial traveler named Lohman into a game of cards and had won $500 from him when Lohman accused them of cheating and threatened to have them arrested at Delaware. Houk stopped that by putting a bullet through his victim's skull, and jumping from the train. The pursuit of the murderer instituted by a detective named Norris has been remarkable for its untiring relentlessness. Often he has lost the villain's tracks, but again has found some clew and has followed his man from town to town and country to country like an avenging fate. Houk, it seems, went direct to Washington after the murder, and lived there in fine style, playing with national celebrities and even sending home for his wife. Last heard of him Houk fled to Richmond and then to Norfolk and Key West, and finally to Havana. When that city became too warm for him the murderer boldly returned to this country, and for a time plied his calling at New Orleans, and later found his way into Texas. The vigilant detective was ever at his heels, but Houk possessed in remarkable degree the power of winning friends, and time and time again when his capture seemed certain they have warned him and helped his escape. By and by Houk went into Mexico and there he killed a gambler during a game of cards, but before the detective arrived Houk had been acquitted on the ground of self-defense and again disappeared. Next he was heard of in Arizona living a respectable life with his wife, and from here he drifted to the Pacific slope, where as "Dick Davis" he became celebrated as a most skillful and successful gambler. It is said, however, that while at Yuma he and three other gamblers were led out of town by the vigilance committee with ropes hung suggestively about their necks. The persistent Norris heard of him at Los Angeles a few weeks ago and telegraphed for his arrest. But Houk had won friends there, too, and a strong fight was made for his release. Writs of habeas corpus were secured, warrants were sworn out on false charges, to secure the man's release on bail, and Norris had to use strategy in getting his requisition papers through the mail. He was even assaulted by the desperado's friends in San Francisco till two policemen were detailed to guard him, and finally an attempt was made to bribe him. But the detective managed each time to get his man out of the way by hiring special trains, and by that means at last left the State, while a sheriff with a writ of habeas corpus was searching the regular train just behind. Houk bears himself boldly, and declares that the shooting was in self-defense—a plea which may, unhappily, possibly prove successful, since the murdered man died refusing to tell the story of the crime, and there seems to be doubt if any of the other passengers noticed it.