Good Day to all!
Did you know that although three men, George Battersby, Dick Windham, and Isaiah Cooper, were arrested for the murder of Punta Gorda Marshal John Bowman, and even though one was even convicted, the killer’s true identity remains a mystery?
When the marshal was shot, a group of boys were playing around a stable near the Bowman house and one, on the stable’s roof, had seen the gunshot’s flash. He could not identify the assailant but saw him run in a direction that allegedly passed two other citizens who claimed it was Isaiah Cooper.
However, he had an alibi. His boarding house landlord corroborated Isaiah’s claim that he was there when the shot was fired.
Outraged townsfolk offered a $700 reward and raised $1,000 to hire a private detective from Tampa. Although 20 pages of evidence were gathered against Battersby and Windham, locals with a history of bootlegging arrests, and they were taken into custody, County Judge A.E. Pooser declared the “evidence” worthless and ordered their release.