Daily News from New York, New York • 239

151 MsmZ'tx i 1 Taf i'SUSfe- 0 I rim -rh i 7L The killer was dealt a free card in his best game-sudden deafh 2 TO An Incorrigible from flit ttart, Carl Cletus Bowles (photo top, left), earned with Wilfred M. Gray (above) in a 1965 crirr.e ipree of murder and robbery that brought them lift sentences. But Bowles was not to stay behind bars forever. couple, Joseph Jacob, about 67, and his wife, Louisa, also in her 60s, were in their parked camper-mobile home when Bowles, gun in hand, called on them. made Jacob take the wheel and beside him and told Jacob to drive io Coeur d'Alene, 30 miles to the west.

As they approached Coeur d'Alene, the spunky Jacob said, "I've had enough of this foolishness!" and threw a punch at the bandit. "Either kill me," said Jacob, "or get the hell out!" i The flabbergasted Bowles, who had never encountered a hostage like that before, almost meekly alighted from the tamper. He saw a car containing two men and forced them to drive him. They'd gone a few miles when one of the men said, "Go ahead and take the car but let us cut." Bowles obliged. Shot la the Belly An ambulance driver, who saw the takeover of the car and suspected something was wrong, radioed the office of Kootenai County Sheriff Thor E.

Flad-wed and police cars began racing toward the scene. i Bowles was unfamiliar with the car he had taken and, after driving a mile and a half, he crashed into a power pole, which was knocked down. The car was wrecked but Bowles emerged from it intact. j''-A sound of sirens came to him. He saw a guy on a motorcycle and forced him to a stop and got on behind him.

When they rode into Post Falls, the motorcycle overturned. Bowles fled to the nearby Spokam River and began wading. Police Sgt. Jim Guy reached the river bank and ordered Bowles to stop. Bowles, kneedeep in water, turned Avith his gun in.

hand, but Guy fired first. The bullet hit Bowles in the belly. He was rushed to. Kootenai Memorial Hospital in Coeur d'Alene and spent five and a half hours imurgery. Wife Gone, Too -Monday morning in Eugene, Earl Hunter failed to show up for work.

Inquiry revealed that his wife was also missing, as well as their car, and Lt. Lonnecker quickly concluded that Bowles had seized the couple as hostages. This was confirmed when an examination of the Hunter home revealed fingerprints left by Bowles. I Coeur d'Alene the tough little Bowles recovered sufficiently to be questioned and Harry Button, chief criminal deputy of the Kootenai County Sheriff's office, interrogated him. Bowles admitted he ha' seized the Hunters.

f. ''However." Button revealed, "Bowles contended he never harmed them. He. said he ditched them in Yakima, Wash." An intensive search of Yakima yielded no clue. If the Hunters were still alive, why hadn't they come forward? Maybe they were being held prisoner somewhere.

Bowies' story about the Hunters was revised somewhat when a Portland reporter interviewed him at the hospital. He-hinted they might be in the hands of accomplices of his. "The last time 1 saw them," he said, "they were driving away in a car. You'll find the answer in Eugene." Asked to elaborate, he said he couldn't "because it involves other The Hunters' son, John, a Canadian Bodies of Mr. and Mrs.

Hunter are wheeled away after discovery. degree murder filed by Spokane Coiinly Prosecuting Attorney I humid C. Brockett. The Hunters' ton-inlaw, It Id Kerschbaum, said. "Obviously an rrror was made when Itnwlen wa allowed an unsupervised puss.

We're not mying the whok penal system in to bin me for something like thin. We're certainly net saying all types of criminals tdimild be incarcerated forever. Hut careful Judg. ment have to be made." An Oregon prixon pokemn mid the temporary phh nvctem wouhl 1 continued, but added that ther would be tighter screening of I if em convieied of murder, rape and similarly urioun offenses. In Eugent-, an indictment wan Wind charging five men with connpitacy to harbor Bowles, harboring him and otherwise helping hiin.

In Salem, Joan Colwrly pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution and was in biwl. According to her lawyer, ahe and her huxband had a reconciliation. At Bowles' Salem alma mater, prUon inmates who get 2 cents a day for work started a memorial fund for I ha Hunter children and quickly rained I4H0. "This in their way of showing that not everyone insid the nriaon in the liowlen type," said an official. 'If it's way of aaylng they're sorry," saic' Mrs.

Kersrhl.aum, "we rer-tainly appreciate the thought." As for the $1,000 reward he and her brother r'frred, Langan, the ran, her who found tnc bodies, said he had no intention of collecting it. "The family certainly needs it. Their Iom la mmh greater than that money would be for me." Lawmen recalled that Bowles In hi 1965 crime wave covered 1.0(10 mile and estimated that he traveled at )eat another 1.000 miles in hi 1974 eacapade. Travel may bf enlightening, but clearly that first 1,000 miles taught liowlea nothing. 1950s and become naturalized U.S.

citizens. Coeur d'Alene authorities acted to ensure that Bowles would go back behind bars and stay there. He was brought into court in a wheelchair on three second-degree Kidnap charges arising from his three attempts to get a getaway vehicle vast before he was shot. He pleaded guilty and was hit with a sentence adding up to 75 years in the Icaho State Penitentiary at Boise. "Do they have a pass system In Idaho?" a lotl law enforcement man was asked.

he declared with evident satisfaction, "we do not. We're not ac all in favor of it. Too many problems." Dead In a Ditch On July 11 the fate of the Hunters came to light. James Langan, 68-year-old owner of a wheat ranch 25 miles from Spokane, came upon two badly decomposed bodies lying face down in a ditch in a willow thicket. The dead eie iuentifieo as the Juintera through dental chart comparisons and personal jewelry.

Pr. Lois Shanks, Spokane County coroner, said that bullet fragments were found in Hunter's skull and that there was evidence Mrs. Hunter also had been shot. In her case, broken face bone were found with lead fragments inbedded in them. A Bowles, already in the elir.k in Boise, was charged with two counts of first- magazine writer, talked to Bowles, who insisted: "I didn't harm your people.

Look. I only shot one man in my whole life." John and his sister, Mrs. Linda Kerschbaum, of Seattle, still hoped their parents were alive, perhaps tied up somewhere. But Oregon's governor, Tom McCall, did not share that hope. He said a consensus of lawmen was that the Hunters and their car had been dumped into the Spokane River and that a search of the river had been ordered.

'In an Uproar' McCall added that his state was in an uproar" over Bowles' escape and "we don't know what the consequences will be." He said it might "even bring back the death penalty" or cause scrapping of the state's prison programs. The Hunter car was found abandoned June 21 on dry land, in Spokane, 200 miles front Yakima. In it were Hunter's wallet, sunglasses and checK- book. Evidence was found that Hunter, apparently at. Bowles' order, signed a $5.91 check June 15.

It was cashed at a Spokane supermarket. As time passed and the Hunters failed to show up, fear that they were dead grew. The Hunter children Fi3VrJ. 51,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of the parents. The Hunters were Canadians who had moved to the.

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