Captured!

On Monday, April 25th, J.A. Weatherford of the Louisville 2nd District Day Police received an anonymous tip that Andrew Jackson Downard and Joseph McKenzie were staying at the St. Cloud Hotel at the S.E. corner Jefferson and Second Streets. Assisted by officer James L. Turner, Weatherford went to the hotel and inquired to the clerk about the suspects and the length of their stay. He was informed that they had been at the hotel for four nights previous and were paid through the next two nights. Waiting outside of the hotel they spotted Downard and McKenzie leaving by a side entrance, but without their luggage. They followed them to the Jeffersonville Railroad depot Office at the South East Corner Main and Third Streets where they observed the pair buying tickets. As they left, Weatherford instructed Turner to investigate the nature of their purchase while he followed them

back to the hotel. Weatherford had a runner sent to the station for another officer to arrive and keep watch over the two until evening. Turner learned that they had purchase late tickets on the Jeffersonville Railroad en route to Indianapolis. Warrants were obtained for their arrest and a plan was made to have them arrested at the depot that evening before they boarded the train. Weatherford passed along this information to Joseph Swinney of the 2nd District Night Police, who enlisted the help of officers Sanford Dearing and Irvine Bell. That evening Weatherford and Bell waited outside of the hotel and observed the suspects leaving.  They followed the two to the depot. Swinney and Dearing waited in hiding, in thwart any escape. Weatherford and Bell approached the two with warrants and demanded their surrender. The two seemed surprised and gave themselves up freely, explaining that their must be a mistake. The two were then taken to the city jail and held until authorities from Franklin County came to pick them up.

The indictment

Frankfort County Circuit Court

The Commonwealth of Kentucky

               Against

Andew J. Downard and Joseph McKenzie

The Grand Jury of Frankfort County, in the name and by the authority of  the Commonwealth of Kentucky, accuse Andrew J. Downard and Joseph McKenzie of the crime of murder. The said Andrew J. Downard and Joseph McKenzie, acting in concert,did willfully and with malice aforethought murder one David Cooper on the twenty- fifth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-four in the county of Frankfort, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.