Jimmy Applegate

Posse Member Jimmy Applegate killed in the line of duty

On Monday, October 24, 1955, James R. Applegate, a charter member of the Benton County Sheriff's Posse was fatally shot during the chase of an escaped prisoner. He was struck by three bullets that entered his body -- one on the left side, another through the abdomen and the third in the chest. The 39-year-old man died the next day about 22 hours after being shot. He left a wife and three children.

The tragedy that cut short the life of Applegate began on Sunday, Oct. 23, 1955, when two men were arrested on charges of car theft. Martin B. Reyes, 23, and Jose Demesa, alias Sonny Shadd, 21, were kept in the jail in Grants Pass on Sunday. On Monday, they were returned to the Lane County jail in Eugene by a Deputy Sheriff. At the Eugene jail, Reyes pulled a gun he had been carrying in his belt and forced the deputy to give up his car keys. The two suspects took off in the Sheriff s Patrol car headed northbound on Oregon 99W to Junction City before turning toward Monroe. About four miles north of Junction City, they pulled over a car driven by E.H. Butterfield, who was headed to Newberg with his wife and their three young daughters.

Reyes and Demesa forced Butterfield into the patrol car and locked him in. Butterfield managed to kick out a window in the patrol car in an attempt to draw the attention of a State Policeman who passed by. In the meantime, the two suspects returned to the patrol car with Butterfield's wife and the youngsters and they all were locked in the prisoner's cage in the sheriffs car. The two men used the Butterfield's Nash station wagon to escape, heading toward Corvallis.

Butterfield managed to get out of the patrol car and call the Corvallis police. City Police Officer B.C. Branson stationed himself beside the highway in south Corvallis and soon spotted the station wagon coming into town at about 80 miles an hour. Branson caught up with the men when their car failed to make a turn from Jefferson Street onto First Street and the car went up over the railroad tracks and crashed into a tree. Demesa jumped from one side of the car and Reyes from the other. The police officer pulled his gun and stopped Demesa, who raised his hands and surrendered. Demesa apparently had been shot in the foot by Reyes, when Demesa refused to go with him.

In the meantime, Reyes took off down the street and was spotted running by Applegate, who was returning home from drills with the Sheriff’s Posse with his 16- year-old daughter, Elaine, and her friend, Dottie Blacker. Applegate flagged down a police officer and told him he had seen Reyes running down the street. The officer got in Applegate' s truck with the girls and they raced to the alley behind Ben's Associated Service Station at Third and Van Buren streets. The officer got out of the truck and went around to the front of the gas station to ask the attendants if they had seen Reyes.

When the policeman returned to the truck, he found Reyes with a gun pointed at Applegate and the girls. Reyes said he wanted the pickup to make his getaway. Applegate feared that he might kid nap the girls. Reyes threatened to shoot the girls if the officer did not put his hands up. Reyes then went around the back of the truck and met up with Applegate, who got into a scuffle with Reyes. Three shots were fired and the officer ran around the car and was shot at twice by Reyes, who then dropped his .45 Colt automatic and took off running. Applegate died the next day from his serious injuries. No one was sure if Reyes had been hit, but he took off and wasn't found until Oct. 25 after one of the biggest man hunts in Salem involving state, county and city law enforcement officials. Reyes finally was spotted in a restaurant in Monmouth and was taken into custody by Police Chief Edward C. Leum, who later turned him over to the Oregon State Police for questioning and Salem General Hospital for treatment of a minor bullet wound. It is believed Reyes shot himself in the struggle with Applegate. Reyes later was returned to Corvallis where he was charged with first degree murder. He entered a not guilty plea and in December was found guilty by a jury of second degree murder and later sentenced to life imprisonment in the Oregon State Penitentiary.

Applegate was a prominent man in Benton County. Born in nearby Linn County, he was a farmer and trucker who had been one of the first men to sign up for the Benton County posse.