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- Harry W. Lawton
Dana Point, Calif. Harry W. Lawton, journalist and author whose account of the 1909 manhunt for an American Indian fugitive inspired the movie “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here,” died Nov. 20. He was 77.
Lawton died in a Dana Point assisted-care facility following a long illness, according to family members.
Lawton’s 1960 book “Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt” chronicled the hunt for a 28-year-old Paiute-Chemehuevi Indian who had shot and killed his girlfriend’s father because he had forbidden the distant cousins from marrying.
Willie Boy and the 16-year-old girl, Carlota Boniface, eluded a posse for 12 days, traversing 600 miles of Southern California desert in 100-degree heat. Carlota ultimately was shot and killed and Willie Boy killed himself.
Lawton’s work, which included interviews with surviving posse members, won the James D. Phelan Award in Literature for best nonfiction and the Southwest Literature award for a historical work.
The book was turned into a 1969 movie that starred Robert Redford as the deputy sheriff in charge of the posse, Robert Blake as Willie Boy and Katharine Ross as Carlota. Lawton served as a consultant on the film.
Lawton operated a bookstore in Berkeley before working as a journalist for the San Clemente Sun and the Riverside Press-Enterprise. From 1965 to 1991 he was a writer, editor, administrative analyst and management services officer for the University of California, Riverside. He had strong ties to the local American Indian community.
Indiana Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania. Monday, 5 December 2005.
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Lawton leaves his wife, Georgeann; his sons, George, Daniel, Jonathan, and Richard; his daughter Deborah Golino; his sister, Jean Belle Hamner; and six grandchildren.
The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts. Tuesday, 6 December 2005.
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1927 - 2005 (78 years)
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