At 11:30 p.m. March 10, 1934, the lights were on in the house across the street from the Cook residence on R Street. Asa and Nora Cook gave it little note as they climbed into bed. They didn’t know that inside their neighbor’s kitchen, burglars had been waiting two hours, pawing through a box of candy, finding pieces they liked and letting the wrappers float to the floor.
Angry voices, the bark of gunshots, then an agonizing scream ripped the Cooks from their sheets and to the window. They saw two men running away from young Herbert Caples’ home, the candy box falling near the garage. Herbert Caples, 21, and his brother owned a wholesale cigar and candy business in Vancouver. Early that day, Herbert had driven his wife and child to Cowlitz County to visit her parents and returned late with the day’s receipts.
Earlier in Portland, Ralph Tremaine confided to Glenn Stringer that he’d found easy money in a couple of Vancouver homes. They rode the streetcar across the Interstate Bridge and went to the residences on R Street. Afterward, they rode a taxi back to Portland to split about $500 cash and some checks.
The Cooks alerted law enforcement officers, who found Caples’ bullet-ridden body. They fingerprinted the home and looked for clues, finding the candy box, wrappers and .32-caliber casings. The Columbian reported days later that the police and sheriff searches yielded no leads. Somehow the murderers vanished.
While serving time at the Oregon State Penitentiary for a 1935 Medford robbery, Stringer confessed, implicating Tremaine. He explained how both pointed guns at the victim, who stepped back. His partner grabbed Caples, who tried to break loose. Stringer fired first. Tremaine fired next as the victim crumpled in the garage. Stringer recalled his take was about $275.
Stringer’s jury trial in Vancouver began in March 1936 before Judge George Simpson. An expert witness who’d helped solve the 1923 Anna Nosko murder near Battle Ground again appeared in Vancouver court. Seattle’s pioneering forensic scientist Luke May confirmed Stinger’s .32-caliber gun collected as evidence in the Medford, Ore., robbery was the murder weapon. Stringer refused to testify, and his lawyer presented no testimony.
Judge Simpson sentenced Stringer to hang. His lawyer filed an appeal, but the judge denied it. Stringer’s friends and relatives petitioned Washington Gov. Clarence Martin for a 90-day stay of execution, hoping to find Tremaine, alias James Cline. The governor disregarded the petition.
More than two years after murdering Caples, Stringer dropped through gallows at Walla Walla penitentiary. Tremaine drifted until 1938, showing up here and there occasionally, then he disappeared. In Indiana 26 years later, Jerome Young was committed to an Indiana hospital for the insane. The fingerprints matched Tremaine’s. Since all the witnesses had died, the authorities closed the case.
Tremaine died in 1964 after his car left the road and careened into a stone quarry near West Delphi, Ind. His autopsy reported he’d had a heart attack.
Martin Middlewood is editor of the Clark County Historical Society Annual. Reach him at ClarkCoHist@gmail.com.
