Sile Doty - Home, Prison and Old Age

Home, Prison and Old Age

In the fall of 1847, Doty returned to his home in Steuben County, Indiana and continued his depredations on the citizens of northern Indiana and southern Michigan, having convinced his neighbors that he had been granted amnesty because of his participation in the Mexican-American War. In August 1849, Doty was arrested for robbing a peddler, and spent several months in jail in Hillsdale, Michigan before being bailed out. Doty was able to get his trial postponed repeatedly, during which time he stepped up his criminal activity stealing more property, he claimed, than at any other time in his career. When he finally came to trial in the spring of 1851, Doty was found guilty and sentenced to 17 years in the State Prison of Southern Michigan. Even though Doty could not resist stealing small items like horseshoes, he was trusted by his jailors to work alone outdoors at various farm chores, and he was released two years early for good behavior on September 1, 1866. The following summer, Doty stole a horse from a lawyer who, he thought, had wronged him years before. He was apprehended at a livery near the old Yates House hotel in Bryan, Ohio, and returned to prison for four years. Upon release, Doty immediately returned to his life of crime, and was again convicted of theft and returned to prison for another two years. Despite being in his seventies by the time he completed this sentence, Doty continued his criminal career until his death at the home of his son in Reading, Michigan.

Sile Doty appears as a character, played by Robert Wilke, in the 1956 film Raw Edge.