Midwest
Doty spent the winter of 1824-1825 at his father's home in Bangor, New York, perfecting his metalworking skills and courting Sophia Adams, whom he married in the spring of 1825. Doty tried to lead a settled life of farming, but he could never resist the temptation to go on another campaign of thievery. Finally by 1834, Doty was wanted for crimes throughout the northeast and his evil reputation had followed him home to Bangor, so he moved with his wife to Adrian, Michigan, and shifted his criminal operations to Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. In 1838, Doty extended one of his campaigns into Kentucky, where he helped a slave to escape and cross the Ohio River to the free state of Ohio. Doty was motivated less by abolitionist sentiment than by the challenge of stealing a slave.
In 1839, Doty moved to Steuben County, Indiana where he hired Lorenzo G. Noyes to work for him as a farm hand. When Noyes learned of Doty's criminal activities he threatened to go to the authorities, whereupon Doty struck him with a hickory walking stick, killing him. Doty hid the body in a swamp. In 1841, Doty was arrested for stealing a span of matched bays and confined to the jail in Huntersville, Virginia, now in West Virginia, but an accomplice smuggled him a saw and auger, which he used to saw through the log structure and make his escape. He made his way to the notorious Tamarack House near Rome, Indiana, the hangout of outlaws from throughout the Midwest. Sile Doty, most likely, knew of and had connections with the Banditti of the Prairie in Illinois. The following winter Doty was arrested in Michigan for stealing a large number of buffalo robes and several sets of harness and sent to the penitentiary for two years. In June 1842, a body said to be that of Lorenzo Noyes was discovered, and as a result Doty was removed to the jail in Angola, Indiana to stand trial for Noyes' murder. In 1844, Doty was convicted of murder in the second degree and sentenced to life in prison.
Read more about this topic: Sile Doty