DIRTBAG ROUNDUP: Jimmy Bowles retired once from a prison term, returned again to his burglary roots and is now in the slammer due to DNA match

DIRTBAG ROUNDUP: Jimmy Bowles retired once from a prison term, returned again to his burglary roots and is now in the slammer again, where a friend is a friend

DNA linked crime to a crime champion of the Seventh District

ABELL, MD. – in what is a historic and legendary crime family of the saga of the Seventh District, once touted in The Washington Post by reporter Eugene L. Meyer as ‘The Barbary Coast’, a new arrest of an old burglar will cause tongues to wag once again as a new generation learns of the misdeeds of the dangerous miscreants known as the Bowles brothers.  

Though one of the Bowles brothers was shot dead by citizens fed up with the inept response of police to the crime spree of bashing into homes, sheds, garages, and businesses by the armed and dangerous Bowles and his stinking corpse dumped in a swamp in Chaptico where turtles deemed as large as car hoods battled buzzards for a meal, the body of Allen Bowles was finally found by cadaver dogs a few months after he attempted to break in to the Chaptico Market, as detailed in MURDER USA.

James Ernest Bowles, brother of Allen, escaped that night in 1992 and continued his career in crime until being sentenced to prison in 2009.

Maryland troopers Larry Levasseur and Brian Cedar look on as Deputy Jeff McClain examines a gun found at the shooting at the Chaptico Market. THE CHESAPEAKE TODAY photo.

Now Jimmy Bowles is sitting in the Hotel St. Mary’s waiting for another visit from his soon to be appointed public defender and faces more years in the Maryland prison system.

St. Mary’s Sheriff Tim Cameron, who was on the department back in 1992 working as a road corporal when the shooting took place in Chaptico, reports that on December 21, 2018, Deputy First Class Ball responded to the 38700 block of Collinwood Drive in Abell, for the reported burglary.

Deputies figured out that an unknown individual forced entry into the victim’s residence and removed personal property. 

St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Crime Lab responded and processed the scene for latent fingerprints and DNA.  DNA samples were obtained and submitted for analysis.

  In May of 2019, information was received on a positive DNA match on the submitted samples.  In June of 2019, a search warrant was executed to obtain a DNA sample from the potential match, James Ernest Bowles, 62, (DOB 03/12/1959) of 20454 Bowles Road, Avenue, Md. The samples obtained for Bowles were submitted and analyzed; the samples were a positive match for DNA obtained from the scene of the burglary.

On November 19, 2019, Bowles was arrested by Deputy Carl Ball and charged with the following:

  • Burglary First Degree
  • Burglary Third Degree
  • Malicious Destruction of Property

Bowles remains incarcerated at the St. Mary’s County Jail on a no bond status.

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On Jan. 1, 2010, in a plea deal with St. Mary’s States Attorney Richard Fritz, Bowles entered a guilty plea to felony First-degree burglary, and second-degree assault, and was sentenced to ten years in prison.

As a result of being charged with theft and stealing mail, on Aug. 27, 2017, Bowles entered a guilty plea in St. Mary’s District Court in a plea deal with Fritz and was given unsupervised probation for two years.

Bowles Burglary Recalls Murder in Chaptico

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

Editor’s Note: This article was published in 2009

AVENUE — Once a common no good skunk, always a common no good skunk.

That just about describes the surviving brother of the Bowles brother’s burglary gang that always stayed one step ahead of the very inept police efforts to catch them in the early 1990s and once again has been locked up for burglary.

In spite of the nearby residences of then-Sheriff Wayne Pettit and the Maryland State Police Barrack Commander the late Lt. Al Potts, both of whom couldn’t supply their own friends and neighbors with effective law enforcement when it came to the Bowles brothers; the two hardened criminals operated with impunity, racking up dozens and dozens of break-ins and thefts from the weary residents of the Seventh District and Chaptico area of St. Mary’s County.

Finally, out of complete frustration with the incompetent police, the merchants who owned Chaptico Market and Village Liquors at the time, hired a man to stand guard over their stores with a shotgun.

When the Bowles boys came along to break in the corner grocery store and deli one summer night, the shotgun-toter was ready,

 As they shattered the front door of the Chaptico Market, owned by Jackie Tennison, the brother-in-law of Del. Johnny Wood, the guard let Bowles have it with the shotgun.

Before police could respond to phone calls to 911 from neighbors, Bowles’ body was scooped up and driven to a nearby swamp and dumped, not to be found until it was really stinking about three months later. Cadaver dogs didn’t discover the rotting Bowles, the buzzards did.

When State Police and St. Mary’s Sheriff’s Deputies arrived, they found only a bicycle, a handgun, and the broken front door.

While the police were examining the crime scene, a conversion van, which was likely used to haul away the body, drove up and parked at Village Liquors.  The merchants huddled over at the liquor store while police began to search for clues and a K-9 dog began to seek a trail into nearby soybean fields.

With one dead Bowles, that left a live Bowles, his brother Jimmy.

On August 6th, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s detectives, assisted by the State Police, report that they executed a search and seizure warrant at the residence of James E. Bowles, 50, from Avenue Maryland. 

The arrest was the result of a BCI investigation into the July 18th burglary to an occupied home in Avenue, where an 85-year-old female was assaulted. 

Bowles was arrested and charged with 1st Degree Burglary and 2nd Degree Assault. The arrest was the result of a BCI investigation into the July 18th burglary to an occupied home in Avenue, where an 85-year-old female was assaulted. 

Detectives are investigating other burglaries, and additional charges are pending review by the State’s Attorneys Office. Bowles was incarcerated at the St. Mary’s County Detention Center.

In a plea agreement with St. Mary’s States Attorney Walter B. Dorsey, Jimmy Bowles was given 18 months in prison for burglary in 1998.

That Bowles suddenly decided to go straight and stop committing burglaries is highly unlikely.  It is far more likely that the St. Mary’s Sheriff’s deputies and the State Police lacked the commitment and skills to track him down and capture him until this past week.

The actions of the merchants of Chaptico in killing his brother were far more effective and saved a lot of hard-working people a lot of trouble.

But in a nation of laws, and big budgets for law officers, fat paychecks, and healthy retirements, citizens should be able to expect that the law officers would be the ones who would track dirtbags like Bowles down and bring them to justice.

But this case shows, that had Jimmy Bowles been shot along with his miserable brother, the 85-year-old woman who was assaulted when he broke into her home in Avenue recently would not have been harmed by him. 

Don’t follow him down the road and gun him down as some liberal idiots will be yelling for your prosecution. But shooting a burglar inside your home is fair game and it’s always in season to shoot a burglar.

Therefore, readers are reminded to go the animal shelter and adopt a dog.  A yappy dog will send a burglar elsewhere.  Light up, load up and lock up.  The best way to get a nice police report is to call 911.  The best way to catch a low-life scumbag and dangerous burglar is to shoot him in the act of burglarizing your home. Don’t follow him down the road and gun him down as some liberal idiots will be yelling for your prosecution. But shooting a burglar inside your home is fair game and it’s always in season to shoot a burglar.

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