Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1912 — HAUNTED FOR YEARS [ARTICLE]

HAUNTED FOR YEARS

Flight of Defaulter Who Never Was Pursued. Guilty Land Man Turned Tramp—Surrendering After Eighteen Years, He Found Indictment Had Been Quashed. Omaha. Neb. —Elmer E. Johnson was a fugitive from justice for eighteen years. In that time he wandered through every state in the Union but one, and visited every country in the world in an effort to evade the federal inspectors’ and secret service men.' The other day he walked into the" office of the United States marshal at Omaha and surrendered. He then learned that the case against him was quashed fifteen years ago; that he had fled when none pursued and that the army of'federal officers who had been chasing him over the globe were only creations of his own guilty conscience. 2 Johnson sat down and cried when told by the marshal that he was a free man; that the government did not want him and that for the last fifteen years he might have settled down and lived an honest man instead of wandering as a “hobo” over the world. “I'm too old to make a new start now,” said Johnson after he had braced up. “If I had only known this years and years ago I might have amounted to something. If I had stood trial and taken my medicine 1 would have been out -of prison fifteen years ago. My punishment would have lasted two or three years. As a fact, it continued eighteen years and its effect will continue throughout my life.” “Can’t you lend me a quarter to get something to eat with?” And with the 25-cent Diece in his hand he shuffled off toward a restaurant. Johnson was an official in the public land office in Del Norte, Cal. In 1893 he was found short SI,BOO. He was indicted on a charge of embezzlement, forfeited his bail and escaped. For three years the government inspectors kept a lookout for him. Then the case was dismissed and thereafter no further efforts were made to capture him. “On a cattle ship I worked my way to Liverpool,” said Johnson. “I was absent from the states about five years, during which time I visited practically every country in Europe, and many in Asia and Africa. I was simply a ‘hobo,’ but I watched keenly for government detectives who my conscience told me were always after me. “For eight years I have been wandering over the country from the At-

lan tic to the Pacific, from Winnipeg to the gulf. I have worked a few days in actually hundreds of printing offices. But I made it an absolute rule never to work In a place for more than a week. Then I would move to the next stop, thus throwing the detectives off of my trail. “The morning I struck Omaha 1 walked up the street and by the postoffice. And the thought struck me

that had I stood trial, took my medl-. cine and served my time I would have been a free man many years ago. -But you wouldhave been an ex-con-vict,’ I told myself. "That's no worse than a tramp,’ I answered myself. “ ‘Well, why not go in and surrender?’ I asked myself. And before X had an opportunity of saying 'no/ there I was in the United States marshal’s office.”