Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1915 — SCALLON DEAD FROM BULLET WOUND [ARTICLE]

SCALLON DEAD FROM BULLET WOUND

Delphi Officer Never Regained Consciousness—One of Gang in Rensselaer Monday Night. August Scallon, who was shot early Sunday morning by one of the Lafayette thugs, died at his home Tuesday morning at 6:15 o’clock. He never regained consciousness from the time he was found mortally wounded in the street, and who it was flrpd the shot is not positively. known to the officers. When the local police were furnished with the details of the tragedy Sunday morning the police of Lafayette started an investigation and as a result the evidence points strongly to Charles as the man who fired the fatal shot. The officers learned that on Saturday night at Lafayette Charles Lawson entered a pawnshop on Main street and purchased a box of cartridges. After taking some of them from the box he handed the remainder to Charles Friend. It is believed that at was these cartridges that Friend threw under the pile of ties at Delphi Sunday afternoon. Chari® Lawson, who is still at large, is a brother of Oscar Lawson, who is now being held in a Delphi jail. The record of the Lawson brothers in Lafayette is bad and they were convicted of a series of safe robberies in that city in 1908. Charles Lawson was sentenced from ten to twenty years in prison and Oscar was sent to the reform school at Plainfield. Both were released on good behavior. It is the opinion of the police that Lawson will commit suicide before he will allow himself to be taken by the police. Charles Lawson’s picture appears in the Lafayette rogue’s gallery. Vance Lawton, the other member of the gang, is still missing and is not very well known in police circles. After escaping from Delphi Lawton is alleged to have been seen in Monticello and other places. Louis Wendling, who has been released on bond, regrets very much that he was a member of the gang. He was exhonerated from any connection with the tragedy by the testimony of Leo Delaney, the deputy who assisted in taking the gang to the Wabash depot. Charles Friend, a brother of Jack, who was released on bond, was seen in Rensselaer Monday night by Ham Burch, who became acquainted with him in Lafayette. He wore a raincoat and cap and is about 35 years old and 5 feet, 10 inches tall. Charley Friend is the man to whom the remainder of the box of cartridges was given by Charles Lawson before the shooting occurred.

I shall leave here next Monday evening (April 11th) and spend five days in Jubbulpore, arranging for work there and then start for Colombo. I suppose I shall find it hot until I reach Port Said. The trip on the Mediterranean ought .to be very pleasant. Dr. and Mrs. Brown, of Jubbulpore, are going to stay with Susie from May 15th to the Ist of July. After that she may be'with other friends, so she is not likely to be deserted entirely. “It is plenty cool here in the hills and I am enjoying the freedom from mosquitoes and heat. You might write me in care of the Y. M. C. A., Marseilles, France. Please send this letter to Melville, Ernest and Will.”