Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1917 — GET CEDAR LAKE SLAYER [ARTICLE]

GET CEDAR LAKE SLAYER

JOHN LANE, MURDERER AND BANDIT, HELD IN CROWN POINT JAIL. Crown Point, Ind., Sept. 19. When John Lane, alias Jack McDonald, alias John Lynch, opened fire on Marshal Ben Berg, of St. John in a cornfield four weeks ago and peppered Berg’s trusty auto with bullets the posse composed of Sheriff Barnes, Deputy Olds, Deputy Kilborn and Marshal Tom Platt, of this place, the officers little knew what a desperado they had cornered. Lane, who shot and killed Jimmy Leathers, the Cedar Lake saloonkeeper, is also the murdered of Peter Buffin, the Chicago policeman, and was yesterday identified as one of the six bandit slayers who robbed the Chicago City Bank July 13. When rounded up in the St. John’s cornfield, his gun emptied in the battle with the marshal, Lane faced the muzzles of shotguns in the hands of deputies on all sides of the field. As the posse closed upon him he surrendered.

Lane, a convict under life sentence in the Joliet penitentiary, had won by exemplary conduct the privilege of living in practical freedom on the Srison honor farm at Lockport. On une 7, he and “Furs” Sammons, another “honor” prisoner, walked away. * Since leaving the “honor farm,” Lane has committed two, murders. He is in the county jail for the killing of “Jimmy” Leathers, a road house keeper, four weeks ago. He has confessed this murder. Sammons is believed to have been with him. Lane said he shot Leathers in selfdefense in a quarreE When Lane was arrested he had SSOO in his pocket. He said another man who had been with him when he killed Leathers escaped with S9OO. The police believe the other man was Sammons and that Leathers was killed in a robbery.