Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1918 — CONVICT TELLS OF HIDDEN FORTUNE [ARTICLE]

CONVICT TELLS OF HIDDEN FORTUNE

JOI LET INMATE RELATES AM AMAZING TALE Chance-given Riches are Hla, but Ha Despairs of Ever Using the Buried "Swag.” Joliet, Ill.—Within the penitentiary walls here is a man serving his fourth prison sentence for crime. Blind chance has made him the master of a fortune, which, were he free, he could hardly spend during his lifetime. The only evidence of its existence is a key that dangles from his neck. The thought of death —death in a prison cell —has brought the remarkable story of Convict No. 4725 to light. He recently told It for the first time in the private office of the warden of the penitentiary. » And this is the story, which —if it is t rue —rivals in weirdness of detail the most bizarre imaginings of a Dumas or Poe. In December of 1915, No. 4725 was released from the penitentiary and be* gan working to regain a place in society. For a time his efforts were rewarded. He began saving and made arrangements to marry and live down the past. On his way home from work one night he was accosted by a man whom he had known in the past The man, with a good deal of secrecy, gave him • sealed envelope, which he told him not to open until he had reached home. The Envelope contained a key, a $2 bill, and a paper of instructions. The paper directed him to a certain place where he would find a strong box wrapped in paper. This he was to keep with the key until a newspaper should tell him where to dispose of it Number 4725 —his name is William Mansfield Williams —waited until the advertisement appeared. He kept the appointment The advertiser did not For some days he waited. Then he opened the box. Within it were several thousands of dollars in Government bonds, and necklaces and rings he could set no value upon. Frightened, he hid the box. Another advertisement appeared. This time Williams did not respond. A few days later he was arrested on a charge of highway robbery. He was tried and sentenced to fourteen years. The chief witness against him in the trial was a fellow convict, with whom he had formed an acquaintance oa leaving the prison. The case, Williams says, was a “frame.” From time to time since his imprisonment, Williams declares that he has received threatening letters. Death upon the expiration of his sentence is predicted unless the box is restored. “I hope it comes sooner than that,” said Williams when questioned recently. “My soul already is dead. Long years of imprisonment have made me indifferent. Three years more and 1 will die and be buried over near the prison quarry without their trouble. “But when I go, the box and its contents will go with me, because it is hidden so safely that it never can be found. If it should chance that I live thru the eight years more of my imprisonment, my first act as a free man will be to throw it into . Lake Michlr gan. ' “Turn it over to the State? Why should I? Twelve years of my life behind prison bars have dissipated any Impression that the State has any regard forme. I have nothing to live for. Society has branded me as an undersirable. The only way to efface that stain is to die. I used to amuse myself in the early years of my imprisonment writing to representatives of society for help that never came. I*m thru with that now.” Investigation revealed that Williams’ story. In so far as it relates to his imprisonment, is true.