Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 299, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1918 — PIPER'S STORY TOLD BY FRIEND [ARTICLE]

PIPER'S STORY TOLD BY FRIEND

Alleged Slayer of Freda Welchman Kills Self in Jail Ceil. WAS PARTNER !N ROBBERIES Claimed Fellow Bandits SleW His Bride—Murder Followed Series of Hold-Ups—Feared She Would ' Tell, Story ays. Muskegon, Mich., Dec. 23. —A life Jong friend of Milo Piper’s —one whose activity in arranging the defense had been marked—denied in an extraordinary statement made public here that Piper (Committed the murder of which he stood accused when he committed suicide In the county jail here Saturday evening. It is admitted Piper lied when he said it was not he who married Freda Welchman of .Chicago at Rensselaer, Ind. Knew of Murder Plan. It Is admitted, too, that he had knowledge of the plan to murder her and that he acquiesced in the plan in so far as he took no action to halt it. But that he fired the ' shotgun blast which killed Miss Welchman is emphatically held untrue. According to 5 this friend, whose name time must be withheld. Piper told the whole story to him before he fled to Canada. . Partner in Robberies. The Goldberg and Sheldon persistently named’by .Piper as companions on his honeymoon trip with Miss Weichman took part with him in robberies along the way, and when they faced the horrified amazement and fury of the girl tfiey spoke to Piper. After a robbery of the post office at Rockford, Mich., it was to be his life or hers, they told him.. He could choose.

Piper chose to allow the girl to die, itnd came home to confess all but his marriage to Freda Welchman and to rest secure in his wife’s belief that he was -through- with -wrong association, hisj wife declares. Wife’s Hint S’gnificant. Mrs. I‘iper’s -significant hint, sobbed out with Impressive emphasis in the first throes of her nereavenv nt, corroborates the friend’s recital. But she herself will sa.V no more. “I know he is innocent,” she cried, pounding upon the arms of her chair. “I know’, because lie told me something, and I’ll never tell —never! He got into bad company, but he never killed Fre<Ja Weichi inn. I know, be<‘i use he told me —he told me!” “Told you what?”- was asked. “Told me what I’ll never tell,” repeated the stricken woman, and would not commit herself further. Friend Reveals Confession. But the story stands. The friend poke positively when Freda Weichmin’t aunt, Mrs. F, William Kllnke f III., linked the twelveM.nth silmcc of her vanished niece vith the finding of the body of a voman in a lone grave in the woods i 2 miles from here in May, 1916. When she started search for Piper, vho had left , with Miss Welchman March 1, 1916,j ostensibly for the marriage altar. Piper? fl.ed from questions to Hamilton, One. On the evening before he went he. old his friend his story .and the friend sealed his lips, as did Piper, because of the complexity of pehalties ‘hat awaitpd. Fear of both the federal and, the state penitentiary drove Piper to suicide, it is asserted.

Other Men Bandits. “Piper went to Hamilton, Ont., to look for Goldberg and Sheldon, 1 who actually exist. They were holdup men, and their last job with Piper was at Rockford. Mich., in the robbery of the post office there. “It must have happened about three weeks before the killing of Freda Welchman and quantities of stamps and money were taken. The authorities there will remember. "Piper tells of leaving Hinsdale with Fre’da in an auto and of meeting the men, Sheldon and Goldberg. In Chicago, anil then of two other men joining the party. “Sheldon Married Freda, he claimed, using the name of Piper. •Lied on Wife’s Account. “Of course he lied about the Sheldon marriage to save ( himself with ■ his own wife here. And Freda Welchman was always Piner’s wife on the trip; never was anything to the others. She was a good girl and she must have been staggered when she realized what v.-as happening.”