Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1919 — CRUTCH BANDIT HERE SUNDAY [ARTICLE]

CRUTCH BANDIT HERE SUNDAY

“GIMPY” MCNUTT AND “EDDIE” HERMAN,” CROOKS, IN CITY SUNDAY. - Rensselaer was host for a few hours Sunday to two of' Chicago’s most wanted crooks, “Gimpy” Boyd MjcNutt, former United States cavalryman, ex-sailor and newsboy, and “Eddie” Herman, chief lieutenant among the members of the crutch gang which has been terrorizing all Chicago. “Gimpy” and “Eddie” were not alone, however, for three plain clothes men, accompanied them. The men were captured in Lexington, Ky., where they were arrested a week ago, after fleeing from Chicago with a stolen automobile and stopped here long enough to take their dinner at the Makeever hotel. The two bandits received their meal at the back door as Landlord Stockton did not care to shock his dinner guests by leading them into the dining room. ' , “Gimpy” is one of those mildmannered young birds, not one bit what you might call dapper and debonair, but presenting a ferocious appearance which is a heritage gained by knocking about the world. Eddie, too, wasn’t what you might call an extremely pleasant and sociable young chap and looked entirely capable of mixing it with any one. He was suffering from an atack of stomach trouble and did not care to talk although McNutt talked freely, admitting all the charges against him and other members of the gang. He is a cripple and walks with a crutch and that is where the band got its name. _ • “Robbery was a new game to me, suh,” said McNutt in a southern drawfl. He hails originally from Birmingham, Ala., and has lived most of his life in the south. “I enlisted in the Second Regular Regiment in the United States cavalry two years ago and was sent to Fort Allen, Vt., where I stayed three months. I was a horsewrangler and a good one. IT know all about horses and was doin’ fine until one of them rolled on my laigs and,one of ’em was busted up. Then the damfool army doctors got to work on me and when they got through one of my laigs was so drawn up at the knee that I couldn’t walk without a cruteh. Then they decided I was no further use in the army and discharged me, I should say with a gimpy leg and no kind of a job a-taJl. It was then I decided that I needed money to see if I couldn’t get the- old laig fixed up. I met members of the gang and found that that was the easiest way to get the money, and believe me I was getting it until these ‘dicks’ indicating the plain clothes me, ‘nabbed me at Lexington. Sure, I’m going to plead guilty, but it wasn’t me that murdered Eddie Fay.” McNutt stated that Fay, supercracksman and burglar, was murdered by Herman and a fellow named Sturgis. However, the authorities have discounted this story and it is probable that the famed prisoner who paid our city a visit yesterday is a murderer as well as an automobile thief, cracksman and general all around bandit.