Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1911 — SENSATION AT GARY [ARTICLE]

SENSATION AT GARY

Mayor Knotts and Several 1 Councilmen Arrested On Graft Charges. A sensation was pulled off at Gary last Friday by the arrest of Mayor Knotts and several members of the city administra-

lion on the charge of having accepted bribes in the passage and signing up of a heat and powrr franchise to an alleged corporation with headquarters in Louisv lle, Ky. A smooth young man, claiming to represent the “company” has been in Gary for several months, and it was he who claims to have paid out $16,000 in cold cash for the franchise, 55,000 of which went to Mayor KtjOttS for signing the ordinance gi anting same. jit is now reported that this s. y. m. is connected with the Burns detective agency and all his work was a elever trap to enmesh the officials of Gary; that he used dictographs to record conversations had and that all the money was marked so it could be identified. Immediately after he had left the mayor’s office Friday he signalled to deputy sheriffs in waiting and. they walked in. and arrested Knotts and found the $5,000 in a pigeon-hole in his desk, it is alleged. U . Knotts claims to know nothing about how the money got in his desk and denies all the charges, as do the others arrested. Knotts’ friends claim it is all a frame-up to get Knotts’ scalp, which political enemies have long and unsuccessfully tried to do.