Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1912 — MRS. PARKISON DECLINES TO TALK [ARTICLE]

MRS. PARKISON DECLINES TO TALK

Returned Hone Wednesday Night But "Has Nothing to Say" SHE GOT HER NOTES BACK jy -V- '[<■ ' r 'i •. •-• •.\ •-v According to Chicago Paper and Mr. Fleming Will Not Be Prosecuted. - * ! • __ % • The sensation created in Rensselaer by the publication in Chicago papers of Mrs. Aida Parkinson’s having beqn inveigled into a Mexican land deal and the alleged theft of Che $.19,000 in. notes she 'had signed therefor which were i still in her possession pending her return to Rensselaer to consult her lawyer here before turning them over, 'has subsided to some extent,' although still one of the principal topics of conversation on. the streets. Mrs. Parkinson, who is the widow Of t r ae late Addison Parkinson, returned home from Chicago Wed-' nesday night but declines absolute-’ ly to have one word to say to the press here regarding the affair, even declining to say whether or hot she recovered her notes. The following paragraph in a yesterday’s Chicago paper, however, which is practically the only mention made since Tuesday morning, indicates that she did recover the notes: Fleming Escapes Prosecution— Paul Fleming, who was arrested -in. Sioux City, lowa, Monday evening, i will not be brought baqk to Chi-, cage to answer charges brought by Mrs. Aida F. K. Parkinson, a widow of Rensselaer, Ind., who alleged that Fleming obtained her personal notes for $19,000 in an irregular land transaction. Mrs. Parkinson recovered the notes when Fleming \ was apprehended by a private detective agent and ihas decided to 1 atop proceedings. In the Chicago Examiner’s account of the alleged theft of the notes, a Mr. O’Shaugbnessy is men-' tioned as Mrs. Parkison’s Chicago j attorney and in her story to the l police officers .he stated that both ! Fleming and O’Shaughnessy accompanied her to the station where Fleming held the hand-bag in which the contract and notes were,’ while she stepped to the window to buy her ticket to Rensselaer, j O'Shaughressy fs said to be the Same party to whom the unsold lots' and unplatted ground in the Commercial Club addition were transferred lai't fall and who is connected with the match factory people in the “Rensselaer Home Building Co:,” a corporation formed about time of said transfer. The Examiner’s report of Mrs. Parkison’s story in this connectionstates: “You see, I came to Chicago ten days ago foi a shopping trip and was not thinking of making any investments at al‘l. But when I went into a beauty shop in South State street I met Mr. Fleming. He was introduced to me as a wealthy land agent and real estate man from the south. He was real nice looking and well dressed, and I supposed he was all that'"they said he f was. Anyhow, he began to tell about a fine estate he had in Mexico which he said was on the market and going at a bargain. J j “I became so interested that I decided to invest and I had the notes made out. There was one one for $2,000 payable in ten days., one for $2,000 for thirty days, 3. $5,000 note for six months, $5,000 for one year and one for $5,767, or $19,767 in all. , ■ - “Well, after those notes were made out, and this was after I saw Mr. Fleming several times, I , decided, after all, I would not make the purchase until I consulted my attorney in Rensselaer. He approved of that and accompanied me to the Union, station at 9 o’clock last Saturday night. “My purse was ih my handbag, andl was fumbling for it when Mr. Fleming handed me a $lO bill and told me to buy the ticket with that. I did so and gave him my handbag to -bold until I made the purchase. * “The notes were in that handbag but I never for an instant suspected they would be tampered with. My Chicago attorney, Mr. O’Shaughnessy, was with us in the depot and he ' accompanied me tp the 1 ticket window, where 1 bought my ticket. Mr. Fleming was standing just where I left him when I tftrned away from the window and held the bag just as he had received it. He handed it to me . with a simile when I wewt back to him and he and Mr. O’Shaughnessy

walked clear down to the car with me. “I never once thought to look in tbat handbag until I was miles out of Chicago. Then all of a sudden. I felt impelled to look and see if those notes were safe. You may imagine my consternation when I found they were gone. I turned everything out of that handbag and searched it thoroughly, but it was no use. The notes were gone. “I am sure those notes were in the handbag. I placed them there carefully and they could not have fallen out. Also Mr. Fleming vfas the only one who held that bag after I placed the notes in it. He ought to be able to explain about them.”