Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1915 — YOUNG FRANK ALTER ARRESTED [ARTICLE]

YOUNG FRANK ALTER ARRESTED

For Theft of Pocketbook Belonging to John Medicus. i Frank Alter, the painter, was ar- J rested Thursday on complaint of John Medicus, the plasterer, whocharges young Alter with the theft of the latter’s pocketbook, containing some sl7 or $lB, on the previous afternoon. He was arraigned before Squire Dean and released on his own i recognizance, to appear yesterday at' 10 a. m., for trial. | The facts of the case, as near'as] The Democrat is able to learn, are about as follows: Mr. Medicus was!' doing some patching of the walls in the armory in the K. of P. building, and had taken off his pantaloons, in which was his pocketbook, and laid them and his coat in one of the small rooms near the head of the stairs at the northwest corner of the building, then donned his plastering clothes. MT. Shaffer, the owner of the building, and Henry Smith and C. I A. Hisman, painters, were working on the third floor of the building. | Mr. Medicus went to where his clothing was lying about 2 o’clock | to get a chew of tobacco, and again for the same purpose shortly after 3 o’clock. On his first trip he found everything as he had left it, but the second time he went for tobacco he found that the clothing had been disarranged, that some one had paid a visit there in the meantime. He at once felt for his pocketbook but > it was missing. He reported the loss immediately to Mr. Shaffer and the ' painters, and the only other person who had been in the rooms during the time was young Alter, who had inquired of Medicus between 2 and 3 o’clock where the painters were at work, and when told had apparently gone to the third floor and asked them about the chances for securing some work himself. Smith and Hisman told him to see the latter that , evening, and it was agreed where he was to meet Hisman, but Frank did not meet him as agreed. He was up do'wn, however, he admits, until about 11 or 11:30 o’clock that night, and played several games of billards and pool, a few games of which he paid for. In fact, he paid for all the games he lost, it is understood. Mr. Medicus states that he had some sl7 or $lB in his pocketbook —three $5 bills, two quarters, several dimes, pennies, etc. The pocketbook with a key and a masonic emblem, which was in it at the time it was taken, was found next morning lying in the gutter a foot or two south of the electric light pole by the State Bank corner, but all the money was gone: It had evidently been thrown there after it had quit raiiSing that evening. There is a discrepancy of the time young Alter spent in the building in the story told by him and the painters. They only seeing him, they state, some fifteen or twenty minutes, while he says that he was there over an hour. The evidence against . him is ’ wholly circumstantial, and were it not for the fact that he has been in similar trouble several times before, it is not likely that any suspicion would ■have been directed toward him. The preliminary hearing was still going on before Squire Dean when The Democrat went to press yesterday afternoon. •