Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1920 — ALL FIVE WERE SOON IN JAIL [ARTICLE]

ALL FIVE WERE SOON IN JAIL

Bunch of Chicago Young Toughs Break Into Murray Store. Five young men were landed in the county jail Wednesday morning charged with breaking into the G. i E. Murray Co. grocery store about; 4:30 o’clock that morning, after the nightwatch had gone home. The young robbers were heard by; Mrs. Zern Wright, who was sleeping; on a sleeping porch in the rear and ’ on the second floor of their res-! taurant room. She immediately । called her husband who was sleeping inside, on account of being bothered' with rheumatism, and word was telephoned to Sheriff Woodworth andj others. The young men had driven ( their car up close to the building in the rear of the G. E. Murray gro-; eery—the former A. F. Long drug store building—and breaking the ( upper glass in the window so they Id unfasten the catch, entered the room and helped themselves to some pennies and nlckles kept for change in the show case, also some cigars, cigarettes, etc., and quickly made their getaway while Mr. Wright was telephoning the authorities, evidently being afraid to take more. Mr. Woodworth immediately telephoned all the surrounding towns to be on the look-out for them, and shortly after 6 o’clock received a telephone call from Wolcott that such a car as he had described with five young men were being held until his arrival. He at once drove to Wolcott, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Wright, who had both had a good look at the fellows and also the car, and who said they could easily Identify them. On reaching Wolcott they saw a car parked there which both Mr. and Mrs. Wright said at once was the one they had seen in the rear of the store. It was a Pan-American touring car and bore an Illinois license number. The young men had stopped at Wolcott to get something to eat, their bill amounting to $1.75, but they only had SI.OB in nickles and pennies—the identical money supposed to have been taken from the cigar case in the Murray store —and the restaurant man is still holding the sack for 67 cents, as they had no other money. Mr. and Mrs. Wright immediately picked out four of the five young men among several others who were in the restaurant, they having seen butfour men back of the store, one evidently remaining in the car or acting as a lookout some place, but all five having gonq to Wolcott together. The young men —all were quite young, ranging in age from 17 to 21 years—denied their guilt, one claiming to be a newsboy in Chicago and that this accounted for the nickels and pennies they had spent in the restaurant. They were put under arrest however and brought here and placed in jail, while the sheriff got in communication with the Illinois authorities and learned Wednesday that the car, which Is 'an expensive one, had been stolen in Chicago Tuesday night. No money waa found on their persons nor any weapons, neither were any cigars or cigarettes, which It was thought had been taken from the Murray store. One of the boys, who gave his name as Freddie Hackney of Chicago, said the car -belonged to his uncle, A- Hackney, of 8069 Calumet avenue, Chicago. The other boys gave their names as

Gerald Hughes of Chalmers, Ind.; James O’Rourke, Martin Doyle and Orval Wright, all of Chicago. , Three officers .from Chicago, with

a driver, came down in a oar Thursday evening, and after putting the boys through a rigid questioning, separately, and getting nothing out of them, all maintaining that they had never been in Rensselaer; that they did not know what route they came over after crossing the Kankakee; that they lost the Jackson highway and got on some other road, and that they were entirely Innocent of having entered the Murray store. It was the intention to drive back the car the boys had, but on account of one of the brakes being broken the officers decided not to attempt this and left the car here fqr repairs and had “Frenchy” Deschand drive them up with a part of the prisoners, all five of whom were taken back with them In the two cars. The Chalmers boy, it seems/* Is known by the James Knaur family here, who formerly lived at Chalmers, and he was known there as a nice, clean boy. His father and | mother are parted, the mother now being in Chicago and the father in Chalmers. - The boy went to Chicago a few months ago, so his father said —who was here yesterday to see him, and then went on to Chicago—he giving him money to go there; that he had been working there but for the past few weeks had not been■ doing anything. He had not been with his mother, it seems, however, and when questioned by the Chicago office/s here he broke down and cried pitifully and begged them not to tell her of his predicament. He' persisted that he knew nothing about where the other men got the car; that they had told him they were coming down this way and would take him to Chalmers, and that he had rode along with them; that they had not been in Rensselaer and that they did not break into the Murray store. The officers were inclined to believe his story regarding his lack of knowledge of the car having been stolen.

It was thought best to let the Chicago authorities handle the case there on the stolen car charge—the story that the car belonged to an uncle of one of the boys being untrue, It having been stolen from an entirely different person, it was stated—as Mr. Murray’s loss was. slight, and It would thus relieve Jasper county of the expense of the prosecution. It Is reported by people who saw the officers on the way to Chicago that two of the officers were badly '‘soused’’ that u slapped agd struck the boys With their fists/ trying to make them admit their guilt, and that one of the boys was knocked practically unconscious by the brutal thugs of Mayor Thompson, while they had them hand-cuffed. They removed the handcuffs after they had gone some distance with the boys and after they had beaten them up disgracefully.