People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1893 — TOOK DESPERATE CHANCES [ARTICLE]

TOOK DESPERATE CHANCES

J. Irving Latimer, Sentenced for Lite Ln the Jackson (Mich.) Penitentiary for the Murder of His Mother, Drugs Two Guards and Escapes—One of Bis Victims Dies from the Effect of the Dose. Jackson, Mich., March 28.—R. Irving Latimer, the notorious matricide, escaped from the prison Sunday night by getting the keys and walking out of the front door. The keys are missing. Capt Gill, in charge of the prison at night, is in jail now. It is supposed that Latimer got possession of some powerful drug and administered it to the guard and night turnkey. Guard Haight wasfounddying about 1 o’clock a. m., Latimer having gone an hour before that time. Haight died at 8 o’clock. Maurice T. Gill, night keeper at the prison, was the indirect means of Latimer’s escape. About 11:80 o’clock he and Latimer took lunch together in the hall master’s office. It was against the rules for Gill to take a convict out of his celt Capt. Gill has been completely bamboozled by Latimer, who had been telling Gill that there was 82,800 buried on an island in Rhode Island, where Latimer’s father lived when Irving was 13 years old. Gill was taken with this story and had Latimer out at lunch every night to give him details. Gill expected to leave the prison in three weeks. It transpires that Latimer had been in the habit of taking up a cup of chocolate nearly every night to Gatekeeper Haight, passing it through a slide in the grating. There is no doubt Latimer had planned to poison both Haight and Gill, and the chocolate at night was only to gain confidence until he could get some poison. At lunch Sunday night Latimer carried up a glass of lemonade to Haight instead of the chocolate, and Haight died in twenty minutes after driuking it Gill also drank of the lemonade and was attacked with spasms almost instantly. In a few minutes a cry came from the guard-room above, which Haight occupied. It was evident that Haight was sick and needed help. Gill was so sick he could not go. Latimer said:

“I will go and whistle for Dr. Mason.” “All right, go ahead,” replied Gill. Latimer then took the keys, but instead of going for help he unlocked the door of the guard room, passed through the gates and was free. He took the prison keys with him. He had neither coat nor hat and it is believed impossible that he can escape. The prison authorities have offered a reward for Latimer, dead or alive, and officers are scouring the country. Night Guard E. C. Rice was arrested for complicity in the escape. Rice was directly connected with Gill on night duty, and it transpires that he was present when Latimer left the hallmaster’s office to go above and see what ailed Haight. The supposition is that Rice had knowledge of what Latimer was to do or that he was criminally careless in allowing Latimer to go through the upper gate. Rice was much confused when questioned and does not say why he allowed Latimer to go out Latimer was serving a life term for the murder of his mother January 24, 1889, with whom he lived alone in tjieir home in Jackson. Eighteen months before his father, Robert F. Latimer, died suddenly, leaving consider able property, including SII,OOO life insurance, to Mrs Latimer. His death was undoubtedly due to poisoning, but, friends, supposing the old man had committed suicide, hushed the matter up and no inquest was held. The subsequent death of Mrs. Latimer under circumstances that left no doubt of the son’s guilt lead to the conviction that he was also responsible lor his father’s violent death.

On the morning of January 24 young Latimer went to Detroit to be gone all night and Mrs. Latimer was left alone in the house. The following morning workmen employed in the place could not gain an entrance to the house. The door was forced by neighbors, who became alarmed at the failure of Mrs. Latimer to appear in response to repeated summonses. They entered her bedroom on the second floor and found her lying upon the bed, clothed in her night robe. She had been dead several hours. Her head, face and neck were covered with blood. The bed was saturated with blood. Marks of blood were .also found in young Latimer’s room. The autopsy showed that two pistol shots had inflicted the wounds that caused Mrs. Latimer’s dfeath. Both shots entered the face, passing through the neck. Physicians said the woman had died about 3 o’clock In the morning. That afternoon Latimer who, by the way, was sole heir to the property his father had left his mother, returned to the house He appeared so unconcerned at the violent death of his mother that suspicion was immediately directed against him and he was promptly subjected to a rigid examination, but declared he had been in Detroit and had no connection with the murder. A careful investigation proved Latimer’s Story to be false. He did go to Detroit and visited many friends in order that he might be able to prove that he had been away from Jackson, But that night he returned to his home and the evidence showed he murdered his mother in cold blood. All this, however, was not discovered until after the inquest on the body of Mrs. Latimer. The verdict was that the woman had 2een murdered by some person or persons unknown to the jury. In the meantime detective* were the case. Everything pointed to the guilt of the son. r’ive days after the death of his mother he was arrested. As a bluff he asked to be permitted to attend the funeral, but when given an opportunity to look upon the face of his dead mother he refused to leave the jail. Throughout all this time and the trial that followed h’e conducted himself in a most unconcerned manner, treating his mother’s death and his trial as a joke. -4F* The case was called before Judge Peck, of the Jackson criminal court, April 24. The trial lasted ten days. It was clearly shown that Latimer was guilty, and upon retiring the jury brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree, after deliberating less than a quarter of an hour. Seventeen minutes after leaving the box the fate of the prisoner was declared in open court May 11 Latimer wa's sentenced tb life imprisonment and was a few “days later taken to the penitentiary. Latimer was a dangerous prisoner. Several times he caused revolts in the penitentiary, and on one occasion, October 19, 1890, he concocted a plet to blow up the buildings with dynamite.