Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 124, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1909 — STILL A MYSTERY; Mrs. JOSTEDT’S STORY [ARTICLE]

STILL A MYSTERY; Mrs. JOSTEDT’S STORY

Woman Claims No Knowledge of the Machine’s Destruction and Talks Freely With The Republican’s Reporter Last Tuesday.

The Hammond Times story about the Kankakee automobile having belonged- to a Chicago man named Smalley and having been stolen and wrecked by acquairitances who later confessed their guilt and proposed to make good by repaying him’, is now not thought to apply in the Keener township and Kankakee river mystery. Sheriff Grant, of Lake county, went" to Chicago and there learned that Smalley’s machine was a very different one from the one destroyed on the Jostedt farm. Convinced that this was not Smalley’s machine and that no light was in that way thrown on the mystery Sheriff Grant has decided to continue his investigations in the Jostedt home and at Water Valley. The editor of the Republican went to DeMotte Monday evening and early Tuesday morning went to the* Jostedt home and secured a very well connected story from Mrs. Jostedt. The woman had not yet arisen from her bed* MJhen the writer rapped at the door. The rap was greeted by several gruff barks from within and a Second rap was needed to receive response from the occiipants of the little house. Mrs. Jostedt asked who was there and when informed -stated that she would dress and then admit her caller. Soon the door was thrown open and the writer invited in and Mrs. Jostedt built a fire in the room that is used as a . parlor. It is the largest of the four rooms in the house and was plainly but comfortably furnished. Mrs. Jostedt said, ‘7l presume ycu are -here—to look after that -automobilematter, also?” When answered affirmatively she said that she was willing to talk about it and to tell every- : thing she knew. The following is her story as elicited by the reporter’s inquiries: s Four weeks ago last Saturday Fred Gage, a. chauffeur for a wealthy woman named Bethsinger in Chicago, in company with a man whose name'she afterward learned to be Woods, went to the place where Mrs. Jostedt’s grass-widowed daughter, Mrs. Lottie Hopkins, worked and asked her to go riding in an auto that was supposed to belong to Woods. She accepted and they went to Pullman, 111., where Tony jostedt works, aud he joined the party and they started for the Jostedt home in Keener township, 2Vi miles south of DeMotte. They reached the Jostedt home at 11 o’clock Sunday morning, having had a great amount of trouble enroute, according to the members of the party. There was no top on the machine and it had rained’ and snowed during the night but the members of the party had not sought shelter at any place but had kept going throughout the night, notwithstanding the fact that it rained and snowed. They stated that -when two miles out of Lowell they had run out of gasoline and that two of the men had to walk to Lowell for gasoline. Mrs. Jostedt said that she had never

met the man who was supposed to j own the machine, but was introduced. to him as Mr. Woods. Mrs. Jostedt’s I daughter, who is about 15 years of age and lives with her mother, stated I that she thought some of the others i called the stranger Mr. Kersey. He was a large man, weighing 225 pounds or more and was a nice looking and well dressed man. He was much affected by the long, cold drive and it wav feared that he was going to be sick, but he later revived. They all had dinner at the Jostedt home and Fred Gage, who is to be married to Mrs. Jostedt’s daughter, Lottie, said that the machine could never make the trip back to Chicago and so they decided to leave it there and go back on the train. D. E. Fairchild, the DeMotte liveryman, was called and he came out after Woods and Tony and took them to Shelby to catch the train. Fred and Lottie remained all night and went home the next day by the way of DeMotte. The machine was left near the barn and Mrs. Jostedt did not hear anything more about it until almost two weeks when Woods came down from Chicago, coming via Roselawn and renting a rig from Liveryman Best. He worked some at teaming the machine apart but Mrs. Jostedt said that she did not observe his methods* He said that he was going to pack the machine and ship it back to Chicago apd have an aluminum bed made for it as he did not like the wooden bed. Woods left the house saying that he would send some machinists down to dismember the machine. A few days later two men came down and said they had been sent.there to tear the machine down and box it. Mrs. Jos-

tedt went out to dig her potatoes and did not watch the men. When she returned in the evening the men had gone but she did not notice that the machine had been injured although parts of it were lying about the back yard. The following Saturday morning Woods came down again and put in the day tearing the machine to pieces. She did not watch him and did not know what methods he used in taking it apart. He said that the machinists would come there again that night to help him. The “machinists” arrived at about 12 o’clock at night and Woods sat in the house and talked with Mrs. Jostedt and the men, she did not know hßw many, but two or more, worked with the machine. She did not retire but sat up until 4 o’clock Sunday morning when she lay down by her daughter and dozed off to sleep. She awoke at a quarter of 6 o’clock and was surprised when Woods told her that the man had finished their work and had gone with part of the machine to Chicago. She offered to get Woods’ breakfast but hg. would not wait and he drove Mr. Best's team bask to- Roselawn , and - took the milk train to Chicago. It was that night that the auto parts were dumped into the Kankakee river, presumably having been hauled there Bw the “machinists” who returned to ChL cago in .an auto. Parts of the machine were left scattered in a disorderly way about the barn lot and Mrs. Jostedt said she feared parts might, be .ainlan. by.. I hunters who we her passing over the farm I'rcquently, so she telegraphed her daughter, Lettie, to have Fred get the men to come down and complete the job of taking the machine away. Woods and one or two other men came down a night or two later, arriving in an automobile at a late hour and leaving before daylight. She did not see them but heard them talking and heard one of the men caHed Mack. The next morning most of the machine was gone and she supposed they had taken it away with them. That is the night the machine was buried in the sand beneath the shed adjoining the barn and of which she claimed to have no knowledge. Axe, hammers,' spade, shovel and hack saw bad been used in dismembering the, machine and yet Mrs. Jostedt maintains that she did not know that the machine was being destroyed. But, nevertheless, she was burning for kindling parts of the bed of the machine. Although Mrs. Jostedt claimed to be telling all that she knew about the matter and told a very well connected story there w’as the general appearance all of the time that she was concealing a part of the mystery. Mrs. Jostedt said that she had kept boarders in Chicago for many years and had come to this farm the last cf April, 1908, having lived there with | her daughter. Her husband spent part i of the time with her. I During Tuesday Sheriff Shirer bad i Mox Ahlgrim, of Water Valley, drag I the river. The water is now very I high and the current, very swift and the task was a difficult one, but Mox ! and his two sons did a very good job but found no trace of the missing auto parts. One of the wheels, the ' rear springs and three of the cylinders are still missing. If any of these had been 1 dropped into the main river channel, however, they may have washed a long ways down stream, and an examination was made only about 30 feet below the bridge. I. N. Best, the Roselawn liveryman, visits of Woods. He understood that Woods' first name was Jack. He did not state why he made the visits to the Jostedt farm, and did not mention an automobile. On one of his visits a man giving his name as McCarthy and claiming to work in the Boston store accompanied Woods and went to the Jostedt farm with him. Mi* B - Jostedt did not mention this to the reporter. Woods and McCarthy were both Masons, according to Mr. Best. Woods told another pa/ty at Roselawn that his former home had been in Logansport. The little Jostedt girl also heard him say this. Woods, according to those who met him during his trips., watf a fine looking man. He claimed to work in a factory, according to some, while to others he said he was a policeman. A description of the Jostedt woman was sent to Inporte and bore such close resemblance to Mrs. Belle Gunness that the sheriff of Laporte county decided to come to DeMotte and see the Jostedt woman. Sheriff Shirer

was wired to "go to Shelby and intercept the woman on her way to Chicago unless the Laporte officer had ■reached there first. Tito officer arrived at DeMotte on the Three Eye train this Wednesday morning and Mrs. Jostpdt and the little girl got on the same train. The officer decided at once that it was not Mrs. Gunness, although there was a marked resemblance. Sheriff Shirer, who had been waiting at Shelby, then returned home on rhe 10:55 train. Sheriff Shirer will make no further attempt to unravel the mystery unless some later developments indicate that there Es evidence of foul play. That there is something criminal behind the destruction of the machine there is no doubt, but with the names furnished in this Article and with the license number of the machine found by Sheriff Shirer and Attorney Leopold, which is 2763 Illinois, the mystery should now be cleared by the Chicago police.