Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-07-06
NUMBER l73.
PROUD OF HIS CRIMES.

FROUD OF HIS CRIMES.
Tho Record of a Noted Criminal Turned
Red Riboonite as Related By Himself.
IKnightstown Qnd.) Correspondence Iudianap-
oils Journal.
Your correspondent attended meeting of
the Red Ribbon club in this city few even
ings since, and listened to an address by
Charles D. Hildebrand reformed drunk
ard. At the conclusion of the address the
speaker promised his audience, if they would
only come to hear him the next evening,
that they would learn something in relation
to the close connection of whisky to crime,
the inner history of penitentiaries, and the
punishment received there which would
astonish them.
The bronzed face, the nervous glance of
the eye, SO often seen in criminals, and the
peculiar bitter tone of the speaker when he
referred to prisons, attracted nay attention,
and an indefnable something in his general
appearance led me to believe that his life
had been a supremely bad one. So, after
he resumed his seat handed him my card
and invited him to accompany me to my
room at the Shipman House. He consented,
and, after we were comfortably seated, he
| 'sdid tale unfold" which, If true, entities
him to place in the annals of time, along
| side of Claude Duval and Dick Turpin.
A1t1EnRl Nn.s STORY.
! was born IN Detroit, Mich. When only
seven months old was stolen from my
mothers bosom by neighboring woman,
who, with her husband, joined a tribe of
! Indians living in the vicinity. l remem
Der little or nothing of my childhood,
except that when / was seven years old
the woman whom / had called mother, on
her death-bed confessed to her attendant, an
old bag, that she had stolen me. and gave
the name and address of my parents. She
also obtained from the nurse her promise to
see that was sent home. This promise
was never kept.
| then fell into the hands of 80 pr fes-
sional thieves, and was taken to Paris. Since
that time I have served in eleven peniten-
tiaries, eighteen years close confinement,
not including short confnements in numer-
GUS station-houses, city prisons, and county
| iails. My first sentence was in Paris, France,
two years in prison for pocket-picking. Was
/ released after three months confinement, on
| account of my extreme youth, being then
! only 8 years old Was sentenced next to
six months Imprisonment in Bailey Prison,
London, for the same offense. There l
learned the alphabet for the first time. |
then went to Canada, and was sentenced to
one years confinement in the Kingston's
Penitcntiary for burglary and for refusing
to obey prison orders was confined during
the whole term of my sentence in dungeon,
and for nearly 365 days l did not see the
light of day. When l was released from
Canada begun my regular occupation, viz:
bank and county treasury work. This was
my particular line of business, and seldom
did any work outside of this, which is decid-
/ eddy the best branch of the profession.
From 1852 to 1854 served in Allegheny,
Pa, where I learned to read and write. Went
then to Havana. and received q sentence of
twenty one years for a red-hot bank rob
. berry; was released after three months,
through the intercession of the American
consul.
In 1856 / was sentenced eight years to the
: Nashville, Tenn, State prison, but l was
. ''fush,'' had some powerful friends and good
lawyers, and served only thirty days. In
}. 1857 was sentenced four years to the Lou
t isiana State prison at Baton Rouge, but the
same influences which secured my release
from Nashville were used with like effect in
o Baton Rouge, and / saw the inside of the
It walls only two months.
NV next sentence was in 1853, for three
years, in the Illinois State prison at Alton.
10 was afterwards transferred to Joliet, and it
- took me seven years to serve my sentence.
~ escaped four separate times, and was recap
tured each time. My partner, George Chase,
was hung at Joliet for killing Deputy War
- den Clarke. Clarke was brutal fellow, aud
:. tyrannized numerically over Chase. For
~ some trifing disobedience Clarke undertook
ss to whip him, and when he took hold of him
e to lead him to the whipping-post, the con-
K vict drew a sung-shot, which be had made
of a stone and some leather, and killed Clarke
with single blow. i was released from Jol-
10 let Feb. ID, 1866.
g. In May, 1866, made my escape from the
nd Indianapolis Jail, where had been locked VI
on charge of bank robbery, and the Indian
apolis city court was the only place where
ever gave my true name.
srs In the fall of 1866 was sentenced for five
lie years to the Wisconsin State prison at Wan
pun, and for refusal to work l was confined
in cell four feet by seven, with ball ant
Sc chain to my foot for four years, four month
~ and seventeen days. Was released Marcel
led 4, 1871.
,ss In 1874 I was sentenced ut Terre Haut
to four years confinement in the 1ndianapo
to- lis State prison at Jeffersonville, but had tn
nd sentence curtailed four months on &C
count of good behavior. Was released Oct
90, 1877.
was arrested in Indianapolis in 1872, O
,de charge of completely in the Meridian stree
bank robbery, but no evidence was offere
which could hold me. was Immediate
taken to st. Joseph county, Michigan, 0
charge of robbing the county treasurer SAT
na' I trumped up charge against my capto
81 Detective John Funday, got him in JAIL az
on cleared myself. / was never sentenced twit
,itv under the same name, and the aggrega
~, amount of my sentences reaches sixty thr
= years.
MY H1ldebrand states that the finest piece
eeh work ever executed in the United States
aus course he was not engaged in it) was the 70
berry of the Falls City bank in Louisyil
The burglars gained an entrance Saturd
;. = night, into an insurance Office immediate
= above the vault, took up the carpet, saw
- out the floor, took up the bricks until tn
IA reached the vault; then, from o'clock Su
day morning until l o'clock Monday MOI
ing, they succeeded, but not without
hardest kind of hard work, in drilling l
holes through the chilled steel top, thru
quarters of an inch thick, and lifted the pl;
out. Then they had nothing to encoun
except plaster-of-paris cement and 8
iron. The haul realized them 1926 600
currency, bonds and diamonds.
Hildebrand further states that in the ca
of county treasury robberies, where com
q nations have been opened, treasurers
tiles often unjustly accused of completely. N
tod can be found, and without much dificu
to who will disclose combinations for cert
han percentage of the "swag." In the case
, in the recent Clermont county, o., robbery
the Batavia, the combination was given to