The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-25
IDENTITY OF HENDERSON,
The Slayer of Clarence Barr
Declared to Be "Con
Sullivan"
MRS. c. M. JoHNsoN's STORY.
Police Officials Think the Baldwin
Bar Stabber Has Shady
Past.

The story of C. B. Henderson that he is
a commercial traveller for Rochester
IN. W shoe firm, and had just arrived in
this City the night before he stabbed
Clarence Barr at the Baldwin bar, leaving
a wife and several children in Buffalo,
N. Y, is contradicted by Mrs. G. M. john
son, an octoroon woman lodging at ITO
Fourth street. Mrs. Johnson, who says
her husband is in Los Angeles just at
present, is also known as Blanche Page.
According to her story her husband
took Henderson in and boarded him as
one of the family free of cost, because he
had met Henderson in Los Angeles once.
and the latter, presuming upon that
acquaintanceship represented to Johnson
that he had no money and was in need of
friend. Mrs. Johnson said:
He has been in the City for two months. and
for about two weeks and half just preceding
the stabbing al the man at the Baldwin he
boarded with US. He told my husband that he
was "broke," and my husband took the man in
and he boarded with us as one of the family.
One night little before the stabbing of Barr
he had fight in this house with a man named
Cole Anderson, and he tried to have me get out
of the way SO that he could do something ugly
to Anderson. Then, because wouldn't 60, he
said he would take shot at me some time. He
threatened also that he would shoot my hus-
band
was always afraid of the man after that.
Sometimes he would come in here with big
pistol and he had broken-bladed pocket
knife which he handled freely. In his fight
with Cole Anderson the latter got him down
and Henderson blamed me for 1T all, saying
that was helping the other man to beat him.
His name is not Henderson. 1t is Con Sulli-
van. / don't know anything about the man,
other than what I have heard, and I don't
want to tell anything don't know for certain.
Bnt he himself said his name was Con Sulli-
van. He told us that in this way:
81 am Con Sullivan, and am man of repu.
tation."
Again he came in one day and said:
81 did my bit once in Colorado, and I'll do
it again shot one man down in cold blood,
and amt through yet"
The man was sort of crazy, think, and was
always looking for trouble. What the trouble
don't know. Anderson is respectable mar
ried man-married into good family.
Now, don't know anything about his being
a "bunko man." 1 know he came in one day
with new suit of clothes, and just how he got
them l can't tell, for l supposed he had no
money. But then travelling man, suppose,
can always get such things. never knew the
man before he came to this City.
Mrs. Johnson asserted that she was a
respectable woman herself, and stated that
as she had nothing to conceal and no
reason for any concealment, she would
testify to all she knew. She added that
some of his friends, both men and women,
had been to her asking her to shield the
man, but that she was not going to tell
any falsehood and make herself liable to
prosecution for perjury.
Besides" she continued, call the peo-
pie in the house know of his being here"
She identified Henderson, or rather Sui
Ivan, at the police station yesterday,
though the latter said positively he had
never seen the woman before. The police
say she received letter from "Jack' Nc.
earthly, alias "Winnemucca jack" asking
her to go to the Edgemont House on Sixth
street.
street, in the 200 block somewhere, and
had some baggage at hotel on Mission
street.
Henderson was seen In the City Prison
last night and told of the statements made
by Mrs Johnson. He gave them an en-
phatic denial, and said he had never seen
or heard of the woman till yesterday when
she came to the prison to have q look at
him.
When asked if he had been in Los An
geles, he said he was there two weeks ago
before coming here and stopped at the
Hollenbeck Hotels He said he did not
know a Mrs. Johnson there.
81 came direct from the East to Los An
geles," he said, land from there here, ar
irving on Friday, July ". L never SAID
that was a traveller for a Rochester shoe
house. l am traveller for shoehouse in
the East, but not in Rochester. My wife
and family live in Rochester. I decline to
say what firm / travel for, because there
are important reasons for not doing SO, but
it will all come out at my trial.
lis Henderson your true manner"
eyes, that is my name"
"And you distinctly say that Mrs. John
son is mistaken?
II do. I say it is case OF mistaken
identity"
The police, on the contrary, believe that
Mrs. Johnson is telling the truth, not only
from the fact that Henderson has a scar
on his cheek and is minus front TOOTH
but that he had been in the City more than
two weeks prior to the stabbing of Barr,
which they say they can prove by several
witnesses.
Refer once meant only to carry back.