The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-09-16
THE AMERICAN TIcHBoRNE.
Rickety Dan Benton's Attempt to Get
 Pension Money on a False Claim.

Rickety Dan .Benton's Attempt to Get
 Pension Money on a False Claim
 Dan Benton, alias William Newby,
 has been discharged from an Illinois
 penitentiary, where he served a term of
 two years on charges of presenting
 fraudulent pension ctaim, committing
 perjury, and making false affidavit in a pension claim. He is the Ameri-
 can Tichborne, and large number of
 people were, at the time of his convic-
 ton as firmly convinced of the injus- tice of his punishment as were the ad-
 herents of the famous British claim ant"
 William Newby, private in an Illin-
 ois regiment, was supposed to have
 been killed April 6, 1862, and to have
 been buried on the field of Shiloh. His widow applied for and obtained a pen sion. About six years ago hatless and badly dressed man appeared in Carmi, Ill, Newby's former home, and announced that he was William New by, that he had been shot in the head
 at Shiloh and left for dead, that he had been confined in Libby prison, and that, being partly deprived of reason by his Wounnd, he had drifted from one poorhouse to another until he had found himself in the almshouse at Tay- lorville, Ill, where he remembered who he was. His knowledge of people and ,,lo d thnt he was the person he professed to be; the aged mother of Newby recognized the stranger at once as her son; New by's widow was sent for at her home in Tennessee, and at first repudiated him, but was finally persuaded of his identity and resigned her pension. He put in a claim for S20000 arrears of
 pension money, and would probably
 have got it had not a former convict
 who accidentally met him, declared that he was "Rickety Dan'' Benton, who had served term of eighteen years in the Nashville penitentiary for
 horse stealing.
 An officer of the pension bureau was detailed to investigate the matter, and one of the facts discovered by him was tllcit tllC SUI dl0lllL 4NGWUy udo IIlSl III the Taylorville poorhouse a brother of the real Newby, who had told him much about the family and the old res- idents of Carnai, and had asserted that, | if his brother were alive, he would be entitled to Ss0,000 of the pension money | The pension official also traced the his l tory of Benton back to childhood, ac- counting for every year of his life. i When the man who professed to be l Newhy came to be tried for attempt 1 ing to defraud the government very l strong case was made out against I him. Among the witnesses who swore 1 he was Dan Benton was woman who l had tramped with Benton from one poorhouse to another and had borne him son. The son also testified l against the accused, and there were other witnesses who had been con- nected with the Nashville penitentiary
 and who had known Benton from childhood. On the other hand, some 1 200 people of Carni and its neighbor-
 hood testified that the accused was | Newby. There was a good deal of feeling in the matter, and the prosecu- ] tion was denounced as a rebel conspir- | acy against Union veteran, and when I the jury brought in verdict of con- 1 viction it's members were hanged in | efffgy and the pension official who look l ed up Benton's career had to take ref uge in the judges room as a protec- l tion against the mob. The judge, hoW- l evr, expressed his satisfaction with the ] verdict. Efforts were made to secure | a new trial, and the case was twice taken to the United States supreme I court, but the convicted man had to serve his term.
 He still maintains that he is Newby 1 and declares that he will renew his ap- plfcation for pension Not only that he talks of recovering pay as a soldier for the whole period since the battle of Shiloh, on the ground that he has nev- CT been mustered out of the service He hopes to get the assistance of the Grand Army men who made the fight in his behalf before, but he will proba- bly, find that the ardor which grew out
 of the former trial has subsided, and
 that his friends of that time have by this time become conviced that they
 were nasty and that he is fraud o1
 the most pronouced type. Buffalo Courier.