The San Francisco call., 1896-08-09
CAMPBELL'S STORY.
Strange Account Given by the Mil
lionaire of His Meeting With
WInthrOp.


Yesterday evening in long converse.
tion with CALL reporter Millionaire
Campbell went into all the details of his
capture and captivity. During his nara
tive he said:
al first saw this man Winthrop on the
porch of the Hotel Vendome on the even
ing Of the 1st, I think it was. I was in
! conversation with two men when he moved
his chair little closer to the group and
joined casually in the talk. He wanted
my advice on investing money in coffee
plantation on the islands, and then he
wanted me to assure his invalid wife that
the climate would be beneficial to
her. 1 told him that l would
not advise any one to invest
money down there and perhaps blame me
afterward if 1t proved unsatisfactory. ]
told him he had better see the place for
himself first. As 20 his wife, informed
her that not being physicia n
and having no knowledge of her
ailment 1 would not recommend the
positively identified him from the pic
lures in the possession of the police as
Winthrop.
monday afternoon, the Sd, he came
into the Occidental and spoke to
me again about talking with his sick
wife. He is a powerfully built man
about FIVE feet ten or eleven in height, a
face once seen not easily forgotten, yell
lowish white, as though there was no
blood in it, dark mustache and
thick, coarse hair. He first wore
light brown Fedora hat and a
dark suit, but when he last came into
the house before leaving, as he remarked,
for Mexico he had black hat.
"His companion, the man who
had the pistol and who wore
the mask all the time, was
other man called HIM Pete l think
that he must have known me be-
fore, and that is why he was so care
full to conceal his face from me. He
wore soueaky shoes, and / could always
tell by them when he was about. He
would walk up and down in the hall dur
ing the day. He did not remain in the
sounded like that of these men
that work round a racetrack-not
the jockeys-but that may have been
feigned. He had no peculiar or foreign
accent. From his actions at the time they
were robbing me and after that decided
that he was not an old hand at that sort of
business. He seemed to be nervous.
at is not possible that Winthrop was at
his home between and 6 O'Clock Monday
ulRuGt lOli CdfO UhO S--J - 90 hihAi
there, He stayed in that house all that
night-all the time after we got there. He
passed in and out of the room, put he
never was gone long.
ssSoon after we got there, soon after ]
was bound to the chair, they were busy
preparing the papers, and 1t took them
some little time. Then he tried for a long
time to get me to sign them. We started
from the Occidental about o'clock.
.sThe next morning Winthrop told me
that he had orders to torture me if did
not give in. They closed the foldlng-doors
to the front room, and heard them
pounding in there and l heard the sound
of metal.
"I decided that they were getting ready
to do the torturing. But when they un-
fastened my elbows and took me into the
next room saw my mistake. They put
me on the bed, sprang handouts upon my
wrists and then removed the rope.
"They ran chain about four feet long
through the handouts and the other end
was fastened TO the floor. Then they tied
a rope about my waist and fastened the
handouts to it and took half-hitches about
nv thighs and bound me down to the bed.
II could only lie on my back. / would
not eat or drink though they asked me if /
wished to. ALI this time | was gagged.
when / was released l walked two or
three blocks before getting on the cars,
hoping that light see policeman and
return with him at once, but saw no one.
I dared not go up to one OF the houses. as
/ knew nothing of the people there"