The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-03-15
MANY BRUTAL CRIMES
CONVICT STONE, IN PRISON NORTH,
MAKES A CONFESSION.
Half Dozen Murders to His Credit-In-
nocent Men suffering for
His Onenses.

Up In the northern p~enitentiary at Mich
igan City there is a remarkable man with
a remarkable story. He is either a great
criminal or a great liar and the prison
officials are somewhat at a loss to know
which. This man is Joseph Albert Vinson,
who is serving a ten years sentence under
the name OF John Stone.
Stone has recently made a long confession
to Warden Harley, in which he admits hav-
ing been implicated IN a half dozen brutal
murders and as many highway robberies.
He insists that he speaks the truth in each
instance. He declares that he was impelled
to make the confession for the sake Of
several innocent men who are serving time
in prison for various crimes. Apparently
Stone has become conscience-stricken and
wants to relieve his sin-weighted soul. He
was a member Of the gang sent to the
penitentiary from the northern part Of
the State for holding up a Lake Shore
train near Kendallville. The robbery, a SEN
sational one, occurred last summer and
Deputy Sheriff Herd nearly lost his life
in trying to capture two or three members
of the gang at Fort Wayne. One Of
Stones pals was killed while resisting ar
rest. Stone was sent to prison for ten
years for his share in the work. The con-
f~ession, which covers in detail the check
cred life of the prisoner, was first made
to the chaplain OF tho prison. The follow
ing day the warden, Nth his stenographer,
took Stone in hand and had a talk with
him.
Now. John,'' said the warden, 81 want
to know If this confession of yours to the
chaplain is of your own free will and ac-
cord"
ut is of my W free will"
1.-THE chaplain or myself are in no way
responsible in trying to force a confession
from you"
mo. indeed, it Is done under remorse of
conscience"
'Now. John, I want you to begin with
the first crime you ever committed. when
you were a boy, and then go on and tell
ALL"
Il committed my first crime" said the
convict, when I was eleven years old.
This was at Pueblo, Col, when, with Bill
Sherman, Ed Mcdonald, Andy Flynn and
William Grant Walworth I helped to rob
the Pueblo National Bank. This was in
1876. Walworth was a boy then and the
men would not give us any of the money
they got. The gang lived In a cave about
thirty miles from Pueblo, at a place called
I4ililOld. luic tObDCty dAAO
I left them. My next crime was at Kansas
City, when / was thirteen years Of age.
walworth and myself broke into a jewell
~ store and got about thirty or forty gold
watches. We sold the watches around town,
getting about $ or Sc each for them. Wal
worth Is dead now. Three men were sent
to prison for ira. robbery and one of them
Walter Maxweli-is there yet. Maxwell
had committed another crime, but the two
other parties were innocent. A few days
after the jewelry robbery, I got into
trouble again in Kansas City. We robbed
a travelling man and got a gold watch and
a valise full of clothes. We went up be-
hind him and hit him in the head with
a crowbar. The blow did not kill him.
This happened at the corner of Fifth and
Broadway. My next crime took place in
Chicago, in 1883, when 1 broke into a jewell
ry store and took a tray of diamonds.
We took the stones to Philadelphia and
placed them with a fence across the
street from John Wanamaker's store on
the east side. walworth was with me in
that Job. He was afterwards killed-shot
down at Fort Wayne for the crime L am
in here for now.
HIS FIRST MURDER.
81 dropped into crime again in 1891, in
Cleveland. / fell in with a family named
Stewart in Cleveland and we carried on
a system of robbery. We held up people
on the streets and in houses wherever we
could find anything. The family consisted
of Stewart, his second wife and two sons.
One OF our crimes was the murder of a
travelling man. Mrs. Stewart enticed him to
the house got him drunk and we cut his
throat and threw the body in the cellar.
Clarence Stewart held his body so that
he could not jump, old man Stewart held
his head back and 1 cut his throat with
a razor Mrs. Stewart brought me. We got
1924 and a lot of jewelry, including dia-
monds. from him. The body we buried in
the cellar. Mrs, Stewart is still living and
has the diamonds. This murder happened
ON Friday. Mrs. Stewart became stricken
with remorse and was about to give us
away, so we took the body out of the cellar
and threw it in Lake Erie. / was sent to
prison from Cleveland for nearly killing a
boy in the Linwood yards. back of the Big
Four railway yards. The boy had just come
off the lake, and we thought he had drawn
a big sum of money for his work. Old man
Stewart, Clarence and / took the boy out
there and hit him in the head with a
coupling pin. We. got $40 and a watch.
The boy was found the next evening and sent
to the hospital. He did not die, but it left
him insane. blind in one eye and all the
teeth knocked out of his head. I was sent
to the .pen,' but escaped. With two or three
other prisoners, L escaped from the hospital
department. We had a key to fit the door
Of the hospital. and at midnight, when the
guard went to make his report, We unlocked
the door and got out. We climbed over the
gate and hid in a straw stack for a day.
We went straight to South Bend. Ind. and
while walking on the track near that town
met a boy. We held him up and took his
money and clothes from him.
The next job was robbing the Lake Shore
trains of merchandise. A fellow called
Rochester Mickey was with me this
work. He is doing time In the Rochester
On. W pen now. We robbed freight cars
and sent the stuff to a fence at Dunkirk,
n. Y. This fence was the chief Of police
at Dunkirk. 1 don't know his name. We
had another fence a woman named Nc
Cloughry, at Toledo, who kept a restaurant
at the police station. Next We went to Dun
kirk. where / got into trouble again. One
day, while a lot of us were drinking, a fell