The herald., 1897-06-16
STRANGE CASE
Negro jailed for Attempted
Abduction
CHASED BY BLooDHouNDs
MIDNIGHT VISITOR AND HIS
QUEER PROCEEDING
CAPTURED After a Chase of Fifteen
Miles-Brought to the City in
Buggy


perpetrated in the country around Azu.
sa Lordsburg and Glendora within the
last month, and the similarity existing
between the trio of outrages that have
been reported give rise to the belief
amounting almost to a certainty, THAI
the offender is now safely Gagged in tbs
county Jail.
In the small hours of the morning yes
terday Sheriff Burr was aroused by a
message from Constable Crawford OF
Azusa, telling him briefly that an out
rage had been perpetrated upon Miss
Addie Wood, a 15-year-old girl of the
highest respectability, by scoundrel
who entered the home of her parents
between midnight and 1 o'clock in the
morning. The first supposition was tha.
the offender, whoever he was. had at
tempted to commit an outrage upon the
young lady, but even now. when all the
facts in the case are known, it is doubt
full whether it was not bold attempt
at forcible abduction. Altogether the
story is a strange one, and can scarcely
be accounted for, save on the hypothe-
is mad.
For a proper understanding of what
took place at the midnight hour on
Tuesday it is necessary to so back about
a month, when the household of the
Wood family was first disturbed. A.
that time Mrs Wood discovered one of
the doors open at night, and remarked
to her husband that there must be some
L. 1, I.1xJ l.
a search, AND in a pantry found man
standing in his stocking feet He had
a yellowish handkerchief bound around
his head, and in the dim light was lat
easily recognized. Mrs. Wood uttered
a scream, and the burglar thereupor
drew his coat collar up around his face
and, walking quietly past Mrs. Wood
went out onto the porch and dropped to
the ground, an inconsiderable drop fc-
an agile man. Mr.. Wood heard his wife's
cry, but had not heard the patter of
the burglars feet and did not arrive
in the room from which the escape had
been made until too late.
Naturally, after such scene, Mrs
Wood did not sleep quite so soundly, and
when on Monday night she heard the
voice of her daughter crying Papa,
Papa!" albeit the sound was duled by
several intervening walls she sprang
from bed before her husband, who is
somewhat dull of hearing realized that
anything was the matter. The mother
had to pass around through the front
room before she could gain access to the
room where her daughter Addie and the
two smaller children slept. The doors
We're always kept open, but Mrs Wood
found them closed, and that fact did no.
reasure her. When she burst into her
children's bedroom she saw the lower
sash of the window thrown wide open,
and her daughter Addie struggling in
the grasp of a man. The girl was hold
ing onto the side of the window with this
energy of despair. But the rattle of the
opening door alarmed the intruder, and.
dropping the girl, he sprang through the
window to the ground beneath.
After the excitement of the moment
had been allayed it was discovered that
before Addie had been aroused from
sleep by feeling herself lifted from off
the bed, her assailant had gathered up
her clothes and made them into bum
die which he placed convenient to the
window. The girls first knowledge of
an intruder being in her room was when
she aroused from sleep and found her
self in his arms and being borne towards
the window. Then it was she cried out
for her father and made the fight that
fortunately resulted so happily.
En- passant it may be stated that Ad-
die Wood is one of the brightest of the
scholars in the Azusa school She stands
highest in her class and is pretty AMI
modest little girl
Sheriff Burr, after receiving the mes
sage from Azusa, left in company with
Deputy al White by the first train in
the morning. Constable Crawford and
his deputy, j. Williams, met them. ard
it was then learned that after daylight
had broken the midnight marauder had
been tracked for nearly a mile by his
footsteps The sheriff had made ar
rangementa for couple of bloodhounds
to be upon the ground. and when put on
the trail they readily took up the scent
and started off at a rapid pace follow
ing the general line of the San Gabriel
river. After a run of about fifteen miles
the scoundrel was tracked TO where h.
had sought a refuge in the scrub under
growth The handouts We're put upon
him and arrangements made for the re-
turn to the city.
So far the story of the escapade is
comparatively simple, Notwithstanding
the fact that the mans motive is some
what obscure; but when taken in con-
nection with other outrages of similar
nature the case becomes additionally in |
teresting. Nearly four weeks ago Miss
Burrell Smith, whose other keeps a
boarding house at LorGsourg, was
awakened in the dead of night and went
through an experience almost identical
with that of Addie Wood at Azusa. |
Then two weeks ago, Il young lady at
Glendora was awakened in similar man
ner, only that she aroused to conscious
ness While her assalant was turning
the bedclothes down, and before he had
attempted to lift her from the bed. In
both of these cases, too, the young ladies
clothes had been bundled up all ready
for removal
The sheriff and Deputy White reached
the city with their prisoner last night
about $50. He gave the name of Jasper
Wood, queer coincidence, since the |
name Of the girl is also Wood
Sheriff Burr said the man claims that
he Will easily prove an alibi, and tells
story about being put off the train at
Azusa Monday night. He explains his |
hiding by saying that he was chased by |
an officer, who fired several shots at him. |
A gainst that, however, is the fact that |