The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1898-03-05
Willis IS
TO ANSWER
Held For Trial at the Next Term Of
Court.
THE IDENTIFICATION POSITIVE +!
Rev. Abromaitis Appears Before Justice
Shoemaker and swears That wills
is One of the Burglars Who
Threatened His Life.
THE IDENTIFICATION POSITIVE

The burglary at st. Georges Lithuanian
church and parsonage last Sunday morning
is apparently pretty well cleared up and the
indications are that within a few days the
two burglars who figured in the case will be
prisoners. Both men are known, but one has
kept himself under cover better than the
other and escaped arrest for the present. He
has one Of two goals into which he must
land-either surrender and serve time for
the job, or leave this part of the country and
no longer worry its occupants by his pres
ence.
Michael Wills, the man who was identified
as one Of the burglars at the parsonage yes
terday by Rev. Peter Abromaitis, was given
a hearing before Justice Shoemaker early
last evening. Rev. Abromaits was put on
the witness stand and unhesits tingly identi-
fed Wills. He said Wills was the man who
threatened to fill his head with bullets if a
cry of alarm was made, was the one who
asked for the money and watch and searched
for them and also the man who wanted to
blow open the safe. In brief, the chief actor
in the affair is in custody and bound to be
convicted regardless Of the escape of the
other burglar. The missing man is not so
much sought as Wills would have been had
the other been first captured.
After the clergyman had given his story
Wills was asked what he had to say and he
replied that he could say nothing except that
he was not guilty. Later he said that he had
slept in the winter shanty on GlOvers Hill
for month before the day Policeman BOlin
and Burgess Tabor visited the place and
arrested him, and that ho was asleep in the
shanty at the time the burglaries are alleged
to have taken place. He said the shanty is
used as a club room by young men of
Brownsville and Glovsrs Hill.
From the statements Wills has made about
the shanty where the arrest was made it ap-
pears that the place is haunt for crooks and
the Girard Estate or other owners of the
property on which it is located, will prob
ably be asked by the authorities to either
demolsh it, or put it to better use.
Wills said he was raised in this town, but
left it about fifteen years ago He claims
that he was working in the soft coal region
| and returned here because work was scarce
in the other region. The man refused to
disclose tho names of his friends or relatives
in town and declined offer of Justice
| Shoemaker to send message to them.
Chief Burgess Tabor took Wills to the
| Pottsville Jail last evening the prisoner
having been committed without bail When
they alighted at the Pennsylvania station at
POttsville Detective Meiswinkle, who is
stationed there, identified the prisoner and
| significantly exclaimed Where did you
get that man That is good capture"
| 1t was learned last night that Wills has
many family connections in town, but not
with the families of the same name now liv-
ing here. The people with whom he is con-
nected are respectable and therefore their
names are withheld Wills has been an out
cast for about 20 years. When not engaged
in crooked work he has played upon the sym
pathies of the charitable with bogus stories
Of misfortune. His pet scheme has bsen to
lay low for railroad or mine accident OF
some Importance and few days after appear
in sham bandages and beg for help. He has
been known to repeatedly apply fly blstor'
to his neck and arms to add color to his
stories.