The herald., 1898-12-04
HAD MANY ALIASES
NO.TROUBLE FOR HANCOCK TO
CHANGE HIS NAME
MORE MURDERS SHOWN
MADE A CoNFIDANTE OF HIS
MISTRESS
THE SHERIFF INTERVIEWS HER
She Tells Him the Story Of Her Life
and Sheds Light on Hancock's
Many Crimes
THE SHERIFF INTERVIEWS HER

Sheriff Burr held a lengthy interview with
Winifred Gross. accused by John Hancock
of compIcity in the desert murder, in hei
cell at the county Jail Friday night. Mrs
Gross related to him the history of her life
from her early girlhood to the timGiof her
arrest. going into many details regarding the
various crimes committed by John Hancock
her former paramour. Instead of the con
fusion of dates. names and circumstances
which it might reasonably be expected would
result in the telling and re-telling, to first
one person and then another, the story OF
John Hancock's life OF crime, she still re
tains that apathetic oalmness which has
distinguished her in the relation OF the hor-
rible details TO officers and reporters alike,
and is convincing in her accuracy. In the
interview with Sheriff Burr she not only re-
told the long story without contradiction,
but added many details which not only
strengthened the chain already forged, but
added to the already long list of crimes laid
at the door of John Hancock. She told OF
the many aliases assumed by Hancock, to
whom the changing of a name was mere
matter of convenience.
In the year 1895. on March 3. she said she
was living at the Arcade house in Sacra-
mento. On the 4th she met Hancock, and
three davs later went to keep house for him
in two rooms on Front street in that city.
After time she became his mistress, and
he grew confidential, telling her of many
things not to his credit. Hancock's name
was then benson, which Mrs. Gross says is
his real name. Among the crimes she says he
told her OF was the killing of several men.
She remembered distinctly the particulars
related by him of the killing OF police of
ficer in Denver short time before he came
to Sacramento, where she is almost positive
he met him on March 4. The Orange
county officers have received information
from a woman by the name of Carter to the
effect that Hancock killed an officer by the
name of Moore in Denver on March 10. 1895.
AS Mrs. Gross relates the particulars. iian-
cock and two other men were engaged in the
precarious business of burglary in that city :;
they had arranged a rendezvous at certain
house. Two OF the men arrived on the
scene but Hancock, who was then known
as Los Angeles Mcdonald, failed to ap-
pear The other two, who had been shad-
owed. were detected and captured. On the
wad to the Jail Hancock who had arrived
on the scene in time to see the plight of hi'
pals, ran ahead and hid himself in dark al
ley, and when the officer passed with hi
men shot him dead in his tracks. The mel
escaped, and until a short time ago it was
believed by the Denver authorities that one
of the two men in the officers custody had
fired the fatal shot Sheriff Burr was in
Denver at the time of the killing, where he
had gone to bring back the defaulting tax
collector, Ell Hammond (who, by the way
had escaped before his arrivaD) and the
sheriff remembers the circumstances of thu
crime distinctly If Mrs Gross story is not
true, it is surprising that she should know
anything about the affair unless Hancock
told her, and it is also surprising, if he did
tell her of it, how he should know anything
about it unless he participated in the com
mitting of it. She says Hancock told hel
that while he was running, after firing the
shots, carrying his pistol pointing down
ward in his hand, he accidentally discharged
it. The bullet went through the heshy part
of his foot, and, being afraid to go to doc
tors to have it dressed, he went to a round
house and got what he called black "dope.
an accumulation of oil, etc, from an engine
and filled the wound wit it. and Mrs. Gross
says she has seen the scar of the wound She
is unable to account for the discrepancy in
inc uutt oi NLlcH lHe crime Is SdlQ DV NlTS
Carter to have been committed, for she be
heves it to have been month earlier as she
feels sure it was in the month of March, 1895
when she went to live with Hancock in Sac
ramento.
Another shooting scrape, in which he
claimed to have figured as the active prin.
cipal, took place in Sacramento He got
into a quarrel with bartender in saloon
on Front street and fired two shots a him,
one going through his hat, grazing the tor
Of his head, and the other lodging in care
table He ran out OF the saloon after firing
the shots and hid in lumber yard till the
search after him was over, and then WORKED
his way through side streets to the room OF
friend in the Scroggs building, by tht
name Of Dick Clark, roustabout in another
Front street saloon. Here he concealed
himself for three days, at the end of which
he walked down the Southern Pacific rail
road track to the bend where the trair