The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-12
DREAMOF REFORM
OF an Escaped Convict, Rudely
Disturbed by Captors.
History of George b. Howard,
Alias DIR. CIawson.
HIS HOPES BLASTED.
In Prison For Pension Fraud
He Escaped.
Settled at Arkansas City, Liv-
ing a Model Life.
HIS HOPES BLASTED.

ard has entered the penitentiary at
Chester, ILL.,, to serve thirteen years of
an unfinished term. Forty-eight hours
before the prison doors shut upon him
he was a respected citizen of Arkansas
City, Kan, a physician of repute and
man who was admired by his town
people because of the great love he had
for his wife and little girl.
For seven years Howard resided in
the little city near the Oklahoma border
under the name of DR.. j. w. Clawson.
In those years he changed his manner
of living, his outward appearance and
his whole life. He thought time had
dropped a curtain of years between MIN
and the law.
Yet for all those years the govern
ment was never idle. Picking up
clew here, an idea there, every thread
which might lead to the unraveling OF
the mystery surrounding the mans
strange disappearance after his escape
was followed to the end. Officers were
sent over to England, when a man who
looked like Howard was captured; twice
journeys were made to Australia. But
all this time the man lived quietly in
the Kansas town and worked to make
up for his early errors. He guarded
himself carefully, never leaving the
city except upon one occasion, yet 1T
was the simplest little bit of careless
ness in the world that resulted in his
capture.
All this and more was told a reporter.
Howard, in charge of United States
States Marshal Fred c. Trigg and
Henry Sutton, both of Wichita, Kan,
did the talking, while occasionally the
officers would add a word or two in eX-
PLANTATION.
The prisoner, a remarkably fine look
ing man, with close-cut beard and black
hair. touched lightly with gray, sat
manacled to the car seat while the train
was in the station. Beside him-or
nearly ali the time clasped in one free
arm-was his daughter, a blue-eyed.
pale little thing, whose eight years of
experience in the world told her some
thing was wrong, although she would
not believe her father when he told her
time and again that he was going away
and that she might never see him
again.
CONVICTED OF PENSION FRAUD.
It was a little more than twelve years
ago that George b. Howard. tall, dis
tinguished looking and about % years
old, came into the small town of Mound
City, Ill. He let it be known that he
was a southern gentleman, and his soft
accent and polished ways convinced the
people he spoke the truth. No one ever
inquired where he came from, or if they
did they did not find out at that time.
Howard had considera BILE money, APP
parentIy He opened up a real estate
Office. and, although that was some
thing of a novelty in Mound City, where
men bought and sold property without
an agent, he did some business. Finally
he startled the town by selling a tract
of land to a big concern which erected
a factory and employed several hundred
men and women.
It was this which made Howard re-
spected by eVeryone-if there had been
any lack of it before. He was received
in the best society of the town, attend
ed church regularly, and, although 1t
was whispered that he sometimes had
nights of revelry in his office, few
listened to the rumors. Howard had
been in Mound City but little more than
H. = Wow
whose mother, Mrs. P. c. Earle, was
one of the richest women in the town
and had, beside, so it was said, many
wealthy and influential relatives in the
east Miss ClawsOn and Howard were
married late in 1889, the wedding being
the most elaborate the town had ever
seen.
In the meantime Howard had opened
an office as pension agent and gave this
business his attention almost to the ex-
clusion of real estate trading. He had
no white clients, but hunted through
the southern part of the state, COM
monty known as Egypt, for negroes
who had served in the civil war and for
their families. He had a number of
agents, and in short time the atten-
ton of the pension department was
called to Towards agency by reason of
the many pensions which were being
issued to persons in his locality. An
investigation was made, but nothing
was found that pointed to any wrong
doing.
After the visit of the government Of
ficer the applications for pensions came
in stronger than before. Howard's repu-
tatiOn as a pension lawyer brought MIN
many more clients, and he appeared to
be making thousands of dollars a year.
One day, in examining a pension
voucher, some one in Washington no
ticed the signature on receipt, pur-
porting to be signed by a woman, was
much like Towards writing. Experts
said it was the same. Another investi-
,rofe u iratr
state of affairs was found. The result
was that the federal grand jury for that
district returned twenty-five indict-
ments against Howard. He was arrest
ed, and despite the efforts of his mother
in-law, he was kept in Jail AS soon as
she secured his release on one indict-
ment he was Immediately rearrested
on another.
STORY OF HIS ESCAPE.
Failing to get out of the laws hands
Mrs. Earle then turned her labors in
another direction, and within few days
he was placed on trial. The first
forgery 1t was proved that he signed
a pensioners name to a voucher For
this he was sentenced to serve three
years in the Chester penitentiary, where
government prisoners are cared for by
the state. He was then tried for an
ordinary case of pension fraud-obtain-
ing money from pensioners by misrep-
resentatiOn, and sentenced for two
years. There were twenty-three other
counts of like nature against him, and
he pleaded guilty to nine of these, and
the remaining indictments were nolle
pressed.
Howard was taken to the penitentiary
to serve his fourteen years on october
II, 1891. He Immediately began to show
signs of insanity, either feigned or real,
and the following July he was removed
to the government hospital in Wash
ington, D. c. 1t was from this place
that he escaped in October, 1892. 1t is