The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-12-18
JOE MULHATT0N INSANE
Man of Riotous Imagination FL
nally Goes Wild.

Man of Niotous Imagination FL
nally Goes Wild.
WON FAME AS A PREVARIOATOR.
Pitiful Fate of h Travelling Man
Who Originated Many stupendous
Newspaper Fakes-He Is a Product
Of Pennsylvania-some Of HI. star
thing Stories.
Joe Mulhatton. perhaps the most not
ed writer Of newspaper fakes in Amer
lea, is in the territorial insane asylum
at Phenix, A. t.. a hopeless maniac,
says. the Chicago Times Herald. He
believes he has killed a mare and that a
horde Of avengers are on his trail.
Though at times helpless, he tears his
clothing from him and has to have con-
slant attention.
He was committed from Kelvin, Pi-
nal county, where he has lived the last
IAlCC yCulSs 1t was instrumental
lately in selling a valuable mine in
Mineral Greek district and received
several thousand dollars as an advance
payment on his share Of the proceeds.
He spent several hundred dollars. but
the rest of the coin cannot be found.
His dementia is attributed to the ex-
citcment of the financial transaction,
though alcohol may have had some
thing to do with the case. u
Mulhatton has been in Arizona about
six years and has been dabbling in
mines all the time. He established a
mining exchange at Florence and has
done a little newspaper work. During
his Arizona residence his fertile imagi-
nation played it's usual tricks, and the
plots of some of his most notable inven-
lions have been laid in the southwest.
Joseph Mulhatton was born in Allie
ghany City - years ago. At least that
is what he says, but considering his
reputation as a gorgeous and orna-
mental prevaricator ever this state
ment must be taken with caution. As
a unique. ornate and bewildering liar
he has a reputation extending from
Maine to Texas and ever extending
across the Atlantic to England and
France. for the newspapers Of those
countries have been sadly taken in by
the Mulhatton stories.
Even in his youth he displayed re-
markable aptitude in the line of pic
turesque prevarication. He evolved
from his fertile Imagination a number
of thrilling stories that found their
way into the Pittsburg papers and
were widely copied. AS he grew older
and gained a little experience he
branched out along more %pretentious
lines and framed up en- assortment of
glittering newspaper fakes that
brought special writer's and sedate sci
entists scurrying across the ocean to
investigate alleged marvellous phenom-
eIa which Mulhatton claimed to have
discovered in remote parts of the coun-
try. but which he really discovered
during his idle moments in some hotel
corridor.
Nominally he was a travelling man.
but lying on a tremendous scale was
his speciality. Perhaps his most nota-
bic work was the story of the meteor
supposed to have faNen in Texas. I'm
der his vivid imagination and facile
pen this meteor landed in Brown coun
ty. covered an acre of ground. destroyed
all the ranches for miles around by rea-
son OF the %sulphurous fumes it gave off
and was still sizzling it's way into the
earth when he gave the story to the
newspapers. That glittering invention
sent a trainload of newspaper report
ers and scientists into the mesquite
Of Texas. They never located
the meteor. but the railroads and
boarding houses and ranchers with
horses and guides to let did a thriving
business for several weeks.
His story of a wonderful cave in Pike
KY. was also a highly deco
rated work of art. 1t appeared in a
Louisville paper and set people on two
talking Of long halls lined
with great blocks of virgin gold and of
subterranean rivers ripping over beds
Of diamonds, People hocked to Pike
Vile by the hundred. and town lots
sold for 500 as fast as the papers
could be made out. Even p. T. Bar
the willy old Snowman. was
caught in the trap and FASTENED to
Pike county to see If he might be able
to pick up a few rare skeletons or
cave jewellers that the excited
d~iscoverer had overlooked. In due
of time the phlegmatic and pom
English tourists arrived in Pike
vile and helped to swell the receipts of
The hotels and bars.
In 1875, having a few moments to
spare. Mulhatton wrote a story to the
effect that the tombs Of Washington
Lincoln would be taken to the Cen
aYnocition In philodolnhio md