The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-11-13
Rathbun Gonfesses TO the Police.
DEAD MAN NAMED GOODMAN.
INTENDED TO MURDER HIM.

Louisville, KY, Nov. 12.-Newell
G. Rathbun, who, according to the
police, has confessed that he planned
to defraud an insurance company out
of 81, 900 by pretending that a corpse
shipped to Little Rock, Ark, was his
own dead body, today admitted, ac-
cording to the authorities that the
man who accompanied him to the
hotel in Jacksonville, Ind, and was
found dead the next day, was Charles
Goodman, who is said to have come
from Evansville, Ind.
Chief of Detectives Sullivan, and
Chief Appelgate, and Coroner Coots,
of Jeffersonville, interviewed Rathbun
today. Rathbun listened as one by
one the circumstances which the police
regard as proofs of his guilt were laid
before him by Chief Sullivan. Ac-
cording to the officers Rathbun sud
denly sprang up, and walking hastily
to a window, looked out for few
minutes. Then returning like an ami
NAL at bay he faced the crowd of men
in the room and asked in a shaking
voice:
"WhatE is the punishment for
offenses of this kind in Indiana?
Does the death penalty exist there?''
.'Never mind about the penalty,
Rathbun,' said Capt. Sullivan.
"What we are interested in is the
name Of the dead man.
For a moment Rathbun looked at
the group of faces before him, and then
said: You are on the right track.
Goodman is the name of the dead man.
I met him in front Of the Salvation
Army hotel, and determined to keep
him drunk for several days and then
fix him.
When questioned further, Rathbun
denied having given Goodman lauda-
mum and said he would have made use
of chloroform.
Just before ne was taken back to
jail. Rathbun made the following
statement to Chief of Detectives Sulli-
van:
ssI admit everything except that [
killed Goodman. I meant to kill him,
and kept him drunk for the purpose,
but he died of alcoholism, and [ was
not forced to make away with him:
Mystery about the accomplice named
Blanchard was fictitious. acted
alone and without confederate. -
'.Blanchard'' was, according to the
story Rathbun told yesterday, cor
poral whom Ratbbun became acquaInt-
ed with at Plattsburg, N. Y.
It is said that Goodman, who was of
a rowing nature, came to this city on
Oct. %, and put up at the Salvation
Army hotel. He repeatedly told the
clerk, B. G.. Pelton, that he did not
have any money, and did not know
how he would get out of the city.
According to Pelton S story Goodman
returned to the Salvation Army hotel
shortly after 9 o'colck last .Wednes-
day, with new coat and vest on,
and also collar and necktie. Good
man told Pelton to check him off as
he was going to spend the night in
Indiana with his friends. Goodman
then went out and has not been seen
at the hotel since.
The Jacksonville coroner today
identified pair of trousers found in
Rathbun's grip as being of suit the
coat and vest Of which we're on the
corpse found at the Falls City hotel.
The Louisville police are not sure
that the prisoners name is Rathbun.
It is believed his home is in Detroit.
The next step in the case will be to at
tempt to settle Rathbun's identity. to
discover. the cause of Goodman's
death and whether any arrests yet re-
main to be made IN the case.