The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-07
ABDUCTION
and ROBBERY
Four Philadelphia Men Confess
Their Crime.
kidnapped a Rich Woman and
Held Her Prisoner.
TOOK ALL HER JEWELS
Forced Her to Sign Checks For
Large Sums of Money.
Nearly All the Stolen Property
Has Been Recovered.

Philadelphia Oct Enlarged with alb
Quoting and robbing Mabel Goodrich, the
proprietress of a disreputable establish
ment, Howard K. Sloan, Henry E. Wal
lace, ID. K. knight Finlay and Oscar 5.
Dunlap were today brought before
magistrate and committed without bail
until further hearing next Monday.
Sloan is an unemployed newspaper re-
porter. Wallace was also city reporter
for the Press, F'inlay was employed in
the business department of the North
American as a stenograph and Dun
lap is a barber. The quartette were
arrested Saturday on warrants sworn
out by Mrs. Goodrich The woman was
the first witness against the prisoners.
and identified each of them. She then
told the remarkable story of her alb
duction, confinement and robbery, as de-
tailed in these dispatches.
Detective Donaghy related the story of
the arrest of the prisoners and stated
that all had confessed. Dunlap, he said,
told him that his purpose was to assist
Sloan in placing Mrs. Goodrich in the
hands of the law and order society. He
had not been told of the intention to
rob the woman. Wallace was the only
prisoner to testify. He said Sloan had
suggested to him the plan by which
Mrs. Goodrich was to be abducted in the
interest of the law and order society,
which organization would reward them
for their services. Later, Wallace said.
Sloan made the proposition to rob the
woman. Wallace refused to become a
party to the robbery, he declared, and
said further that he did not see Sloan
from that time until the day of his ar
rest.
Counsel for Mrs. Goodrich asked that
the prisoners be held on charges of con-
spiracy highway robbery, assault and
battery and kidnapping This was done
excepting in the case of Wallace, who
was held for conspiracy and kidnapping,
the penalty for which counsel announced
is life imprisonment
THE WOMAN'S STORY.
Last Monday Mrs. Goodrich went to
police headquarters and told a story of
kidnapping and robbery so daring that
the police at first doubted its truth. She
said that for some time past young
man who represented himself as a resi-
dent of Germantown had been a fre-
quent visitor at her establishment. He
was well dressed and spent money free
ly. Last Wednesday week, she said, he
proposed to drive through Fairmeunt
park He asked her to dress in her best
clothes and for her to wear all her dia-
monds and jewelry, because on the re-
turn from the drive he intended to take
her to the finest dining room in the city
and he wanted her to shine" with the
She accepted and the next day she
went out with him in a carriage with a
pair of richly comparisoned horses and
with a cOachman on the box wearing
stylish livery. At lonely place in Fair
mount park the carriage was stopped
by a. man who she said represented
himself as D. Clarence Gibbony, the sec
retary and attorney of the Law and Or
der society of this city. This man, she
went on to say, told her that he had a
keeping disorderly house, but that the
matter could be fixed up He was invi-
ted into the carriage and the next mo-
ment she was gagged anod bl1ndfolded.
She was driven somewhere, she did not
know where, but she noticed from one
corner of the handkerchief over her
eyes that the men paid toll at two toll
gates. and that they took her into
building where fire engine and a hook
and ladder truck were standing.
MADE TO SIGN CHECKS.
She was kept a prisoner from Tues
day night until Friday night without
anything to eat or drink, and was then
taken on another long drive, blindfold-
ed, to a house where she was kept from
Friday until Monday. In the latter
place the men, who were masked,
stripped her of the jewelry and at the
point of a revolver, compelled her to
sign bank checks for various sums of
money she had deposited in the Third
National bank They made her sign for
more than she possessed but compelled
her to promise that she would make
up the deficiency when they released
her. The men, she said, then took her
on another long drive, and put her out
of the carriage at Tenth and Poplar
streets, about mile from her house
With other information the woman
gave them, the detectives began to
work on what they believed to be a
fairy tale They got several clues
which led them to a fire engine house
in Fort Wayne, fifteen miles from this
city. The fire company is volunteer
organization, aud the key to the place
nearest house was occupied by a family
named Findlay, and there the police
learned that one of the sons, J. Knight
Findlay, had been home but little dur
ing the past two weeks Getting a de-
scription of him, the police returned to
the city and found the young man, who
is only 21 years old, in the office where
he is employed. He was charged with
the crime and broke down and impli-
Gated three others
FINDLAY PLAYED COACHMAN.
F'indlay said that he had impersonated
the cOachman. that Sloan, the unemplOy-
ed reporter, acted the part of Attorney
Gibbony, that the barber played the part
of the rich Germantown resident, and
rented house in Germantown where
Mrs. Goodrich was to have been held a
captive. He told substantially the same
story as that narrated by the woman.
He said that they kept her confined in
the fire house and then took her to a
house at No. 1855 North Twelfth street,
where Sloan was arrested yesterday
The plan to keep her in the Wallace
house in Germantown was abandoned in
| favor of the Sloan house