The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-11-19
HAD INTENT TO KILL.
Remarkable Admission of Newell
C.. Rathbun.
Says He Had Planned Murder Of Man
Found Dead in Hotel Mt Jefferson-
VILE, Ind, But Intended Vic
tim Died of Alcoholism.

Louisville, KY, Nov. 13.-Newell c..
Rathbun, who, according to the po-
lice, has confessed that he planned
to defraud an insurance company out
of $4,000 by pretending that a corpse
shipped to Little Rock, Ark, was his
own dead body, has admitted, ac-
cording to the authorities, that the
man who accompanied him to the ho-
tel in Jeffersonville, Ind, and was
| found dead the next day, was Charles
Goodman, who is said to have come
from Evansville, Ind. 1t was stated
Monday that on account of the dis
appearance of Goodman from the Sal
walton Army hotel in Louisville last
Wednesday night with the announced
intention of going to Indiana with a
| newly-found friend, and his nom
return, the police thought the dead
man was Goodman. Not until Tues
day, however, would Rathbun admit
that Goodman was the name of the
man that accompanied him to the
Jeffersonville hotel.
Says 1t Was Goodman.
Chief of Detectives Sullivan and
Chief Applegate and Coroner Coots,
of Jeffersonville, interviewed Rathbun
Tuesday. Rathbun listened as one by
one the circumstances which the po-
lice regard as proofs of his guilt
We're laid before him by Chief Sulli-
van. According to the officers, Rath-
bun suddenly sprang up, and walking
hastily to window, looked out for
few minutes. Then, turning like
an animal at bay, he faced the crowd
of men in the room, and asked, in a
shaking voice:
What is the punishment for Of
| lenses 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, ana
then he said: 'You are on the right
| track. Goodman is the name of the
dead man. l met him in front of the
Salvation Army and determined to
keep him drunk for several days and
then fix him." Here he stopped, and
then he said: eff I should make a
confession, it would be printed in the
papers, and would turn the people
against me-"
No Requisition Needed.
He then lapsed into sullen silence.
and would say nothing else. When
l l..
given Goodman laudanum, and said
he would have made use of chloro-
form. He then refused to go back
to Indiana without requisition pa
pers. Col. John D. Rodman, United
States recruiting officer here, notified
Chief Sullivan that no requisition will
be necessary for the return of Rath-
bun to Jacksonville, Ind. He says
that Rathbun is now a government
prisoner, charged with desertion, and
as soon as he can communicate with
Washington he will have the prisoner
taken over. The Jetfersonville au-
thorities will make claim for the Gus
tody of Rathbun on charge of muir
der.
Denies Killing Goodman,
Further efforts to secure complete
confession We're unavailing, and Rath-
bum was taken back to Jail Just be-
fore this, however, he made the fol-
lowing statement to Chief of Detect
ives Sullivan:
81 admit everything except that 1
killed Goodman. | meant to kill him,
and kept him drunk for the purpose,
but he died of alcoholism and | was
forced to make way with him. My
story about an accomplice named
Blanchard was fictitious. I acted
alone and without confederate.''
NrHnrn oYYAN,oro