The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-09
MURRELL CONFESSES.
TELLS OF ST. LOUIS COOLING
 OPERATIONS.
Bench Warrants Issued For Eighteen Members of the Former House of Delegates-A Big Sensa-
 tion Caused,

St. Louis, Sept. S.-A sensation was caused today by the issuance of bench warrants for. the arrest of eighteen members of the former House of Dele gates on the confession of Delegate J.
 K. Murrell, who fled to Mexico last spring after being indicted for bribery by the grand jury in connection with the alleged boodling operations of the Mn- nicipal Assembly in relation to the grant, ing of street railway franchises, He will, it is stated. be granted immunity from punishment for turning States evil dence.
 Following are the names of members of | the alleged combine for whom bench warrants were issued, charging bribery and perjury in connection with Subur- | ban Street Railway and other lestsla- I ton: Ed E. Murreli, John H. Schnettler. Charles F. Kelly, T. E. Albright. George | F. Robertson. Louis. Decker, John Helms, Charles A. Gutke. Adolph Madeira, H. A. Faulkner, Julius, Lehman. Edmund | Bersch, Otto Schumacher, John A. Sher- idan, Charles J. Denny. William Tam
 blyn, J. J. Hannigan and Emile Hart l man.
 
 bonds of so, 900 each. The others arrest ed were allowed to go to their respect i've homes in the custody of deputy sher- ifs, who will remain with them until they shall have furnished surety for their appearance in court when the cases are called for trial. With theN Reception | of William Tamblyn who was mem- , Der of the last House of Delegates and is now said to be in Cleveland, all the Indicted delegates are believed to be Tn
 the city. Delegate Kelly telephoned to the District Attorney tonight that he
 would surrender tomorrow morning and | give bond. The police are watching the
 bridge and other possible avenues of es- I cape from the city and it will be 'dificuls l for any of the indicted men to remain
 out of the hands of the law, J. F. Murrell made the following state-
 ment for publication today: 'T have surrendered unoondittunalfy | and have made a full confession.
 could no longer stand the agony l en-
 dured as a fugitive from justice and the
 wrong done me by the parties just as guilty as I, who made me their cats- paw. hold the key to the box in the Lincoln Trust Company having the Ts.- | 900 bribe money to go to the delegates on the passage of the Suburban bill.
 
 chase price for the votes of the combine
 that price having been agreed upon.
 "The combine of the House of Delegates was composed of nineteen men. This combine held frequent meetings in the room adjoining the House of Delegates | chamber. When the Suburban matter came up before the combine I was se- iected to negotiate with Philip Stock. the representative of the Suburban Railway! as to the best price we could get for our votes upon the passage of the bill. I re- , ported the various negotiations to the combine meetings and was instructed by the combine from time to time what to do.
 "The deposits of the money. the amount and the conditions were duly reported by me to the combine meetings. I am not permitted to make the operations of the combine public at this time. The purpose of the combine was to control legislation and sell legislation for the benefit of the members of the combine. Shortly before the Suburban bill the combine sold their votes on the lighting bills for S475e0.
 This money was handled by Kelly, was paid to the combine at meeting ar | ranged for that purpose at Julius Leh- mans house. Each member of the com bine received g, 800. We did not look up- on what we did as serious crime as 1t had gone on 50 lohB Nlthoue iheeii upuoh that it was not regarded by those who participated as morally wrong Until the present Circuit Attorney took office no sincere effort was ever made to punish what was being done as crime.
 Il have lived in St. Louis all my life. have been honest heretofore in all mat ters. Although would not take a dol- lar from any person unlawfully, the prae- tice of the combine in the Assembly talk ing bribes was SO frequent that I went along with the tide and did not realize the enormity of the offense and my con- sciehre was seared in that regard "