New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1903-06-03
SAYS REGISTER WAS FIXED
ST. Paul Globe Claims Book at AS.
toria Was Tempered With.
Sheriff McMillan's Name Now App
pears as Registering Saturday.
Newspapers in Twin Cities Maintain
That Officers are Guilty.

John Mcmillan, st. Peter Room Is.
This modest unassuming entry on
the register at the Astoria hotel on
the page dated Saturday, May Is, in
dictates that the sheriffs charged with
misconduct in connection with their
treatment of Murderer Tanke, have
taken desperate means to clear them
selves of the serious charges made
against them, which are to be further
investigated by Gov. Van SAINT.
The above entry on the register would
indicate that the sheriffs stopped at the
Astoria hotel on Saturday night, May
16, the night they arrived in St. Paul
in charge of prisoner convicted of
murder and sentenced to the peniten-
tiary for life. Such is not true.
This entry was made on the register
since the charges were preferred and
since the governorcalled for an inves-
tigation. It was not made at the time
the sheriffs were in the city with Tanke,
as can be easily proved. Whether or
not Sheriff Mcmillan wrote the name
there himself is not known, but it is
known that the entry was made several
days after the sheriffs were in St. Paul
with Tanke, whom they kept out all
night, during which time they visited
number of saloons; as we'll as other
resorts.
The defense of the sheriffs is that
the newspaper charges are untrue, and
they expect to prove this by showing
that they were at the Astoria hotel on
Saturday night, when in fact they did
not register at the hotel for room I'M
til Sunday morning, when Sheriff
Forsythe, some time after O'Clock
Sunday morning, secured a room for
Tanke, who had become SO i'll from the
effects of a nights carousal that he
could no longer keep on his feet. This
room was registered for and secured
after o'clock Sunday morning, and
none of the sheriffs, nor Murderer
Tanke, regardless of the entry of Sher-
ifs McMillan's name which now ap-
pears on the register on the Saturday
page.
An investigation of the hotel regis
ter'made by Globe representative on
the Monday following the orgie dis
closed the fact that none of the sheriffs,
Mcmillan, Forsythe or Williams, had
secured a room at this hotel before
Sunday morning. On the hotel regis
ter there was room for but one name
left on the Saturday page. This was
line at the bottom of the page and moth
ing was written upon it. Now the name
of John Mcmillan of St. Peter, APP
pears on this line.
This is believed to be coup on the
part of the sheriffs to protect them
selves from the charges that they did
not go to bed Saturday night, but it
,, can readily and easily be proved that
this name was not entered on the reg
lister until after the investigation had
been talked of. .~.
When Sheriffs Forsythe, Mcmillan
and Williams were before Gov. Van
SAINT this week they denied the stories
which had been printed about them and
stated positively that they had occu-
pied a room at the Astoria hotel on
Saturday night, and in the face of this
evidence, it is easy to understand why
they would desire the name of one of
their party registered at the hotel on
this date. ..@
One thing the sheriffs will have to
EXPLAIN, however, is that while the
hotel register now "shows' that Sher-
if Mcmillan secured room there on
Saturday night, the book also shows
that he was assigned to room Is. Over
t on the next page, under date of Sun
day, May II, Sheriff Forsythe's name
appears on the hotel register, and it
shows that he is likewise assigned to
room Is. Sheriff Forsythe, who says
he occupied the same room with Sher-
if Mcmillan and the prisoner, does
not explain why he registered on Sun
! day morning for a room which had
been assigned to Sheriff Mcmillan on
, Saturday night.
"Those fellows who had Tanke up
/ here will have a pretty hard time prov
| ing they went to bed that night said
a police officer on the beat which was
Frequently traversed by the party in