The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-11-27
CARTER TO GO FREE
fx-Captain Will Leave
Prison Saturday.
DOORS OF PRISON SWING OPEN
He Has Served Three Years and Ele-
ven Months in Leavenworth Pen
itentiary-WiII Go to Chicago.
DOORS OF PRISON SWING OPEN

| LEAVENWORTH. Kas., Nov. 81
| The doors of the military prison at
Fort Leavenworth will swing open to-
| morrow for ex-Captain Oberlin M.
Carter who has completed his five
year sentence for robbing the govern
ment. Deducting the allowance for
good conduct the actual time served
| by Carter has been three years and
seven months. 1t is probable that he
will proceed at once to Chicago where
he has relatives who have looked af
ter his business affairs during his
Imprisonment. Further than this his
future movements are undecided.
When Carter was brought to the
penitentiary he talked much of his
anxiety for a civil trial. Recently he
has not said much on this subject,
but has paid more attention to a suit
pending in the United States circuit
court whereby the government was
endeavoring to recover about s723,000
alleged to be a part of the former
captains ill-gotten booty. Since his
imprisonment the government has sue
ceeded in making Carter turn over
vast sums of money, but nOtWithstand-
ing this he is believed to pe still
wealthy. He is possessed of valuable
property, chiefly in Mexico, and it is
thought likely that he may make that
country his future home.
The case of Carter attracted such
widespread attention at the time of
his arrest, trial and conviction four
years ago that the facts are still
fresh in the public memory.
Grant sent him to West Point from
Ohio, in 1876. He was graduated at
"a, at the head of his class and went
to the engineer corps by right of his
standing. He served first in the east,
where he married millionaire's
daughter, who died before his down
fall. 1t was in 1890 that Carter then
a lieutenant, presented to congress his
plans for the improvement of Savan-
nah harbar. He had thought it all out
unaided, and Savannah went mad al
most, with joy when the news was
brought to the town that nearly 49,
100000 had been appropriated to car
ry into concrete effect the ideas that
originated in the mind of the brilliant
engineer. Carter returned to Savan-
nah to take up the work on the har-
Dor. From that very moment, it was
shown, the swindling began. He con-
spired with the contractors who were
doing the work, realizing, with his
accomplices, hundreds Of thousands of
dollars. After the work was fairly
| under way the young lieutenant fairly
blOomed as an entertainer and a good
fellow. He took parties Of his friends
down the bay in a government yacht,
on which occasions the champagne
flowed like water. Meanwhile his ex-
penses grew at an amazing rate. 1t
developed at the trial that he was in
| the habit Of signing claims against
the government that were totally
false, and that the payrolls contained
the names of innumerable laborers
that did not exist
In 1891 Lieutenant Carter became
Captain Carter. He was later appoint
ed military attache to the American
embassy at the court of st. James,
He was occupying that post when in
formed that charges against him had
been preferred by Captain G. E. Gill
lette, who was sent to Savannah to
carry on the work. The papers made
such direct accusations that Secre-
tary Alger thought the matter should
be thoroughly gone into, and therefore
sent commission to investigate. It's
report led to the court-martial.
The court-martial was presided
| over by General Elwell S. Otis. The
court labored four months, and Car
ter was convicted. After long and pa
tient examination of the record by
distinguished jurists, President Nc