Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-10-04
PLOT TO KILL FOLK
Full Revelation In st. Louis
Franchise Frauds.
FORMER SPEAKER TELLS HIS STORY
Given Fifteen Thousand to Leave
~City-Ifad Fixed Schedule of
Prices For LegisIating
Bills Through.

Bills Through.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Oct. 4.-Charles Il.
Kelly. former speaker of the house OF
delegates, who is under conviction FOL
perjury in connection with doodle
cases, and whose trial for connection
with the Suburban franchise bribery
will be called this week, has made
public a full confession.
In this confession he asserts that on
the day the Indictment against him
and the other combine members was
made public "the boss" Edward But
Ter, gave him $4,000 to absent him
self. He says that he went to Hanni-
bal, thence to st. Paul, then to Sault
st. Marie and across into Canada.
From there he took passage to Liver
pool under the name of James Ho-
gan"
The confession, it is said, tells of
plans for the assassination of Circuit
Attorney Joseph w. Folk by the com
bine" members, in case Folk could not
be made to cease his val on the
"boodlers."
I'VE had q fixed schedule of prices
for various bills" said Kelly, accord
ing to the value of the franchises or
privileges given. We hardly ever re
ceived less than $1,000 for the combin-
ed vote. We considered it beneath orr
dignity to take less than that. On one
or two occasions, though, we got as
low as $50 each for our votes and some
of the boys took s. each, but We're
ashamed Of it because the price was SO
small.
"Our combine was not along party
lines. Both Democrats and Republic
ans belonged to it. My experience has
been that boodlers line up according
to their own interests and moi under
party standards. Democrats and Re
publicans in st. Louis usually nomi-
nate me to go to the house of dele
gates for the money they can make out
of 1t. Each party nan votes for his
own fellow and either one that gets in
serves those who rob the city of fran
chises. | believe this has been tolerat-
ed in st. Louis because so many of the
large corporations of the city are mix
tl up III bOONiiihS III way vi dtiotiiNA
The heads of these corporations used
to think it less Trouble to buy what
they wanted than to elect honest men
to the house of delegates.
'"Ihere are many other things | can
'and will tell later on, but this will do
now. This, in brief, is my story and
the confession of my infamy. l be-
lieve, though, that if the people of st.
Louis allow this man "a prominent pol
itician is named) to go on and control
both political parties and put his men
in office the public will be just as
guilty as / am today. Such is his hold
on the community, though, it seems
helpless. If l knew anything l could
do that / have not done to arouse the
people of this city and the people Of
this state to the necessity of putting a
stop to corruption / would gladly do it.
81 am now suffering the penalty for
my crimes, am degraded and dis
graced. | don't want to preach. but |
do want to sound the alarm to the
house is on fire. A few weeks ago this
man told us we could either get a con
tinuance until a new circuit attorney
was elected; that his man would be
put In and our case would be dis
missed, or we could plead guilty and
stay in Jail until next January, and he
would then see that we We're %pardoned.
| have determined not to be under his
dominion any longer. l shall endeavor
for the rest of my life to atone for the
wrongs l have done. l shall have more
to say later on"