The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-26
FAILED TO FIND 1T.
Mrs. Vashti Cunningham Could Not
Locate Farm House.

The trip taken by Sheriff Lucas
who drove south of Topeka Saturday
afternoon with Mrs. Nashu cunning
ham, was fruitleSS.
Mrs. Cunningham was taken for the
purpose of verifying some of the
stories told by the Cunninghams con-
corning their trip out of Topeka in a
stolen automobile. Mrs Cunningham
failed to find and identify any of the
places they passed during the night OF
November 10 and the morning of No
vember 20.
Sheriff Lucas drove as far as Waka-
rusa with Mrs. Cunningham, and then
returned, owing to the inclemency OF
the weather. He inquired along the
way concerning the auto trip, but fall
ed to find any one who could identify
the machine or the occupants. Several
people along the way said they had
heard an automobile pass that night,
but that it was no rare occurrence.
Sheriff Lucas said this morning:
According to Mrs Cunningham S
story, they must have taken a route
through Pauline, WakaruSa, Carbon
dale. Lindon. Hall Summit, Waverly,
Burlington and Yates Center. We
know they ate breakfast at Yates Cen
ter, and registered at the hotel as j.
S. Hudson and wife. Denver We know
that to a certainty. 1t is the trip to
Yates Center we want to find out
about
'.I can hear of people who heard an
could not identify it if they saw it.
Cunningham was in too much of a
hurry. Mrs. Cunningham seems to do
her best toward remembering loca-
over the route before, and it was in
the night. She is eXcusable for not
knowing all about it. Since their first
arrest they have not tried to tell the
farm house story They now say that
they ran straight through, with the
exception of some minor mishaps, to
Yates Center, where they ate break
fast. She says that once during the
night they were ditched. Her dress
caught in some of the machinery
into the ditch beside the road. 1t took
them some time to get out of this.
They had two or three little break
downs.
According to her version. they
passed several buggies on the road not
far from Topeka If some of these
people whom they passed would come
in and tell me about it. and the time of
might jibed with the Cunningham
story, it would help me to settle the
question. At one time during the
night, evidently before midnight, as
the village store was open, Mrs. Cum
bingham says they passed through a
small village, and a boy ran out of a
livery stable on her side of the auto
and shouted, Hey, Automobile!' Then
the boy ran into a grocery store where
several men were sitting around a
stove. An auto was evidently a new
thing in that town, and if the people
who saw it would let me know, par
ticularly that boy who was so close he
could see the shape of the machine
and the people in it, he would be doing
me favor. A boy at Wakarusa says
he heard an auto pass through that
village about 8 o'clock in the morning.
L think though, that auto is out of the
case as L heard from the same one a
few miles from there. A man saw it
plainly, and it was a blue machine. A
woman said she heard one go by her
house near Wakarusa between and
10 o'clock that night-the 18th. That
would come nearer to the Cunningham
story. 1 am almost sure the Cunning
hams had nothing to do with the other
affair (the murder of Mrs. Nickuna)
but of course we will sift things down
to the bottom"