The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-08-04
BURGLAR WILF0NG HAS
A CHECKERED CAREER
West Virginian Boasts That No IaiI Is
Strong Enough to HoIg Him.
is VERY FOND OF EATING SOAP
His Career After Having Broken Jail
in Oakland-Was Robbed In BaIt-
more of $50 Which Made The Pris-
oner feel Badly.

hAAO C1hAtNA4NA jan OCNtAllCNA uOOub q
year ago when he with two or three
Others prisoners dug through the par
titior wall between the jail proper
and the sheriff's residence, is again in
the tolls, this time at Elkins w. Va,
to which place he was taken few
days ago after having been captured
at Baltimore on the charge of being
implicated in the robbery of a store at
Hendricks, West Va.
Wilfong's doings from the time he
was first arrested up to the present is
told in a special dispatch from Elkins
to the Baltimore Herald of Monday.
The story is interesting and is repro
duced below:
Elkins, w. Va. July 31.-Could the
checkered criminal career of J. F.
Wilfong, the Randolph county burg
lar who was caught in Baltimore this
week, be put on paper it would read
like a. romance. Educated in crime,
his whole life has been series of in
tensely interesting chapters of reck-
less robberies and thrilling escapes
from penitentiaries and jails. one Of
his boasts being that no Jail, big en-
ough and strong enough to hold him
had ever been built. Whether his
claims in this case will hold true re-
mains vet to be seen.
Wilfong's latest crime was the theft
OF twenty-seven watches from the
store of j. Z. Polling s. Co., at Hen
bricks, Tucker county, on Thursday
night, July Il. He was last week ar
rested in Baltimore while attempting
to dispose of part of his plumber. He
was yesterday brought from Balti-
more by J. f. Polling and Zach Ryan,
members of the company which had
been robbed and who were specially
deputized to go to Baltimore and
bring Wilfong back to the scene of
his crime to answer therefor. He was
placed in the Tucker county Jail to
await the action OF the grand jury at
the next session of the Circuit Court,
when he will be tried, unless his old
time luck and genius for jail-breaking
forsake him.
J. F. Wilfong is now "a years old.
His criminal career began eleven
years ago with petty thefts from his
neighbors in the mountains, which
he conducted with much success for
many years.
In 1902 Wilfong and his brother
Abel were sentenced to seven and five
years respectively in the state peni-
Tertiary at Moundsville for robbing a
store at Hartman, this county. Their
trial attracted a good deal of aGten-
tion because of the fact that the en-
tire summer was spent in rehearsing
their testimony to each other in the
Beverly Jail. They were often over
heard reciting their testimony to
each other, j. F. having fixed up a
very probable story for himself and
Abel to tell when the time for their
trial should arrive. On one occasion,
Abel having gotten tangled up in his
tale, j. F. jumped upon him and ad-
ministered sound thrashing When
they were brought up for trial J. F.
gave his testimony in an impressive
p,opnar hut ELECTROMAGNETIC no Z 1ooo
him little good and his evidence was
recited much after the manner of a
country schoolboy at Friday after
noon entertainment. Both were
found guilty and sentenced accord
ingly. But fortune favored J. P. He
ate soap excessively in order to pro.
duce a consumptive appearance, and
an application for pardon was indoors
ed by the state board of pardons and
Gov. Albert B. White granted a con-
ditional pardon on March 10, 1908. be-
fore he had served year of his SEN
tence.
Several months elapsed before
James F. was heard from. Letters to
Abel signed &c. E. Dawson attract
attracted Warden Haddox's attention,
besause thesinitials were the same as
his own. while Dawson was captain
of the guards. In one of these letters
the writer told of his great loye for a
woman in Garrett county, Md, and
of his impatience to get rich quick,
which had prompted him to steal two
horses from a farmer in that county,
and for which crime he had been ar
rested and lodged in the Garrett
county Jail. The absence of the OBJ
ject of his deyotions causing him to
be lonesome he had testified falsely
against the woman, causing her also
to be arrested and confined in the
same jail. After the woman's lncar.
ceration her sister had aided both to
escape, and sc. E. Dawson" went to
Pittsburg, Pa, where he joined the
United States Army, from which he
within few weeks deserted going to
Philadelphia and enlisting in the
United States Navy, being transferred
to Brooklyn, N. Y. All his letters to