The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1904-04-22

Pete Neidermier Dies an |nfde|-- Says
!. That Thousands Of Boys in Chicago
! Are Growing Up in S|uns as He
Did, Without any Moral Advice

~ "'O'~ '~''OO
other relatives. While the two men
slept holy candles burned by their
bedsides.
Up to midnight Marx and Van Dine
played "sixty-six," Van Dine winning
the last game. Ten minutes later they
babe each other farewell to meet on
the scaffold.
Neidermier slept until $40. ''Well,"
he growled at the jailor, while the
man stood at his bedside preparing to
awake him.
"It's nearly 9 o'clock, Pete. How
do you feel?" the jailor said.
Neidermier arose, turned his back
on the jailor and without reply, sui
lenly moved away.
Anything you want, Pete?" return
ed the officer.
eyes, to be let alone" snapped the
bandit
Neidermier's breakfast consisted of
berries, cream and vegetables.
Marx who breakfasted in a similar
manner, was permitted to enter the
prison chapel with Van Dine and to-
gether with the sisters of mercy the
bandits prayed for an hour. Before
leaving their cells the doomed men
gathered their effects and sent them
to the jail office and the undertaken
was admitted to see them. His visit
made Neidermier more sullen and Wis
IDLY affected the others.
Father Cox gave Neidermier book
entitled Notes on lngersoll.' The
bandit read four pages and returned
the volume with the comment: 81 get
my opinions from my own thoughts"
Nsidermeisr's Dying Statement.
IT wish I could believe in your re-
ligion. # could hypnotic myself
Into the bsliof that was going
somewhere to be happy forever, don't
you think ia be glad to die.
"Ths world II oil wrong. There IL
NO attraction for men like me. We
grow up In the slums, half starved
and always miserable. We work day
after day like slaves, to die niserably.
Chicago IL full Of boys like me, who
are growing mp without any advice or
help from anyone. have been pretty
bad will admit, but am going to
pay all the penalty I shall ever pay
this morning. II the churches did
something more for the boy in the
slums they would be doing more good
than they can by trying to convert
mon about to be hanged. But they
do some good. You have cheered two
men in other cells into the belief
that they are going to heaven. That
il cons oling TO them. If you had not
got Van Dine into accepting that be-
lief 1t would have taken a dozen mon
to strap him for the moose"
At 10 o'clock the jailer notified the
men to get ready and announced that
| the hangings would separate.
Marie Dunn, Van Dimes sweetheart,
arrived early and she was admitted to
the Office of the Jail. She left clean
| linen and a white silk shroud. The
garments were taken to Van Dimes
cell. He donned them, stopping in the
act to feel the texture of the silk and
to pull loose threads from the gar
ment Then he resumed his seat on
the bed. lie read n prayer book after
eating a breakfast of strawberries and
cream.
The Bandits.
The three who were hanged today
in the Cook county Jail were regretted
only by their mothers.
All of the crimes were marked by
the same absence of moral sense dis
played by beast of prey. The MUIR
derers We're the product of atavism
and degenercy. Their fathers were
drunkards. They grew up in the Chi
cago slums, all vestige of moral char
acter they may have had being des-
troyed by their inebriety. "Sawdust
saloons and Scent novels played q
prominent part in their life.
Van Dine, massive and powerful
was admired for his muscular prov
ess, and Neidermier, the cunning, play
ed upon his pride by praising his
strength. Roeski was cowardly
slow-witted lounger who was domin-
ated by the more brainy leader, e
do the heavy and dirty work.
The four were oath bound and part
of their agreement was to the effect
that il one of the gang was captured
the others would use pistol and dyna'
| 60 1T r,aln
When Marx was captured, after KILT
ing Detective Quinn, the others wer'
hiding within q block of the Jail plan
ming to dynamite it and effect hi
release. But Marx confessed and hi'
friends were forced to fee. vowing ven
geance on the squealer.
The beginning of the end came wher
the three members at large were SUR
rounded in the dugout at Miller's sta
ton, Ind. They exchanged shots will
; the nine detectives and killed two
breaking through the Gordon of mel
J and escaping to q nearby railway
, where they seized an engine and fled t.
| Liverpool, Ind. Here they were force
to leave the engine and when 100 police
men, armed with Winchesters. arriv
, cd, they surrendered.
The trials were contested desperate
ly, but convictions were secured. No
until April Is, when the gallows wa
erected upon which Louis Peasant wa
hanged, did they lose their air OF BRAY
ado With the iusensibility Of mora
idiots, they boosted Of their murders