Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-02-28
BAD GANG in TOLLS
Coming Term of the Delaware Court
Will Be of Unusual Interest Because
Of the Trial of the Verb Pratt Gang
of Alleged Robbers.
Times Republican

| Special to Times Republican.
Dubuque, Feb. ga citizen of Del
aware county who was in Dubuque to-
day states the coming term of the
district court at Manchester will be one
fraught with more than ordinary in
terest in criminal lines The grand
jury will pass on the case of an org
anized gang which 1t is stated has
been perpetrating depredations turnout
that locality for years, and the mem
bers of which have recently been taken
detective whom the county employed
on the case.
Another case which will attract
more than ordinary amount of attent-
ion is the retrial of Lester Clark who
at the last term of court was tried and
convicted of manslaughter, but was
granted new trial owing to an arti-
Gle which appeared in one of the Man
chester papers in which the editor ex-
pressed himself freely and which was
published before the jury retired.
hS Sui lSlulilGu IL Wei dlCl VI Bultly
Of mansaughter. The son had died
from neglect as the import of the YER
dict.
Gang at Work For Years.
But the star performance to be en-
acted at the coming term of court in
Delaware is the trial of John Verb,
William Verb. Cornelius Pratt, Charles
Pratt and Jaster Pratt, whose exploits
will be passed on by the grand jury.
Cornelius Pratt is the father of the two
other Pratts and the father-in-law of
John Verb. John Verb is the brother
of William Verb and the gang thus
resolves itself into something of FAM
lily affair. For thirty years, according
to the story of the Elder Pratt, this
band has been engaged in larceny of
the grand and petit variety turnout
Delaware county.
The authorities have long suspected
them tho they ever were able to
secure tangible evidence. Some months
ago Detective John Costello of Sioux
City was employed on the case. Co.'S
tello come to Manchester and by put
ting UP a front as a bad man burglar
lied his way into the confidence of the
gang. He demanded assurance that
the gang was what it pretended to
bean array of high grade crooks, for
John, having a price on his head for
safe cracking in Denver, he could not
afford to become associated with any
phoney moonlight mechanics. He de-
manded sample of their ability be
presented him and the bunch promptly
assured him that they were there with
the goods-real bad actors as it were.
Takes Blood curdIing Oath.
When CASTILLO was taken into the
bunch old man Pratt demanded he
should sign an agreement, which read
thus: 1--WE, the Webb and Pratt gang,
do hereby take into organization and
confidence, Jack Costello. The penalty
for revealing any secrets of which or
ganization is DEATH" Jack signed it,
tho he says as it was not signed in
blood it is not binding and he feels
he will not have to pay the penalty.
The elder Pratt in a burst of con-
fidence told Jack he were trif1e leary
at the outset about taking him into
the bunch but that his trained eye and
long years of exerience in crooked
work told him Jack was a jewel and
that in every particular he would do.
Jack assured the old man that he was
the likeliest critic that ever broke out
of corral and then the old man re-
vealed a long drawn out and check
cred career, in which hen roosts wood
piles and various stunts of light bur-
glary had figured all of which covered
a period of nearly thirty years. Jack
was wised up to the haunts of the
gang, found out that the plumber was
dumped into a cabin situated in the
recesses of heavy growth of timber.
The members of the gang We're en-
ployed at wood chopping and farming
when not Matching up plots against
the whites and their absence in the
woods had never ocasioned much COM
ment.
Burglary Of Jones' Mill.
To cap the climax Jack, now a mem
Der of the gang. assisted in the bur-
glary of Jones' Wooden Mills at Man
chester and it was on this specific
charge after gathering all the neces-
sary information regarding the past
exploits of the gang. that they were
arrested. Jack has returned to Sioux
City but will be on hand at the trial.