The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-07-06
SIMPLE LIFE. FOR
A FAMOUS CROOK
.KID' WILSON ANNOUNCES HIS
INTENTION TO REFORM.
Man with Long Criminal Career in
America and England Will Accpet a
Straight Job When He Leaves
the Hennepin County Jail Next
Month.

work aE'sF 'y tbe & wilson
a crook of international reputation al and
now serving a nine months sentence
County cop a Jail, has t decided to reform His
time will be up Aug. s: AS soon as
sition with a coal firm in Pittsburg.
eyes, I'm thru, sale. Wilson to
The Journa today. It's me for
the simple life. For the first time. IN
twenty years I haev made up my mind n !
game. There s nothing init, and al
tho it has fascination of certain
kind, I don It want any more. OF IT IN
mnie. I've been offered a good position
and I am going to take it and stick
to It.
Wilson is known to the police depart
ments ef all the La large cities eo IN tss
the srogue's gallery in Scotland Yards,
Lone don, Eng. His Bertillion record is
a long one and his operations have been
carried on from one coast to the other,
and from New Orleans to northern Min
nesota. He has committed some daring
thefts and his methodist are the most
up-to. date; The ease with which !, n, ne has
a leather,' or q skinned a sucker has
made him known and marked by the
detectives in many cities, who recog-
nize him by such names as y. ]: Price,
John Howard, Ralph Nelson and others.
-. He Started Young.
A boy of II, he began his career in
his pocketbook. He was tried, con.
victed and sentenced to twenty-one
years in tn penitentiary. By some
manipulation he was pardoned a faw
months later. The records show that he
next "bobbed up', in Denver, where he
was arrested for "steering' promi
nent Minneapolitan into game where
he lost 5000. He was acquitted. r,
San Francisco next had the honor OF
entertaining Wilson. He was the sec
ond man to be Bertillioned in that city
He was arrested several times on, grand
larceny charges but the prosecuting
witnesses always failed to appear
against him. .ss- :.
In New Orleans he was jailed fol
picking a pocket. He took $77 an6
was given two years in the Louisiana
penitentiary. He served the Longest
sentence of his life there and did mo-
make r, getaway for fourteen
months.
| After this arrest he took to the roac
| in earnest and altho he was arrested
| in St. Louis, New York and severa
other cities he always made his es
cape and did not tarry long in any
| place.
Worked on Ocean Liners.
The ocean attracted this thief and h
took to riding in boats' between New
York and Liverpool. HIS game was run
ming gambling devices on the liners an,
on one trip he ''skinned a sucker' TO
$4,000. He was arrested upon Ills al
rival in London. The English court
did. not have jurisdiction and the com
planning witness refused to come t.
New York to prosecute.
! He was arrested in Minneapolis O.
iJune ~ for robbing man of larg
tsum Of money by. the dollar-matchin
process. He was indicted for robbery
tried and convicted, but new trial wa
granted on account of the misconduc
of one of the detectives during the tria
Later. he pleaded guilty to grand 1a1
ceny in the second degree and was ser
fenced to nine months in the count
Jail. r. s.E-