The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-01-20

| nous secrecy, the name of Morrison
was conveyed to him as one deserv
| ing Of investigation. Payne reported
to Columbus. H. H. Hollenbeck, CHIEF
deputy marshal, and J. NJ. McMichae1
an assistant, were detailed to worl
with Payne The fire marshals de
partment had no money, but it go
some from the legislature for emerg
ency.
The officers drove about the coun
try by day and by night, searching
for evidence in the gangs stronghold
Good citizens refused to make state.
ments-or, If they made them lied
Many of the events to be inquired
into occurred two decades age
and memory was lacking, even il
fear of the gang had not sealed its
lips. The gang, with its secret
means of communication, knew all
that was going on and heaped VI
obstacles in the marshaps way. The
search lasted six months.
Then the officers got the name of
Jack Page 1t came to them as Nor
rison's had come, as a secret whose
telling, if known, meant death.
When they tried to find him, Page
evaded them. When they found him
he would not talk. Then. to use
police vernacular, they got some
thing on member of Pages family.
When they threatened him with ex-
posture of his relative. Page gave up.
IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY,
1908, THEY BROUGHT HIM TO
THIS CITY AND IN PAYNE'S OF
FICE HE TOLD HIS STORY.
Page is now more than eighty years
old. His hair and beard are long
and white and his strength is almost
gone. But his hunger for revenge
is keen and it was this that led him
on to tell all he knew about the
gang OF which he had been a member
for rs years, until others of it's mem
bers cast him off.
Working with the gang, Page had
fired barn at Leckleys Corners,
across the Michigan line. While it
was burning he noticed a set of new
harness hanging in a shed. He
could not resist the temptation, so he
threw the harness into his buggy
and drove back to his home near AL
vordton, Ohio.
He was traced and the harness
found. He was tried in Michigan
and sentenced to the Ionia reforma-
tory for six years. The Judge of
tn, civ TIn I'D .NffA, 4
to free him if he would inform on
the gang that was known to exist.
PAGE REFUSED AND WENT TO
PRISON.
When he was released he returned
to his old haunts, without money or
home. He appealed to Homer Nor
rison, Ira Bryant and Jack Taylor,
all well known in williamson, for
loan of $500 with which to begin
anew.
Il had chance to go free if I'd
tell what l knew" he said to them
Il saved you from the pen. You can't
afford to throw me down now"
But they did. From their virtuous
height of then-undetected guilt they
tainted him with being a convict
and told him to go strave for all they
cared
1t was revenge on these three only
that Page wanted, but when he once
began to talk, for all his cunning. he
was led on until he had implicated
practically all the surviving members
of the gang and some of the dead
ones.
And when he had told his story he
was an outcast from the community
he lad lived in Sc years. When he
had returned there from the Michi-
gan prison he had kept away from his
sons and daughters, lest the prison
faint disgrace them. Now, when he
had betrayed his former accomplices
his children cast him off. ia sooner
rot in fence corner than ask them
for help" he declares.
So "Old Jack" Page the states
star witness in the great firebug cases
in his appearance before grand
and petit juries, where his word Is
believed against that of his old COM
panions in crime.
lie says they have threatened his
life and he lives in constant terror
of violent death. Ever since he made
his confession, the fire marshals
have kept him under special guard
to ward off the gangs violence. He
is now in Columbus, where he will
be kept until the trials are resumed
at Bryan in February.
This account of the events leading
up to the Page confession Is given
here for the first time.
The 43 indictments that followed
the trials that were attended by
thousands OF relieved citizens, the
convictions and the sentences-in-
Guiding Morrison's 10 years in the
Columbus penitentiary on five charges
of arson-attracted attention all over
the United States.
But the work has only begun
Williams county is acquitting her
self nobly in the conviction OF 80
many of her citizens whose daul lives
OF crime the fire marshars investi-
gaton revealed. but Lucas and Full