The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-10-06
Declares Young Cudahy Put
Up Kidnapping Plan.
How the Big Roll Of Money
Was Divided.
Mother of Youth Scouts Story;
Says It's Ridiculous.

Butte, Mont, Oct 4-Pat Grove, who
was arrested in Butte last night by two
detectives after he had been openly
about the city for a week, and had in
troduced himself to various persons has
made sensational statement relative
to the Kidnapping of Eddie Cudahy, de-
claring that the proposition to work the
boys father for ransom came from
the boy himself.
Grove gives a story of his life and
says he was a prosperous butcher in
South Omaha when the elder Cudahy
came there, built a packing house and
drove him out of the business. After
that he went to work for Cudahy and
thus became acquainted with the fam
lily.
On Sept. 6, 1900, he met young Cud-
ahy on the street and the boy first
preached the subject of working the
old man" for big ransom, he says. At
first Grove paid no attention to the
proposition, built was repeated later
and with such details that he concluded
to 60 in with the boy. A third person
was taken in, but he got "cold feet"
believing the scheme was a trap. The
Cudahy boy proposed demanding $4,000
from his father, but Grove and Gala
scheme, thought $4,000 was enough.
The story of Grove as to how the kid
mapping was worked and how Cudahy
drove out into lonesome place and left
the money agrees fully with the first
published stories of the affair, but he
says young Cudahy was, the leading
spirit in the adventure and was never
prisoner.
The three divided the $4,000, young
Cudahy being given $4,000 as his share.
He was then taken to his home and left
a few blocks from the Cudahy house.
Grove Tells the Story.
In his statement Grove says: 81 was
laying low in Omaha one day at the
corner of Twentieth and Farnam streets,
when l met Eddie Cudahy, as 1 have
told you. He knew me as having at
one time worked for his father, and /
knew who he was.
"'Pat,' he said, "we can make $25, 1000
| need money and I guess you do, too
This was in the early part of September,
the Cudahy family having returned from
their summer vacation trip on Sept. 2.
Then, while we were standing on the
corner, Eddie briefly mapped out the
kidnapping plan, which we later execut-
ed
cat first I thought he was just kid.
ding; that it was crazy idea that he
had no thought of going through with.
| met him again and he had the scheme
mapped out in earnest, to the smallest
detail.
'Then 1 saw he was in earnest and
decided to go in with him. l got an
other fellow and we began to work on
the plan. Everything was arranged for
pulling off the deal in October, just
month before it really occurred.
One Got "Cold Feet"
"Then, just a few days before the
kidnapping was to have taken place, my
partner, the third man in the deal, got
cold feet and he thought it was trap
and quit. We had to postpone the move
and wait until could find another man,
which l did within few weeks, and
again the time of the kidnapping was
fixed. 1t was Nov. Is and the plan as
originally mapped out by young Ed
Cudahy was executed on Nov. with, of
course, few slight alterations.
"a vacant house on Melrose hill, about
a mile and half distant from the Cud-
ahy home, was rented for the place
where young Cudahy should be detain-
ed. About o'clock on the morning of
the 18th, just before his parents came
home, young Cudahy was to leave the
house and 60 out a block and q half
distant and meet my partner and I,
who were to be in a buggy waiting for
him, We were there as per arrange.
ment, and young Cudahy came as he
said he would.
'He got into the buggy with US of
his own accord and rode with us to
the vacant house. Then returned and
threw the letter demanding the ransom
into the yard. There is no use saying
just how we agreed on the division of
the money, especially between my part
ner and me, but we counted out 5000
and handed it over to Eddie Cudahy. He
slowed it away and we Immediately