The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-05-04
BILL RICHARDS TO Pen
fx-United States Marshal Will
Commence Eighteen Year
Sentence this Week.

Bill Richards, of Creston, the ex-
United States marshal who was convict
ed OF robbing an old man at Hamilton,
small town in Marion county, will enter
the doors of the state penitentiary at
Fit. Madison on Friday of this week to
commence serving the eighteen year
sentence which was imposed on him.
After Richards was found guilty his
attorneys filed notice of appeal to the
supreme court and Richards was releas-
ed on $4,000 bond signed by his father
who lives at Indianola. For some un-
known reason the attorneys did not ap-
peal the case to the supreme court and
last Saturday orders were issued to
take him to Ft. Madison to serve his
sentence. Richards>who has escorted
hundred of prisoners to Ft. Madison
after securing their conviction for var
ious crimes was in Des Moines Satur-
day, and upon hearing that the sheriff
of Warren county was going to take him
to prison in irons the same as he would
any other prisoner, vowed that he
would never go there in irons and left
Des Moines Saturday morning after
bidding his friends goodbye, telling
them that he was going to Ft. Madison
and surrender himself.
Considerable uneasiness was felt by
the officials when it was learned that
Richards had not gone to Ft. Madison,
and he is not there yet, but it is said
that he is in Illinois visiting his sister
and will report at the penitentiary on
Friday of this week. Owing to the un-
usual method of commencing a prison
sentence by voluntarily going to the
penitentiary without the escort of an
officer, the prison authorities are much
worried over the failure of Richards to
appear.
1t will be remembered that when sus-
picion rested on Richards after the
commission of the crime in which his
accomplice was shot by the man who
was robbed, Richards disappeared and
went to Mexico and all efforts of Off
GERS to locate him were fruitless. After
wandering over the country several
months Richard returned and gave him
self up, insisting that he was not guilty
of the crime. Some of the officials are in
clined to believe that with an eighteen
year sentence staring him in the face
that Richards has again disappeared,
and will not appear at the prison. Be-
fore leaving Des Moines Richards said
to some friends who went to the train
with him: ut is like knocking at my
tomb door for admission to my grave,
but go in as have lived, free man
and hoping to be resurrected by the
friends who believe in my innocence"
Richards is now 53 years of age. He
is scheduled to serve eighteen years be-
hind the walls of state prison into
whose confines his official acts have
caused more men to be placed than per-
haps any other man in the state of Iowa.
If he has disappeared it is not to be
wondered at, some say, as they figure
out the advanced age which he will
have attained when he is liberated.
Yet the'many friends which the con-
demned prisoner possesses, his influence
in the state of Iowa and the good record
made in the past were thought to be
mitigating circumstances which would
tend to shorten his term by parole or
pardon. The action of Richards in de-
Gliding to go to the penitentiary alone
was actuated by a desire to begin to
serve his long sentence as soon as pos
sible, he said, and to prevent the humil-
iation of being escorted on the train
with irons on his wrists.
LATER-A telegram from Ft. Madison
says that Richards has arrived in that
city and wired the sheriff of Warren
county that he would be at the depot
when he arrived Wednesday afternoon
to meet him, and would then be formal
ly taken to the penitentiary and COM
mence serving his sentence.