The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-04-23
John Locke Cannot See Why
He Should Be Called Wayne
County's Desperate.
SAYS IT is SPITE WORK
SOME PEOPLE, HE ASSERTS, TO
AVOID PUNISHMENT, HAVE PUT
THEIR CRIMES ON HIM-LovEs
WIFE AND BABIES. /
To Editor OF Palladium, Richmond.

To Editor OF Palladium, Richmond.
Ind.
Mr.. Editor, Dear Sir:-Believing
that can get fair treatment through
your paper, concluded to say a few
words regarding myself through the
Palladium.
There has been so much said and
printed about me in the local newspa-
pers, that I concluded 1t was time for
me to say few words in behalf of my.
self First, to begin with, where and
what did l ever do that l am named
as a desperate desperate? What
crime did ever commit to deserve the
above name? Why am l accused to
have committed every crime on the
calandar? Why is it, If / am such q
bad and dangerous man, and have COM
mitted all these crimes mentioned.
that / was not arrested long ago? T.
was easy to be found. was living at
Mattoon, ILL.,, and was working on. the
road (there, between Indianapolis and
ST. Louis for three years.) was not
hiding from any one nor was going
under AN assumed name, as the papers
SO stated some time ago.
Why He is So Accused.
I will tell you why am accused OF
all these crimes. The ones who
were really guilty of committing them
saw a way to divert suspicion from
themselves by laying it at my door
and I get the credit of 1t all. Now.
dear reader, did it ever occur to your
mind that I might be innocent of a
great many things that am accused
of, or are you just like great many
other people, just because you read of
these things in newspaper you know
them to be facts? Do you ever stop
long enough to consider this matter se-
riously? Just because some one says
that did so and so, and the newspa-
pers take 1t up and write up great
big story, and paint me as black as
they possibly can; that is no reason
that l am guilty; for if everybody was
guilty and convicted of the crimes that
the papers write up, there would not
be enough prisons In this country to
hold one-tenth of the people convicted.
Don't be too hasty to condemn,
because whe a person is locked
up in -. 1t does not
prove that he has committed
crime; nor does it prove that COM
mitted the crime that l am accused OF
here in Wayne county, just because
ran away from the officers at Hagers-
town last spring, one year ago. There
could be other reasons for me to wishl
to avoid arrest; nor does it prove thatl
am guilty of the crime mentioned
just because the real guilty ones saw a
way to clear themselves by putting it'
on to me, for they knew l was gone
and they expected to never see mo
again. Was it not an easy mtter for
them to lay the blame on me and there
by hope to escape punishment at
some one else's expense?
Spite Work In It.
There is a whole lot of spite work
behind all this, too. There are people
around Hagerstown that I never did
any harm to in my life. that
seem to take delight In
doing me all the injury they
can by circulating stories that they
positively know to be false. Some
one started a report last spring when
they caused my parents to be arrested,
that my mother upheld me In doing
wrong. Now, want to say right
here that this report is an Infamous
falsehood, for ever since Can remem-.
Der, my mother has always taught me
never to do anything wrong, and to be
honest in all my dealings. 1t would
f.. CONTINUED to Page Eighty