The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1906-03-23
MICHIGAN
HAPPENINGS
ROBBERY IN BROOKLYN
FOLLOWED BY MUIR
DER IN. JACKSON.
PoSTOFFicE SAFE DYNAMiTED
AND $500, IN MONEY AND
STAMPS TAKEN.
POLICE OFFICER TRYING TO TAKE
The BURGLARS TO JAIL SHOT
DEAD BY ONE OF THEM.
Brooklyn Robberies.

The burglary or the poStofnce SaIe
at Brooklyn, a wild night drive for 10
miles through a blizzard in stolen
rig, a pitched battle with pistols with
a posse of officers, and the murder OF
Police Sergeant Fred H. Booth, of
Jackson, form the hurried and sensa-
tional incidents of one of the most
thrilling criminal episodes Jackson
county has known in years.
The explosion in the postofflce at
Brooklyn was heard by few persons,
but Brooklyn has learned several les
sons from bandits in late years, and
no alarm was given. For many years
Brooklyn has suffered from bank rob-
berries almost annually and the flour
ish of banditti outposts' pistols has al
ways checked interference.
Early morning the ruins of the post
Office safe were discovered, together
with the fact that $400 in money and
5000 in stamps were missing. jackson
was notified. Quickly the news was
flashed back from there that a jack
son police officer had been murdered
by strangers. The escape from the lit
tie village OF Brooklyn was made with
a horse and buggy stolen from p. w.
Aldrich, a harness dealer. The ma
terials used in the compound OF the
nitroglycerin, 1t is declared in Brook
Ign, used to blow up the safe were
stolen from Robertson Bros. a. Cobb's
drug store, which had been entered
| during the night.
The three men-it is alleged that as
In previous robberies in Brooklyn three
men accomplished this-drove madly
out of Brooklyn, across the winding
road to Napoleon, thence west on the
turnpike, which is one of the loneliest
roads in the county, TO the road which
| leads into Michigan Center, a sum-
mering place where many saloons do
| business.
From Michigan Center the bandits
cautiously worked their way into Jack
son along the road that leads past
| Jackson Junction, where a number OF
boarding houses are located
Their actions about Newcomb's
boarding house aroused suspicion, and
| officers were notified early in the
morning, although no reports of the
Brooklyn robbery were yet known.
Sergt. Booth, accompanied by Sheriff
| Parrish and Deputy McInerney made
| for the junction, about two miles from
the center of Jackson, and placed three
men under arrest The men appeared
| to submit quietly, and were being
walked along the street TO patrol
signal box when suddenly one turned
on Booth and shot him through the
head. The officer dropped, Instantly
killed.
This was the signal for the other
| two prisoners to attempt TO escape and
a pistol duel between the two officers
and the two remaining prisoners oc-
CURED over Booths body.
The man who shot Booth fed. The
man who was engaged with Mclnerney
made good his escape, and the third
was taken into custody by the sheriff
and his deputy.
The captured man gives his name as
John Walsh. of San Francisco, Cal.
| He is not known TO the police. He de-
MES all knowledge of the Brooklyn
crime and says he. with his compan-
ions, came into Jackson on freight
train and just stopped off for break
fast.
He says the two who escaped were
the chance acquaintances of hobo
journey. He gives his age as %, is .
feet ~ inches high, and weighs about
$50 pounds. That the trio OF which
Walsh msde one were the men who
committed the Brooklyn depreciation
is believed from the fact that when
Walsh was searched a number OF
stamps, dynamite, nitroglycerin and 49,
caliber cartridges were found on him.
| He is a cool specimen, and severe
| "sweating" failed to discomfort him.