The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-25
PAT GROVE WRITES
HIS CONFESSIONS
Crimes of the Beef Barons
Greater Than His
HELPED STARVING FAMILY
Trusts Hold Food for Ransom-When
in Prison He Saw No Million
aires Among the convicts.
Unique Defense.

From the New York World.
ION reading these confessions many
people will wonder why | am still at
large" says Pat Grove, kidnapper. eX
bandit and general western bad man. in
introducing his STORY, Confession and
Reformation book just out from the
press of C. w. Dillingham; Co., publish
ers, New York. Then he goes on to tell
why Pat Grove, who confesses to kid
mapping Eddie Cudahy and holding him
for ransom, was recently in New York
and tried his hand at newspaper report
ing for The World in a Fifth avenue
hold-up, which turned out to be more
humorous than serious though it was an
express wagon containing $4,000 in gold
that was stopped.
Il want to start, right by confessing
In plain English that | was guilty of the
Kidnapping" he says. 1T occurred in
1900. Eddie Cudahy was then a boy of
fifteen years. /, with an accompice,
took him from his home, kept him in
hiding for twenty-four hours and re-
turned him to his parents, unframed,
after the ransom had been paid to US
$4,000 in gold coin. Mr.. Cudahy did ex-
actly as we demanded. During the trial
Mr. Cudahy said on the witness stand
that he gave up the money for fear that
our threat of harm to his boy would be
carried out. At any rate, we got the
money"
In connection with this crime Grove
was recently tried in Omaha on the
charge of robbing Cudahy OF $4,000, but
he nf
| leaving him a free man.
| "If the jurymen leaned in my favor"
! writes Grove, they did it for the same
reason that lead me to the kidnapping--a
| belief that the law of our land has
| ceased to be a thing of strict justice and
right for our people. / have been made
to feel, this all my life by cruel circum-
stances | am not an anarchist. / be-
lieve in law If it is enforced fairly and
equally against all. | have done a lot
of wrong, but | am not a degenerate
criminal without moral sense. | am now
thirty-six years old. My criminal career
is closed, and / am starting out to make
whatever atonement | can for the evils
l have done.
Here is a point | want to make. The
big fortunes that have been made in this
country have been mostly made by men
who have broken the criminal law. Ed
ward A. Cudahy owns one of the big for
tunes | am thinking about. L nave no
grievance against him. He has time and
again befriended me. Nor am I trying
to satisfy a grudge against him. He Is
personally a big hearted, strong man; a
lot better than most Of those of his class.
Kidnapping and Trust Methods.
Mr.. fCudahy has Just been called to
Chicago on the charge that he and others
of the notorious beef trust have been
making illegal contracts which allow
them to pile money onto their already
fabulous fortunes. / held Eddie Cudahy
until the money was paid Mr.. Cudahy
was charged with restraint of trade in
holding the peoples food until the
money was paid.
IF Mr. Cudahy had been found guilty
his crime would in many ways have been
greater than mine. would have been
sentenced to ten years or more. If Mr.
Cudahy had been found guilty he would,
no doubt. have got out of 1t with a few
dollars fine. And then the price of meat
would probably have been put up until
he was reimbursed. For many years
have been thinking about these things
After telling of his boyhood he reaches
the point where he went to work for Mr..
Cudahy in his meat business in Omaha.
The first crime of his life was committed
after he began to work for Cudahy. One
day n former customer of his own went
to him and told him he was out of money
and that his family needed meat. He