Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-03-15

The following from the Waukesha
Freeman concerning the recent arrest
of Adolph K. Hourack on the charge
of arson, will be of interest to the
readers of The Leader:
Adolph E. Hourack, general mana
ger of the Waukesha Stone q Quarry
Co., has confessed that he set fire to
and burned the plant of the company,
September 2, and that he wrote to
himself three threatening letters.
which purported to come from a
Black Hand" society. The letters
were designed to avert suspicion from
himself as to the cause of the fire and
also to give him an excuse for leaving
the company, as he desired to do after
he realized the crime he had COM
mitted. The original cause which
Hourack gave for burning the plant
was that it was old fashioned and not
up-to-date and he wanted a better
plant.
The case is most curious one and
has given Milwaukee detectives who
have been employed on it a good deal
of difficulty. Hourack gave out the
three threatening letters which he had
received and the detectives have for
six weeks been exerting every effort
to find the writer of them. Finally
handwriting experts were put to work
on the letters and suspicion was di-
rected to Hourack. He was taken to
the detective agency and put through
the sweating process. He soon con-
fessed that he had written the letters
to himself but denied that he had set
the fire. Later he admitted also this.
The confession was as follows:
"Adolph E. H1urack, being first
duly sworn on oath, deposes and says
that he resides in the town of Pewau
kee, Waukesha county, state of Wis
consIn, that he so resided there dur
ing all times herein mentioned and for
the past year. The affiant further
says that on the second day of Sep
tember, 1906, at about IL 80 a. m, IN
the forenoon being Sunday, he went to
the said Waukesha Stone & Quarry
company plant in the town of Pewau-
kee, Waukesha county, state of Wis
consin, and that he, Adolph E. Hour
ack took a match and set fire to
waste in the crusher house. After it
H. La 20 /,
barn; he remained IN said barn of the
Waukesha Stone & Quarry company
until the place was burning about
twenty minutes. He then went to the
office of said quarry and notified the
city fire department. He remained
there until the place was burned to
the ground.
'Affiant Furthermore says that he
was not authorized by anyone to set
said place atire, but he did SO of his
own free will, as the plant being an
old one, he desired to get new one
IN it's place and the only way that he
thought he could get new plant was
TO set IRE 10 Tic Olu OHS-
'Atfiant furthermore says regarding
the letter dated Aug. 8, 1906, ad-
dressed to A. E. Hourack and reads
as follows:
A. E. Hourack.
You better be careful what you are
doing. We want you to leave here
by Sept. 7, or we Will burn the place
and do worse to you. b. H.
Also the following letter dated Feb
ruary s, 1907, received by him, by
mail at Waukesha, which reads as
follows:
You don't seem to pay any atten-
tion to our worning of last Aug We
Will do the same ting over if you
don't leave there in 80 days rember
we will put you in ground. b. H.
Also the following, dated Feb. %,
mailed at Pewaukee, Wis, on the 2Sth
day of Feb, uary, 1907, addressed to
+. A. Hourack, Waukesha, Wis.
which reads as follows:
'Hourack.
The best ting you can do is to quit
the quarry after the s of March we
will lay for you rember the s. B. II.
Affiant furthermore says that the
above named letters were all writer
bv him and addressed to himself II
the office of the Waukesha Stone anc
Quarry company. He furthermore
saws that there as no one else impll
Gated in the writing of these letters
but himself, and he knows If no rea
son for writing them only that he de
sired to get away from the plant.
Affiant furthermore says that h
has made this statement from his owl
free will without any threats OF ar
rest or prosecution in the presence o
Willibald Hoffman, president OF tn
Waukesha Stone and Quarry company
in the Office Of Riemer & Wiisol
Detective agency, room 8, Macl
block, city of Milwaukee, state o
Wisconsin, Charles w. Wilson being
present at the time these statement
were made.
Subscribed and sworn to before m
this l1th day of March, 1907.
A. E. Hourack.