Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-09-24
MS LAST CHAPTER.

HIS LAST CHAPTER.
Sherman Morris, alias Frank Sher-
cliffe and bearer of a half dozen other
names was sentenced to Is years
in the Colorado penitentiary yesterday
for murder This is probably the last
chapter of the story OF this man VINO
achieved wide criminal notoriety and
whose path has left a noisome trail
across the pages of Iowa political his
tory as we'll as on the records of the
criminal courts of the state. Twenty-Five
wears means life to this man. If per-
chance, he lives out his term he Will
emerge from the prison gates. old,
friendless and without refuge.
He had better have died in infancy.
better for himself, for his parents and
relatives, for the good of human kind
in general AS a youth he took a PEN
itentislry sentence for robbery. Once
; out of prison he became one OF the
most desperate and iron nerved high
extends over half a continent. Finally
he robbed a jeweler of a fortune in
diamonds in broad daylight on train
escaping with his booty after shooting
his victim and terrorizing other pas
sengers. He was apprehended and sent
to an Iowa penitentiary for a long
term. And then his connection with
Iowa statesmen" began. The story
has been told over and over Later
Shercliffe told it on the witness stand
and a fierce cross examination failed
to shake him. 1t brought the under
world OF highwaymen; gamblers and
their ilk so close to men in high places
that 1t astounded and Mortified the
state.
Then Shercliffe reformed. For time
he seems to have been earnest In his
desire to live honestly, or at least to
have been convinced that honesty is the
better policy. He married and had
children. Then 1t appears life grew
tame and day wages too slow. Accord
ing to the confession of his wife and
alleged pals he went back to the high
way and the profession of holdup man.
Next a, Colorado sheriff nabbed him
outside of Iowa where he had been
given a new chance and 1t was all up
with shercliffe.
Whether he committed the crime for
which, he has just been sentenced will
always be a mooted question in the
minds OF the men who know most
about the circumstances that group
about this criminal. They know that
gang of gamblers and crooks were
on shercliffffes trail. He had committed
the objectionable sin when he gave
up" to jury. They were out to get
him. And many will believe that
when he took twenty-five years at Lead
Vile, they got him." But even among
those who befriended Shercliffe and by
their protection gave him the new
chance, the feeling ObtalnS Nhat Inns
desperate man is safest behind bars
and that an enemy to law and society
has bene retired from pernicious ac-
tivity.
Utterly without fear, with iron
nerves mistaken by fourteen years of
penitentiary life, stirred and moved by
an irresistible criminal impulse, with
out an apparent glimmer of moral con-
seriousness, this was an extremely dan
gerous man. He had his chance and
threw it away Had he stayed in Iowa,
refrained from actual crime he might
have defied the gamblers who sought
reprisal and lived at freedom. AS it is
he faces burial alive and even those
who felt pity for and demanded oppor-
tunity Tor him are forced to draw q
bre;uth of relief to know that he is DO.
yond the power to harm others.
I