The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-01-31
Makes a Clean Breast of Burg
larry He Committed.
Nolan ]. Whiteside to Be Taken
To the Wisconsin City.
Declared That His Partner in
Jobs Was "Tom Tit.

St. Iaul, Jan. ZJ.-DuflnS lnOlnenC
of religious excitement at the Mime
apolis Charity mission, 2O5 Cedar av-
enue, Nolan, j. Whiteside, rose to his
feet and dramatically confessed long
series of crimes, the chief among them
being particularly bold burglary COM
mitted four years ago at Madison,
Wis, when the residence of L. NJ.
Hanks, 525 Washington avenue, was
robbed of silyerware and jewelry val
ued at several hundred dollars.
Details of his career were made
known by Whiteside to E. G. Masters,
superintendent of the mission, and he
soon found himself in custody of de-
tectives. Last evening he was turned
over to Detective Boyd of the Madi-
son police force.
Whiteside insists that he never be-
fore was so happy as he is now. He
continually quotes Scripture to illus
trate his complete peace of mind. De-
tective Balkan. of the Minneapolis po-
lice force made the arrest. "Good for
you!" was Whiteside's greeting to
the officer. .''Now let us pray" said
the prisoner. The detective had no
particular objection, but during the
supplication he kept his eye on the
penitent prisoner and his hand near
his revolver.
Comes From Good Family.
Whiteside insists that his career has
been a bad one, a complete record
of his misdeeds being revelation to
the police officers of the northwest.
All of his admissions are backed up
by minute descriptions of the crimes
committed and in many instances the
details as he gives them coincide with
records in the hands of the police.
Whiteside says that he is the son
of British army officer; that he was
born in Gibraltar and grew up in In
dia He is about forty years old and
has been a wanderer in this country
since he was young man. He insists
/ that Whiteside is his real name but
says he was generally known as John
O'Brien' among his associates Ill lum-
Der camps and on "the road
| The prisoner is well educated He
converses fluently in three languages
and is well posted on general sub
iects. He has studied the Bible and
can recite entire chapters from MEM
DRY. Whiteside detailed long series
, of crimes in which he said he had tax
ell hand but the Madison job he
described as the biggest of them all.
The next in Importance, he said, was
the robbery of a priests house at Du-
buque, Iowa, where gold chalice and
several other sacred articles were
stolen.
Won Victory, He Said.
| When taken to the central station
| the prisoner made the following state
ment:
81 feel as if / had won great
victory. 1t is now four years since
another man and l robbed Mr.. Hawks
! house in Madison and | have not had
days peace of mind since then. !
want to. get right with God, no matter
| if l have to 60 to jail to do 1t. My
partners name is Tom TIT and
wish you police would get him, as he
tried to kill me more than once. He
| is certainly a bad man, Tor he led
me into all my evil ways. It's a
fine thing to have clear conscience
and | feel like new man"
The "Tom Tit" is not a myth by
any means for the Madison police have
arrested "Tom Tit" number OF
times, but Detective Boyd said they
never had succeeded i'll getting suffl-
cient evidence to convict. Now that
lNhiteside is ready to testify better
results are expected.