The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-23
Believed to Be Head of Opera
lions Near Topeka.
HIS MIND A BLANK,
Processes to Know Nothing of
What Has Happened.
Old Timer With a Record Behind
Him.

horse thief known the country over as
Red was captured by the police last
night after putting a horse up in
North Topeka livery barn. Soon at
! ter coming into town, Chief Eaton
| learned that he had arrived and To-
Gated him at a house on lower Kan
sas avenue. The chief with Detective
Hutton and R. L. Zeller, the secretary
of the Anti-Horse Thief association
surrounded the place just in time to
take him as he bolted from the rear
door.
Red" was identified by Stewart
Henry as the man who put the horse
in his barn at e16 North Kansas ave-
nue. last night. "Red" helped care
for the horse and Henry had ample
time to know him. There was a big
hole in his overcoat sleeve, and he
changed a cap for a large hat at the
barn; these same garments were IN
| his possession today. He had said
that he would come for the horse ear
| ly this morning, but no one came.
Sweated for two hours, the man re-
| Trained from disclosing any connec-
| ton with the horse. He knows moth
| ing about such a horse, has never seen
the livery man before, insists that he
was slumbering peacefully when ar
/ rested, and denies that Chief Eaton
was the man who arrested him He
| ing and gave him lap robe, yet does
not know him. He claims that he was
| walked part way to the station and
| taken on a street car the remainder of
| the way when he rode all the way.
| He says he has been working on the
Kincaid grading gang for the last two
weeks. also that he has been carry
| ing a hod for somebody, he cannot
remember who, for the same length
of time. He says he has not been out
of the city at all. Yet he told Henry
| that the horse needed plenty of water
as it was used to drinking out of
creek. He could not tell why he had
not been working yesterday, said he
had dinner at a coIored restaurant.
Later he denied even that.
Confronted by all these contradic-
lions and evidences. Red began to
grow still more stupid. stated that he
had been drinking yesterday and was
full of bug juice and not responsible
for what he had said before, then he
complained of a sick headache. his
mind seeming to go so blank that he
could not even repeat what was told
him.
Col H c. Lindsey, chief of police a
dozen years ago, John Lucas who was
then a detective, and other detectives
Of that time. were called in and
identified the man as the man wanted
in Nebraska for horse stealing that
long ago and was captured here. Red,
then as now, was whining for whisky.
Kept in the hold-over and denied the
booze at that time, Red seized upon a
bottle of acid used for polishing
brass and thinking he had found his
friend. drank it. When the doctors
were called he refused to let them use
the pump but he was worth SIS, so
Lucas pried his mouth open with a
stick. Then he wouldn't drink milk
until enticed with the promise of a
reward of whisky. Taken back to
Nebraska, Red was sent to the
penitentiary for three years. Since
I,I1 ? I5 hot
he has been following the old game.
After all their former relations with
Red the officers feel sighted that he
refuses to recognize any one of them,
though he admits he has seen Col.
Lindsey somewhere.
The horse is a fine looking, slick,
dark horse about 15 ~ hands high.
No notice has yet been received of
likely taken from pasture, the owner
may not have missed it. Red is
known to have boosted to some one
yesterday that this was a clean get
away.
Chief Eaton feels confident that
they have at last broken into the
gang of horse thieves which has been
so busy in this part of the state
of operating here means a wedge into
the whole affair. Red once sold a
stolen horse to Col. Lindsey here, per-
haps that is why he thinks he saw him
once. Yet his mind for today is a
perfect blank.
The moguls OF the tunnel gambling
dive, Andy Dupree and Clarence Gregg,
were fined 800 each in police court last
afternoon for maintaining such a place.
Age made no difference with the house.
Boys of Is and 16 years were as well
come as others. A number of tables
were kept in operation all the time ac-
cording to the evidence. Three of these
green top tables from the den and the
testimony of Orville Richardson Dave
Underwood, and VIM. McClain, togeth-
err with the fact that fifteen men plead
ed guilty of being found in the place,
made the defense very weak attempt.
Kate Hoffman was fined $25 for keep
ing her disorderly house and her as
sistant with the nine Mexicans were
given SO each. Kate is too well known
to the police to escape notice, as a con-
sequence the town is getting too warm
for her business and she is thinking of
departing.
Lewis Wisdom. the diminutive black,
who yesterday pleaded guilty to dis
orderly conduct and began to work for
the city on the rocks, sprang through
the shed door this morning, escaping
the view of the guard who warned the
officers with a terrible yell. There was
a scurrying about the streets to head |
him off as it were, but Mitchell Bundy, |
jailer at the county Jail, happened to be
grabbed him and in minute he was
back on the pile with shackles to drag,
while he could see the rock pile grow
larger and larger in contemplation of
his heightened stay.
Thomas Stump, the convicted jointist |
who has promised to go to California |
and never return, evidently wants to |
leave the crowd laughing as he says
Good night" Thusly he writes to the |
chief: