The San Francisco call., 1909-08-21
TWO KINDS OF
SPIRITS PLAY
PART IN PLOT
Elderly JeweIer Accuses Liquor
Dealer of Raising Ghosts to
Obtain Wealth
Antics of Spurious SpOOks AS
sisted by COpiOuS Drafts of
Fiery Liquids

Ghosts have brOughttsobriety into the
home OF Arthur Eaton. an elderly jew
eIer, OF $50 Shrader street. and have
placed Joseph Landgran, liquor drum
mer, behind the bars Of the city prison.
Eaton yesterday swore TO a warrant
charging vagrancy against Landgraff,
and al the same time unfoIded what he
says was a ghOstly4pIOt TO frighten him
out OF mis- wealth In the plot he i'm
piicates his whole household, his bride.
his sister ia law and her husband, Mr..
and Mrs. Lester FitzsimmOns. and above
all Landgraff. chief ghOstsan distribu-
ter Of drinks. He can forgive the
others, and he does: but not Landgrsff.
The unreasonable thing about the
ghosts that haunted the little red cot
tsge in Shrader street. according to
Eaton. was the way they had Of hitting
people with hard substances and blunt
instruments As Eaton began 20 sober
Up from a year old spree a week ago
he began TO reason on the subject OF
ghosts and grew skepucaI Then he
saw through the whole plot Acting on
mis- suspicion he had talk with the
park police station.
DETECTIVES CAPTURE GHOST
Thursday night about o'clock Detec-
tiyes De la Guerra and Hyland seereted
themselves in the basement Of the cot
tage Above came grOans, whoops.
yeus, bumps, thuds and other forms OF
.7ov dir
detectives made a quick run up the
stairs and upon the ghosts. Of whom
The most active We're Fitzsimmons and
Landgrah. While they were waiting
Tor I.andgran to dress, FitzsimmOns,
with one hand handcuffed, jumped out
or 2 window Is feet 10 the ground and
escaped Yesterday morning he was
arrested and taken 10 the park sta
tion. where he was released from his
handouts and given bail
IN never drink another drop as long
as 1 live" Eaton said yesterday in his
jewelry store in Post street He is a
well built man. smooth shaven, of fiorid
complexion and white hair. com
press Of cotton across his nose de-
Iracted from his otherwise disTln-
gufshed appearance, a visible reminder
Of the prowess Of the Shrader street
ghosts Eaton is a native of Vermont.
PLEDGE AGAINST LIQUOR
80. sir. III never touch another drop
OF liquor il I live 10 be 100 years old.
said Eaton. When I got sober a week
ago ] saw il all. What I've gone
through the last two weeks would kill
an ordinary man ] knew 1t WASH
ghosts-that is, when I got into con-
dition TO think about H. They used 10
soak me on the back OF the head with
peaches. pears and pillows. and some
times with hard things. Even IL there
Were ghosts they wouldn't pick up
things like that. Then there were pis-
tolls fired. I saw the bullet holes in the
wall. You can't blame that on to
spooks. you know.
These people tried TO knock me out
mentally and physically. But it didn't
work. Landgraff was at the bottom
of it all. He never gets drunk him
self-he's drunkproof-but the rest Of
us are easily affected. Fitzsimmons.
who is as nice boy as I ever knew,
gets crazy with it. So Landgran got
the women and all under his influence
by liquor But il won't happen again" f"
MONEY DOES NOT MATTER
Eaton dismissed the money subject
by saying the money didn't matter. He
owns his cottage. two other small
pieces Of property. a lot in Mill VAL
ley and his jewelry business. He told
the detectives however that a woman
Lsndgrsn brought 10 his place from
the Hotel Mason a month before his
marriage got away with $4,000 of
which Landgraff got the principal
share The others did him. he said,
out Of another $1,000.
Landgraff has lived. off and on. at
EstOn's house for six years He mar
red Eaton's daughter. who is said to
be working now as a musician in a
Pacific street dance hail. deserving her
husband. After the Hotel Mason woma n
was sent away. Landgran promised
the old man a young wife. and intro
duced another. A month later the cou-
pie were married, July 26. The bride
gave her age as % al the time
Landgraff is well known in Mill Val
ley. where his father has q livery
stable. He drove there himself until
three years ago. when he became drum
mer for the Mart a wholesale LIQUOR
business in Fillmore street He indig-
nantly denies having any part in the
plot
ALL A JOKE, SAYS LANDGRAFF
It's fierce" Landgraff said yester-
DAY behind the bars. He is denied bail
until the investigation is completed
Gee this is the worst ! ever heard of
Ny folks are refined people, you know
never got a cent out of Eaton.
paid him room rent used TO hide his
whisky TO try to keep him sober, and
helped him out when he got tangled
up with q woman e few months ago
And this is the thanks / get. Well. the
trouble is, he's crazy from drink-hits
II up on the quiet all the time
'Spooks? Why. that's a joke, all a
Joke. The old man thought it was
great sport
It's all this fellow Fitzsimmons. He
used to sharpen knives outside the ole
mans door TO scare him, and I guess
his bunch did get TO him for some