Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-09
SUNDAY SCHOOL SCHOLAR
TRIES TO BLACKMAIL
Continued from Page One

With the opening of spring was sent to
the Stone Mountain academy. He re-
NAMED there only a few days and the
next his father heard or him he was
back in Gainesville.
Mr.. Johnson says that the boy return
ed to Gainesville to see the girl he had
left there.
The boy says that he did not. He says
that his parents are continually under
the delusion that he is in love with some
one or other and that they have thought
several times that he had been secretly
married. In reality, however, he is in the
safe condition of having an equal admi-
ration for every pretty face. He says
that there are blue eyes in Gainesville
that he admires quite as much as brown
ones, and that there are no particular
pair of brown eyes that he would give
I all the world for.
The fathers explanation is that the boy
was possessed for the time being with
the idea of acting the desperate.
The boy says that he was merely play
ing an April fools joke.
Mr.. Gambler regards it as something
more serious. and the police are taking
| it so seriously that a warrant, charging
misuse of the mails will be sworn out for
johnson Wednesday afternoon in the
United States court, and he will after
wards be charged before the county grand
jury with blackmailing. The punishment
in the former case would be Imprisonment
from u to IS months, and in the laSter,
! Imprisonment from one to ten year,. 1t
| is understood, however that the case in
| the state court will not be pushed.
The boy himself will be Is years old
on the 18th of this month. He Is the son
of Daniel William Johnson, dealer in
sand and stone, at % East Hunter street,
] and he lives in Druid Hills, about one
mile and a half beyond the end of the
Moreland avenue car line.
! His statements since being arrested
have conficted. He said at first that he
was forced to write the two letters by
three unknown men who threatened mis-
4 life unless he did so. He has now OK
planned that he himself alone is RESPONSE
BILE for the letters, and that the thi &c men
he spoke of had no hand in the affair
Intentionally, though they gave MIN the
J idea, which he evolved and completed.
| He says that the first of last week he
was sitting in the orchard at his home,
when three men who seemed to be stroll
ling about, stopped and sat down to rest.
I One he says was portly, one was average
height, and the third was understood and
dressed like a tramp. The three began to
talk of how easily a scheme of blackmail-
ling or kidnapping could be carried out, and
4 how SlRnI WOulu DS VI SaP-
ture if only reasonable caution were ex-
ercised.
1 They Law under a peach tree that was
beginning to flower, and Johnson sat neal
them. The small one who was dressed
as a tramp, elaborated a scheme and told
infinitely how a wealthy man could be
Iblackmailed. They sat talking for about
20 minutes, then they left.
| Johnson SAYS that the germ of the idea
that he evolved into the plan that has
Handed him in prison was then put into
Ibis brain From a trunk in his room he
lunearthed a store of nickel weeklies that
lhe saws he used to read necessarily.
But for three months he had read none
at all. He had simply got tired of them
he saws. But he went back to their vel
low pages and read with avidity and from
them he got the adjectives and the tul
l form of the two letters he sent
His taste has always inclined to 'Dia-
! mond Dick and Mick Carter" and Il
was from numbers of these two that ne
drew his chief inspiration. He says thai
he used to lie on his back and dream OF
the doings of these two and long to live
the wondrous lives they lived.
So he read the nickel weeklies and wrote
the first black hand letter. But he says
that from the very first he simply in
tended to play joke on Mr.. Gambler.
i Jokes on Me Now"
"r thought I would have a joke on him
i for the rest of his llfe,' he said Wed
nesday morning "But now the jokes or
me. I'll never play another one, you car
bet on that.
After the first letter, he says that he
wrote the second to carry the JOKE stu
further. and telephoned to have little
| fpfanHaH n tell Mr.
Gambler all about it and have good
laugh.
At hrst he said that he was compelled
Inv the three men to telephone but he al
tered that statement. He says that wher
he began to telephone he was alone in the
house, but that his mother came in be-
fore he finished and he had to cut of
connection without being able to explain
to Mr.. Gambler as he had intended.
To make the joke more complete h'
SAYS that he had left the impression with
Mr.. Gambler that he was one Of a gang
though he insists now that he acted by
himself In telephoning he told Mr.
Gambler that the gang were leaving
town Tuesday afternoon and that he must
furnish them with all the money he had.
After much parley, which Mr.. Gambler
used as a ruse to secure police, it was
] agreed that Mr.. Gambler should drop a
package containing $1,000 on MorelanC
avenue, and then he was compelled to cut
off, He says that after that he went to
Moreland avenue merely to protect Mr.
Gambler; for believing that the money
really would be dropped he intended to
secure It and give it to Mr.. Gambler.
He says that he saw the package where
It had been thrown and that he sat down
to watch to see that it wasn't stolen, and
that when he was preparing to return
home he was arrested.
Commitment trial was waived by Dan
lei w. Johnson, Jr., Wednesday after
noon, when the preliminary hearing OF
the charge of fraudulent use of the mails
was convened before United States Com
missioner Walter ColQuitt. Bond was
fixed by the commissioner at $1,000.
D. w. Johnson, the boys father, stated
| at that hour that he would be success
full in raising the required bond for his
! son.
Shortly after o'clock, young John
sons bond was made and he went free
| rhe bond was signed by S. A. Williams.
| q friend Of the Johnson family.
|
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