The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1909-01-01
Fred Michael, the Young
Desperate, Brought to the
County Jail in Mont
gomery.
FATHER And COUSIN HERE
He makes a Confession, and
Attributes His Downfall
to "a Drunken Spree.

Lying on his cot in the Mont
gomcry county Jail, Fred Michael
alias Henderson, the young des-
peredo who robbed the Wabash
depot at Salisbury and the Chica-
go & Alton depot at Centralia
and killed Elmer Magruder and
dangerously wounded city mar
shall Cain in a successful effort to
escape, made a confession Satur-
to a reporter of the TRIBUNE. Go
ing into the details OF his BASTARD
1y crimes covering a period of on
ly two weeks duration, he attrib-
uted his down fall to a drunken
spree at Salisbury a week ago
yesterday, when he and his two
partners, Bud and James Ander-
son decided to rob the Wabash
depot at that place. He now says
he has nothing to conceal and
proposes to tell the truth and is
ready to take his punishment
whether it be the gallow, peniten-
tiary or reform school.
While Michael is only seven
teen years old he is rather intelli-
gent and does not look like a boy
capable of his record of the last
ten days. He holds a teachers
certificate and is well educated
for his age. He has an open
countenance, brown eyes and
black hair and was clad in a suit
of overalls, a wooden sweater and
a plain sack coat. His thought
seemed to be to shield his parents
of any trouble OF expense and in
sists that he was more guilty than
his two pals, the Anderson Bros.
who are now confined in the coun-
Jail at Huntsville waiting trial. He
seemed determined to tell the
truth and to take his punishment,
and at first rejected a suggestion
that he was badly in need of legal
advice.
ain my own conscience" said
the young prisoner, 81 do not feel
guilty of murder only that of rob-
berry committed while on a drunk
en- spree. The two young men,
Bud and Jim Anderson, aged
seventeen and nineteen respective
~, have been travelling over the
country with me. I have known
these two young men for about
n year. We all reside near La
Plata, Mo. We found We were
short of money to execute a theat-
rical plan we had in mind and at
ter drinking and ylaying pool
and carousing around at Salisbury
one of the party said-"Suppose
we hold up the Wabash depot
here tonight" I said no, lets not
do that but we kept on carousing
and drinking and then the robbery
was suggested again and we
planned to execute it. Armed
with pistols, we went to the office.
displayed our fire arms and told
the agent and others to hold ur
their hands and deliver the cash,
We told them if they acted
promptly there was not the least
danger of being hurt. Theys re.
sponded both cheerrully ant
promptly. We then made oul
way to Higbee where we were ar
rested. We were taken to the jai
and searched but the officers faileC
to find my pistol. He relieved thu
Anderson boys of their weapons
AS the officers were locking US vi
I had a mind to shoot him in thu
arm and make him drop the Ike,
and thus give myself and partner
a chance to escape. l shot one
or twice in my excitement but di'
not know I had killed anyone un
til arrested at Mexico. OF cours
1 am sorry / am guilty of murde
but l am willing to take my pun
ishment. 1t must have been a
accidental shot that killed office
Magruder.
1 do not know how much none,
we'got at Salisbury OF Centralia