Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-09
SUNDAY SCHOOL PUPIL TRIED
TO BLA CK-HAND a. c.. GAMBLER
Daniel w. Johnson, IT,, 10
Years Old, Threatens Mil
lionaire With Death If He
Doesn't Give Up Large Sum
Father Thinks There Is Girl in Case.
But Young johnson Says it Was
Only April FOOLS Joke-HOw Cap
ture Was Effected.

Last Friday April 2 Mr.. Gambler re-
ceived in his mornings mail a letter,
scrawled in a printed hand. which COM
manded him to put $s5,Oco under the steps
of the pastors study of the Inman Park
Methodist church. Fail to put the sum
there or bIab it,. the mysterious COM
munication read, ''and hell will be to pay.
nothing more nor less than DEATH" Mon
day night, April 5th, was the time desig-
mated.
do not fail or you will be blown to
received a second letter. reminding him of
the former and ending thus:
do not fail or you will be blown TO
kingdom come before day, Tuesday,
April 9Th
Both missives were signed with q
black hand, penned in heavy ink.
Mr.. Gambler drew $4,000 from the bank
and placed a decoy package under the
steps OF the church, taking the actual
money to his home. He drew out the
money in the belief that he was being
watched. All of Monday night until far
Into the dawn detectives hidden within the
church watched, but no one came. Tues
day afternoon shortly after O'Clock,
while Mr.. Gambler was in his private Of
fee at the Coca-Cola building, he was
called over the telephone.
You didn't put the money under the
church steps as I told you,' came
troubled voice.
Yes, I did," answered the capitalist
The conversation continued for some
time. The police were notified instantly
and Bicycle Officers Belcher and Wood
were soon on the wire listening. After
much parrying the person who had called
up agreed to accept for the time being
$1,000
Ride out on the Moreland avenue car"
;Ie said, land drop 1t wrapped in a white
handkerchief on the east side of the av-
enue between Annabel street and Hale's
new house Come about o'clock. I'll get
it all right and you'll suffer no harm II
you do as l say"
That was the last coil in the net that
proved Johnson's final detection and cap
ture.
Decoy Is Prepared
Securing a dozen coca-cola doilies OF
tissue paper and wrapping them into
small packet about which he tied his
handkerchief, SIr. Gambler boarded the
car accompanied by Detectives Lockhart
and Coker. Some distance from the APP
pointed spot, the officers swung off the
car and took a roundabout path. Mr..
CanGler alighted at the point agreed uT'-
on. - -
He saw a boy on mule riding up the
road. The two exchanged good after
Moons The boy kept on his way Mr..
Gambler put the packet under stone
and turning back, caught car into
town.
Then the detectives began their vigil.
The boy continued riding back and forth
always keeping within eye-shot of the
stone Three quarters of an hour passed.
IT was growing DINNER every moment
This portion of Moreland avenue IS
lonesome. thinly settled vicinity with
trees growing close to the roadside and
Yields stretching away on either side. Inc
light was deepening to gray shadows
The officers stole nearer from their hid
ing places One of them squatted behind
a large rose bush and the other benlno an
apple tree with its boughs growing close
to the earth.
Detectives Get Him
Finally the boy dismounted and began
stroIling about, throwing pebbles Inc
detectives for a moment thought that TINS
might be signal for his confederates,
but no one else came in sight. Finally ne
got into the saddle again and rode closer
and closer to the spot where he evidently
expected to find the money deposited He
leaned far out from the stirups, but IN the
gathering darkness he could not see what
he was searching for.
Then all of a sudden the detectives
sprang up, seized the mules bride ana
arrested Johnson.
A brown-eyed girl who lives at Gaines
Vile, may be the incentive for the black
hand letters sent to Asa G. Gambler, the
banker, which have caused the arrest OF
an 1S-year-oId boy, Daniel johnson, who
is a member of Mr. Gamblers Sunday
school class.
There were two of the letters written,
In both of which Mr.. Gambler was direct
ed to put $4,000 under the steps of the
pastors study at the Inman Park Meth
cdist church, on pain Of death for both
himself and his family. One OF the let
tiers was received last Friday, the other
last Monday, and Tuesday afternoon Mr.
Gambler received a threatening message
over the telephone. He agreed to drop
81 900 at a lonely spot on Moreland ave-
nue and to hurry back to town without
showing undesirable inquisitiveness. Then
he notified the police, did as he had agreed
except that he stuffed worthless pieces
of tissue paper into the bundle that he
dropped, and Johnson walked into a trap
that had been set by coming for the
money that he expected. He was srrest-
ed by Detectives Lockhart and Coker,
after they had lain watching him
throughout the afternoon. and is now az
police station.
No Girl But a Joke
johnson says that there is no browns
eyed girl and that what he did he did
simply as an April FOOLS joke. He says
that he wrote the two letters and that ne
mailed the first with the intention that II
should reach Mr.. Gambler April Fools
day, and the second he wrote to carry the
joke further. Then Tuesday afternoon he
Mr. Gambler. meaning. he
says, to explain to him that the letters
were written merely in fun and had no
serious import. But he was interrupted
before he could say this. and. with the
intention of securing and returning AIRY
money that Mr.. Gambler might drop as
he had agreed. hurried to the lonely spot
on Moreland avenue
From September until January. john
son was a student at the Riverside acad-
envy, at Gainesville, and, according to his
father, a girl there with brown eyes turn
ed his head. Johnson had been reading
the dazzling fve-cent weeklies that are
full Of impossible deeds of daring and r.
may &c that with his brain stirred by
what he had read in them, he conceived
the plan of blackmailing Mr. Gambler and
Of appearing before the girl at Gainesville
in the aIhIring guise Of desperado-hero