The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-06
ENTERS PLEA
 OF GUILTY John Morris Asks For
 Sentence. SEQUEL 0FJsPEcTAcuLAR FEAT Had Sensational Experience With Stolen Automobile. h. Ills Endeavor to Get Away, Two Mestgomery Mschines Were Wrecked, and the Town of
 Aritsa Greatly Excited.

When John Morris pleaded guilty in the City Court yesterday in two casez Of grand larceny, on which he had been indicted. the cultimation of one Of the most spectacular feats of theft ever attempted in Montgomery. was reached.
 When Morris started upon his career. he stopped at nothing, and there was little of everything included in his haul, from a suit of clothes to an au- tomobile, with bicycle. cash, and checks made out to his employer in between.
 During October. Morris. . boy not more, than 20 years old, was employed as watchman at Moseley & Haiglers garage. And 1t was from this that he made his break. taking out two automobiles. and the rest of the booty. If he had made a clean getaway. his haul would have gone down in his- tory. but
 The first machine. belonging to P. S. Black, was ditched. as he dashed long in the dark on the Red Bridge Road.
 Unable to extricate the auto, he hur- ried back to town, and . seond auto- mobile he took from the garage, that of WIT. Robertson. @
 In Robertson's machine. Morris was on fair way to success In his break. But the road was narrow. and the night was dark. and again the machine flew off to one side. Morris proceeded on foot to the railroad. having in hts possession money and checks, which had been taken from the safe of Moseley & Haigler.
 Boarding the train. he made his way to Troy, and thence to Ariton. a small town in South Alabama. Here his money gave out. and he was thrown upon recourse to his checks. The checks wara r1ada mt fo Mo~alav R Haigler, and the boy declared himself to be John Moseley. the son of the man whose name appeared on the check. and that he was on an auto- mobile tour.
 But the banker at Ariton was loag- headed. and telephoned to Montgomery to substantiate the story. It was dis closed that there was no such person.
 Morris was. arrested in Ariton on suspicion. Then 1t was that. fearing that he would be sent to Montgomery he put up to the Ariton people fabri- cation which gave them the scare of their lives. and marked Morris as a candidate for Munchausen's shoes
 Tells Wierd Story.
 The boy told that he was one of a party of crooks. eight in number, who had come to crack the safe at Ariton. The other seven were hiding In the woods nearby while he had come to look oyer the ground. He offered to betray the hiding plsee. If he was re- leased.
 It Is said that during the night no man at, Ariton slept. Armed to the teeth they sat and watched for the safe-cracking horde.
 Morris had given himself away by piling 1t on too thick. The, Ariton people thought that If q crook of such magnitude were caught, 1t was better to hold him. ana catch the others red- handed, following the adage that a bird in the hand. etc.
 So. with a later telephone message. they found out all about the boy and his offense. and officers left Montgom- cry for -Ariton to take him Into cus- tody.
 In addition to his attempted theft of great magnitude. Morris won added notoriety by his skill with handcuffs. Twice he freed himself before the eyes of the Montgomery policeman. slipping the handcuffs off as If for a joke. And once he had taken off the cuffs while he was locked in tho Arlton jail. Brought to Montgomery. he was bound over, to await action of the grand jury on six charges of grand larceny. It was on only two, the att tempted theft of the two automobiles that he-was tried.
 Twice while in jail Morris has en- tered into conspiracy with his fellow prisoners to break jail, and was caught both times. He. with the others, had manufactured saws out of bits of steel from hls shoe sole, had made "billies" with bits of coal and pieces of his blanket, and other necessary parapher- nalia.
 Morris hailed originally from Rhode Island. he has declared, coming to about six months ago, and entering the employ of Moseley and Haigler as night watchman.