Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-28
Police Prosecuted Prisoner Until
He Would Confess to Any
thing, Is Declaration
YOUNG MAN OF GOOD FAMILY
Accused Tells of Circumstances
Which Led to Shooting of
Captain AubIe
BY WILLIAM G. OWEN

Fred Horning, aged 27, as straight
looking a young fellow as you VIII
meet in long days march, lies In the
city jail, having surrendered voluntar-
lily to the authorities. Released from
Folsom on one charge, he must now
stand trial for/his life at the hands OF
those who did not venture to accuse
him of murder when the killing or
Police Captain Auble, and the subse-
ouent suicide of Carl Sutherland, who
shot him, were the talk of Los Angeles
and of the state at large
Nearly two years have elapsed and
this young man is now, for the first
time, accused of completely In a crime
which was then ventilated to the ut
most, and in which he was grudgingly
admitted to have had no hand. He
himself regards the proceedings as a
technical subterfuge, having for their
object the railroading him back to
Folsom; anyhow the situation pre-
sents one feature that the public
should ponder seriously. For Horning
would not have gone to Folsom at all
but for his own confession, and he
stoutly AYERS that such confession was
wrung from him by most iniqultous
administration of what is known as
the third degree"
HISTORY OF CASE
Police Captain Auble was killed Sep
tember 9, 1909, while endeayoring TO
arrest Sutherland and Horning, whom
he suspected of intending to commit
burglary. With Auble at the time
was Chief of Detectives Paul Flam-
mer. The latter seized Horning, who
offered no resistance, and was leading
him to an adjoining house. Meanwhile
Sutherland had wrenched nlnnsen tree
from Auble's grasp and fled. Turning,
he saw the captain pursuing him ana
fired. killing the officer. Evidently
there had been a scuffle between Suth-
erland and Auble, as the latter sald
before expiring: Il didn't DO any
shooting at all. MY gun was kn9ckeo
ont of nv hand" Clearly, also, Horn
ing did not do the knocking, for he was
being marched ahead by Flammer and
saw nothing of the affair, his back
being turned to the participants
sutherland, finding himself cornered,
committed suicide; Capt Auple dleu
shortly after being shot, and the only
witnesses of the tragedy, apart from
Capt Flanmer, were two lads, aged
13 and Is respectively, who were riding
by on bicycles.
Cant. Auble was buried amid great
excitement, DelnB given WAlebS aiAs'S -
fairly called a public funeral; whlie
Horning lay in Jail, awaiting arraign-
1nent Seven days after the shooting
he was brought before Police Judge
Chambers, charged, behind closed
doors, with assault to klll-Capt'
Auble? No; one Caesar NerVoort, De-
cember 13, 1906. To this charge he
pleaded guilty and the following morn
ing he was brought before Judge
James and, again confessing his guilt,
was sentenced to fourteen years IN
Folsom, receiving the heaviest penalty
the law allows. According TO the
newspaper accounts, all other business
was set aside and Horning was tried,
convicted and sentenced in the short
est order True, he had confessed;
but it is this very confession that de-
mands attention.
GIVEN THIRD DEGREE
Horning tells me, and believe him,
that from the moment of his entering
prison until his examination he was
confined in the sweat box and kept
under a perpetual fire of accusations,
being threatened with every extremity
of punishment If he did not confess
to one or other of various crimes sug-
gested In particular he alleges that
for three days they tried to induce
him to acknowledge he had pawned
watch that was part of the booty or
a street Cur lOluuP OA SOhIAdA ehbShuOI
and that this was abandoned only
when 1t was shown that there was no
similarity between his own handwrit-
ing and that the ticket bore. He says
that throughout that period of seven
days he was practically without sleep,
owing to continual cross-examinations,
the constant banging of doors, rafting
of chains and bolts and the plague of
rats and Vermin with which the sweat
box swarmed He lost, he declares,
twenty pounds in weight, and finally
consented to plead guilty to assault
on Vervoort; for he had become SO
exhausted that, to use his own ex-
preston, he would have confessed to
the crucifixion of Christ in order to
get release"
Throughout all this trouble Horning
maintained a stony silence as to his
antecedents, for he is of good family,
being the son OF a well-to-do planter
in Tennessee. Coming to this coast, he
became waiter in the Jonathan club,
where he made Sutherland's acquaint-
ance. He also-and here, as always,
the woman in the case appears-he fell
in love with a waitress, who presently
complained that she had been insulted
by a Japanese. Horning told Suther-
land he meant to thrash the culprit,
and Sutherland went with him. While
waiting in the back yard Vervoort
came along-this is Mornings state
ment OF the caSe-ralSed an outcry, and
was shot by Sutherland as he later
confessed in writing.
Both men left the city, only to meet
again accidentally nearly two years
later.
For this alleged crime Horning re-
ceived the full penalty, fuorteen years
in Folsom. The authorities had not
been able to fasten any other offense
upon him; for this one there was no
evidence but his own confession oh
tanned under the circumstances
sketched so briefly. He was released
recently by order of a superior court
Judge because the indictment did not
state how the assault was committed
for the law requires that charges must
be definite and inform the defendant
specifically of what he Is accused. 1t is
suggested that the indictment was pur-
posely made vague, the police having
no evidence beyond Hornings own
confession.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney North,