Omaha daily bee., 1911-01-28
Council Bluffs
BOWERS TELLS ABOUT HOLDUP
Young Highwsyman Discloses Details
of Paramount Robberies.
DESCRIBES HOW RAID PLANNED
Turns states Evidence and Merit
king t. Bound over 60 Grand
Jury for His share in
the Crime.


Admitting that he was only Is years old,
and confessing that four and one-half years
OF his life had been spent in penal servi-
tude for the punishment Of crimes he had
committed, Gordon Bowers, son Of the as
sistant yardmsster OF the Rock Island rail
road, sat in the witness stand in Justice
Cooper's court yesterday and detailed the
stories OF a fresh series of crimes in which
he a participant These included the
holdups IN Fairmount park and the street
leading to the south entrance Of the park,
on the night Of January 4, but the soft
pedal was placed on other incidents OF
his brief career lie had turned states
evidence and testified against his partners
in the holdup enterprise only one of whom.
Merit King, was present for preliminary
hearing Jack Scully, the other, is missing.
Upon his promise to make a clean breast
OF II Bowers had been promised immunity
from punishment by County Attorney Ca
pel and he kept his word to the letter.
Bowers had taken a change of venue
from the police court and was repre-
scented by Attorney Emmett FINLEY and
Colonel John Lindt. Every statement he
made to Chief OF Police Froom and the
police detectives was verified and his
whole confession, made in the office Of the
county attorney and taken down in short
manu- W a NOhlL ItpoIleI III TIC pIHHSHNN
Of his attorney Edward Simon, was found
TO be correct to the letter. Upon his testi-
mony and the strong array Of corrobora-
tory witnesses Justice Cooper held King
to the grand jury under 81 90 bonds.
Park Good Pluce to Work.
The case lasted all day yesterday. Bow
ers was brought over from the county
jail, cool and collected, and under the
guidance Of the county attorney rehearsed
the story Of the Paramount park hodups
He denied, however, that the park was Sc
lected for the reason that It afforded an
excellent site for a street car holdup. He
said 1t because there had been no
robbers in the park" and few people
were afraid to go through 1t in the dark, 4"
and that the lonely locality made a get
away easy. He detailed the meeting of
! the three men at his boarding place, 1880
High street, and planning the holdups
that they passed through the park for a
| preliminary survey before 1t was dark and
walked down as far as the Methodist
! church, where they Iotered around until
| II was time TO begin. He. described the
wearing apparel of each--long dark over
coats, dark caps and the red handker-
chiefs to be used for masks He detailed
the first holdup the robbery Of f. c.
Meek near the deer pens; then success
siveiy of Book and Byard, further down
| the street. The fourth holdup was not
runs In on the case, for reasons that were
not divuged. Minute details were given
of each case. lie said he and Jack Sculley
held automatic pistols to the heads of their
victims while Mert King searched them.
! Then Meek, Book and Byard, who had
been kept out of the room and knew moth
| inc ~ fV,
successfully and corroborated with start
ling nicely every detail related by Bowers.
! The statement of Bowers as to what
the trio OF holdups did after the robbery
was as fully corroborated by other wit
nesses including s. y. Kannoyer and Miss
Lucy Palmer sister of Joe Palmer, another
of the Sixteenth avenue gang of thieves.
! This included the changing OF their clothes
/ the borrowing by Bowers of a hat from
/ Kannoyer, who was sick in bed, TO replace
! the cap; the disposition of the automatic
guns and the examination of the fine gold
watch taken from Byard, which King said
he would take to Omaha and get appraised
and then let his brother who. the police
say, has acted as the fence, and who is
now missing, dispose Of 1t. Chief OF Po-
lice Froom submitted only a portion Of the
| evidence in his possession fixing unequlv-
ocably the guilt upon King.
When Attorney FINLEY came to cross
examine Bowers he brought out his Grim
| inal record and alluded to the many In
] stances of car robberies the man had been
! implicated in, but Bowers fell back upon
| his right TO refuse to answer on the plea
of discriminating himself. Bowers has been
4 railroad brakeman and is capable OF
earning a large salary, but 1t appears that
a greater part of time has been devoted to
! crime
Merit King is a son Of Dominick King, a
highly respected laborer, residing at 1904
South sixth street, and he has two broth
ers who are fully as respectable. Dominick
IT,. is a local merchant and OF deeply
religious nature, The members OF the fam
iIy are crushed by the disgrace brought