The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1912-03-28
A YOUTHFUL
DEGENERATE
EUGENE THOMAS TELLS AUTHOR.
tiles HE SLEW MAN IN LONE.
" CABIN NEAR MORA.
DIME NOVELS BLAMED
DIME NOVEL BLAMED
Sixteen-Year-Old Lad Gives Details Of
Terrible crime.-Boy Says He
Mas Rifling Cabin When
Owner Interrupted.

Minneapolis, March 26.-In the vii.
lage at Grasston, Kenabec county, a
l~6-year-old Minneapolis boy told how
he had killed an unarmed man in
cold blood. He related how, inter
rupted in the robbery of a Kanabec
settlers cabin by the approach of the
settler, he drew a revolver, waited the
approach of the settler, deliberately
shot him down on the cabin thresh-
old, rif1ed the pockets of the dead
man and left the cabin. He told the
story unconcernedly, as a %16-year-old
boy might tell of killing his first rab-
bit.
The boy was Eugene Thomas. who
gave himself up to the authorities in
Minneapolis. The man he killed was
R. N. Winters, who lived in a settlers
cabin near the village of Mora.
Men who heard Thomas narrative,
the county attorney and the sheriff,
men whose business is dealing with
crime, said that the story of the boy,
a confession of approximately 5000
words, is a document which has no
counterpart in the history of the state.
1t is the story of a boys career in a
big city; a story of yellow-backed nov
els, of the bandit plays of childhood;
of a boys longing for the career of an
outlaw; of visions of robbery and
wealth; of the first boyish prank; of
the steps which led to the final trag-
edy; of a mans death and a boys ar
rest on a charge of c~Old-blOoded muir
der.
The boy who told the story and who
told it only after he had calmly looked
at pictures of the cabin in. which the
settler was murdered and of the set
tier lying dead on the floor, slept
peacefully on a cot in the village Jail.
The likeless body of R. N. Winters
was found on the threshold of his cab
in. Revolver bullets were in his head.
Winters had been a recluse. In a cor.
ner in the cabin the authorities found
a boys gray mitten.
Three miles away, on the road to-
ward Mora, a farmer said that a boy
who wore gray mitten came to his
house and asked for food and for a
team to drive him to Mora. The boy
got the food, but not the team. He
ate heartily and started down the
road on foot. That night a boy who
wore n gray mitten took a train in
Mora for Minneapolis.
Eugene Thomas was known in Mora,
and he had been visiting at his uncle's
home ten miles out on the Wahkon
road. The uncle said that on Friday
before the murder he had told Eu-
gene that he ought to go home, that
the boy had talked of going west and
had boasted of his misdeeds in Min.
neapolis.
He told his relatives that a neigh
Dor in Minneapolis had a fine dog,
that one day he vent to the neighbor's
barn, tied the dog up, hung it to a
rafter by it's feet and watched it die.
The Minneapolis police were notified
to look out for Eugene Thomas and
when a boy friend told him he was
wanted in connection with the Kama
bee county murder, the boy went
home, talked the situation over with
his father, came downtown and gave
himself up. He refused to discuss the
murder.
Beginning with the time when he
was a youngster in short trousers Eu-
gene Thomas told of his life. He said
he had read the cheap novels of the
west and had resolved to become a
bandit. He told how the determine.
ton to leave home grew upon him,
how he finally purchased two re-
volvers and left Minneapolis. He had
visited with his uncle at Christmas
time and he decided to stop at his
uncle's homestead on his way west.
The boy told of his quarrel with his
uncle and his wanderings until he ar
rived at the settlers cabin last Sun
day. Then he told how he determined
to rob the cabin, how he entered it
and opened the trunk, how he heard
a man approaching, how he drew his
re%volvers and stood waiting, how,
when the door opened, he fired, how
his victim fell on the floor; how he
rifled the settlers pockets, left the
cabin and made his way to Mora.
The boy is charged with murder In
the first degree and the Kanabec coun-
ty grand jury will consider the case.