The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1912-03-22
BLACK BART" MAY
Be GIVEN PAROLE
NORTHERN MICHIGAN bad MANI
HAS BEEN MODEL PRISONER
% YEARS.

fits of the parole law 10 convicts under
going life sentence. will, il is conf
IDENTIFY expected. enable Raymond Hol-
zhay. more widely known as Black
Bart. life prisoner with sensa-
'tonal criminal record to obtain his
release on parole from the Marquette
prison, where he has spent nearly
DER. Holzhay, who has been a model
prisoner for many years. expects that
under the new Ian his sentence will be
commuted to one Apf 80 years and that
he will be released on parole shortly
after the commutation of his sentence.
Holzhays career was extremely SEN
sational and interesting from Grim
inological point of view. He was born
in Austria and came TO the United
states when quite young. But little is
known of his curly life. scarcely moro
than that he was illiterate of great
physical strength and courage and had
strongly developed criminal tendencies.
He was still in his teens when he be-
gan to work in Wisconsin "pineries."
The life of a lunberman did not salts
fy Holidays adventurous nature He
decided to become a bandit and Oegan
his criminal career by holding up R
stage coach in The humber district.
Terrorixed U. Peninsula.
His success Was encouraging and
Holzhay. single handed held up and
robbed coach after coach until the
mere mention of his name struck ter
ror TO the hearts of travellers in the
lumber region. His boldness was as
tonishing. While lodging the officers
of the law whe We're pursuing him
Black Bart" walked boldly into um-
Der camps asking for food and obtain
ing It. no man being willing to take
the risk of making an attempt to seize
the outlaw.
After a while, finding the roDbing
OF stage coaches too tame, Holznay
took 10 holding up trains and for u con-
siderable period he terrorized the
northern Wisconsin and Michigan.
holding up railroad trains and stage
coaches. robbingg3 tilsa nassengers and
rifling the mail bags and employing
his time between the bigger coups by
robbing banks. stores and private
houses Large rewards were offered
for his capture by the government. the
state authorities and the railroads. but
nobody seemed to have courage enough
TO earn the reward.
Convicted Of Murder.
After having held up and robbed a
Wisconsin Central train near Cadott,
Holzhay went TO the Gogebic region,
where he held up q stage coach near
Lake Gogebic. One of the passengers
was 81 Chicago banker, named a. Il.
I'leichbein. who carried Il considerable
amount of money. The banker drew
his gun but. before he could make use
of 1t, Holzhay shot and killed him.
Another passenger also tried 20 resist,
but Holzhay shot him also and after
having robbed his victims. he made his
escape. The authorities made deter
mined effort to capture the daring
bandit. but. although bloodhounds were
rsed to follow his trial. no trace Of him
could be found.
Five days later. however, Marshal
Glade and Justice Weiser saw Holzhay
in one of the streets OF the town OF
Republic and arrested him. He tiied
TO make use of his gun. but was
knocked down and overpowered before
nn Al 10 IA ~
Marquette and was positively identified
AS the man who had killed F1eischbein.
Holzhay was tried, convicted and seh-
fenced to Marquette prison for life.
Operation Works Reform.
During the first year of his inn
prisonment Holzhay gave a great deal
of trouble to the prison authorities.
He was moody and rebelliouS and not
inclined to submit to the prison rules
and discipline. on one occasion hc OBJ
one of the guards at bay in his eel.
when he, came TO take the prisoner
to work. Warden Tomplins came to
investigate and shot Holzhay through
the hand IN which he held the knife.
Not until then did the prisoner sub
nit.
Holzhay remained untractable and
finally he was sent TO the asylum for
the insane at Ionia, where the doctors
decided TO perform an operation on the
prisoner, 10 remove n piece of bone
which pressed upon his brain. The
operation was successful and after his
return To prison Holzhay was changed
man. He became a model prisoner,
hegan To study and gradually acquired
good education. Through the war
den, who took great interest In him,
Holzhay invested his earnings In cop
per stock and accumulated a hand
some fortune. lie was made the IL
brarian Of the prison, edited the prison
paper and did all the Photographic
work required. II is believed that the
operation on his brain has transformed
Holzhay into a normal and law abid-
ing individual. free from criminal ten
denotes.