Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-12-06
BENDER, CAUGHT
WITH GOODS, IN
FULL CONFESSION
Story of Petty Burglaries Dur
ing Last Eight Months In
wolves Others.
SAM FRYER is ARRESTED
Another Second Hand Dealer Said to
Be Named as Well as Drug
sst Who Sold Morphine.

have taken place in Rock Island and
Moline during the last eight months
are said to have been explained in a
confession which Silas Bender of
Rock Island, under arrest at the Mo-
line police station made yesterday aft
ernoon to States Attorney Floyd
Thompson. In his story he involved
several others and as a result two ar
rests have been made, while warrants
are out for two or three others who
are alleged to have been implicated in
or otherwise.
Rock Island police at once arrested
Sam Fryer, the secondhand dealer,
on the charge of receiving stolen prop
erty. Later Mrs. Fryer was appre-
hended On the same charge. Bender
in his confession named Fryer as the
man to whom he had sold most Of his |
booty and also mentioned another |
Rock Island secondhand dealer for |
the arrest of whom the police would |
not admit that a warrant had been Is !
sued.
Druggist Under Cloud.
Quite incidentally Rock Island |
druggist is said to have been named |
in the confession as the one who had |
supplied Bender with morphine, and a
charge may be filed against him as a
result.
Bender asserted that he had been
oil in bic hy Doninic CjlIaSnia !
another Rock Island man, but up to
late hour this afternoon he had not
been arrested. nor would the police
admit that any effort was being made
TO secure him.
Bender put in two hours yesterday
afternoon in the office of o. NJ. Bisant,
chief of police in Moline, together with
States Attorney Thompson, Attorney
William f. Whiteside and a stenogra-
pher. 1t is said that his story is most
circumstantial, containing such
wealth of detail that there is little pos
sibility of a frameup.
His story was brought out in ques-
him in regard to a series OF
robberies committed in Moline last
Sunday morning in which Bender and
George Hellman are said to have been
both being arrested within
a shor5 time with stolen property in 6
their possession. Hellman. who APP ,
pears to be an old offender, waived
examination. but Bender secured
till yesterday afternoon,
when he was held to the grand jury
under $4,000 bonds.
Under Influence of Drug.
Bender is known to the police as C
confirmed dope iend and stated in his il
it is said. that most 70 {
he crimes of which he has been guilty v
n his checkered career have been
committed while under the influence {
II drugs He said he learned the habit
rom a fellow prisoner in the Rock Is 4
and county jail and pleaded for H
on the ground that he was i
'ictim of faulty penal system and OF
he avarice Of others who profited
more than he did from his thefts. He 81
aid he had been getting his morphine v
ately from a Rock Island druggist. d
What crimes Bender admitted hav-
ng taken part in it was not possible /
O learn today. However, l. is reas- III
nably certain that they included the
hree burglaries committed in Moline ="
sunday night and Tor Nnlcn ne was ar
ested. The Reid Hardware company st
{ 1904 Third avenue and the Parks
Hardware company of 4O4 Fourth a'
treet. both in Moline, which were rob
ed recently secured search warrants d.
)day and officers looked through Fry
RS store and home for the goods they .e
1st Here they found two watches II
nd three razors identified as those
aving been stolen from the Moline eo
lerc- ants.
Nothin About Murder.
Bender was at one time suspected gr
T knowing something about the muir al
er of John B. Schoessel a month ago, ad
Ut it is understand tina nothing bear tt
* this crime was brought out in tn
is confession Neither was any light ma
he'd on robbery at the f. II. Sleight
ONE in Moline several months ago
| which several hundreds OF dollars III
orih OF jewelry was taken. N
Fryer was taken into custody last IA
vening and was taken TO Moline and L
rraigned before Justice Fred Entrikin.
e asked and was granted continu-
nee till Monday and his bail was IL"
xed at $4,000. His wife. who was in
ourt when ne was arragned. wen out
4 dtried TO secure bond and on her -
,turn without it she, too, was ar