The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-12-24
MAY Be FAMOUS ''YEGG."
VAGRANT HELD ON CLUE AT.
FORDED BY a BUTTON AS
SAFE CRACKER.
Kinney, Alias Mckinley, Identified by
Fellow Prisoner as Ycgsman Pa
rClcd by Gov. Blcase-POstofIice In
SpcctOr Gregory Sent for.

DeC. GU- JOUil NlIl-
ney," a prisoner in the county Jail,
serving thirty days for vagrancy, is
none other, according to the police,
than William Mckinley, a noted safe
robber, who was one of the one hun
dred and five cOnvicts liberated by
Gov. Cole l.. Blease last month in
honor Of Thanksgiving. Moreover,
the police say, they have evidence that
Mckinley attempted to blow safe
within three weeks after he was
freed from the pcnitentiary, and will
bring him up to trial for the alleged
crime as soon as he completes his
vagrancy sentence.
a warrant has been sworn out
against Mckinley, charging him with
the attempted safe robbery, and Mag
istrate Robert J. CAN'T will hold a
preliminary investigation Monday af-
ternoon, when, it is said, much addi-
tional evidence will be disclosed.
The man was found camping in
woods near Spartanburg Junction by
Robert T.. Miller, a special agent OF
the Southern Railway. He had q sack
of coal, which he admitted having
taken from the railways coal yards
and was arrested and convicted before
Magistrate Robert j. CAN'T.
On being taken to the county jai
Kinney, or Mckinley, was hailed a.
an old acquaintance by another pris.
Oncr, Gilmore Wright who said tn,
new arrival was in the penitcntiary q;
the same time that he (WrighD was
serving life sentence there for muir
der.
Wright. alias Mckinley, was parol-
ed by Gov Blease, but after he was
liberated shot another man, and he.
too is back in prison again.
Two days before Mckinley, alias
Kinney, was arrested an attempt was
made to blow open a safe in the gen.
eral store of Renard Frey, at Fair
Forest, S. c., about eight miles from
:;partanburg. A charge OF nitro
glycerne was exploded, but the safe
resisted the assault The explosion
was heard by a negro in the neigh
borhood, but the robber was not
seen.
The next morning a button, with
i little tuft of cloth attached, was
found under the window of Frey's
store. 1t is believed to have been
torn from the robbers clothing as he
entered the building and was preserv
ed as of possible evidence
When Kinney was identified by
Wright as Mckinley, the safe rob-
ber, officers examined McKinley's
clothing. They found a button mis-
sing, that the button found in Frey's
store was identically the same as the
remaining buttons on McKinley's
clothes and that the cloth was the
same as the little tuft attached to
the button referred to.
McKinley's reputation as a profess
sional safe rObber and the evidence of
the button, taken in connection with
the fact that he was arrested as u
vagrant within a couple of miles of
l'rey'S store, constitute the case
against him, as at present developed.
Postoffice inspectors have been in
vestigating the belief that Mckinley
r1ay have had accomplices and that
the gang may have been responsible
for other rObberies in this section.
Two men in the Spartanburg county
Jail, charged with rolbing the safe in
the postOllice at SaludG, n. c., are not
believed, however, to have had any
connection with Mckinley. They claim
to be followers of the race track, who
were beating" their way to Charles
ton.
Mckinley, who at first was very vol
uble in protesting against his arrest
as Il Vagrant and made an able plea