The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1913-08-28
ATTEMPTS TO KIDNAP
HER OWN CHILDREN
Former Wife of Jim Gra-
bill Would Take Babies
By Force. She and HuS-
band Now in Jail.

Quite a sensation was created
at lone Monday when an attempt
was made by Mr.. and Mrs. G. K.
Slater, residents of Portland, to
kidnap the two children of the
late James Grabill, now in charge
of their grandfather, D. H. Gra-
bill who is their legally appointed
guardian.
According to what information
we can gather here, Mr.. and Mrs.
Slater arrived in lone on Monday
morning and after locating the
children, hired John Bryson, the
liveryman to take them to Airing
ton in his auto. They had him
call for them at the Grabill resi-
dence during the absence of Mr..
Grabill, and endeavored then to
get Bryson to hit the road for the
outside. When the liveryman
saw what was up, he rebelled and
refused to move a peg. Going
out on Main street he spied the
marshal and made his situation
known to him, and in the mean
time, Mr.. Grabill getting wind
of the transaction, had a warrant
sworn out for the parties, charg-
ing them with kidnapping. They
were arrested and brought to
Heppner where they had a pre-
liminary hearing before Judge G..
G. Patterson and were bound
over to the grand jury in the snm
of $500 each which they have
as yet been unable to put up, and
are confined in the county Jail.
About two years ago Mrs. Slater
left her husband, Jim Grabill,
and went from California to Port
land, where she is alleged to
have obtained a divorce, and later
married c. X. Slater, reported to
be a member of the Portland po-
lice force.
Her former husband, Jim Gra-
bill, was killed a few weeks ago
in train wreck at Vallejo, Cal,
and his father, D. H. Grabill, of
lone, went down there to settle
up his sons affairs. He was
awarded the custody of his two
grandchildren, aged 3 and 6 years,
which had been deserted by their
mother, and insurance to the
amount of $4,000 was turned over
to their guardian. 1t is also
stated that there will be other in
surance which in all will amount
to $4,000, and this may have
been a motive for getting pos
session of the children at this
time, though this is stOutly de-
MED by the Skaters, who state
that they care nothing whatever
for the money but wish the |
mother to have the children.
1t is further asserted that Mrs. |
Slater is connected with wealthy |
people at Portland and that they |
will put up a strong legal fight |
to obtain possession of the child
ren. In the meantime they are
being held here on the kidnapp-
ing charge and will have to ex-
tricate themselves from their
present difficulty, as they seemed |
to have taken hold of the wrong
horn of the dilemma.
At the preliminary hearing it !
transpired that Slater was an
assumed name, and that the true
name of the parties is Myrtle and
Michael Williams. In comment
ing on the case, Wednesdays
Oregonian states that an. investi-
cation of the Multnomah county
court records show that Myrtle
Cradle obtained divorce from
James Cradle in Judge Morrow's
July 80, 1912. The grounds
were desertion and non-support.
The statement of Slater or Will
liams that he was a member of
the Portland police department
- -, A,,.,o. &c &bof .rroO Iic ,,o,,,a |