The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1914-12-18

= cars this cold weather." =
= "You are Splinter. You =
= covered that thousand yards .
= between the bank and the .
. river in ten seconds" .
= "when that bubble showed .
= up we knew the jig was up" .
Seated side by side on bunk In
q cell OF the Kasota jail. the four
ragged young men who attempted to
rob the First State bank of Kasota
yesterday, last evening kept pass
ing such remarks as these, laughed
and were In high glee, as they puff
ed away at the pipes which charit-
able visitors kept filling for them
with first class tobacco, as often
as they needed to be replenished.
There Is not a bad.looking fellow
I'm the four.
IF ] had meant TO kill that cash.
Ter, ] could easily have done It." de-
clared James r. McCarty. apparently
the tallest of the four, the one Who
pointed a revolver at Cashier o. p.
Buell. and commanded him to throw
up his hands. There was plenty of
time. The gun was loaded. We did
not have any intention of shooting
anybody. The fact is that we were
broke and were after some money"
There is little doubt that this will
be the plea that all four had plan
ned to make in court, for all four
took the same stand.
Admits Drawing Gun.
William Murphy, another OF the
four, short and dark of hair and
complexion. admitted that lie also
drew gun when the four entered
the bank. He was asked whether
he pointed IL at the girl and this
he denied. lie said he lost the gun
when they were on the run, endeav-
oring to escape from the pursuing
posse.
Mccarthy said neither of the guns
was In very good order But he ad-
mitted that the one that he pointed
at the bank cashier was loaded and
that II would shoot He said there
was spring broken in IL so that
the cylinder would not turn as Il
should
All these statements were found
to be true on examining the re-
volver that was found on Mccarthy
II was a Smith & Wesson of twenty
two calibre. The cylinder was filed
with cartridges. II was partly out of
order, but IL would shoot and all the
chambers could readily be fired by
turning the cylinder with the fin
gers. 49,.
How They Joined Up.
Mccarthy said he and James Pet.
erson, another of the four, met and
made friends In Minneapolis about
three weeks ago. II was here that
they found the two revolvers In a
box car amid a pile of old clothes.
He thought they had been left there
by some other wanderer.
The other two fellows, Murphy
and Ernie Erickson. said they met at
, Sioux City about a week ago. They
too became pals. But Il was not
until last Monday that the four got
(, together This happened at st. Peter.
Erickson told a Free Press repre-.
sentative that he was born I'm Nor
| way. He also stated the name OF the
city OF his birth and said his mother
and some brothers of his were still
living there. Afterwards he seemed
to regret that he had told the name
OF that city. Several times during
1 the evening. he besought the news
paper man to leave out of his ar
! ticle the name of that town In Nor.
way. He feared some acquaintances
, OF the family in this country would
see the article. and IL they knew
the name of the town where his
mother was living they would send
word to the mother of her sons plight.
/ The one thing that seemed to worry
Erickson was the possibility OF his
aged mother learning anything about
the trouble into which he had fallen.
Had Breakfast on Charity.
The four young fellows had been
hanging around Kasota and st. Peter
since Monday. They had begged
food at different places. All had
breakfast on charity Wednesday
morning, the day when the robbery
was committed. Erickson said he
had been given al breakfast after car
rying out about forty pals of ashes.
The other three had also offered to
work for something to eat. but were
given breakfasts without working,
as there happened to be nothing for
them to do at the places where they
begged. so they said.
On Monday night the four slept at
the Omaha depot. The night oper-
ator. Otto Riedel. said he noticed them
there, but he did not think they
would make trouble and he did not
/, interfere with them. From time to
time. one of the four would run out
and pick up some coal, to keep the
fire up. In the morning Riedel
handed them broom and told them
to sweep the place out. This they
did willingly.
On Tuesday night all four were
allowed to sleep on the hunks at the
st. Peter fire station.
1 Out Of Work Long Time.
I All four told the same story about
business conditions. They declared
they had scarcely had any work to
do since the harvesting was over
in the Dakota fields. All said they
had been working there in the fall.
They declared that they had been
going from place to place looking for
work. They would get little odd jobs
here and there, getting little money
at times, but could not keep the
money long after the Jobs were over,
ms thau alx haI fn ht,rt 20.