Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-07-31

night of Dec. Z. 1912. Four yeggmen
entered the bank, and after tying up
Crowder In sheet. and gagging him,
beat him into insensibility and took
$500 from his person and $500 from
the safe. On March IT, 1913, Crowd
er died of his injuries
crook giving the name Of Thomas
JEFFERSON, was caught in Moline with
in three hours after the crime He
was riding on street car and had
500 on his person. jefferson refused
to give any information concerning
himself until along in May when Clyde
Stratton was arrested in Pekin on
charge of burglary and larceny at
Mackinaw, TaZewen county. He was
indicted and his case continued until
September.
Previous to this, Stratton had blown
up a postoffice at McCooI, Ind, and
was sentenced to Fort Leavenporth
where he made his daring escape by
crawling through a sewer. He broke
his ankle in this escapade but con-
tinued his attempt until he gained his
liverty. Others who were with him
gave up the ordeal and returned to
the prison.
After STATIONS arrest at Pekin his
apartments in Chicago were raided and
a letter was found which jefferson had
written to StrattOn. This established
the connection between the two and
lead to the confession which jefferson
then mad to States Attorney ThOmp-
son. in which he told all of the details
of the murder and implicated StrattOn,
Harry Hampton, Harry Callahan and
himself. claiming that Stratton engi-
neered the deal
Acting on his own initiative, States
Attorney Thompson went to Pekin
and made arrangements to bring STRAIT
ton here for trial. agreeing to return
him to TaZewell county if the prose
cution here failed
Had Delivery Here.
1t was while an inmate Of the Rock
Island county Jail that he gave the
citizens here real thrill by pulling
off a jail delivery. At 6 o'clock on
the afternoon Of May 81, 1913, he and
several of his pals secured several
benches and placing them together
CTawled up to a new skylight which
had been just placed on the building,
unbolted iron gates which had been
placed over it. and jumped to the
roof. With StrattOn were Louis Klei-
nau, charged with assault with
deadly weapon; Bert Malcolm, charg-
ed with assault with intent to commit
murder, and Harry Dillon, charged
with burglary and larceny.
Hugo Alvine. turnkey, encountered
Stratton and Kleinau in the Jail yard
Stratton shouted to his pal: Kill him
if he don't give up his gun" StrattOn
then knocked the official down and
kleinau assaulted him with a brick
while they searched for a weapon, but
Alvine was not armed. A posse was
formed at once and StrattOn was cap
tured within a few hours in cellar in
the west end of town; Kleinau jumped
in the river, but Alvine forced him
to come out; Malcolm was caught hid
ing under a barrel in the Jail yard and
Dillon escaped to Iowa, but was later
caught.
After one of the hardest fought Grim
inal trials ever held in this county,
Stratton was convicted and given IA
years in the state penitentiaTy, the
conviction being largely due to Jeffer
son turning states evidence. StrattOn
was ably defended by Henry |. Now
Ian, Peoria, who later committed sui
eide by jumping in front of train at
Galva The conviction was a big vic
tory for States Attorney Thompson.