The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-29
TEST TOO SEVERE
"Grandma" Reagle VIII Sup
port Boy No Longer.
He Has Preyed on Her Affec-
tons for Years.
MORTGAGED HOME FOR HIM
He Established Hoax to Coax
More Cash From Her.
Now State VIII Furnish His
Clothes at RefOrmatOry.

Grandma" Reagle has given UP.
She has at last come to the same opin-
ion county officers arrived at six
months ago-that her grandson, Earl
Reagle, is hopeless that as long as
he has his liberty he will continue to
prey upon her affection for him. To-
day she turned him in on the $500
bond she had furnished. A few min
utes later he pleaded guilty to grand
larceny and will be sentenced to the
Hutchinson reformatory for term of
from one to five years.
Earl Reagle is only IS years of age
and is the only child of the only
daughter Grandma Reagle ever had.
All the affection she had for the dead
boys mother was transferred to the
youth and he has abused it.
His grandmother, Mrs. e. NJ. Reagle,
is an aged widow who has little
home in North Topeka At one time
she had a small store of money to pro-
vide for extreme old age, but the boy
has dissipated it. When she gave bond
for him the last time. she placed a
$500 mortgage upon her home, Off
GERS say, and it was largely because
of fear that he would leave and cause
her to lose the home that she turned
him back to the county.
He Ran Away.
Reagle ran away from his grand
mothers home last winter. She did
not know where he was but it has
developed since that he was in Colo
RADIO. There he formed an acquaint-
ance with a man named Starr, who
bore all the evidences of being a crook.
He and Starr came to Topeka and put
up Job on Reagle's grandmother.
Starr went to her with credentials as d
special railroad agent. He told her
Earl had broken into a railroad car
ND dor rod LOT of rrr1it lint
that she could keep him out of prison
by paying the damage-amounting to
about $50. Earl readily admitted to
her all that Starr charged. She paid.
Later the truth came out and Starr
was sent to prison. Young Reagle was
convicted but his grandmother begged
increasingly for a parole and he was
turned over to her under bond. Once
she became frightened when he turned
a trick and turned him back to the
sheriff. Then she said her conscience
bothered her at night; that she could
see an accusing expression upon the
face of the boys dead mother in her
sleep, and she begged for his release
again. 1t was then that she put up
the $500 bond secured by her home.
His Masterpiece.
The other day Earl pulled off his
masterpiece. He heard of the eXpio-
sion of the flywheel upon r. L. Hold
gins Stafford automobile two weeks
ago, when two men were injured, and
that accident formed the basis of his
plan. He went to his grandmother and
told her about the accident and that
he was responsible. He told her ii
would take six or seven hundred dol
lars to patch matters up, otherwise he
was scheduled to go to prison.
IF I gave him the money" said the
aged woman, Il knew I would have
to sell my home and that is all have
left. 1 thought 1 really ought to know
more about it and when 1 began tC
make inquiries I learned that my boy
had had nothing whatever to do with
the accident. 1 knew then it was an
other hoax"
| Since Earl was released upon bond
| last summer his grandmother has
bought him six or seven suits of cloth
ing and he has pawned all of them
He was dressed in very poor appare
today But his next suit will be pai6
for by the state. Grandma Reagle /:
| thru. She has concluded that it is
for the boys best interests that he be
| taken to some correctional institu-
I ton.