Valdez daily prospector., 1916-12-08
STORY oR CAPTURE
 OF WALTER sTOKER

wounded another man by the name of Irving on the government railroad about 12 miles out from Seward on Thanksgiving day, Is now in custody in Valdez, having been borught over from Seward today on the steamer Evans. MT. Stoker, while not insa le, is apparently not possessed of all hs normal mental faculties. One of the first questions asked by tine prisoner after his first night in jail was whether his mitts had been found, the loss of the mitts and the fact that he had the idea that the union labor men were against him, being the cause, as near as can be learned, of the shooting.
 Stoker admits killing Hendricks, stating that he shot him because he was a union man. It was gathered from his remarks that in Fairbanks or some other place Stoker had once acted as a strike breaker.
 The story of the capture of the prisoner is given in the Seward Gateway as follows:
 Stoker was arrested at the cabin of trapper named Lodge on Satur- day afternoon about 4 o'clock, by a posse of men headed by Charles Ems weller.
 On the night after the shooting of the two men Stoker went to the cabin of Lodge and stayed the night there. Believing that the authorities would find him there he left next day and went into the mountains where he stayed by huge bonfire that night. He went back once to his camp on the railroad to get load of supplies and it was probable that during that trip he met Dan Sullivan. He took out of the camp a bag of provisions, a large quantity of matches and a sleeping bag. This sleeping bag was thrown away by him as his pack was too heavy and it was the bag seen by Marshal Evans. The wet ice-cov- cred clothing noticed by Sullivan were caused by the fact that Stoker fell through the ice while crossing a swamp in the woods. Emsweiler and his aids had followed the tracks of Stoker through the soft snow in all directions. They saw the smoke of the camp fire and also Stoker's tracks in that direction and they trailed him. On the way they met fresh tracks which led in the opposite direction, showing that Stoker was on his way back to the railroad again. Emsweil- CT followed those tracks to the swamp and across to the place where Stoker broke through the ice. On Saturday the trail led the pursuers to the Lodge cabin and on arrival there smoke was seen issuing from the chimney. They knew they had their man. With the pursuing party was Jackson, the partner of Stoker in cut ting ties, and Jackson called on the hunted man to come out and give himself up. At the time around the cabin were Wild Bill Dewitt, Charley Emsweiler. Bill! Weaver, Percy Pull len, Jackson and three others. All took care to keep a tree between the house and themselves. Jackson was behind tree which is believed to be some 50 or 60 feet from the cabin. Stoker at first refused to answer or to come to the door but later came out for a moment. He did not stay but went back into the cabin again, apparently deciding not to come out at all. He was warned that further refusal to surrender would mean. that shots would be fired through the oab- in. During this time, members of the posse say, he was engaged keep ing the frost rubbed from part of the window glass as though watching for the next move of the posse. After the threat to shoot through the cab in Stoker asked for Ike Evans and intimated that he would surrender to him, but was told that no one there would hurt him. Then he came out without a gun and Emsweiler asked him to advance from the cabin some distance into the open. Some mem- bers of the posse called to him to hold up his hands but Emsweiler stopped this for fear of exciting the man. When he had moved some dis tance from the cabin Emeweiler ad- vanced and got between him and the cabin to prevent his return. Hand cuffs were then placed on him and he