Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-01-13
BARHEE, WOUNDED
DURING BATTLE WITH sHER.
lFF, coNFEssEs.
GAYS He WAS ALONE
IN EFFORT TO ExToRT
Claims He Had No Pals When He
Wrote Letter TO Wealthy Farmer
Demanding $500 5arbee Not ssri-
ously Wounded Deputy Sheriff Gil
Iaspy in Serious Condition.

Council Bluffs, Jan. 1S.-Roland Bar
bee. who, was shot in the leg and
captured by Sheriff Gronewsg and
deputies "wednesday night at the Os-
car Lawson farm. near Oakland, has
broken down and made signed con-
fession of his attempt to blackmail
Lawson and the shooting of Deputy
Sher1fff 9illaspy, wl.o Is IN a precari-
Gus condition In Council Bluffs hos
pital. - - ~ .!s. "a "
Barbee, wheI captured, claimed he
was accompanied by two confederates,
one negro, and that the negro was
the man who shot the deputy sheriff.
previous statements and declared that
he would tell the truth, and take the
consequences, Whatever they may be.
even to hanging. Officers say he broke
completely down and cried pitifully as
he made his statement.
Y Worked by Self.
L Barbee said he halched the plan to
btackmail Lawson without assistance;
that he wrote the letter demanding
that $500 be left in the feed grinder in
the barn, and that he went alone to
the scene where later he shot the
deputy sheriff and himself was shot
and taken prisoner.
Barbee's statement was made in the
Avoca Jail, where he was brought
Thursday morning, and his statement
that he was alone in the enterprise
confirms decision reached by Sheriff
Groneweg late Thursday afternoon.
after an entire day spent examining
the scene and following every possible
clue to dead end.
Groneweg declares that the door thru
which Barbee had claimed his party
entered the barn, was latched when
he reached it, while the shooting was
in progress-and that it would have
been impossible for any man to have
gotten away without being seen. He
discounted Barbee's first statement,
and examination Of the river banks
and the ice for several miles proved
conclusively that no man crossed the
river as Barbee claimed.
Barbee says he was concealed in the
barn when the officers took their
places to watch for him, and that when
Gillaspy came from the hay loft, re-
marking to Giese that there seemed
little likelihood that there would be
anything doing tonight" he drew his
revolver and shot him, hardly knowing
why except that he had feeling there
would be something doing
Something Was Doing"
/, Something was doing promptly. as
the fIsillade from the guns Of the Of
hlers proved. 0illaspy, az well !. as
Giese, emptying his weapons before he
succumbed to- his wound. Barbee,s limb
was shattered by ball which struck
him in the shin. u
Examination Of the Lawson barn by
daylight shows that all the men In
volved in the battle were shooting to
kill, and of the twenty seven bullet
holes in the doors and walls, all were
in relatively restricted space, plain evil
dence of close shooting. The barn
housed number of horses and cattle.
with other animals, and not one was
struck BIZ a bullet. tho they were
stabbed along one side Of the drive
way III which the shooting took place.
Any marked wildness of fire would
have killed or injured some of the ami
mails. 81