Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-12-23
IN FEAR OF PRISON,
PIPER HANGS SELF
Continued From Page OneD


aged TO keep the girl from getting
suspicious of what was going on
and he said
We'll, for a long time she
wasn't suspicious / told her these
men were not very nice fellows. but
I said she should bear with them
and say nothing TO her folks about
il. ! asked her TO promise me she
wouldn't and she did promise and
she kept It.
But Piper said to me, she fin
ally found out the truth and start
Il 10 make a lot Of trouble She
wanted ne to quit the crowd. OF.
course, l couldn't do 1t. but l kept
telling her from time to time 1
would. 1t was about that time she
was writing and wiring her aunt
for money. She wanted to give me
the money so I'd quit and go
straight
We'll, Piper told me that from
the time the girl found out the
truth of what the gang was doing
she got more and more trouble
some Several times she scolded
Sheldon and the rest of them,
frankly telling them she knew. and
once or twice. Piper said. she
threatened to inform the authori-
ties
Piper said things went along in
this way from day to day, with
Sheldon and the rest of the men
growing steadily more ugly. He al
so said that the girl had written
to her aunt in Hinsdale several
times after the aunt last heard from
her al Iowa Falls.
We were camping outside the
Towns most of the time. he said to
ne and the girl always cav me
the letters to drive into the pOstof-
fees to mail them l was afraid
10 send them for fear she might
have said something TO her Tela-
tives about what We were doing, so
Just destroyed them
Piper then told me that they had
robbed many country postJffices.
They'd find, if they checked up
the trip, he said, that always with
in a radius of fifty miles from the
main places We stopped there was
at least one robbery We always
took all the money and stamps in
sight
He then said that after they left
Iowa Falls and came over into
Michigan. Sheldon and the gang
grew steadily more afraid OF the
girl. He said the last postoffice
they robbed before they killed the
girl was at Rockford Mich, about
forty miles from Muskegon. This,
he said, was about three weeks be
fore the girls death early in Sep
TENDER, 1916.
of the details of the killing he
told me little They put il up to
me- he said, when 1 stood up for
her, that it would either be me OF
her or both OF US. Well. it had to
De her. I won't tell you who fired
The shot. but it wasn't me. They
buried her there in the middle of
The pines where she was found
When they said theyawere going to
Canada. they told me to go home
and / came That was Sept. 70
registered at the MuskegOn hotel
mat night and the next day 1 went
home
q these men. He said they must
have robbed many pOst0ffces while
they were on the trip. When /
questioned him as to the truth of
MS story he asked me. Well. how
Gould we have lived otherwise?
Gould you take six months auto
mp over the country with nothing
ne swOre TO me that they were real
I'VE men. But he said they simply
we're burglars. thieves, robbers, /
ney might be in penitentiaries or /
lead He thought they might be in }
.anada. And so I told him TO go !
mere l didn't know what else TO .
tell him /
There are many circumstances f
shlch bear out the story. Mrs. Milo +
Flper indicated when told of Piper's
hQiclde that she knew the truth of /
t. She said
know Hilo's innocent I'm not
;ust saying that to make myself be
ieVe II know Il. | know il be
ause ~ something he told me that
III never tell
lsked
He didn't do that. he gimpIv got
nto bad compsnv
Yes. PiDer's father said chat
vas Just a link in the chain-just
"a incident Of IL all. Well never
'elleVe the boys guilty Of murder,
'ecause We know mes innocent"
strange stories Of how Piper from
uhe 10 time paid for household
purcnases with 2-cent stamps have
sen heard around Muskegon Sher-
Stauner. for instance said yes
5'oeF he had traced Piper's pC--
-.@Se Of coal at various times with
'AmDs
=, Delay in the arrival Of Albert
hs. a special deputy sheriff ap-
ohte9 70 watch Piper. made =
'Sslble for the urfEa1er n hang