Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-15
FUNSTON CAPTAIN
KILLS SELF AFTER
FINGERPRINT ORDER
Officer Said to Have Robbed
Bank, Staying Four Ends.
Own Life With Two Shots
From Service Rifle

CAMP FUNSTON. Kans.. Jan. IA
Captain Lewis Whistler, Of the Three
Hundred and Fifty-fourth infantry, be-
came his own eXecutioner today after
suspicion had been directed at him as
the probable murderer of four men Ia
the bank at the national army camp
here. who were hacked to death with a
Ratchet Friday night.
Whistler Shot and killed himself with
an army revolver after he had written
a note in which he said: 81 have been
thinking of committing suicide for a
long time but I never had good rea-
son. Yesterday went out and made
myself a reason"
The note was addressed to Il woman
whose name army officials refused to
make public.
Tonight Major Lee, chief of staff Of
the Eighty-ninth division, in an inter
view said:
Every indication points to Captain
Whistler as the murderer. The circum-
stances and evidence are so conclusive
as practically TO eliminate any posi-
bility of doubt"
The murders in the bank were COM
mitted some time after $50 o'clock
last night Cashier Kearney Wornall.
Of the bank. who had been terribly Dat
tered and cut by the murderer. stun
bled from the bank covered with blood
and fell at the feet of a passing SELL
try. He declared that a man in a cap
tain's uniform had killed four men N
the bank and had fed.
Dogs Put on Trail
Within ten minutes the military pO-
lice and provost officer. Captain J. c.
Smallwood. had taken charge of the sit
a
camp and cities within a radius of 100
miles notified. Dogs were placed on the
trail OF the murderer.
Finger prints of the murderer were
found in the bank. Because of Worn
alFs declaration that a man in a cap
tain's uniform had done the killing. all
captains at the post were ordered to re-
port. 1t was soon after this order was
issued that whistlers body was found
in his room in the officers barracks.
Bloody towels were found in the
room. There were splotches of blood
on the washstand. whistler was lying
on the opposite side of the room from
the bloody exhibits. 1t was known that
Whistler had secured two hatchets from
the supply department the previous day
The men killed were:
C Fuller Winters, Kansas City, Mo.
Carl Ohleson, Kansas City, Mo.
John W, Jewell, Springfield, Mo.
= =. Hill. a clerk.
wornall, who is seriously injured,
probably will recover.
Captain Whistler was a veteran Of the
Spanish-American war At the time of
the last Mexican trouble he offered to
recruit a regiment for border service.
He was commissioned captain recently
at the officers training camp at Fort
Riley, Kans. For FIVE years previous to
that he had been employed as a rail-
way mail clerk. His home was at Sa-
lima, Kans.
wornaII's Account
wornall. in periods OF conscious
ness in the hospital today, told a dis
connected story of the murder.
The employees were kept after regu-
lar hours by the large volume of bust
ness yesterday, he said. With the en-
ployes was Jewell, editor of the posts
daily paper.
There was an insistent knock at the
door about $3.50. They admitted a man
who covered them with a revolver. He
forced Wornall to tie tile hands of the
other four men. Then he tied Wornall,
stuffed all the currency in the vault
in his pockets and turned toward the
door.
You recognize him, don't your" Win
Wornall replied in the affirmative.
You know me, do your" cried the
robber>
Il sure do. you scoundrel," replied
Winters.
The robber stopped short, hesitated,
and in that moment became a murderer.
Swings His Ratchet
Springing at the helpless men, he
swung his Ratchet. Wornall, the last
one struck, was forced to see his COM
paniOns battered and hacked to death,
without any chance for resistance.
Jewell worked in the advertising de-
partment Of the New York Times at one
time and his father is editor and pub
Usher of the Springfield, No, Leader.
Winters resided in Kansas City prior
TO the opening of the army bank. when
he removed to Manhattan. q sohrt distance
from the post. He was vice president
of the National Reserve bank at Kan
sas City and was cashier of the Army
bank.
Ohleson was nineteen years old and
a graduate of the Kansas City public
school. Ohleson's father, a Kansas City
contractor, who is building a new
structure for the Army bank, was Wis
iting with the bank employees.
o. NJ. Hill, had recently come from
Oklahoma and was employed as a clerk
in the bank.
Wornau was a college chum of
JEWELS and a resident of Kansas City.
Real ARMY Hnnfain