The Mena weekly star., 1918-07-04
AMAZING STORIES
 IF INTENDED CRIME
of Terror and Wholesale Mur- A ', Was Purpose of W. C. U in p.,I County, According to State
 .,,s of Caughrons to Sheriff

cAor;tf H. W. Finger, who was in
 ,-ce of the three Caughron broth
 and other convicts when they
 taken to the penitentiary re- ..rtlv. in conversation with a repre- es..s ntat;ve of The Star, told of talks se,isa sa to him on the trip by Ben C.. cshron sAus under sentence of death, ~sf -s fEdmund Caughron, sentenced for ,;ss r,.s for the murder of Charles Kirk ,.rd . in the Hatton raid.
 '"iT The language of these talks or con- ...s;ops a vary, naturally, from the ex- as words of the men, but Sheriff sSs S;sgsr has a good memory, and is aortain that he does not mlsquote sither in any detail.
 Ben Caughron's Story.
 po, was the first to broach the sub - of his crime and it's inception, yss .. here is his story, which he opened s.' eay;np to Sheriff Finger that he -orld like to talk to him before they yoaehed the penitentlary:
 ' ~ have been led into wrong and I
 . oorrv. If it is my time to die I I oo to the chair with as good .as ~-s.a as any man but if I had ss.snee would take up the other side
 ars york just as hard for right as l
 ..Se for wrong"
 M Finger here asked him for the
 Han on which the w. c. U. was work
 ing in Polk county, and he said;
 Planned Wholesale Murders.
 aWe were to stay in small tents
 i, the woods or mountains, or in
 houses where we wouldn't be given
 away. and were to be well armed,
 which we were. Then if you (the sberif) or other officers located us 70 felt we were well enough armed to kill ten or twelve of them at any time. and cause such an excitement that we could get away without be- iue hurt. You (the sheriff) were the 1 main man we were after. But we fell ! down on the first job. But if we had been successful in killing you and ten or twelve others, we felt we could i quickly get hundred more joiners for the W. c. U., and then we could i have scattered them in small punches over the mountains and in the woods, and when people went hunting for us each squad could kill as many more, and each time we had success more people would join us.
 Sees Error of His Way.
 But now see where 1 was wrong, entirely wrong, and if l had a chance to live, there isn't man anywhere who would take up the other side stronger and help you and the other officers enforce the laws in Polk coun- ty under the American flag more than I. But am afraid I was on the wrong side too long, but if you see proper to say kind word for me I certainly l will appreciate it and do the right thing when have a chance"
 Edmund's Caughron's Confession
 A little later Edmund Caughron said he wanted to make statement, and here is what he said:
 T guess you would have been car irving me to the penitentiary anyway, but not for life, if it hadn't been fOr another party, and neither would ] have had hole shot in my back.
 This party lives in the Rocky set clement. l take pictures and me and my crowd decided to go in the Rocky the excuse to be to take pictures, but the main object was to find out how the w. c. U. was getting along l went to the house of 'there he named the man, but The Star will omit it), and as I went up 10 the man of the house he said to me:
 If you are Henry Fingers spy you had as well go back
 Thought Officers Would Run.
 T convinced him who was, and he and l talked until after o'clock at night. He told me that he was well acquainted, and had been for years, with Henry Finger, and all the men who would go out with him, and ne convinced me that you and your men were such towards that all we had to do was to show them a gun and they would take to their heels. SO the morning that Harkey's house was surrounded, 1 thought of what
 said, grabbed my Winchester ana ran to the door to do the shoot Ing. In place of them taking to their heeis, they shot hole thru my back ana ! am going to the penitentiary TOT iiie. But l acknowledge l have aone wrong, and l guess would have oeeh going anyway if 1 hadn't lis- sned to -, but l feel like I , would nave been going sound man ana With short sentence.
 ! am young man, only 22 years v age. know l have done wrong ano want to do right from now on, @nu ! guarantee the people of your souhtry that l will be true citizen [ 4nu 4as one to help enforce the law from .'''s eime on, and if you will speak sna word for me it will all be ap- preciated.r
 .4 lh every home where there is baby Iusre srrS.a should also be bottle of Me- sIIs BABY ELIXIR. It may be Att1p6