The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-01-08

Wards confession appearing in full
on this page, all practically agree and
tell the old tale Of men, who for sake
of q few paltry dollars must now face
long prison terms, because they would
rather murder and rob than to earn
honest livings.
II has been a case Of mystery from
the start, and but for the untiring
work Of Prosecutor Watt would pro-
badly have never been solved. Con-
vinced from the start that he was on
the right track the county official re-
fused to give up when so many times
it seemed that every clue had failed.
Unable to get q confession from the
Wards, he finally conceived the idea
Of getting the county to offer a reward
for the apprehension Of the guilty
parties, and 1T the same time he sent
for James T. Burns, a Halloran OPP
erative Of Grand Rapids, who was
brought here to get into the conf
dence of the Wards.
Right here delicate situation pre-
scented itself How was Burns to be
thrown into contact with the Wards
without arousing their suspicion?
Finally the idea was conceived to have
Burns arrested on a fake charge OF
having quart of whisky on a Grand
Trunk train. The writer was call
ed in and the situation explained and
that day the Standard carried the
story of Burns arrest. In the mean
time the officers had learned that a
day or two after, the murder, Charles
Ward had taken his wife and children
dan, where he had since left or prac-
tically abandoned them, another wo-
man stepping into the case at this
time. Going to Sheridan the prose-
cutor and sheriff told Wards wife of
his actions, and she consented to the
swearing out of warrant for him for
desertion. He was arrested the same
day that Burns came here, and they
we're put in the same cell, where
Burns soon became a confident of the
suspected man. That night copy of
the Stanard containing the. story of
the arrest of Burns was handed into
the cell block and it was then that
Burns and Ward began to get chum-
my. Burns posed as a bad actor,
claiming to have been wanted in con-
nection with the Piper case in Mus
kegon, which was then arousing the
hole state. In order for Burns to
spend Christmas day at home he was
taken out on the pretext that they
wanted to question him at Muskegon
Coming back the day after Christ
mas the same old game of watchful
waiting began all over again. In
the jail he and Ward planned what
they would do when they got out, and
finally a fake robbery was planned
all of this that he might get farther
into the confidence of Ward. Detec-
tive Halloran was sent for last Satur-
day, and the Harris Furniture Co
store on Main street was selected by
Burns and Ward as the scene of their
first operation.
| During the day, Saturday, Burns
claimed to have received 5000 from &
pal in Chicago, and with this he hac
)aid his fine. Wards wife wa.
brought in and it was through hel
hat he was released, both men plan
ming before then to meet that night
md pull off the furniture store job
But Wards wife, fearing that hi
anted to get out to see the ether
woman would not let him come dowI
town that night, so Sunday morning
he came down to Burns room at tn,
Plaza hotel and told him the reason
why he did not show up.
Burns pretended to be mad, bu
finally relented and the two of then