The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-13
Gentleness of Man Charged
With Murder Mystifying.
Cares for UnfOrtunates in Jail
Holds Worship Sacred.
WOULDN'T "SNITCH" ON PAL
Relatives Spend Lifetime Saw
ings to Fight Prosecution.
Even County Officials Change
Attitude Toward Prisoner.

Hands which. it ie claimed, choked
the life out of three men have proven
70 pc as soft and earessing as the
hands of a mother.
Lips from which harsh oaths have
1towed have demanded that honor and
respect be paid to those who wished
Eyes said to have cleaned with the
light of murder in numerous fights
have been known to glisten with tears
child.
The same man accused Of being one
or the most brutal murderers in Grim
inal history IN Kansas has chosen soil
snitch on Sis pals IN rafnfF misfortnnes i1
the Shawnee county jail.
Day by day officers in charge of the
Shawnee county Jail are finding the
reason why the brothers, sisters and
wife of Rufe King. accused of triple
murder. are spending the savings of
their lives in defending him. If Rufe
King is the brute pictured by state
officers prosecuting him he is the
most typical Doctor Sekyll and Mr..
Hyde" ever introduced to police Off
GERS in this city.
First insight into another RUFF King
was given to the public a few weeks
after his arrest when a sister in
mourning pleaded with tears in her
eyes for permission to send barber
into the jail to shave the giant from
Maple Hill. She knew Rufe King as a
brother who fought for her in their
childhood days. as a young man
whose eyes filled with tears when she
lay i'll at home with the measles and
n brother who saw that his sisters
had an opportunity to "go to the
church fair" whether any of the
country beaux wanted to take them,
or not.
"Mush," said police officers at the
time when they read the article.
Officials Change Attitude.
Today, they begin to see the Rufe
King seen thru the eyes of his sister.
They have gone into the bull PEN in
the county jail to find the big, burly fell
low standing at the cot of an unfor-
tunate dope fiend or sick man, gladly
attending to his every want. Now
whenever anyone is i'll in the county
Jail Rufe King is the willing and self
appointed nurse
Then. there was the day when a
bottle of muriatic acid and steel saws
were smugGled into the Jail in prepa-
ration for wholesale escape. The
pIot was nipped by the vigilance of
the jailer and an investigation was
started Rufe King went into solitary
confinement rather than to 'snitch"
on n pal. The man who planned the
escape told it all and sent the man
on the outside. who aided him, to
state. prison in an effort to clear him
sci.
Whenever the public thinks of a
good "cusser' they say:
''lIe swears like Rufe King"
The big fellows command of the
language that isn't printed has aroused
the wondermcnt of the most profi-
cient profanity handlers in the city
Yet when a ban1 from the Saliva
ton Army was holding a meeting at
tne county Jail and a crazy man at
tempted to break up the meeting, Rufe
King, born in the atmosphere of
Christian family. was the man who
picked the disturber up and placed
him on Il cot. True, Rufe did a little
audible swearing when he told the fell
low TO quiet down, but then the offenSe
justified the words used by King at
the time.
Rufe's relatives never forget him.
They take cigars and food to him every
few days and Rufe gets less of it than
any one else in the Jail.
He appreciates everything we do
for him." said the taller today. I'VE
always can depend on anything he says
he will do