Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-03
TRASSE,
 ! BANDIT, CAPTURED . BY UNARMED MAN
OtOri0us Bank RObber Back in Lansing
 Cell


 lsf At the time of La Trasse's arrest 'gsi e was looked upon as just an or IN inary motor car thief. No one re { C lized that he was famous outlay st fho has been hunted for years. H. sgs 40 years old.
 ,7 Lee Merry is employed by an au omobile insurance company here ,lthough Chief Zickefoose of tn, Wichita police department, former lfiiy chief of detectives of the Kansa sK sity department, thought he recog II ized the man as La Trasse. he wa, 4 ncertain, till his identity was posi- sf lively established through the ever ecords of the fingerprints of al
 riminals are kept.
 Ifs Today, the bandit is once agair D the Lansing penitentiary, iron 5hich he escaped several years ago Home on Edge of Town" |M La Trasse gave the name of Chas HNilson, and his home as on the edg, .l!sf town, when he was overtaken by xI derry after a chase of more than { s nile. He had run from house neal which car with it's numbers Managed had been found Although
 Srmed with pistol, in which he haC Two hicks for his former victims, he Sa made no attempt at resistance. 's La Trasse's career of crime began \ a9ghen he was boy in Armourdale #slow part of Kansas City, Kan. AS es9 boy, he had been known as "tht z bad boy of Armourdale" He was Sbften in juvenile court for petty Z sMsShieving.
 f% According to his criminal record js>n file at the Kansas penitentiary 4Xhe slugged a man at Armourdale in 903. A few months later he was Exjeonvieted at St. Joseph, Mo, fol robbery, and sentenced to S4hlO years in the Missouri state pris- 4tSn. He was paroled six years later SAn 1910, he robbed an Armourdale Ssgrocery store, obtained $500 and es- ssslsaped.
 S The "bad boy" came into especial Stprominence, however, when or
 Christmas night, 1910, he boarded a 4 Missouri Pacific train at Leaven- 38sworth and, single handed robbed Nascores of passengers. obtaining thou
 sands of dollars. He dropped from *rear of an observation car as the AASItrain slowed down at junction in 5 Kansas City, Kan. He had spent 5C RSminutes on the train and was reliev- HHng passengers of valuables. every ,3minute.
 M All you suckers can go to gahs far as I am eoncerned.' yelled ESaLa Trasse, as he dropped from the |gAstrain and made his way out of sight eg Next Killed Policeman. H He was not heard of again until a 4few months later, when he robbed gsa saloon and killed policeman in stChicago. He was not tried for this, Ebut when he was apprehended he Twas returned to Kansas City, where 41he was tried for train robbery. He 'Awas sentenced to from 10 to q years in Lansing. While being held in the AWyandotte county jail after this &trial, La Trasse escaped. A few months later he was found Fin the Illinois state prison at Joliet, swhere he had been sent for high Eway robbery. He was turned over s to the Kansas prison authorities. On the night of November 12, 1915. the then famous bandit made one of the most sensational escapes in the history of the penitentiary. In com Epany with several other convicts, he Icrawled through a tunnel they had |dug underneath the wall, and disap- |peared. Within a few weeks his com panions were captured, but no trace Ecorld be found of the ringleader. A year later, the fugitive came in 1 to the Hmelight again, when he staged daylight robbery in Chica- E go, holding up the office of Thomas A Cook, a tourist bureau, where he shot the cashier, shot and killed q policeman and escaped with $90O.
 "I'm La Trasse. I'm a bad man." he shouted, as he commanded every one in the Cook office to "keep still and shell out"
 Intended to Turn Farmer. That was the last heard of La Trasse, until he was caught here and identified by A. J. Renee, finger print expert from the Leavenworth Federal prison, and Record Clerk Hudspeth of Lansing.
 But the bad bandit was about to desert the narrow path of evil and turn farmer, when he was captured by Merry, according to the outlaws statements when he was identified.
 "I was making arrangements to
 
 skirts of Wichita, and settle down to the peaceful existence of quiet rural life, when my plans were all thief-chaser,' the bandit told his guards who took him back to re- sume his term of 10 to 2l years.
 La Trasse's statement, however is contradicted by admissions he I Tel ner, who were arrested soon after ward and who are believed by the police to have operated with him. In the house from which La Trasse ran were found several hundred dol lars worth of merchandise. which was identified as having been stolen from Kansas stores.
 A story of three years fighting with the foreign legion in France and of his participation in eight large battles of the war, was told by La Trasse, but suffers considerably from discounting in authorities hands, who do not believe he would have joined the army and taken the risk of having his finger prints taken.
 Through With Crime"
 'I am done with all of it." he said. "There is nothing to it, and from now on, no one will be troubled with Bill La Trasse When have finished my sentence I am going to settle down and take care of my mother
 La Trasse said he had visited Kan sas City last Christmas and had spent the day with relatives in Kan sas City, Kan.
 Merry and an associate had re- sceived information that stolen car on which their company held insur, Ance would be found at 4400 East 0ouRlae avenue. here The house ;s