The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-05-09


capes Because He Has Less Money
Detectives Effect Their Capture
CHESTER, May Civilian LescordI
and William Gibson, deserters from the
army post at Camp Dix, \. j., are I'M
the county jail at Woodstock awaiting|
trial in June for the murder of GEORGE
Race at Gassett 5, Thursday night Sat i
mday they confessed that they planned
to rob Race and that they beat him into
insensibility with a club. then tied him
mp with clothesline and threw him in
the kitchen of his home
Gibson, confessihg his part in the
crime, said: We threw him onto the
bed while he was unconscious, but he
came to, and so | swatted him a couple
on the bean to keep him quiet. - The
old man died of a fractured skull and
brain conclusion at the Bellows Falls
hospital.
Are Former Service Men.
Lescord and Gibson were in the army
| together. LesCOrd, a native of South
| AshDurham, Mass, had been in Ger
| many with the army OF occupation,
| and upon his return met Gibson at the
| army camp. Gibson. q native of Jack
| Sohyule; Fla, has been roamer since
| boy hood. The two men deserted the
| camp on April p, walking TO Trenton
! y, j., and thence to Troy, y. y, from
| where they stole rides on freight trains
| until they reached Gassetts.
| Gibson hired out to a farmer named
! Goodrich, on the Bellows Falls road.
| Wmie Lescord procured employment at
| bacc : store. Each worked 1--WE days.
| but during that time, it Is said, planned
| 10 rob someone in order to procure
IN F4ET
| Alter each had made a survey of his
| place OF employment, it was decided. ac-
| Cordlng to the story, that Race should
| be made the victim. because they had
| learned that he had several hundred
dollars on hand for a summer supply of
/ stock
COld-BIOoded Murder.
/ According to the admission made by
the two mra, teey waited around the
! store thursday EIght until a favorable
/ opportunlty was offered. and then at
lacked the old man, beating him down
! with club. ~ be fell bleeding and un-
| conscious to the floor, they trussed him
| with Clot he~ line and threw him into
| the, Kitchen. }-haro his body would be
hidden. -t-'r. #Hu~Icking the store and
| making ua a bundle of loot. consisting
| largely OF -Jrcttes and food, they
searched far Hiuncy, but found only S53
which was ~ RACES clothing.
+ ~ railroad nsia entered Races store
ami noticing signs of disorder and a
4 ecuHle, sought Race, who was usually
at the counter He found the old man
on the floor, unconscious and dying
N. AS soon os an alarm was sounded
! high Sheriff Wallace Fairbanks of
! SrTngheld and Deputy Sheriff Fred \.
| Leland OF TINS town were called. Den
! uty Sheriff Leland set out on an l8-mile
drive To Bellows Falls, taking the diving
man to the hospital, while the high
X 4F.k- aft kgt IL.
| state : Attorney Glenn c. Rowland
IoT Windsor, was the first county officer
| notified and he responded immediately
| Atty.-General Archibald, who was at st
| A!bahS, 100 miles away, Was appraised
OF the murder and arranged to start for
Bellows Falls on the afternoon train.
Detectives from Boston.
The state officers then called Detect
| ives Wood and Joseph c. Crowley from
Boston and, upon information gathered
| by the sheriff and his deputies. Crow
| ley set out for South Ashburnham, the
home OF Lescord and the probable direc-
| ton in which the robbers fed. Police
man Peela of the Ashburnham police
| coined Detective Crowley at the house
OF Lescord's mother and the fugitives
| were captured as they sought flight
| through rear exit, in a belief that the
ponce officers were army officers seek
ing them for their desertion They
were lodged in the Jail at Fitchburg for
the night
Word of the capture was sent to Bel
| lows Falls and orders issued for the
! Immediate return of the prisoners to
that city When the prisoners reached
Bellows Falls they We're turned over to
Detective Wood, commissioned BY the
attorney general as state detective, and
| Attorney General Archibald announced
| the confessions.
He said the two men plotted the rob
berry for several days, though they did
not plan to kill the old man He was
| selected over Farmer Goodrich because
they thought he had more money at
hand. They talked freely of their crime
the blows. intended merely to stun the
old man, killed him. DIR. Charles F.
Whitney of Burlington, state patho-