Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-05-12
Sergeant O'Hare
Tells What He Knows
of BergdOllS Escape

VI DS4 . NAO1A ~ A@SSStt|O
Washington, May lin giving a
first hand account of the escape of
Grover c. Bergdoll, the Philadelphia
draft dodger, Sergeant John O'Hare
who was in command of the escort
which started out with Bergdoll from
Governors Island for the mountains
of Maryland. told the House inyestl-
eating committee today that he had
never heard a word about the buried
pot of gold until longafter the pris-
oner had fed.
O'Hare was positive in the asser-
ton that when he started out for the
mountains the only instructions he re-
ceived from Col John Z. Hunt, his
superior officer was to proceed with
Bergdoll to Hagerstown. Md, get
some money from a bank, take it to
another bank at Philadelphia and re-
turn to the barracks.
There were no written orders ex-
cept to stop off at North Ihiladel-
phia, meet the late d. Clarence Glib
honey. Bergdoll's lawyer and there
after be guided by what Gibboney said.
the witness declared. O'Hare said he
wanted to handcuff his prisoner but
that Hunt had refused
1t was Gibboney's order he said
that the party halted at Philadelphia,
went for long automobile ride with
Bergdoll at the wheel, visited a bur
lesque show and stopped at the Berg
doll home from which the prisoner es-
capped.
The sergeant told how Bergdoll,
who had evaded the draft for a
couple of years was sent from the is
land in the full uniform of an en-
listed man, with a hat cord indicat-
ing that lie belonged to the infantry
branch of the service, how he had
sat in the train from New York to
Philadelphia without uttering a
word and chewing tobacco all the
while
Step by step he told of various
move, up to the moment when Berg
doll walked into a bathroom to ans
wer the telephone. He was never
seen after that and to this day the
sergeant said, he does not know how
he got out Except for that single
moment he declared, the prisoner
was never out of his sight.
No amount of cross examination
could bulge the witness from his
statement that he was in entire ig-
norance of any plan to go out and
dig up the buried gold, the object
for which the prisoner was released
in custody of OHare and York, an
other sergeant.
Mrs. Emma c. BergdoiI, mother of
the draft evader, and James ROmig,
the man who was sent to Washing
ton to get $105,000 in gold from the
treasury, We're around the BergdolI
home all the time the party was
there, O'Hare said. When not shoot
ing pool or reciting Shakeseare,
Grover, he added, was walking about
perfectly at ease.
When Mrs. Bergdoll learned that
her son had gone she was greatly ex-
cited, said O'Hare, putting her hands
above her head as she walked about
getting supper. The woman and
Romig, he added, tried to persuade
him not to worry, assuring him that
Bergdoll would be back after a
while. AS the guards were being
entertained, a bottle of gin myster-
iously appeared in the pool room,
O'Hare testified but he did not touch
it, as he had not taken a drink in p
years. York, however. drank some
of it, but was warned by O'Hare to
let it alone.
Tears filled the eyes. of the little
sergeant as he told the committee of
his return to the island, empty hand
ed, with barely enough money to pay
his fare and of his plea that he be
permitted to go over to Brooklyn
to tell his wife of his misfortune be-
fore being locked up. He was tried
later by court martial and acquitted.
OHare was not subjected to a
grilling except by one member of the
committee. in an effort to bring out
that he did not understand the brief
order given him by Colonel Hunt.
Representative, Democrat, Ken
lucky, in concluding the examination
of Col Hunt. reiterated that he
would attempt to show that Hunt
was "whiteWaShed' by court mar
tial for failing to take adequate pre-
cautions for the safety of the pris-
oner
Former Judge John w. Wescott of
New Jersey, who has denied the
testimony Of Samuel T. Ansell that
he was consulting counsel, and
Romig, the gold messenger and gen
eral boss around the Bergdon home
on the day of the escape, will testify
tomorrow.