Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-09
IT DOESN'T PAY
MN senteaeea 10 Life Has Been Out
;ef Prison So Months In 25 Years.
HE EXPECTS 70 GET OUT AGAIN
Otto Cole Has Picked Up Lot Of Legal
Phrasss-Story OF His Criminal

!. phrases-Story of His Crimina
Rseord
with only thirty-three months o.
freedom 10 his credit In the last tweh.
"a. aye vears and even those months
ancnt as = ,f,,,p,tiyei from Justice. ottc
Cole burglar. '-con" man. booze run
ner ard murderer has been sent tc
nrinon for the balance of his life b,
an Omaha court. Cole is forty -tw,
wears old now He became a criminal
at the age Of seventeen years. c.,
.But crookedsess don't pay. - i
don,t nav. Cole told the Omaha court
when he was sent up for life. ~
Cole has seen the insi,le of many
jails and .pepitentiaries. sHe Nha.
served .tine In, Minnesota. Maryland
Ohio Illinois and elsewhere. He es-
capped from the Baltimore City Jail
from the Jelict Penitentiary and from
other PRISONS. j He has been. paroled
pardoned and released on "gooa time,
in addition to serving out his SEN
tences. But he never kept out OF
trouble and no sooner was he released
from a prison than he Immediately
went back into crime.
But .crockedness don't pay" he
tcld tHetc0art. 3e-I ought to knew
= gin5Ma1y Courts. &
n Cole had appeared before so many
different courts that he has picked up
quite q smattering of legal terms and
methods. When arrested in Omaha
and charsed with the murder of Har-
ry Hahn, a pawnbroker, he refused
the assistance iof the Pnblie Defender
and asked permission of the court to
conduct his own defense. This was
granted and Throughout the trial Cole
carried on his end Of the case like a
veteran attorney.
ole posed as a. sMan of Mystery
until the Bertiiion experts got on his
trail. He was a man of good fam
iIy' gone temporarily wrong and was
shielding his family by withholding
his name, although the family would
come 10. bis assista nee with sums of
r1onsy IL he but appealed TO them, he
intimated. But the Bertillon experts
soon solved all the "mystery"-except
that of his true NAME 45 T.
He was Just seventeen years of age
when he broke into the criminal lime
light of Columbus. o.. where, under
the,name of Richard Proctor, he was
sent to prison for three years for bur-
glary. He served his time and was
released June as. 1888. -
ID took Cole, inst eight days to get
In trouble again. On July 6, 1898. he
was arrested In Baltimore-was
caught, red handed. while committing
q burglary. r A month later,s before he
could be tried, he escaped from the
Baltimore CITY JaiI and saws he has
never seen that city since that day.
In baltimore he. used the name of
vansceurt. 80, -, =
This time Cole stayed out of trouble
forstwo months. At least. he was NOT
arrested again until Oct. s. 1898. On
that date, in Chicago he was SEN
tcneed to Joliet Prison for burglary.
James Rennet"r was his name in Chi
cago, But the Berallon measurements
show he was the same man as Proc
tor and Yanscourt. He was paroled
early in March, 1903. 3H
!. In ten days he was In trouble again,
this time at Red Wing, Mimi, for
burglary. He WAS known as "E. E.
English" in the trial. He. served out
his ,tifne in the Minnesota, State ,Pris-
on, and at the expiration of his term
was taken back to Joliet 10 serve the
remainder of his sentence in the TTli-
nois prison. From Joliet he was pa
rolled In. January, 1910. ''' r..a..'
But. he couldn't keep straight. In a
month or SO he was back in the Joliet
prison, where 1he was sent from Chi.
osgo on a robbery charge. He was
discharged In September. 1915. This
time, he was usinp the name of ed :
win English