Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-02-06
HOLD THOMPSON
IN CONNECT
WITH ROY FIRE
]. H. RibIett Is Said to
Have Confessed to Par
tiCipating in Burning High
School Building.
Especial correspondence to Ine journal !

Especial correspondence TO Ine JournaI.)
Roy, N. NJ. Feb. 5.--Following a
hearing held before Justice Of the
Peace Foster. j. w. Thompson, of
the firm of Brown & Thompson,
contractors, Amarillo, Tex, was
bound over to await the action Of
the Harding county grand jury.
The hearing was the outcome of an
alleged confession made by j. II.
Riblett in connection with the
burning OF the school house here
several weeks ago. Thompson
bail was fixed at $1,000, which he
furnished.
What purports to be Riblett's
confession follows:
ROY, N. MEX, Jan. 2f, 1929.
Statement of j. II. RibIctt.
on December 8. 1921. between
12 o'clock noon and 1 p. m. ]. w.
Thompson asked me If / could
drive a Ford car. l told him yes,
he says | want you to drive me to
Liberty School House. On the road
going out to Liberty School he ask
ed me if I wanted to make a thou
sand dollars. / didn't answer him.
and coming back, he says to me,
"Joe do you want to make thou
sand dollars easy?" | says yes.
You make a thousand dollars and
I make fifteen or twenty thousand,
he says don't let anybody know
this even my wife. l will make a
foreman out of you on the Wagon
Mound School House. or any other
building we may have. He says.
want the School House gutted, this
Is the school house at Roy. (the
one / have referred to.) He said to
me with this thousand dollars you
can take the little girl, and live
happy married, to the jobs at
Wagon Mound and others we may
have. You will always have work,
as long as this company exists. My
answer was I'll see about 1t.
coming in town, I told Mr..
Thompson | wanted to borrow fif-
teen dollars to pay check, ] gave
to Roberts and Oliver, he wrote me
out check for $25, while | was
parking the car. In Browns garage.
on December the 9th, on or about
one forty-five in the morning. ] set
the school house on fire and 1t
burnt down, that's all. On Janu-
ary the goth, Mr. Thompson called
me out of his office and says Joe,
they have nothing against you, 1t
will be a month or two months be-
fore the work can start at Wagon
Mound" he says your pay will go
on straight time, / will fix that
some way. / was at Mr.. Thomp-
sons office in regards to my home
stead papers and went their in
company with steve Gambrel as an
acting officer.
December the 9Th. 1921. ac-
cepted Mr.. Thompson's offer Of one
thousand dollars to burn down the
Roy School House. During this
conversation on Dec. the Sth, ne
said that ] am eve are) broke. we
have got to do something. l had
the School House insured a few
days ago. for forty-five thousand
dollars, I think we can replace the
school house for about twenty
thousand dollars, the walls would
remain standing and we can re-
place the wood work for about
twenty thousand dollars. 1t can be
done tomorrow morning between
two and three o'clock. he said that
their was gasoline their in that
barrel. 49,.
He said that there is a high
feeling against the Catholics ana |
the Protestants, they will think |
the ones that burnt the other |
school house burnt this and we |
I ~ r7tpnnatnd He . I
ised to pay me two hundred and /
fifty dollars on the first Saturday /
after the fire and he says you (
can take this two hundred and |
fifty dollars, get married. as soon +
as you please. / will pay the /
balance after the insurance COM I
pany settles. The school board |
and we carry the insurance on
the building. On the evening of !
December the Sth, was going to
put some windows in a building |
for Mr.. Sanchez, l moved my tool |
box out of the school building in
tending to take 1t to the Sanchez
as | brought it out Of the
school building, noticed the Ar
standing there and I says,
Oh, you are here. are, he says
yes, before I sit down the tool box, I
[ asked him If he was going to
be here long. he says no. l sit |
down the tool box and asked him,
what he thought of the job. he
said it looked good we was talk
ing about the plaster and 1t |
wasn't here couldn't tell when 1t
would be here and he said it's too