Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-07
PACKAGE Of FRUIT
SHIPPED To FRIEND
TRAPS SATTERF|ELD
PIennie Miner Leaves to
Bring Back Fugitive SIay-
er - Tells of Slip That
Led to His Arrest

A small package of fruit, careless
, ly shipped by express to a friend
4, in Albuquerque, n. M, under one
OF the aliases by which he was
known, was the apparently insiS-
nificant circumstance that led to the
arrest in Los Angeles, Cal, Saturday
of ]. B. Satterfield, wanted here for
, the Staying of his brother-in-law. r.
H. Hart, whom he is alleged to have
shot to death on December 81, 1921.
Plennie Miner, special investigator
in Solicitor General Boykin's office,
revealed the circumstances sur
rounding Satterfield's capture just
before he left late Saturday for Cal
ifornia to return the alleged slayer
to Atlanta.
And in this circumstance, trivial
in Itself, is found a justification for
the criminologists' theory that every
criminal, given enough rope, will
hang himself; that even the shrewd-
est felon sometime, somewhere, in
days or weeks or years, will make
the one small mistake that can have
but one result-his capture. That
is the theory that gives the crimionl-
ogist hope, and time after time it
has been borne out in fact.
satterfield proved it. For eigl.-
teen long months he eluded his pur-
suers, with officers of the law some
times only few hours behind him.
From the mountain of northern
Georgia to the Pacific coast;
through California logging camps
and orange groves; always they were
Just behind him. And finally he be-
trayed himself.
Likened to DuPre Case
A similar mistake brought Frank
DuPre back to Georgia to pay the
, penalty for. his crime. From sup
posed safety in Detroit he wrote a
careless letter to a Chattanooga
pawn broker, a letter that put the
police of two states on his trail.
Failed TO Change Alias
. In sending the package of fruit to
. II friend in Albuquerque, Mr.. MI
nor said, Satterfield used the alias,
.R. L. Looney."
Mr.. Miner said he previously had
sent mail matter through the Los
Angeles postoffice under this alias
and that of ''R. L. Rooney" but had
discontinued using the mails when he
found they were being watched.
He was a smooth customef," said
Mr.. Miner. For weeks we watched
the mails. We then found he had
switched to the express companies.
but-he had neglected to change his
alias. That was his undoing. The
best of them make a mistake sooner
or later"
= Satterfield's case is, in many ways,
one of the strangest and most daring
that has wound it's tedious way
across the annals of the Fulton Grim
inal courts in years.
On a December evening, almost
two years ago, he appeared at the
Hart home, on Trinity avenue. His
relatives had thought him miles
away, in the middle west, and did not
know he intended coming to Atlanta
Satterfield had married Harris sis.
ter and she had died several years
before, leaving two little girls,
Dorothy and Elizabeth. The chill
dren were at the home CT Mrs. j.. c.
Stuckey, their aunt, in Albuquerque,
n. NJ.
Mr.. Hart, at the death OF his sis
ter, Mrs. Satterfield, had been made
. executor of her estate, and had paid
> over, from tine to time, certain
sums to the Satterfield girls. In
this way practically all Mrs. Satter-
fields estate was paid over to the
girls by Mr.. Hart, according to Mrs.
Hart and intimate friends of the
family, who say that there are re-
ceipts to show for every dollar of
. the estate.
Warning Received
Satterfield, it is charged, became
incensed at Mr.. Hart because the
latter would not accede to his de-
mands as to the disposition CT Mrs.
Satterfield's estate. On the day Of
llS hIIl1AlSI IL - SdAuJ NIL IAdL It,
ceived a letter from Mrs. Stuckey
warning him that Satterfied was on
his way to Atlanta to do him bodily
harm.
Mr.. Hart did not take the threat
seriously, but, it is charged, that on
the night of December 81, 1921, Sat
terrified came to the Hart home on
Trinity avenue. Apparently he was
in good spirits and talked in the
most friendly terms with Mr.. and
Mrs. Hart.
Suddenly, according to Mrs. Hart,
he assumed a threatening attitude
and announced that he had come to
Atlanta to kill Mr.. Hart. With that,
says Mrs. Hart, he pulled out a
pistol. Mrs. Hart and her young
son, who were in the room, are said
! to have seized Satterfields arm and
attempted to prevent him from using
his weapon. Mr.. Hart, who, it is
said, was unarmed, ran out of the
room and into the street. He had,
according to friends, suffered a
paralytic stroke a few weeks before,
and had not entirely recovered the
use Of his limbs.
Satterfield it is charged, ran out
after him, pistol in hand. Almost
at the corner of Trinity avenue and
Whitehall street Satterfield, it is
said, came up close behind his
brother-in- law, raised his pistol and
fired point blank at Mr.. Harris back.
Mr.. Hart fell and died almost in.
it, SC 4