Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-02
MAN TELLSPO
HE HAS KILLED "A
Seattle Checking Up on "Con-
fession'' Of Murders and
100 Robberies.
Rr the Assnciated Press

the ASeOCidteQ EfeSS.
SEATTLE. Wash. August 2.---Seat-
tie police today are trying to deter
mine whether Tom Smith, a middle.
johnson and Kelly, is an arch
criminal or merely a lunatic with a
vivid imagination.
In a confession made Saturday
night Smith confessed" IA murders
and numerous other crimes. including
100 robberies. A check on his story is
under way today.
The murders, Smith said, were COM
nnitted in San Francisco; Hazelton,
British Columbia: Sioux City, Iowa;
Wichita Kans.; Peoria. ILL.,; Mankato,
Mimi: Minneapolis and Kansas City.
Smith walked into the police sta
ton Saturday night, said that he was
tired of a life of crime and that ne
wanted to tell his story. When ponce
began to look upon his account as
rather wild and questioned him re-
garding his sanity, he admitted ne
escaped from an insane asylum IN
Missouri, but as he continued the
story authorities placed more credence
in it.
Will Test His Story.
On the prisoners claim that he
killed Leonard Erndahl in Minneapolis
last December, police of that city tele-
s1aphed last night that they were
sending two detectives here in an
effort to identify the self-styled slayer
Advces diserediting Smiths claims
already have been received from TWO
points, Mankato and Hazelton. Man
kato telegraphed that check OF the
records showed nothing to support
the prisoners assertion that he Killed
"a policeman and his partner there.
Inspector Forbes Cruickshank of
the British Columbia provincial police
declared, There has not been a double
murder unsolved in the province.
Smith said that he shot and killed
two men in ,Hazelton in 1914 when
they resisted robbery.
Smith stated in his confession"
that he began his criminal career
when II years old by robbing small
grocery store near Salmon Arm. Brit
ish Columbia. His first Staying, he
said, was in San Francisco shortly
before the earthquake of 1906.
He said that in. Minneapolis he be-
came known as the lone highwayman.
holding up at least so persons in the
Summit avenue district of that city.
Last Winter, Smith declared, he. ex-
ecuted a series of robberies and street
holdups in Minneapolis and bulletins
broadcast by police of that city veri-
fed many of his stories of crimes
there.
He told again of shooting and kill
ing Leonard Erndahl, a Minneapolis
railroad attorney, in December last
wear. and recounted the murder of a
Minneapolis engineering student who
was reported killed in the Lake of the
Isle district. Smith said he killed the
student when the latter refused to
give him money to purchase food.
In the Summer of 1925 he said he
threw a man from a freight train
during an argument. An insurance
agent in Kansas City was his next
year in Peoria, ILL.,, Smith claims to
have murdered a policeman when
cornered after a daylight holdup.
Used Various Names.
He told police how he placed pistol
and empty cartridges on the back
porch,-of the Peoria chief OF policies
home Smith said he used the names
of Kelly apd Bell at various times,
but never Johnson. A Thomas Kelly
escaped from a State asylum at Full
ton, Mo-, about five years after being
transferred from the Missouri State
pSIuL0uLldTy dL Jcu cISoI lily, WHclc
he was sentenced to Is years for a
Kansas City robbery, asylum records
show.
He warned jailors not to give him
an opportunity to commit suicide.
''I'm wrong inside,' he explained,
"and can't help what 1 have done.
II intended to go to Renton Ia town
near SeattIe) Saturday and hang my
self. But / got to thinking it over
and knew that lot of good men may
be in jail for crimes which l have
committed.
II gave myself up because wanted
TO square my conscience and perhaps
helm some one else out of Jail ;"