The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-02-09
YES, THERE
WAS ONE
SPRENGER
Agent of Chicago Company
Is Explanation Given of
Mystery Man.


The mysterious ]. II. Sprenger
who dealt in table tops in Indian
apolis year or so ago was disclosed
today by correspondence made pub
lie by County Attorney Clinton A.
Givan to have been the agent of a
Chicago firm.
Times reporters have sought this
"Mr. Sprenger' industriously for a
week. "Sprenger" became an inn
portant figure in the investigation
of why $3.50 worth of tables and
stool tops for the county Jail, ordered
Feb. s, 1926, by county commission
ers had not been delivered.
The stool tops arrived, but the
tables were missing. Interest in
"Sprenger" grew when it was found
the address Of the "Sprenger Equip.
ment Company" in commissioners
records was given as 5527 Bonna
Ave, which happens to be a vacant
lot next door to 5525, where the ma
chine shop of j. E. Hogle, nephew Of
County Commissioner Cassius L.
Hogle, is located.
Mystery Calls
The mystery grew still deeper to-
day when series of mysterious tele-
phone calls from some one who said
they were at the county commits
sioners' office and gave Will Good
win, vice president Of the Brookside
Lumber Company, orders to deliver
the long missing table tops to>the
county jail at once.
The tops had been ready since last
summer, Givan said. but Sheriff
Omer Hawkins. objecting to the type
of equipment, had refused to accept
it, so it had not been delivered. An
attempt to deliver the tops was made
late Tuesday, but a deputy sheriff
refused to accept them. Sheriff
Hawkins finally let them be unloaded
in the rear of the Jail this morning.
Goodwin said his company re-
ceived no orders as to delivery or
the tops until the first of the
mystery telephone calls late Tues
day, directed they be sent to county
Jail.
Deputy sheriffs refused the tops
and the second mystery call this
morning, Goodwin said, ordered the
tops be taken back to the Jail and
piled on the sidewalks if they were
refused.
Agent OF Company
Sprenger, according to the corre-
spondence Givan exhibited, was the
agent of the Morris-Capron Com
pany, dealers in road building equip
ment, IL S. La Sale St., Chicago.
Early last year the Norris -Capron
Company arranged with John E.
Hogle for storage and desk space at
the machine shop for its representa-
tive.
Sprenger showed up in January as
the representative. He established
himself as the Sprenger Equipment
Company and tried to get some coun-
ty business.
AS a separate sales agency, Givan
said, Sprenger was permitted to rep
resent other lines of business, so he
put in Il bid on the table tops and
stools. 1t was the low bid and it was
accepted. Sprenger ordered the stools
from a Cincinnati firm and the table
tops from the Brookside Lumber
Company.
County DisappOints
Meanwhile Sprenger had not sold
any road building equipment to the
county SO the Chicago firm termi-
mated the arrangement for storage
and desk space in the machine shop
of the nephew of the county COM
missioner.
A sample road grader which
Sprenger had stored at the Hogle
place was sold to the county April 1,
the only sale of road equipment
Sprenger made to the county.
Sprenger was withdrawn to Chi
cago and later left the employ of the
COMPANY, Givan said. The firm now
does not know where Sprenger' is, he
said.
Meanwhile the table top-stool deal
was not completed, so, according to
Givan, Sprenger turned his liabilities
and assets os the contract over to
John e. Hogle. He gave Hogle power
to cash the checks which the coun-
ty' paid for the equipment and Iii.
rections to pay the bills.
This Hogle did, according to
Givan, explaining why J. E. Hogle's
name appears upon S256 check
which. the Sprenger Equipment Com
pany made out to the Brookside
Lumber Company for the table tops.
The county paid $3.50 for the tops.
Dec. 20, 1926, which indicated a
profit of $96 for the Sprenger Equip
Hogle, since Sprenger had turned
the deal over to him to complete.
And, according to Goodwin, the lum-
ber company was not paid until Jan.
4, 1927.
Givan declared that the George ".
Coffin organization, trying to punish
Cassius L. Hogle and Commissioner
Charles o. Sutton for failure to nut
across Coffin deals, is trying to make
political capital out of the table top
stool affair, but that the cor
respondence he holds explains the
deal.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor William
Fl. Remy called in Goodwin and
questioned him about the table tops.
Spring Shopping
Started I'm East