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November 26, 1908

CRIPPLE BESTED BURGLARS.

Fired Upon Intruders as He Lay

Propped in His Bed.

Robbers who attempted to enter the second story flat at 1426 Campbell street, where J. F. Benge and his wife live, last night, were fired upon by the husband. Mr. Benge is a cripple, and is confined to his bed with sickness besides. Mrs. Benge left the house about 9:30, leaving the door only partly closed. Mr. Benge heard the men coming up the stairs and called out. They paused momentarily and then continued their ascent. He grasped his revolver and waited. A tall man entered the room, while a smaller one waited outside, covering his face with a black cloth.

"Throw up your hands and lie down," commanded one of them.

Instead, Mr. Benge raised one hand and fired. The ball passed harmlessly over the head of the foremost intruder. The men fled out the back way. The affair was reported to the police. Neither of the men was recognized.

Labels: Campbell street, crime, guns

November 16, 1908

DRUNKEN MAN IS STRANGLED.

Henry Bernard Found Dead in an

Unfinished Building Near Thirty-

Third and Oak Streets.

Boys playing in a building in the course of construction at 3312 Oak street about 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon found the body of a man lying in a corner of the building, the head wedged against a wall and the neck pressed against a joist. Death had come apparently from strangulation induced by the position of the man's head. A crowd collected and the body was identified as that of Henry Bernard, 50 years old, a stonemason living at 3228 Summit street.

By the man's side was found a pint bottle with dregs of whisky in it. Bernard had been released from the Walnut street police station yesterday morning at 6 o'clock. The question arises, where did he get the whisky?

Bernard had been locked up for safekeeping. When he was released he had nothing of the sort about him. About noon he appeared at the house of William Gepford, a building contractor, his employer, and received from him $10 which was due him for work done last week. Several times in the next few hours he was seen loafing around the drug store of R. S. McCurdy, at Twenty-third and Oak streets, and was talking to Ray Wells, 3120 Campbell street, and others. About 2 o'clock he appeared to be in an unsettled state of mind and was seen to walk towards the new building of which only the side walls and part of the floors are finished. It is thought that he lay down in a stupor and was strangled by the beam pressing against his throat.

Nominally, the saloons were closed yesterday. Besides, there are no saloons in the neighborhood of Thirty-third and Oak streets. Bernard was not seen to leave the neighborhood from the time he received the money from his employer until the time he was found dead. R. S. McCurdy, the druggist who keeps the drug store at Thirty-third and Oak streets, and the only one in the vicinity, said last night that he had sold whisky to Bernard on prescription, but denied that he had sold any to him that day. He added that neither he nor either of his clerks, Louis Woods and D. Self, had seen Bernard in the store that day.

Bernard leaves a wife and nine children. The body was removed to Lindday's undertaking rooms in Westport and the coroner was notified. He will hold an autopsy this morning at 9 o'clock in the undertaking rooms.

Labels: alcohol, Campbell street, death, druggists, Oak street, Summit street, Thirty-third street, Twenty-third street, undertakers, Walnut street police station

August 17, 1908

ONE STREET'S SUICIDE MANIA.

Three Women Living on Campbell

Street Take Poison.

Carbolic acid and laudanum were the poisons taken as a means of committing suicide by three women living on Campbell street yesterday afternoon and last night. The first case to call out the ambulance and physician was that of Maggie Adams, a negress, 537 Campbell street, who had taken part of 10 cents' worth of carbolic acid. She had been drinking liquor all afternoon and was not in a dangerous condition when Dr. George E. Pipkin arrived. She was not taken to the hospital. Dr. Pipkin said he found but one reason for the woman taking the acid, which was that she had become tired of walking up the long flight of stairs leading from the street to her home.

Call No. 2 occurred about 7 o'clock and proved to be Mrs. Lena Wheeler of 928 Campbell street, who had taken laudanum. She was also treated by Dr. Pipkin and allowed to remain at her home.

At 8 o'clock the hospital received another poisoning case message and Dr. Julius Frischer responded. It was also on Campbell street at No. 532 and proved to be a negress named Pearl Redding. She was extremely nervous while drinking the acid and her face was seared with it. She was taken to the hospital and treated. During the rest of the night the doctors were prepared to handle any other cases of poisoning that might come in.

Labels: Campbell street, doctors, poison, Suicide, women

July 24, 1908

POLICE PROHIBIT THE

POPULAR BARN DANCE.

As It's Presented in North End Halls

It Shocks Moral Guardians.

"Cut It Out," They Say.

Whew! The police object to the popular barn dance and have put the ban on it in Kansas City. They do not consider it up to the moral standard of what should take place in a well regulated ball room. The officers who tightened the lid on the barn dance refused to say what their private opinion of the dance was after having watched an exhibition given for their personal benefit.

Acting under orders from Captain Walter Whitsett, two plain clothes men, Ben Goode and John McCall, went to a hall in Campbell street last Wednesday evening and informed the members of a dancing party there that they would not be allowed to dance the barn dance. The merry young people strenuously objected to police interference, and the officers were the recipients of all kinds of dire threats.

A party of the young people pleaded that the dance was "perfectly" proper and "lovely," and went through one turn of the hall to show the officers really what the barn dance was. The hard-hearted officers, however, remembered that stern duty called to them and refused to allow the pleading of the pretty young misses to sidetrack them from their duty.

Not to be outdone by the big captain in regulating the social events and amusements of the city, Sergeant Patrick Clark, also commanding the North End social pink teas, sent Sergeant E. McNamara to the hall and had the lights turned out. The people residing in the vicinity of the hall complained to the police that they were unable to sleep whenever the hall was used for dances. The music was too loud for the sleepers and the shrill laughs and giggles of the young ladies got on the nerves of the men who were compelled to stay at home with their wives and take care of the fretful babies.

Whether the hall will be opened for dancing in the future the police refused to say, but they were confident that the barn dance would not be danced there again.

Labels: Campbell street, Captain Whitsett, dancing, North end

June 8, 1908

MONEY IN BANK; STARVED.

End Comes to Woman Who Existed

on Crackers and Water.

After having lived on "crackers and water and the power of God" for a week, Miss Kate Thuey, found in a precarious condition in her room at 722 Campbell street, Saturday afternoon, died at the general hospital yesterday afternoon at 1 o'clock. Miss Thuey was in a dying condition when taken into the hospital and she steadily grew worse. Dr. G. B. Thompson, coroner, pronounced her death due to starvation and kidney trouble. In her stomach there was found a quantity of undigested crackers and nothing more.

Miss Thuey has two sisters living in this city, Mrs. John Owens, 2601 Independence avenue, and Mrs. Lucy Mahoney of Twenty-fifth street and Prospect avenue. These sisters had lost trace of her some years ago. At that time she began to appear dissatisfied with her home life and would have nothing to do with her family. After she let home she kept in communication with her sisters and family for a few months only . Mrs. Owens said she had done everything to find out her sister's whereabouts but was unable to.

The first they heard of her for five years was the account of her demented condition in yesterday's Journal. Mrs. Owens told the coroner that at all times her sister and herself had been anxious to help Miss Thuey, but that she consistently refused to accept any aid. It was said that she is supposed to have about $3,000 in a bank in Kansas city, that sum being her share of her father's estate. This has not been ascertained as a fact; the abject state of poverty in which the woman was found by the police would not substantiate the theory.

The sisters of Miss Thuey put forward the theory that in her demented state the woman had become a miser and was hording away her meager earnings.

Labels: Campbell street, Coroner Thompson, death, Independence avenue, Prospect avenue, The Journal, Twenty-fifth street

June 7, 1908

AGED WOMAN FOUND

STARVING BY POLICE.

CRACKERS AND WATER HER

SOLE DIET FOR DAYS.

Feebly Resists Being Taken From

Bare Room and Begs for Her

Slender Larder -- Taken to

General Hospital.

While investigation curious noises, which came from the rear of 722 Campbell street yesterday afternoon George Brooks and James Malloy, policemen, discovered an old woman wrapped tightly in two torn and soiled sheets, lying on the floor of the room. It was from this woman, Miss Kate Thuey, that the sounds came, which had attracted the attention of neighbors for the past week.

As the police entered the room they heard the woman repeat over and over: "Crackers and water and the power of God." Too weak to rise, the woman had placed a box of crackers and a large can of water withing her reach. Crackers and water with the power of God were all that had sustained her and kept body and soul together for the past week, according to her statement.

The police aided her to her feet, and the old sheets dropped away displaying the emaciated form. In her demented condition caused from long sickness and privation, the woman tried weakly to fight the police away from her, saying that she wanted to be alone. She was too weak and her struggles so exhausted her that she fell to the floor again.

Seeing her pitiful condition, the officers called the ambulance from the Walnut street police station and she was taken to the general hospital. When the officers had placed her on the stretcher to take her to the ambulance, the demented woman pleaded urgently for her box of crackers and can of water.

The officers tried to explain that they were going to take her to a place where she could have plenty of substantial food and drink. Nothing would satisfy her, however, until the officers had brought her musty crackers and a pail stale water to her. Guarding them closely she said nothing more, even after being taken to the hospital.

When the hospital authorities questioned her she would say nothing except to repeat over and over again her raving of "crackers and water and the power of God."

The neighbors at 722 Campbell street said last night that the old woman had always kept to herself and did not care to make friends or receive help from any of them. Every morning it had been her custom to leave her dingy little room in the rear of the flat and go out, apparently to work. In the evening she would return and nothing more was seen of her until next morning.

Last Sunday evening she was seen to come home and from that time until yesterday she was lost trace of. The neighbors tried to get in her room, fearing that she had come to some harm, but the door was locked. Yesterday they heard the noises coming from her room which sounded like groans, and so they notified police.

The hospital physicians say that Miss Thuey is in a dangerous condition due to the lack of food. Whether her demented state was caused by her privation or not, they are unable to tell. Good food and absolute rest, they say, are all that can possible effect a cure in her case.

Labels: Campbell street, general hospital, mental health, Seniors, Walnut street police station, women

April 14, 1908

BURNED CHILDREN WITH ACID.

Boys Rubbed It on Their Faces, Caus-

ing Them Much Pain.

Four boys, living in the neighborhood of Fourteenth and Campbell streets, last night took a bottle of carbolic acid and a medicine syringe and spread terror among the girls and smaller children of that section. An alarm reached No. 4 police station and Patrolman T. M. Scott captured one of the boys, Tony Hanson, 1320 Campbell street. His is 11 years old and his companions were about the same age. The names of the others said to have taken part were Chester Cheney, 910 East Fourteenth street; Harry Wintermute, 912 East Fourteenth street and Chester Northfleet, 914 East Fourteenth street.

The boys claimed they secured the bottle in or behind a barn and that they did not know what it contained. Many children were burned by the acid. While one boy used the medicine syringe the others, it is said, would saturate pieces of rag and rub the necks and faces of children they could catch. Ugly burns and much pain followed. Lieutenant Hammil in charge of No. 4 police station did not want to place boys so young in the holdover, so he merely left their names, addresses and other information for Captain Flahive to act upon as he chooses today. Some of the children who were most burned are Florence David, 1431 Campbell street; Winnie Austin, 914 East Fourteenth street, and Edna Barnes, 1425 Campbell street.

Labels: Campbell street, children, Fourteenth street, No 4 police station, poison, violence

April 10, 1908

KYLE FINES WIFE

BEATERS HEAVILY.

TWO MUST SPEND YEAR EACH IN

THE WORKHOUSE.

A Pickpocket and the Assailant of a

Little Girl Are Fined $500 Each,

Also -- Lecture to Heavy-

Handed Husband.

Judge Kyle celebrated re-election yesterday by assessing four $500 fines, two of them being against wife beaters, one a pickpocket and the fourth a man who had attempted to assault a little girl. It was the judge's first day on the bench since election.

W. D. Russell, 2223 Campbell street, was fined $500 for beating his wife and putting her, with a 3-weeks-old baby in her arms, out of the house. Mrs. Russell's mother was also put out.

When Patrolman Noland was called he tried to effect a compromise. He told Mrs. Russell to go back into the house and see what Russell would do. Russell had gone to bed intoxicated, the officer said, and immediately began to curse and abuse his wife when she awakened him.

Mrs. A. Burgis of the Associated Charities said that Mrs. Russell had supported herself and baby, and husband, too, for a long time by making bed quilts, having made and sold twenty of them. When Russell insisted that he had paid the rent Mrs. Burgis said: "Not much you didn't. We paid part and your wife the rest." Russell is a big, strapping man and his wife a small woman. She was too weak and sickly to appear in court, but the officer and Mrs. Burgis did the work. His fine was $500.

The next wife beater to meet his fate was Fred Scraper of 313 East Eighteenth street. He was arrested by Patrolman McCarthy after he had raised a disturbance at his home. Mrs. Scraper and her little daughter both testified against Scraper.

"My wife irritates me," Scraper said. "The other night I went home with the earache and the toothache. Any man might slap a woman at such times."

"There is no excuse on earth great enough to cause a husband to lay even his hand upon his wife in anger. Your fine is $500," said Judge Kyle. Scraper was fined $15 on March 10 for disturbing the peace at home and given a stay conditioned on good behavior. He has been in police court many times for the same offense. He is an upholsterer's solicitor.

When Philip Packard was arraigned on a technical charge of vagrancy Sergeant James W. Hogan testified that on election night in a crowd in front of a newspaper office he had caught Packard in the act of picking a man's pocket. Bertillon records show that Packard had served a term in the penitentiary at Pontiac, Ill., and many workhouse sentences. He did not deny it. On December 21 last, under the name of Milton Steele, Packard was sent to the workhouse for attempting to pick a man's pocket in a pool hall. He was released April 1. Judge Kyle assessed $500 against Packard.

A man giving the name of J. H. McCleary, a news agent, was the last victim. He was charged with disturbing the peace. George W. Banfield, a contractor of Twenty-ninth and Flora, told how his little girl had been insulted by McCleary. Some little girls were hunting four-leaf clovers in old Troost park. When McCleary placed his hands on Mr. Banfield's daughter the girls ran and screamed. Banfield chased McCleary several blocks, caught him and turned him over to the police. McCleary was fined $500.

All four of the men fined $500 rode to the workhouse, no attempts being made to get them out on appeal bonds. The fine means one year in the workhouse.

Labels: alcohol, Associated Charities, Campbell street, crime, domestic violence, Eighteenth street, Flora avenue, Judge Kyle, police court, Twenty-ninth street, workhouse

January 30, 1908

BABY LOST NEAR HOME.

Lela Weldon Enjoyed Her Ride to the

Police Station.

A little girl, almost a baby, pushing an empty go-cart up and down Holmes, Charlotte, and Campbell streets in the vicinity of Fifth street late yesterday afternoon attracted some attention. The little one seemed to be in search of some place, but she kept steadily on, asking no questions.

After two hours of tiresome walking the tot pulled up at a grocery store at Fifth and Holmes streets and announced that she had "lost her mamma and home." She was given a cracker box to rest upon while the police were notified. The tired little one was carried to police headquarters and place in charge of Mrs. Joan Moran, matron.

About 7 o'clock the child's mother, Mrs. J. J. Pearson, 740 Locust street, called for her. She said the baby's name is Lela Neeley Weldon.

"I sent her about a block away for the baby buggy," the mother said, "and when she came out of the house she turned the wrong way. Then she got lost and began to wander about trying to find her home."

It was said by persons who saw little Lela that she was often within a half block of her home. She has lived here but six weeks, coming here with her parents from St. Louis. Most children howl like the Indians when taken in charge by the police, but Lela said she like the ride to the station on the "treet tar."

Labels: Campbell street, Charlotte street, children, Fifth street, Holmes street, Locust street, police headquarters, police matron

January 17, 1907

LIVE WIRE CREATES A FURORE.

Endangers Lives as It Swings in

Street at Eighth and McGee.

Fast running under a circuit breaker caused a break in the trolley wire at Eighth and McGee streets last night. This was followed by a brilliant electrical display as the fallen wire touched the trucks, and a heavy roar which almost deafened those who were passing in the street at that time.

A policeman who was walking on Grand avenue near Ninth street hurried in the direction of the flashes, thinking that a bomb had been thrown at the post office building. Persons as far away as Eighth and Campbell streets saw the electrical display and heard the reports which the wire made as it swung back and forth over the tracks. Persons walking on Eighth street near the break at the time flagged the cars, and also passersby who started to walk across the street.

The wire was broken by the trolley pole of an eastbound Independence avenue car, which passed under the circuit breaker so rapidly that it jerked the wire from its hangings. The car passed on with undiminished speed, the crew not seeming to realize that a death-trap had been left behind unguarded. A Metropolitan division superintendent was summoned and soon captured the live wire, allowing the blockaded cars to drift under the gap and continue on their way.

Labels: Campbell street, Eighth street, Grand avenue, McGee street, Metropolitan Street Railway Company, Ninth street, streetcar

January 9, 1908

OPERATION TO SAVE

A YOUTH'S MIND

PART OF CLYDE TURNER'S SKULL

IS CUT AWAY.

Butted His Head Agasint the Wall

When a Child and Was

Becoming Viciously

Insane. May Be

Cured.

Clyde Turner, a 15-year-old lad, a ward of the children's court, a portion of whose skull was removed Tuesday afternoon with the idea that he might, by the operation, grow up to be a good and bright boy, was reported last night by the Post Graduate hospital, Independence avenue and Campbell street, where the operation was performed, as doing well.

Clyde's case is the first of the sort in the history of the Kansas City children's court, and the second or third in the court history of the United States. Some years ago a lad in Philadelphia was trephined to cure bad habits, and there was a somewhat similar, but not exactly parallel, case in Omaha recently. Six months ago the Kansas City children's court removed Dewey Marcuvitz's tonsils to mend his ways, but the operation was only partially successful.

PRESSED DOWN BRAIN.

The lad who now lies on a cot at the Post Graduate hospital with a piece of his skull the size of a teacup taken away, has had an unfortunate life. His parents died when he was a month old and he was adopted by George Pack, an employe of the Kansas City Bold and Nut Compnay of Sheffield, who lives at Hocker and Sea streets in Independence. The baby Clyde had a habit of butting his head against the wall whenever he was vexed. Efforts were made to break him of this, but he was not cured until he had flattened the crown of his head.

He grew up "simple," and when 12 years old was sent to the Missouri colony for the feeble-minded in Marshall, Mo. He seemed to improve there, and was released about a year ago. He did not get along very well with his foster parents, although they treated him as they would their own son. Two weeks ago, according to the story told by Mrs. Pack in the children's court, a week ago last Monday, Clyde made an attack on her husband's mother with a butcher knife, and as he is a big, strong boy, might have killed her, had it not been for interference. The lad was confined in the detention home from that time until Tuesday morning, when he was taken to the hospital.

Dr. E. G. Blair, assisted by Dr. John Punton, performed the operation. The portion of his skull, which was flattened, was sawed out and thrown away. The brain, which had been pressed down, rose to fill the cavity. The lad will remain in the hospital until nature grows a cartilage across the aperture.

When the boy awoke yesterday morning he seemed very happy. He was a sour-faced, frightened lad when he came to the place. His eyes wore that pathetic, timid, hunted expression of those who are not mentally normal. But when he awoke his eyes were bright. He smiled and said: "I feel awful good!"

THE BOY CONSENTED.

Judge H. L. McCune of the children's court said last evening in regard to the case:

"It was a question of the court's permitting the lad to become permanently insane, for his spells rising out of the sullenness into passionate outbreaks such as he made on his foster father's mother, were growing more and more frequent, or having him operated upon with a slight chance of death but a much larger chance of recovery and development into a bright and useful man. The doctors told me there was absolutely no chance for the boy to recover without the operation. The court received the consent of his foster parents and of the boy himself.

Labels: Campbell street, children, doctors, hospitals, Independence, Independence avenue, Judge McCune, mental health, Omaha, sheffield

January 8, 1907

MANY OBJECT TO PLAYGROUNDS.

Some Say They're to Be Too Near

Railroad Yards.

Many property owners east of Main Street, north of Independence avenue and west of Highland are contemplating a petition to the board of park commissioners to protest against two sites said to have been chosen as playgrounds. A committee selected for the purpose reported Monday that it would recommend two sites, one bounded by Tracy and Lydia avenues, Second and Third streets, and another bounded by Gilliss, Campbell, Third and Fifth streets. The former is said to have been selected for a playground for negroes.

Many of the residents in the districts adjacent are complaining as they say both sites are too close to the railroad tracks. They claim that boys will be constantly tempted to "hop trains."

Property owners in the space bounded by and Forest avenues, Missouri avenue and Pacific street are the biggest objectors. A petition probably will be started in that neighborhood today.

"Twice this block has been selected by a committee," said a property owner in that block yesterday. "At least that was published and it gave rise to the report that our property was to be condemned for park or playground purposed. Many of us had sales consumated, even to the point of a deposit being made. No one would buy our property with the condemnation proceedings staring them in the face."

Labels: Campbell street, Fifth street, Gillis street, Highland avenue, Independence avenue, Lydia avenue, Main street, Missouri avenue, Pacific street, Park board, race, Second street, Third street, Tracy avenue

November 25, 1907

ROB A PREACHER

HOME OF REV. E. R. WOODRUFF

VISITED BY BURGLAR.

STOLE COMMUNION SERVICE

ALSO A LOT OF THE FAMILY SILVERWARE.

While the Rector Was Attending a

Birthday Party Loot to the

Value of $1,777 Was

Carried Away.

The home of the Rev. E. B. Woodruff, rector of St. George's Church Episcopalian, Thirty-second and Troost, was entered by a burglar Saturday night while the pastor and his family attended a birthday supper party. The Rev. Mr. Woodruff lives at 3228 Campbell street. He worked in his study until nearly 6 o'clock on yesterday's sermon, "Gather in the Fragments that Remain." Then the family left for the home of J. H. Cunningham, 4118 Wabash avenue.

Soon after the family departed from the house the burglar entered. He at once turned the rectors study into a clearing house for family plate and church communion service. He first filled the rector's empty cigar case with some of the rector's choice stogies and then he arranged the silverware, along with the cigars, that he might select what he wished. The burglar selected the plate with care, casting away a dozen silver spoons.

SUIT CASE FULL OF BOOTY.

Then the burglar gathered in the fragments that remained and packed them away in the rector's suit case. The suit case would not hold over $1,000 worth of silverware, and a red laundry bag was selected to behold the balance. The entire value of the ware he selected was valued about $1,777. With $83.20 in money which he found in the study the burglar went downstairs.

It was past midnight when the rector and his family came home. The screen door was ajar and this Rev. Woodruff at once detected that a "jimmie" had been used on his front door. While the rector lighted the house his wife hurried to an upstairs closet where the silver chest was kept. The chest was missing, and Mrs. Woodruff then ran into her husband's study. There she found the chest and saw the rejected spoons along the floor. She called and Rev. Woodruff hurried to her. Hardly had he reached his study when he heard tapping below, and realized that his entrapped burglar was just making his escape from the house.

THE SERMON GOES ON.

"I just don't see how I can preach on the subject selected," said the rector after the robbery. He did, nevertheless, taking his text from the gospel of St. John, sixth chapter, twelfth verse.

Labels: Campbell street, churches, crime, ministers, Troost avenue, Wabash avenue

September 25, 1907

DISLIKES IDEAL LIFE.

Alta Reaves, at 18, Deserts

Her Aunt's Home.

ALTA REAVES.
Disappearance of Girl 18 Years Old Causing an Aunt Much Distress.

Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 21, 1907
My Dear Aunt Marcia: By the time you get this I will be clear away from Kansas City. I suppose you will be surprised, but I have been thinking for some time and have come to the conclusion that I simply cannot live up to your ideal of life. I know that I have caused you a great deal of trouble and have decided not to be a cause for more. I thank you very, very much for all that you have done for me and I can probably never repay you for it; but some day I will show you that I do appreciate what you have done for me.

Please don't worry about me, for you have heard that "God helps those who help themselves," and I am not only going to try, but I am going to do it. I don't feel at all afraid of anything.

I hate to leave you, Aunt Bitha, and all the folks, but I have decided that if I am ever going to do anything, now is the time. If you want to do any more for me, just pray for me.

Again thanking you for all your kindness to me I am,

Your loving niece -- ALTA. P. S. -- I would have told you that I was going and where, but I knew that you would not let me go.

When Miss Marcia Jennings, a public stenographer at 302 R. A. Long building, reached her home 608 East Thirtieth street, late Saturday evening she found the foregoing letter awaiting her. It was from her niece, Alta Reaves, and was typewritten on the paper of the Western Pump and Manufacturing Company, Ninth and Wyandotte streets, where she worked until that day. She was 18 years old July 26. She comes of one of the best families in Clay county. Her father died when she was 2 years old and her mother when she was 8. Since that time she has been reared by two aunts, Mrs. C. H. Scott, of Excelsior Springs, Mo., and Miss Marcia Jennings, of this city. Four years ago she came here and since then has been continually with Miss Jennings, who sent her to school and later educated her as a stenographer.

DISAPPEARANCE A MYSTERY.

"I can assign no reason on earth for Alta's leaving in this manner," said Miss Jennings yesterday. "She has only recently attained her majority but has never yet kept company with young men. I am confident, however, that someone is behind this resolve of hers and that she had help in leaving."

About 4:30 Saturday afternoon Miss Alta called up her aunt and asked if she had to get anything for supper. She was told to take home some meat. She made a purchase and arrived at home about 5 o'clock. The meat was found in the ice box. She was last seen about 5:30, when she returned a book to a neighbor, but said nothing about leaving.

"The girl had no suitcase," said the aunt, "but she packed clothing for the trip that I know it would take two to carry. She must have left by the rear entrance, as had she gone any other way she would surely have been seen. She is a very strong-minded girl and may have come to the conclusion that she could do better alone, I feel sure that someone has induced her to run away. Furthermore, I do not believe that she is out of this city. She didn't have money enough to get very far."

THREATENED TO LEAVE BEFORE.

When Miss Jennings returned home on Labor day she found that Miss Alta had packed her trunk and ordered an expressman to remove it to 1023 Campbell street, where she had engaged a room. It was her intention then to live there and take her meals in restaurants down-town. The aunt frustrated her plans and thought that the girl had become reconciled to live with her. She was to have taken a new and better position yesterday.

After finding the girl gone, Miss Jennings called the police and asked their assistance in locating the missing girl. Miss Alta is said to be an exceptionally attractive girl, 18 years old, 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing 130 pounds. She is a decided blonde, ans light blue eyes and naturally rosy cheeks. When last seen she wore a white shirtwaist, with a tan skirt, which hangs a little below her shoetops. A large white hat trimmed with cream roses topped off her toilet.

Miss Jennings is greatly worried over the girl's disappearance and her relatives in Clay county are nearly distracted over it. The police are doing all they can to locate the girl.

Labels: Campbell street, Excelsior Springs, missing, Ninth street, Thirtieth street, women, Wyandotte street

September 24, 1907

WOMAN SUES A PRIEST

ASKS $50,000 FROM FATHER ED-

WARD P. FITZGERALD.

He is Assistant Pastor of St. Mary's

Church, Independence, and Com-

plaintant Is Mrs. Beatrice M.

Sotomayor.

Edward P. Fitzgerald, assistant pastor of St. Mary's Catholic church in Independence, was sued for $50,000 damages yesterday in the circuit court at Kansas City by Mrs. Beatrice M. Sotomayor, a Spanish woman. She has charge of the nurses' quarters at the University hospital, 1005 Campbell street. Mrs. Sotomayor alleges that the priest slapped her on the evening of June 9, 1907, at the parish house in Independence. Both Mrs. Sotomayor and the priest last night refused to be interviewed.

Mrs. Sotomayor, in her petition, says that ever since she came to Kansas City seven years ago, she has been a frequent visitor at the convent conducted by the Sisters of Mercy adjoining St. Mary's church and the parish house in Independence, and that she has always been on friendly terms with the sisters.

Some old quarrel, about which both the priest and Mrs. Sotomayor refuse to talk, came up for discussion at the convent on the evening of June 9, and the sister urged Mrs. Sotomayor, so she asserts in her petition, to go the the priest and apologize. The petition then goes on to recite that after she knocked at the door of the parish house, Father Fitzgerald invited her into the house, shut the door and told her that the only way she would be forgiven was to permit him to throw over her a white sheet, put a bell around her neck and lead her into the church where a large congregation was assembled and be shown to the church."

She refused to do this, the petition cites, but offered to go before the sisters and ask forgiveness. Then, asserts the woman, "he became angry and commanded her to go down upon her knees before him." This, she says, she refused to do, and then, she alleges, he struck her on both cheeks with his hand.

Mrs. Sotomayor was born in Spain, but has lived most of her life in Mexico. She came to Kansas City seven years ago and for a time gave private lessons in Spanish. For the past four years she has been at the University hospital, in charge of the nurses' quarters. She is a little woman, not over five feet three inches in height, with jet black hair and eyes. She talks with a Spanish accent. She appears to be about 40 years of age.

"I have not read the allegations made by Mrs. Sotomayor in the suit she has brought against me, and at this time I prefer to make no statement," said Rev. Edward Fitzgerald. He has been pastor of St. Mary's church for three months. The priest makes his home at that of the vicar general, Rev. Father Thomas Fitzgerald, but they are not related.

Vicar General Fitzgerald said that personally he knew nothing of the assaults charged by the woman, whom he was disposed to believe was not responsible for all she says or does.

"I form this impression," said the vicar general, "from her peculiar actions of the past. She was a persistent visitor at the convent and seemed to be very much attached to one of the sisters. Mrs. Sotomayor had an apparently uncontrollable passion for visiting the convent during the class hours, and her presence had a demoralizing influence on the studies of the pupils. The annoyance eventually became intolerable, and orders were given that the woman should abandon her visits. If to enforce this order any violence was resorted to I am not aware of it, and I am disposed to believe that Mrs. Sotomayor is exaggerating the whole affair.

Labels: Campbell street, churches, immigrants, Independence, ministers, nuns, nurses, University hospital, women

September 23, 1907

DR. GEORGE HALLEY INJURED.

Also Miss Genevieve Turk, Who Was

Driving With Family.

Dr. George Halley, of 3540 Campbell street, was thrown from his carriage yesterday afternoon while driving down the steep hill of the extension to Spring Valley boulevard, sustaining a severely sprained ankle and numerous cuts and bruises on the head and shoulders. In the carriage with him were Mrs. Halley, their 12-year-old daughter, Eleanor, their 10-year-old niece, Dorothy Williamson, and Miss Genevieve M. Turk, a teacher in the Linwood school. Miss Turk's left wrist was broken. The other occupants of the carriage escaped unhurt.

Dr. Halley and Miss Turk were riding in the front seat of the carriage. In the rear were Mrs. Halley and the two little girls. In turning north from Valentine road and starting down the hill, the carriage ran against the horse. The animal took fright and overturned the vehicle, throwing it down the embankment on the west side of the road. Mrs. Halley and her niece succeeded in jumping out but the rest of the occupants went over with the carriage.

Dr. Halley has been in bad health for about a year.

Labels: accident, Campbell street, doctors, schools, Spring Valley boulevard, Valentine road

July 30, 1907

"UNLOADED GUN" AGAIN.

One Messenger Boy Shoots Another

in the Leg.

The gun that was believed to be unloaded got another victim last night. Ralph Roff and Kinsey Anderberg were in a restaurant at 205 West Eighth street, when Anderberg spied a 22 caliber target rifle that the cook had to kill rats.

"Is it loaded?" asked the boy.

"Naw," replied the cook, turning a pair of eggs.

Anderberg pulled the triger. Roff was taken to the emergency hospital with a bullet in his left leg. He lives at 1827 Cambpell street.

Labels: accident, Campbell street, Eighth street, emergency hospital, guns

March 26, 1907

BY GLANCING SHOT.

BULLET INTENDED FOR A NEGRO

REBOUNDS FROM A RIB.

INNOCENT BYSTANDER MAY DIE.

SERIOUSLY WOUNDED BEFORE

MISSILE HAD SPENT FORCE.

Intended Victim Almost Unharmed, While

Man Who Stood Near Has Only

Slight Chance for Recover --

Because Dishes Were

Not Washed.

A bullet fired by Andrew Johnson, a negro, last night at 814 Independence avenue, pierced the side of Edward Maymon, another negro, and struck Morris Hieth, a white man, in the abdomen. Hieth may die. The shooting took place in the general store off Jacob Louis, Hieth's brother-in-law. Hieth was taken at once to the emergency hospital, where Dr. W. A. Shelton made an examination and discovered that the bullet had penetrated the intestines. The injured man was later operated upon by Dr. St. Elmo Sanders at the General hospital. Maymon went to his home, 548 Campbell street, after being treated and said he didn't intend to lose a day's work.

Maymon runs a rooming house at 548 Campbell street. Johnson and his wife room there. Maymon has several roomers and only one kitchen, which each person is supposed to clean up after it has been used.

"When Johnson and his wife go t through using it tonight," said Maymon, "they left all the utensils dirty. I spoke to him about it and told him the place must be left clean. He got mad, one word led to another and he left, saying he would 'get' me.

"In a few minutes I went up on Independence avenue to get an officer and met Johnson. I knew from the way he acted that he had a pistol, so, when I got close enough to him, I knocked him down twice. Just then a wagon drove between us or I would have taken his weapon away. In front of Louis' store he shot at me, but the bullet went wild. I ran into the store and he started up the street, but came back, walked into the store and shot me. I felt the bullet pierce my side and heard a man behind me say, 'Gott im Himmel. I'm shot.' I left and went home."

H. M. Green, 631 Campbell street, was a witness to the street fight preceding the shooting and also the shooting. He said had the wagon not separated the men Maymon would have bested Johnson and there would have been no casualties.

Jack Spillane, a former police officer, was on Independence avenue near the scene. He saw Johnson, revolver in hand, as he ran out of Louis' store east to Campbell street and north on Campbell street. Spillane chased Johnson for two blocks and fired two shots at him, but neither is believed to have taken effect. Johnson ran through a saloon at Fifth and Campbell streets and disappeared.

Jacob Louis, owner of the store at 814 Independence avenue, is a brother-in-law of the injured man. Hieth is a laborer, works for the Santa Fe railway and has eight children. He has been here only eight months, coming from Russia. Hieth and his family live over the store in which he was shot.

"Heith was standing on the east side of the door facing south when the negro ran in after a shot had been fired," said Mr. Louis. "We thought it was all over when the other man returned. He entered the door with his revolver drawn and when within ten feet of his victim, shot at him. Hieth was standing a little behind and to one side of the negro who was shot. He dropped to the floor and said: 'Gott im Himmel. I'm shot.' and immediately became unconscious. The negro, Maymon, walked out as if nothing was the matter."

The bullet pierced Maymon's left side, striking the tenth rib and making only a superficial would. The holes where the bullet entered and came out are about three inches apart. The same bullet then glanced off and struck Hieth. Probing failed to locate the bullet.

George Martin, a negro who rooms at Maymon's house, heard the first quarrel in the yard and heard Johnson say he was going after a revolver. "He was gone about twenty minutes," said Martin. "I think he must have gone down town or some place else after the gun. When he came back he had it and said he was going to kill Maymon. He went into the house looking for him and I advised him to go to bed but he seemed bent on murder."

Johnson is a tall, brown skinned negro. He wore a black soft hat and a light overcoat when he disappeared after the shooting. Up to a late hour last night he had not been captured.

Labels: Campbell street, crime, doctors, emergency hospital, guns, Independence avenue, race, rooming house, violence

January 11, 1907

WAS UNDER SPELL.

GIRL, CHARGED WITH THEFT,

MAKES THIS EXPLANATION.

UNABLE TO CONTROL ACTIONS.

COMPLETELY IN FORTUNETELLER'S

GRASP, SHE ASSERTS.

Maggie Paul Says Clothes She is Alleged to Have Stolen Were

Given to Her -- Mrs. Moran, Medium, Tells a Different Story.

Miss Maggie Paul, the 18-year old daughter of J. J. Paul, saloonkeeper at Eighteenth and Charlotte streets, was arraigned before Justice Miller yesterday charged by Mrs. D. J. Moran, a fortune teller at 815 East Fifteenth street, with taking $91.75 worth of wearing apparel. She pleaded not guilty and her bond was fixed at $500. She was held over night in the matron's room at police headquarters and expects to give bond today.

Miss Paul said she had lived at Mrs. Moran's and played the piano during what she terms a "spirit fortune telling stunt supposed to be presided over by a defunct Indian chief, one 'White Coon.' " She also says that, had she married John Moran, the 24-year-old son of the fortune teller, she would have had none of her present troubles.

"She has been trying for a long time to get me to marry her son," said Miss Paul last night. "I went to a dance Christmas eve at 910 Campbell street with Mrs. Moran's daughter. When I got to thinking of that marrying business it was all so repulsive to me that I ran away and went to the house of a friend at 1214 East Eight street.

"When I am around where that woman is she casts a kind of spell over me and I can't but obey her every wish. It took all my courage to make up my mind to run away from it all. I got tired of playing for a lot of fake fortune telling business anyway. Often I have seen a person with money come to the seance and heard one of the Morans say: 'Trim that sucker. Don't let him get away. Make arrangements for a private seance for he's got real money.' It was all so false and shammy to one who knew and I didn't want to marry John Moran anyway."

Mrs. J. J. Paul, Maggie's mother, and George Brown, to whose house she went when she ran away from the 'White Coon' seances, went to police headquarters last night to see her daughter.

"This is all a trumped up charge which cannot be proved," said the mother. "That woman has had a hypnotic spell over my daughter for two years. We used to live in Midland court on East Sixteenth street and Mrs. Moran lived just across the street. Maggie got to going there and right then the trouble began. Maggie was made to believe that I was killing her with slow poison and she was afraid of me. Didn't I go to Mrs. Moran's house where she had Maggie locked up in the cellar and make her give her up?

"The girl fears that woman right now. You can see it. All this has been done because she ran away when engaged to John Moran. And I don't blame her for that or leaving those Indian 'White Coon' seances, either."

Miss Paul said that a sealskin cloak, valued at $50, which she is charged with taking, was stolen from the cloak room at the dance hall at 910 Campbell three weeks ago when Miss Moran was along. A skirt, valued in the complaint at $17, she was wearing yesterday. She said it cost $3.50 and was given to her by Mrs. Moran and would fit no one else in the family. In fact, she claims that all the missing clothing but the cloak was either given her previous to or at Christmas.

Miss Paul was arrested by Detective William Bates yesterday afternoon at the home of a friend at Eight street and Forest avenue. She said she had left the Brown home because she heard Mrs. Moran had found out where she was, and she was afraid she would "look at me that way again, and then I would have to go back and do anything asked -- perhaps marry John."

The girl who is afraid of the woman who gives seances controlled by the ancient Indian spirit, "White Coon," has blue eyes, blonde hair, and is petite and pretty.

Said Mrs. Moran, when asked about Miss Paul:

"On Christmas night she wore my sealskin coat to a Yoeman's ball at 910 Campbell street. She came home without the coat, and said it had been stolen. New Year's night she put on $42.25 worth of our silk clothes, jewelry and a hat and went to another Yeoman's ball with Mamie. That time she got lost from Mamie and we just found her today living at 1214 East Eighth street with the same Mrs. Brown who had her arrested the time we paid her fine. We've heard that the sealskin jacket was thrown from the window to someone and wasn't stolen. We stuck to her, even when her mother was going to have us arrested for harboring her. We thought her parents were hard on her. They have a divorce case on trial tomorrow."

"Did Miss Paul assist in your seances?"

"Oh, she sat in them," explained Mrs. Moran's husband, "but she didn't help earn any of the clothes."

Labels: Campbell street, Charlotte street, clothing, con artist, crime, detectives, Eighteenth street, Eighth street, Fifteenth street, Forest avenue, Justice Miller, marriage, Native Americans, police, police headquarters, Sixteenth street