News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

August 27, 1909

DYNAMITE ENOUGH TO

WRECK A SKYSCRAPER.

WHEN ARRESTED MEN HAD

FORTY SIX INCH STICKS.

Joseph Monroe and Edward Sanford

Found in vicinity of New South

Side Apartment House --

Stories Conflict.

In the arrest of two suspicious characters at Thirty-sixth street and Broadway about 10 o'clock last night the police believe they averted what was intended to be by far the biggest, most costly and most destructive job of dynamiting ever pulled off in Kansas City or vicinity.

Shortly after 10 o'clock Patrolman E. C. Krister and D. B. Harrison, plain clothes men working out of the Westport police station, saw two men at the corner of Thirty-sixth street and Broadway. One was lighting a cigarette and the officers noticed a small suit case in the hands of the other. When they began to close up the men began to accelerate their speed and only the command "Halt or we'll shoot," stopped them.

The officers did not know what they had until they got the men to the station house and Lieutenant O. T. Wofford carelessly opened the small, cheap suit case. What he believed to be a wire sticking through a hole in the end of the case attracted his attention. When the package was opened it was found to contain forty six-inch sticks of dynamite. Each was marked 40 per cent nitroglycerin -- Hercules No. 2. The "wire" proved to be a fuse and it was attached to two of the sticks of the explosive, in the center, with a cap imbedded deeply into each stick.

ONE HAD LOADED PISTOL.

The men gave the names of Joseph Monroe and Edward Sanford. The latter had in his possession a 44-caliber Derringer pistol, loaded. Monroe said he was a lineman and Sanford insisted that he was a common laborer.

The stories of the prisoners, who were separated by Lieutenant Wofford and questioned soon after their arrival, differ in many respects as to how they came to be in that neighborhood with such a package. While Lieutenant Wofford was in a room alone with Sanford he turned his head to answer a telephone call. Hearing a noise Wofford looked up and the prisoner had all but reached the club of Sergeant Harry Moulder which hung on an opposite wall. Wofford dropped the telephone and grappled with the man. Sergeant Moulder then entered the room and no further trouble occurred. A door was only a few feet away and had he succeeded in clubbing the lieutenant Sanford could have easily escaped.

When Monroe was questioned he said he, Sanford and a man named Charles Hogan had "bummed" their way from Denver. He claimed they arrived Tuesday morning, while Sanford said Sunday morning. Monroe said that last night he and his partner were walking down Grand avenue when they came upon Hogan at Thirteenth street.

"Do you want to make a piece of money?" Monroe says Hogan asked.

"We told him yes," Monroe went on. "We were both broke, hungry and dry. He then introduced us to a man named Anderson, Charles, I believe he said his first name was. He said he would give us $5 to carry a grip out on the Westport car line. We were to stay on the car until it made the second turn to the left. Then we were to get off and meet Anderson or some man who would be there waiting for us. We got off and had walked down the street a little ways when we were arrested. Anderson said to be careful that there was an explosive in the suitcase . That's all I know and I'm innocent of any wrong."

HOW DYNAMITE WAS TO BE USED.

Sanford, who tried to escape, said they arrived with Hogan two days earlier than Monroe stated.

"We went to the Stag hotel opposite the city hall," he said, "and this morning we met Hogan there. He asked us if we wanted to make a piece of coin and told us to meet him on Grand avenue this evening. He introduced us to Anderson and he was gone a long time after the grip. We met there about 7 o'clock."

"What was the dynamite for?" asked Lieutenant Wofford quickly.

"He said it was to blow up a scab job. No, we were not to do it. That was for the fellow who was to meet us, I guess. Yes, I knew there was an explosive in the grip and I knew I was doing wrong."

Sanford also said, when asked later, that he was to give the derringer to the stranger -- or Anderson -- who was to meet him. Both described the mysterious Anderson after they had been locked up within talking distance as "a man 35 years old, six feet tall, weighing 170 pounds. He wore a black mustache and had black hair and a dark complexion. He was dressed i a dark suite, black derby hat and black shoes."

ENOUGH TO WRECK SKYSCRAPER.

Sergeant Moulder also said he learned from inquiry along Westport avenue, that there had been much talk among the union men about the big apartment being a "scab job," and "a rat job." There appeared to be much discontent on account of the immense job being done by an "open shop," he said he gathered from talks with saloonkeepers.

Experts who were called in to examine the package of dynamite said that, properly placed, there was enough to wreck any skyscraper in the city and damage buildings for blocks around.

After the men were locked up they were in a position to talk to each other. William Hicks, a patrolman, sat near the door and heard Monroe upbraid Sanford for being such a dunce as to get his dates mixed on the time of their arrival here and their final meeting with Hogan and the mysterious Anderson. The men are being held for investigation.

Labels: Broadway, crime, guns, hotels, real estate, streetcar, Thirty-sixth street, Westport

May 19, 1908

DOESN'T WANT A FLAT THERE.

Resident in a Restricted District Asks

for an Injunction.

Julia B. Fitzgerald yesterday asked that Sallie Y. Payne be restrained from erecting an apartment ho use on a lot Mrs. Payne has purchased adjoining Mrs. Fitzgerald's home on the west side of Wyandotte street, between Armour boulevard and Thirty-sixth street. Both lots were originally owned by Charles B. Herman. In the deeds under which Herman transferred them, Mrs. Fitzgerald alleges, there is a provision that only residences shall occupy the ground.

Labels: Armour boulevard, real estate, Thirty-sixth street, Wyandotte street

August 21, 1907

IT WAS A DREAM

SERVANT GIRL'S PLAN FOR A

BACHELOR GIRLS' CLUB.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS DUPED

VISIONS OF FAT FEES AROUSED

THEIR ENTHUSIASM.

Well Dressed, Demure Young Woman

Who Spoke Glibly of $400,000

to Spend Creates Sensation

Among Kansas City,

Kas., Offices.

A nurse girl for the two small children of D. B. Munger, Thirty-sixth and Harrison streets, of the wholesale dry goods firm, Burnham, Hanna and Munger, receiving as compense $5 a week yesterday created a furore among a half dozen prominent real estate firms of Kansas City, Kas. They thought she was a pampered child of luxury with money galore. She said she was Miss Rose Insley and alleged she was an agent for a bevy of fashionable girls forming a bachelors club, in Kansas City, Mo., seeking a favorable spot on the Kansas side on which to build a club house of great pretentions. She told the real estate merchants she was backed by four hundred thousand dollars.

When the young woman, who is of preposessing mien, entered Abstractor Thomson's office she wanted to know if there was anybody who held and was liable to sell at a good price as much as ninety acres of farm land. She was Miss Rose Insley, lived at Thirty-suixth street and Harrison avenue. She said she was just conversant with the country lying just north of Kansas City, Kas., where she insisted the land must be found. She was representing several aristocratic young women of Kansas City, Mo., and Leavenworth, she declared, and had plenty of money backing her deals.

A MERE BAGATELLE.

"How much?" Abstracter Thomson asked.

"About four hundred thousand dollars," answered Miss Insley, and looked the abstractor straight in the eye.

"That's a great deal of money, isn't it?"

"Quite a few dollars, come to sum the all up," Miss Insley replied demurely, looking down. "But you see, papa is rich, and so are the papas of the other girls in this deal. There are Miss Jones, whose papa is the senior partner of the Jones Dry Goods Company; Miss Armour; Miss Munger, who lives with me out on Harrison; Miss Keith, and oh, lots of others.

"Let me explain why we want so much ground. We have automobiles, we can't have just the time we would like to have just pent up in our homes. A long time ago we organized a bachelor girls' club composed of the most exclusive of the exclusive. A week ago we got together and decided to build a club house and build it way out in the country somewhere. We decided on Kansas City, Kas., as a feasible location.

"The next thing was to get our fathers interested, but the old dears fell into line right off without much argument. It was such a simple plan.

SHE PUT IT STRONG.

"We girls were to pick the grounds," went on Miss Insley, "and draw the plans, as near as we could, to what we wanted, and our papas were to pay all the bills. We were to have a club house of twenty-five rooms, a lake, a drive, tennis grounds, golf links and a big garage and stables. We thought that ninety acres would nicely cover it all."

When the young woman got this far in her description Abstractor Thomson became almost as enthusiastic as herself and offered to help her find the desired location.

Miss Insley expressed herself as very grateful for his kindness and, in return, offered to put the matter entirely in Abstractor Thomson's hands. Then she wrote her telephone number on the back of an envelope and went out.

Mis Insley went next to the real estate firm of Sheaf & Neudeck, at Sixth street and State avenue. There she repeated her plans to Irwin Neudeck, who also became interested in the project and offered to help her find the location but insisted Miss Isley give him the exclusive agency in the deal. This she promptly promised to do.

Miss Insley visited several other large real estate concerns in the city interesting all of them in her story and giving each a private "tip" about her needs and the promise to give the locating act into the hands of no other. It is reported her project has been listed in at least six leading real estate firms in Kansas City, Kas., and that all had scouts out looking for the location of the future bachelor girls' club house yesterday. All were astonished when they heard that the girl was merely a nurse girl in the Munger home at five dollars a week.

COULD HARDLY BELIEVE IT.

"Why, I can hardly believe it," said Irwin Neudeck when told of the identity of the girl last night.

"She was very well dressed and carried herself well like a young woman of considerable breeding and affluence. I was entirely deceived for the time, although after she left I was inclined to doubt her story."

D. B. Munger, in whose employ the girl has been for the past three weeks in the capacity of nurse for his two little children, said last night that Miss Insley had left his employ and that he would be glad to locate her in order to satisfy his wife that her intentions were honest.

"She acted very queerly at times," Mr. Munger said, "and had aroused my wife's suspicions."

Labels: con artist, Harrison street, Jones Dry Goods, Kansas City Kas, Leavenworth, real estate, Thirty-sixth street