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

January 15, 1910

HUNTS DOWN WOMAN TO REWARD.

Laura Kessler Befriended Harry

Shaw Years Ago.

If Laura Kessler, who several years ago befriended Harry Shaw after the latter was injured in a street car accident, still is in the city, Shaw is here and anxious to reward her. Shaw's home is in Davenport, Ia., but he has been West the last few years and has made money in the mines.

Last night he called at police headquarters and asked the assistance of the police in locating Miss Kessler. When he was injured he was working for the Depot Baggage & Carriage Co., he says.

Labels: missing, police headquarters, visitors

January 1, 1910

DREAMS OF HIS MISSING SON.

Stone Mason Believes This Story

Will Bring Back Show Boy.

After six years of fruitless effort on the part of Guss Solomon, a stone mason living at 805 East Eighth street, to find his son, who disappeared from their home in St. Louis during the world's fair, visions of the lost boy have appeared to him in dreams the last four nights, and it is his belief that the boy will be returned to him through this story:

"We were living in St. Louis during the fair," said Mr. Solomon, "and my boy, then 11 years old, was employed in the picture show in the entrance of the Broken Heart saloon on Broadway. Near the close of the fair he came to me one day and asked permission to leave the next day with a show which had been playing at the fair grounds. I told him that he better stay with his mother and me and took him up to town and bought him a new suit of clothes.

Around 8 o'clock that morning he went out to play with some of the boys in the neighborhood, and I never heard of him since. The show he desired to leave with went East that same night, but I was unable to trace it. I wrote to the chief of police in all the large Eastern cities, but they were unable to find any clew. The boy, if still alive, would be about 16 years old. He was rather tall and slim for his age was light complexioned.

Labels: children, Eighth street, missing, runaway, St Louis, theater

November 13, 1909

MONEY WAITING FOR HIM.

Police Look for John E. McCullough,

Heir to $50,000 Estate.

John E. McCullough, formerly of Eastport, Me., who is the beneficiary by his brother's will of an estate valued at $50,000, is thought to be in Kansas City, Kas., working under an assumed name. W. W. Cook, chief of police of Kansas City, Kas., yesterday received a letter from Mrs. George L. Ferguson, a sister of McCollough, in which she asks the assistance of the police in locating her brother, who left his home eleven years ago.

The missing man is described as being 46 years old, 5 feet 9 inches in height, dark complexion and weighing about 160 pounds. He is said to be apt at several trades, among them that of machinist, and probably will be found about some packing plant or railroad shops. In his efforts yesterday Chief Cook found a woman who believes that she knew the missing man three years ago in Ottawa, Kas.

Information from Ottawa last night stated that the man wanted had left there several months ago and was now in Kansas City, Kas.

Labels: Kansas City Kas, missing, probate

November 9, 1909

WIFE AND CHILDREN MISSING.

Arizona Man Last Heard of His

Family Here.

The whereabouts of Mrs. C. M. Smith of Phoenix, Ari., who is supposed to be in Kansas City, is puzzling the local police as well as her husband, who is searching every city along the line of the Santa Fe railway. Circulars with the woman's picture and offering a reward have been sent to all parts of the country.

Mrs. Smith was supposed to have passed through Kansas City on October 7, on her way to Phoenix. Her husband describes her as 24 years old, 145 pounds in weight, five feet three inches in height and is accompanied by two little girls, 4 and six y ears of age, respectively.

G. W. Wyatt, 426 Oakley avenue, yesterday requested the police to institute a search for his son, Everett, 18 years old, who disappeared from his home Saturday, and has not since been heard from.

Labels: missing, railroad, visitors

October 24, 1909

EVERY HYMN BOOK GONE.

Hymnless Service Today Threaten-

ed Central Presbyterian Church.

The janitor of the Central Presbyterian church on Harrison street, between Ninth and Tenth streets, was sweeping out the church yesterday morning in preparation for today's services when he found there was not a hymn book in the building.

Thieves had taken them, he believed. He notified W. S. Canine, treasurer of the church. The police were notified. Detectives were assigned to the case. They found that the books had been borrowed by the Y. M. C. A. for the dedication of its new home.

Labels: churches, detectives, Harrison street, missing, YMCA

October 17, 1909

MISSED MOTHER AT DEPOT.

Boy of 8 From Ohio Now in Charge

of Police Matron.

Charles Francis, 8 years old, arrived at the Union depot yesterday from Toledo, O., expecting to meet his mother, Mrs. Eva M. Francis of Kansas City, who sent for him. Mrs. Francis was not at the station and Matron Ollie Everingham sent the little fellow to the police matron, until Mrs. Francis could be found. A telegram addressed to Mrs. Frances from Toledo awaits her at the Union depot.

Labels: children, depot matron, missing, police matron, telegram, Union depot

September 30, 1909

DYING YOUTH WANTS MOTHER.

Asks Kansas City Police to Locate

Mrs. Mattie Newberry.

A Nebraska youth on his deathbed in Ashland believes that his mother and brother live in Kansas City, and that he may see them before he dies, he induced one of his neighbors to write the following letter to the Kansas City police department, asking that his mother be found:

"Chief of Police, Kansas City, Mo.

"Dear Sir -- Will you please try to locate Mrs. Mattie Newberry in your city. Her son is dying here, and wants to see his mother before he passes away. Milton Newberry, the other son, also lives in Kansas City, but we do not know the address. Thanking you for any kindness that you may show, I am very truly yours, MRS. L. G. PETERSON. Ashland, Neb."

Though Chief Snow gets many letters of similar nature every day, and his time is generally occupied, the took a personal interest in the matter. A woman by the name of Mattie Newberry had lived at 2421 Locust street, but the patorlman who investigated found that she had moved away three weeks ago. None of the neighbors could tell her present location.

Labels: children, Locust street, missing, Police Chief Snow

August 29, 1909

LOSES HUSBAND AND APPETITE.

For Two Days Patient Mexican

Woman Has Been Unable to Eat.

For two days, or since she has been at the Union depot, not a particle of food has crossed the lips of pretty Senora Hobbs, the wife of John Hobbs, watchmaker and preacher of the Seventh Day Baptist faith. Standing on the balcony of the women's waiting room at the Union depot, rocking the cradle wherein lay her sick 6-months -old baby, the weakened woman kept unceasing vigil, scanning every person who entered the waiting room, hoping against hope almost that any minute would bring her word of her husband, from whom she had not heard for eight days.

Matron Everingham looked after the baby to the extent of seeing that it was supplied with fresh, pure milk, and she volunteered to see that the Mexican woman got food. "I do not feel like eating," she told the matron, when Mrs. Everingham asked her if she did not want to eat something. "I only want my husband. He must be here, and I will find him."

Yesterday Morning Mrs. Hobbs visited the postoffice where she learned that the letters which she had written her husband from La Crosse, Kas., had not been called for by him. She also visited the store where her husband had been employed. They could give her but little information. Her plea for help to locate the man she married in Mexico has roused half a dozen of the attaches at the Union depot and all possible assistance was given the little blackeyed woman from the South in locating Hobbs yesterday. So far as could be learned Hobbs had not done any preaching in the streets in Kansas City. Where he roomed has not yet been learned. At Morino's store, he said that he had lost his watchmaker's tools but the wife says that he had them when he left LaCrosse.

It developed yesterday that Hobbs had been out of communication with his wife for two weeks on a previous occasion. This was when he left Chihuahua for the states. He went to San Antonio and his wife, failing to hear from him for two weeks, got on a train and found him ill at a hotel in the Texas city. There she says she sold her camera and photographic outfit.

Labels: depot matron, Mexico, missing, Union depot

August 27, 1909

K. C. BURGLAR ESCAPES.

Meyer, Serving a 5-Year Term,

Changed Suits in Mansion.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO., Aug. 26. -- Justin Meyer, a Kansas City burglar doing a five-year sentence in the penitentiary, escaped this afternoon from the executive mansion. He was working as an electrician with a party of a dozen other convicts engaged in making repairs on the building. He is supposed to have gained access to a bedroom in an upper story where there was an old suit of clothes. His suit of stripes was found in this room. After getting rid of his convict garb he walked boldly out by the two guards and passed unnoticed by them. Meyer has served about two years of his sentence. A reward was offered for his capture by Warden Andrae tonight.

Labels: crime, Jefferson City, missing, penitentiary

August 6, 1909

LOOKING FOR MISSING MEN.

Anxious Wives of Four Appeal to

Police for Assistance.

If the police do nothing else but look for missing persons the entire department would be kept busy during the next few days. Four persons were reported as missing form their homes yesterday.

George Mitchell, 2328 McGee street, left for the harvest fields June 15. His wife, who is in destitute circumstances, with two children to support, became anxious yesterday and gave the man's description to the police. She can't understand his protracted absence.

The disappearance of H. W. Rutherford, 415 West Sixth street, Kansas City, Kas., who left his home ten days ago, has worried his friends. the man is 60 years old, is gray headed and weighs 150 pounds. The police were asked to aid in the search today.

Another woman in trouble is Mrs. Julia Johnson, who is stopping at the Helping Hand. She is convinced that her husband is working at some restaurant in the North end but doesn't know where.

Mrs. W. H. Treymeyer, 3143 Summit street, is also in the same dilemma. Theymeyer is 43 years old, is six-feet two inches in height, weighs 170 pounds, has a black moustache and black hair.

Labels: Helping Hand, Kansas City Kas, McGee street, missing, North end, police, Summit street

July 26, 1909

STRANGE ADVENTURES

OF TWO SMALL BOYS.

SAW SIGHTS AND FRIGHTENED

THEIR PARENTS.

Johnny and Tommy, 10 and 8 Years

Old, Respectively, Had High

Time While Folks Had

Visions of Kidnaping.

TOMMY BEELS.

Without permission of their respective parents, Johnny Sinclair, 10, and Tommy Beels, 8 years old, took a day off from home and spent the whole of Saturday night and Sunday in wandering about the towns and parks surrounding Kansas City, much to the consternation, grief and anxiety of their families.

When the boys were missed Saturday night it was learned that they had gone with an employe of Electric park. Mont Shirley, 29 years of age, who has a longing for the companionship of small boys, being evidenced by his having led other urchins on several days' tours of the surrounding country on previous occasions.

Johnny Sinclair is the only son of Aaron Sinclair, janitor of the Boston flats, 3808 Main street. Johnny's father gave him a dollar Saturday noon and told him to do what as he wanted with the money.

BOYS WENT TO PARK.

Barefooted and without his coat, Johnny looked up his younger friend, Tommy, youngest son of H. T. Beels, 107 East Thirty-ninth street, and proposed a trip to Electric park. Tommy was willing and thought it best not to go into the house for his hat and coat, for his mother might thwart their schemes. So the boys left the Beels home about 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon.

When 5 o'clock came Mrs. Beels missed her son. Within a few minutes, however, he telephoned his mother that they were at Electric park and were going to take a boat ride with a man whom they had found congenial. Mrs. Beels told the boy to come home immediately.

Tommy had other views in the matter and when Shirley suggested an extensive tour of the city, to include Kansas City, Kas., Lansing, Leavenworth, Forest, Fairmount, Swope and Budd parks and all at his own expense, the boy readily fell in with the plan. Mothers were not interviewed.

Dire thoughts of drowning, kidnaping and disaster beset Mrs. Beels when her boy did not materialize at supper time. Persons in charge of the park were questioned and it was learned that the two boys had gone away from the park with Shirley. None knew where.

SEARCH PARTIES ORGANIZED.

Mrs. Beels, at midnight, went to the Sinclair home and inquired there for her son and learned that Johnny Sinclair was also missing. That was the first idea of Johnny's whereabouts which the Sinclairs had. Search parties were organized and the park secured.

Yesterday morning a young man went to the Sinclair home and told that he had seen the two boys and Shirley at the Union depot and that they were going to St. Joseph and H. L. Ashton, a friend of the Beels family, who is well acquainted with the mayor of that city, called him over long distance 'phone and had the town searched for the runaways. Then came a telegram that the three had been seen early Sunday in Leavenworth.

Meanwhile Mrs. Sinclair and Mrs. Beels were beside themselves with fear and anxiety for their children. They secured the promise of the park authorities to drag the lake in the park this morning, and the search for the missing increased in strength and vigilance each hour.

Shirley's family had been notified of the disappearance, and Charles J. Blevins, Shirley's brother-in-law, hastened to Leavenworth, hot on the trail. He returned empty-handed.

TELL OF JOLLY TIME.

About 11 o'clock last night the boys returned home, dusty, wet and tired. They had a wonderful story to tell of their trip and adventures. They had been through every park in the city, and seen the National cemetery and Soldiers' home at Leavenworth from a car and had a jolly time in general. Saturday night was spent in Kansas City, so Tommy Beels says, and the three went to a rooming house. He did not know the location. Late last night Shirley gave the two boys their carfare and put them on a Rockhill car at Eighth and Walnut streets and left them.

Shirley is said to have a habit of giving young boys a good time at his own expense. Two years ago, it is claimed, he took two boys to Leavenworth and stayed there for three days, after which the boys returned safe and sound.

Shirley works in the park and every Saturday he has been in the habit of spending his week's wages upon some boys whom he might meet. His brother-in-0law, Mr. Blevins, said that Shirley is nothing but a boy himself. When he was 4 years of age, according to relatives, Shirley fell upon his head, and he has remained stunted, mentally, ever since. Shirley longs for the companionship of children, and he is attractive to them since he plays with them and talks with them as though he were 9 rather than 29 years of age.

INTERVIEW CUT SHORT.

Johnny Sinclair, nervous, excited, scared and tired, last night told a clear and fairly consistent story of how Shirley and Tommy Beels and he passed the time between Saturday at 2 p. m. and 11 o'clock last night, when the boys returned home.

In the main details Johnny clung to his story. He fell asleep while being questioned by his father, and that ended the questioning. In substance, he says:

"Shirley invited Tommy and me to go to Swope park, while were were at Electric park, where he was working. We went to Swope park with him and in the evening we went down town and went to several nickel shows.

"Then we went out to Swope park again, but late that night. Shirley wanted to go down town to cash a check. When we got down town the saloons were all closed, and we finally went to bed at a place near Eighth and Main streets.

SAW LEAVENWORTH SIGHTS.

"The next morning we had a nice breakfast of beefsteak and potatoes and coffee, and then we went over to Kansas City, Kas., and there we took a car for Leavenworth. We saw the penitentiary and the Soldiers' Home from the car, and the National cemetery, but we didn't stop there.

We went to Leavenworth and spent the time just running around. That's all we did. I was never there before, and it was fun. We had a dinner of bologna sausage and cheese, and about 8 o'clock we started for home."

Besides the fright which was occasioned the two families of the boys no harm was done, except one of the boys was forced to take a hot bath and swallow a dose of quinine after he reached home. Johnny's original $1, which started the trouble, remains intact. Shirley stood the expense on his pay of $12, which he drew from the park on Saturday afternoon.

Shirley lives one block southeast of the park.

Labels: amusement, children, Electric park, fairmount park, Leavenworth, Main street, missing, runaway, St.Joseph, Swope park, Thirty-ninth street, Union depot

July 15, 1909

HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS BOY?

His Mother Fears He Has Been Run

Over by the Cars.

Has anyone seen a 12-year-old boy with red hair and blue eyes, who is wearing a black shirt and overalls? This description was given the police by Mrs. A. M. West of 207 East Sixth street, of her son, Willie Poffenberger, who slipped away yesterday afternoon. He was small for his age and Mrs. West fears that he has been run over by the cars. Last night Willie had not been located.

Labels: children, missing, Sixth street

June 26, 1909

WALKED FROM PLEASANT HILL.

John Fleming, 18, Missing Since

Monday, Returns.

John Fleming, the 18-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Fleming of 2404 Kensington avenue, who has been missing since last Monday, returned home last night at 8 o'clock, having walked the entire distance from Pleasant Hill, Mo.

He could not give a very connected account of his wanderings, saying that he thought his mind had been affected by the heat of the sun when he started out. He remembered that he had walked most of the way to Pleasant Hill. It was thought that he had some vague idea of visiting his aunt, who lives within nine miles of that town, but he did not arrive there. He was more lucid about the return trip.

Young Fleming was first sighted at Raytown, Mo., by friends of Mrs. Fleming, who telephoned to the mother. Others along the line of march also recognized him and telephoned to the home. A reunion was held last night at the home.

Labels: Kensington, missing, Pleasant Hill, Raytown

June 23, 1909

AGED MAN'S SEARCH FOR SON.

Blind and Partially Deaf, G. E.

Keller Fails to Locate Him.

When G. E. Keller, 88 years old, blind and partially deaf, arrived in the Union depot yesterday morning, having come to Kansas City in quest of his son, Charles Keller, whom he believes to be ill and out of money, he did not know his address and a search through the directory failed to show the name. Mr. Keller came here from the state of Washington.

A letter received from the son a few weeks ago told of his illness and an operation. The boy was then living in a rooming house, and funds were sent to him at the time. The aged father lost the letter giving the son's address.

Mrs. Ollie Everingham, depot matron, asked the police to aid in the search for the boy, but at a late hour last night he had not been found.

The old man was made comfortable at the depot, where he spent the night.

Labels: depot matron, hearing impaired, missing, Seniors, Union depot, visitors, visual impairment

May 5, 1909

PRISONER BETRAYED FRIEND.

When Minnesota Sheriff Went for

Food, Alleged Forger Decamped.

Because he was obliging and left his supposedly ill prisoner alone while he went to get him some tea and toast, Henry Terhaar, sheriff of Jackson county, Minn., lost Dr. Frank Hanson, whom he was taking to Minnesota from Colorado Springs to answer to a charge of forgery.

Sheriff Terhaar arrived in Kansas City with Hanson Monday afternoon. As Hanson had complained of illness before the train reached Kansas city, Terhaar took him to the Blossom house, engaged a room on the fifth floor and sent for a physician. Yesterday noon Hanson declared he was unable to arise. It was then that Terhaar went for food. When he returned Hanson had decamped.

Patrolman John Coughlin, stationed at the Union depot, after being shown a photograph of Hanson, declared that a man answering his description had boarded the Santa Fe train at 12:15 o'clock.

Hanson was the family physician of Sheriff Terhaar and the two men were friends. He is wanted on charges of forgery and embezzlement, the amount involved being about $8,000.

Labels: Blossom house, embezzlement, forgery, hotels, missing, police, Union depot, visitors

April 30, 1909

CAN'T FIND THEIR FATHER.

Four Children Came Here From

Brunswick to Meet Him.

Because their father failed to appear at the Union depot to meet them yesterday morning, four children, ranging in age from 8 to 14 years, sat in the waiting room of the depot and when not indulging in the abandon to tears, listened with eager interest to the assurances of Mrs. Ollie Everingham, the matron, who tried every possible way to locate Tom Elson, formerly of Brunswick, Mo.

Lola Elson, the eldest girl, has been "mother" of the family since the death of Mrs. Elson, more than six months ago.

She said an uncle, Sam Teters, lives here. The name could not be found in the city directory of either Kansas City. Her father, she said, just did whatever he could find to do.

"He was at home at Brunswick last Tuesday," she declared, "and told me to bring the children to Kansas City today."

The children were supplied with food and beds were fixed for them by Mrs. Everingham and John Walentrom, night depot master. The younger children are: Josephine, 9; Charley, 11, and Frank, 8 years old.

Labels: children, depot matron, missing, Union depot

April 30, 1909

THINK HE FEIGNED INSANITY.

St. Joseph Asylum Doctors Discuss

Case of John M. Crane.

ST. JOSEPH, MO., April 29. -- The escape of no patient among the criminal insane at the State Hospital for the Insane, No. 2, has caused so great a sensation as the leavetaking of John M. Crane of Kansas City last night.

Although the asylum officials admit Crane's escape, and that he is much wanted, they are making only perfunctory efforts to apprehend the wife slayer's whereabouts. Physicians at State H ospital No. 2 do not hesitate to say that in their opinion Crane has been feigning insanity.

His malady is diagnosed as katonia or stereotypeism, a disposition constantly to the same words and acts, but the physicians say this form of insanity does not manifest itself in persons of his age. He is nearly 50 years old.

Physicians in charge of his case say he talks of his wife as though she were still alive. They say they believe he learned the art of shamming of one Neeley Harris, a "trusty" who was in the hospital ward in the jail at Kansas City where Crane was confined for several months.

Labels: mental health, missing, St.Joseph

April 29, 1909

WIFE SLAYER ESCAPES

FROM ST. JOSEPH ASYLUM.

J. M. Crane, Convicted of Murder,

but Committed as a Lunatic,

Coming to Kansas City.

ST. JOSEPH, MO., April 28. -- J. M. Crane, who was committed to the state hospital for the insane at this point about a year ago after having been given a life sentence in the penitentiary from Kansas City, for the murder of his wife, escaped late today. He had been given many privileges at the asylum of late, and it is believed made his escape after carefully planning to elude detection.

Superintendent Kuhn of the asylum is out of the city, and his assistant declines to give any information about Crane or his manner of escape. It was admitted, however, that Crane was gone.

It is said that Crane has a grievance against several persons in Kansas City, who testified against him, and assisted in prosecuting him for the murder of his wife. There is some apprehension that he will endeavor to do these persons bodily harm.

MURDERED HIS ESTRANGED WIFE.

John M. Crane shot and killed his wife, Henrietta Crane, on the evening of July 8, 1905, at her home, 1101 Bales avenue. Mrs. Crane, from whom her husband had been separated for some time, was sitting on the front porch when Crane came up the walk.

When she saw him coming, Mrs. Crane ran into the house. Crane followed. After a struggle in the hall Mrs. Crane ran across the street. As she ran, Crane fired several times, three of the shots taking effect. The woman fell dead in a neighbor's dooryard.

Crane was tried for the crime, and in spite of his plea for insanity was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Five days before the sentence of death was to be carried out, Governor Folk granted a reprieve of thirty days in order that a commission might examine into the sanity of the man. The reprieve was given upon the request of deputy prosecutors. A number of physicians had examined Crane, and all said he was insane. Several said he was hopelessly demented and could live but a short time.

On May 5, 1907, after having been in the jail hospital for seven months, Crane was pronounced insane by a commission and was taken to the state asylum at St. Joseph.

Labels: Bales avenue, death penalty, Governor Folk, mental health, missing, murder, penitentiary, St.Joseph

April 28, 1909

BOY SLEPT IN HAYSTACK.

Parents, Thinking Him Gone, Wired

Police Here.

Because of the thoughtlessness of a small boy at Butler, Mo., his parents and the greater part of town were thrown into a state of excitement Monday and the police and officials at the Union depot in Kansas City were kept in anxiety for twenty-four hours as a result. Early Monday evening the following telegram was received by Station Master Bell:

"Hold boy 14 years old, fair, rather large for his age, wearing tan sweater. He will arrive there probably 5:30 from Butler. Will leave here at 6. D. K. Walker."

When the boy failed to arrive on the train designated in the dispatch, extra effort was made to watch incoming trains, both freight and passenger from that locality. The effort proved useless. The boy did not appear.

Yesterday morning the problem was solved when the station master received the second message, as follows: "Stop looking for boy from Butler. Found him in hay stack asleep."

Labels: children, missing, railroad, telegram, Union depot

April 20, 1909

STREET CAR A DAY NURSERY.

Unusual Duties Devolve Upon Mem-

bers of Twelfth Street Crew.

T. J. Randall, 522 Elmwood avenue, a conductor on the Twelfth street line of the Metropolitan street railway, and his motorman, were yesterday forced into temporary custodianship of a 2-year-old baby girl.

"When I helped a number of women to alight from my car at Twelfth street and Grand avenue about noon yesterday I didn't know that one of them was making a nursemaid of me," said Randall last night, "or I would surely have set up a longer and larger howl than the baby did a few minutes later.

"About the time I jingled the bell to get away from McGee street, and began to feel good about the light load I had aboard, with lunch looking strong at me after the next trip, I heard that wail. It was long and plaintive. At first I paid no attention to it, and as it persisted I looked into the car and saw the youngster was alone.

"I went to the little one and asked what was the matter. 'Mamma,' was all the answer I could get. 'Where is your mama?" I asked her, and the saddest, sorriest, most doleful and altogether hopeless 'gone,' from the baby, told the story. It was up to me and I made the best of it. I rocked her and talked to her and carried her up and down the car in an effort to quell the riot that was evidently going on within the breast of my diminutive and unwilling passenger.

"At the end of the line I made Allen, my motorman, take the kid, and he had his troubles for about five minutes while I got some candy. The trap back was really pleasant. The candy was good and the kiddy was better. Not another sound aside from the occasional smacking of tiny lips was heard all the way in. At Grand avenue, where the mother got off, there was a delegation waiting for me; mamma remembered her baby, and say, she was tickled to get that kid back in her arms again. But she wasn't any more tickled to get her than I was to get rid of her. Babies are all right at home, but a conductor's job was never calculated to include nursing."

Crossing Patrolman Heckenburg got the story a few minutes after the car left Grand avenue. The mother was almost frantic for nearly an hour, and stayed close to the bluecoat, anxiously inspecting every car that passed the corner until the right one came along.

Labels: children, Elmwood avenue, Grand avenue, McGee street, Metropolitan Street Railway Company, missing, police, streetcar, Twelfth street

March 24, 1909

GIRL OF FIFTEEN MISSING.

Clacie Claunch Has Not Been Home

Since Sunday Morning.

The police are looking for Clacie Claunch, 15 years old, who disappeared from her home at 3324 East Eighteenth street Sunday morning. She wore a red skirt, light waist, light striped jacket and long brown leather gloves. Her hair and eyes are brown. She had intended to go to the Hippodrome when she left home.

Arthur Gladstone, 2452 Woodland avenue, reported to the police that his wife has been missing for several days. She is 24 years old, wieghs 120 pounds and wore a blue suit.

Labels: Eighteenth street, hippodrome, missing, Woodland avenue

February 8, 1909

TRYING TO FIND HIS MOTHER.

Newsboy Can't Remember Her, but

Hunt Crosses Continent.

William Henry Wilcox, a 19-year-old wanderer who sometimes sells newspapers and at other times runs elevators for a living, is looking for his mother, whom he does not remember. He said last night he was stolen from her in Boston when he was but 7 months old by a woman named Mrs. Jenny Baker who gave him to her sister, Mrs. Hattie Gorden Howen.

Now he wants to find his mother whose name was Lillian Wilcox. He knows nothing of his father. When he was 8 years old he was so abused by the husband of the Howen woman that he got into the hands of the Massachusetts state board of charities, and was "farmed out" for ten years of his life.

The boy in the last year has been across the continent from Boston through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, or out to the Pacific, and has been in Kansas City for twelve days. He says he wants to settle down here and get work running an elevator.

With utter frankness, he said that in every city that he visited he told his story to the newspapers, in hope that the publicity would attract the attention of his mother.

He said he had a good job in New Orleans and was well treated.

"Why did you leave?" was the question put to him.

"Oh, I got restless," he said. "I guess you know how it would be if you wanted to find your mother and couldn't," he added wistfully.

Labels: Boston, missing, visitors

January 17, 1909

LOOK FOR MISSING BOY.

Edgar Sullivan Not Seen Since Leav-

ing Home Friday.

Edgar Sullivan, 2803 Jackson avenue, is missing from home. Edgar is 12 years old and left the house Friday morning to attend Greenwood school. Since then he has not been heard from and his parents last night notified the police of No. 6 police station.

As the boy is too old to be lost in Kansas City the police believe that he has probably run away. When he left home Edgar was dressed in a blue serge coat, black trousers and a brown cap. He has light hair and light complexion.

Labels: children, Jackson avenue, missing, No 6 police station

January 4, 1909

BOSTON OFFICERS INDIGNANT.

Criticise Alleged Laxity of Kansas

City Police in Losing Martin.

BOSTON, MASS., Januaray 3 -- (Special.) When Inspectors Gaddis and Sheehan returned yesterday from Kansas City after their fruitless trip to corral James R. Martin, alias James P. Douglass, for the Boston authorities, police headquarters was agog with excitement, for open declarations were made that the Kansas City police at least showed laxity in allowing Martin's escape.

The officers claimed they had seen Martin in the jail where he was held on another charge. Their report is that Martin appeared to be more of a guest than a prisoner. The inspectors reported Martin had signified a willingness to return to Boston peaceably and waive extradition. Then, say the disgruntled Boston inspectors, they awoke next day to find that their bird had flown overnight.

Martin is wanted here for forging and altering a check for $200 on a Boston jewelry house about six weeks ago. On Christmas day the two inspectors were ordered to Kansas City. Arriving there they found that Martin had been removed from the county jail to the lock-up in the city, where they allege he enjoyed considerable priveleges.

Labels: Boston, crime, missing, police, police headquarters, visitors

January 2, 1909

THERE'S A NEW WARDEN

AT THE CI TY JAIL.

NUMBER OF ESCAPEES FROM THE

CENTRAL STATION HOLDOVER.

Last Tuesday Night a Prisoner Even

Stole the Lock from the Hold-

over Door -- Some Noted

Escapes There.

JAMES DOUGLASS.
Prisoner With a Record Who Escaped From Central Station Holdover.

The monthly change list showing the assignments of police for January was posted yesterday. The changing of a jailer, as a rule, is of little not, but the list shows that Jailer Philip Welch has been removed from headquarters and made relief jailer, and jailer William Long, who was relief jailer, is stationed permanently at headquarters. Welch has been at headquarters over one year. In that time there were two jail deliveries on his watch.

On Decmeber 22 Patrolman J. D. Brown arrested James Douglass, alias Ryan alias martin. He was wanted in Boston for forgery and officers were notified to come for him. Douglass had the freedom of the corridor and gave little trouble. In fact, he made himself useful and gained the confidence of some of his keepers.

Last Tuesday, Chief of Detectives Thomas Sheehan and Detective Patrick J. Gaddis of Boston arrived here at 4 p. m. and at once went to headquarters and had a heart to heart talk with the prisoner. Of course he was willing to go back. He was very accommodating, even offering to stand half the night guarding himself on the way back and let the officers sleep.

At 9 o'clock Wednesday morning the Boston officers went to the station preparatory to taking their prisoner back. He was gone. So were four other prisoners, three city cases and a safe keeper.

DID HE TAKE THE LOCK?

The story then came out. Douglass had taken French leave of the city bastile about 2 a. m., leaving no future address. He had taken the lock from the main door leading into the holdover by removing the screws. Some say he took the lock with him -- just as a joke, it is supposed. Anyway, two officers have been guarding the opening ever since.

One of those who was taking advantage of the open door made too much noise about it as he ascended the iron stops, and in that manner Jailer Welch was aroused. He generally rested in a tilted chair right at the head of the stairs, but the prisoners went out a door leading from the first landing into the areaway back of the city hall. B. C. Stevens, the man taken back to Texarkana, Tex., Thursday, had an opportunity to gain his freedom, but refused. A new lock was being placed on the door yesterday.

On December 14 a man named Frank Madison was arrested by officers at No. 2 station on complaint of the Royal Brewing Company. He was sent to headquarters and the brewery people were on hand the next day to prosecute him. But he wasn't there. Somehow he was among the missing.

The police got Madison again in a few days, and asked him, "What became of you that time we sent you to headquarters and you weren't there the next day?"

"Oh, I just side-stepped the jailer," he said with a smile.

Some months ago there was a general free-for-all delivery. Twenty-three men got out. Saws were passed in from the outside and two lower bars were sawed and broken. Two desperate Greeks who were being held here for highway robbers and assault with intent to kill for Cripple Creek, Col., authorities, were believed to have been the instigators. They were afterwards recaptured, but it cost the Colorado authorities two trips here to get their men, they having arrived just after the delivery. A negro wanted in Alabama for murder was never recaptured and no attention was paid to the city cases that got away. Several plain drunks and safe keepers squeezed through the hole.

The two deliveries which occurred on Welch's watch are the only real jail breaking since the city holdover was built in 1886. One very small man, years ago, got into the air shaft which led to the top of the building and made his escape. How he did it no one has ever been able to explain. Others tried it after that but found their way blocked.

The man, Douglass, who removed the lock and left his compliments is said to be wanted in other places. On November 7 he was arrested at Twenty-second and Madison streets by Patrolman J. D. Brown and Jailer William Long. A saloonkeeper on the Southwest boulevard accused him of passing a bad check for $20.

Labels: Boston, breweries, detectives, forgery, jail, missing, police, police headquarters, saloon

December 23, 1908

WHILE HE BOUGHT

WINE, WIFE SKIPPED

BIG BRAKEMAN'S SPOUSE AT

UNION DEPOT.

He Stood, Bottle in Hand, for Five

Hours Looking for Her, but

She Didn't Appear.

Where Is She?

George Robinson, a brakeman, who stands about six feet six inches in his sock feet, stood in the center of the Union depot last night for five and one-half hours and cast anxious glances over the throng. He carried a bottle of wine, and shifted it so often from one hand to the other that at midnight the paper was all off and the bottle exposed.

Robinson, accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Alice Robinson, 27 years old, and Mabel McBride, a negro maid, arrived in the city on the Santa Fe from Ottawa, Kas., at 6:30 p. m., and were all to have left for Seattle, his home, on the Burlington at 9:40 p. m. About thirty minutes after their arrival, Mrs. Robinson asked her spouse to procure a bottle of wine in case of snake bite on the trip. Then she and the maid disappeared.

"She said her feet hurt her," said Robinson as he craned his neck to see both ends of the depot at the same time, "and suggested that she would go up stairs and change her shoes while I got the wine. When I came back I couldn't get the least trace of her or the girl. I've got the durned wine here. Wish I'd never gone for it now."

"NEVER A CROSS WORD."

Robinson, who is the same age as his wife, said they had been married one year, "and we've never had a cross word." It his his opinion that his wife and her maid took the wrong train by mistake. If that is the case, however, he says he can't explain why she sent him for the wine and why she disappeared when no trains for the West were leaving the city. He also has another theory that the agent at Ottawa, in error, gave his wife and the girl tickets over another road and that they are now speeding westward, "wondering where in the thunder I am."

One of the circumstances that puzzle the depot officials is the appearance on the scene, after his wife dropped out, of a negro man who has known Robinson all his life, and who also claims to know the negro girl. He said the girl had a brother in the city, and Robinson then clung to the faint hope that "maybe they went to visit Mable's brother and got lost."

TOO GOOD TO A WOMAN.

"Was there any reason that you can think of why your wife should want to leave you?" Robinson was asked.

"None on top of earth," he replied fervently. "I'm too derned good to a woman. Ain't I hiring that girl to go along and take care of my wife -- carry the grips and things like that? Got her in Ottawa just for that. And, by gum, they've got all the grips with him, too."

The distracted man could not be induced to notify the police, to wire ahead to some of the trains he thought she had taken by mistake, or to do anything reasonable. He just wandered about, held on to his bottle of wine and groaned every time he looked at it. About midnight he was induced to go to bed in a hotel across from the depot. He said he had hopes of hearing form the missing pair by this morning.

"Not much use in me going to bed," he said as he left the depot. Then his eye caught sight of the bottle of wine, which he says is the curse of all his troubles. "I've a derned good notion to bust the danged thing," he said between his grated teeth.

Labels: alcohol, marriage, missing, railroad, Union depot, visitors

December 10, 1908

"ADAM GOD" HAS

NOT BEEN CAUGHT.

LEADER OF MANIACAL RELIG-

IONISTS STILL AT LARGE.

DETECTIVE BOYLE AFTER HIM.

BELIEVED TO BE HEADING FOR

BONNER SPRINGS.

Man Answering His Description Seen

in Armourdale -- Clark and Mul-

lane May Recover -- Selsor

Will Die.

Information was given the police about noon yesterday that a man answering the description of James Sharp, the "Adam God" of the murderous band of maniacal religionists which shot three members of the police force Tuesday, had been seen in Armourdale by a railroad man. Police were immediately dispatched to pick up the man's trail. At last midnight Sharp was still at large.

Every lodging house in the city and all the places were searched by the police Tuesday night and yesterday morning in an effort to catch the instigator of the riot of Tuesday afternoon in which Patrolman Albert O. Dublow was killed and two policeman and a citizen were seriously wounded. Many false clues were followed, as every policeman was anxious to find the man who had preached to his followers that it was right to kill.

Though the entire department was working on the case not a trace of Sharp could be found, and the information that he had passed through Armourdale was the first clue that looked good. The railroad man who telephoned to Chief Daniel Ahern that he had seen Sharp, said that the man had trimmed his whiskers and was bleeding. It was known that Sharp had been shot in the hand. When he laid a gun on the bar in John Blanchon's saloon, 400 Main street, while the shooting was going on in the street, the bartender saw that his right hand was bleeding.

NEGRO TRIMMED HIS BEARD.

According to the story told by the railroad man, Sharp stopped him and asked the direction to Bonner Springs, and then hurried on. He told the chief that he noticed blood on the man's hand and clothes. While Sharp wore a long beard, partly gray, during the fight, when he stopped in the railroad yards in Armourdale the beard was clipped, and his hair had been trimmed. Two hours later the police at No. 2 station were told by Chester Ramsey, a negro barber for George W. Robinson, 956 Mulberry street, that he had cut a man's beard and trimmed his hair and that man might have been the leader of the Adamite fanatics.

Ramsey said that the man came from the east about 5 o'clock Tuesday evening and, when he left the shop went west. The man acted strangely while in the shop, refusing to take either of his hands out of his pockets.

"He got in a chair and ordered me to take his hat off," said the barber. "He kept his hands in his coat pockets while I cut his hair and trimmed his beard I had about half finished when he seemed to get very nervous and said, 'Hurry up. I have to meet a man.' When I got through with him he got out of the chair and had me put his hat on his head. Then he made me take the money out of his left trouser pocket. He explained that his hands had been frozen and he couldn't take them out of his pockets.

"I said, 'You must have been in a colder climate than this. He said, 'Yes, I was up north of here fishin'. That was all he said."

The police believe the man was Sharp. They say he evidently was hiding his right hand, which was shot, and kept the left hand on a revolver in his pocket. The description of the man given by Ramsey coincides with that of Sharp.

CITY HALL GUARDED.

The police took precaution to guard the city hall and police headquarters all day yesterday. They were of the opinion that Sharp might return to the scene of the crime on Tuesday, and for revenge enter the station unnoticed and shoot one or more of the officers.

The police are not sure that Sharp is alone. Two patrolmen stood on the sidewalk at the main entrance to the station and two were stationed in the areaway opening on the market. Inside the station two officers guarded the hallway leading to the chief's office and our or five patrolmen and detectives were held in reserve.

Labels: Adam God sect, Armourdale, barbers, Bonner Springs, city hall, Inspector Boyle, ministers, missing, Mulberry street, No 2 police station

November 14, 1908

WERE FAR FROM DROWNED.

Leaky Boat Voyagers Return and

Quiet Fears for Safety.

While his brother-in-law, John F. Marshall, 318 1/2 North Ninth street, was searching up and down the banks of the Missouri river for his body, Fred Marshall, a young man of 20 years, and his companion, Earle Allen, 33 years of age, were hunting rabbits and immensely enjoying the sport. The number of rabbits killed by the young men was entirely lost sight of when they reached Kansas City, about 6:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon, and learned that the police and river men had been instructed to search for their bodies, it being supposed by relatives that they had been drowned in the muddy waters of the Missouri.

Thursday afternoon Fred Marshall and Earle Allen, with two companions, decided to row down the Missouri river in search of ducks and rabbits. But the boat was leaky and the two companions balked at the journey across and were left on this side. Marshall and Allen crossed the river and found the sport good. They quit hunting about sundown and decided to spend the night at the home of John Harris, a farmer who lives a few miles below this city. Fred Marshall telephoned the Gladstone hotel just across the street from his brother's rooms and asked that word be sent that he would spend the night on the farm. The clerk or porter who answered the call failed to deliver the message. His oversight caused the alarm.

Labels: boats, hotels, missing, Missouri river, Ninth street

November 9, 1908

DYING FATHER WAITS HIS

RUNAWAY SON'S RETURN.

Sidney Samuels Is Being Sought All

Over the Country by His Relatives.

Searching for Sidney Samuels, his brother-in-law, now a 28-year-old man who ran away from home at the age of 16, George Franklin, a traveling man, is touring the United States. Sidney Samuels's father, George Samuels, is a civil war veteran who is now 70 years old. Suffering from heart trouble and expecting to die at any moment, George Samuels is praying that his boy may be found so that he may see him again before he dies.

Sidney Samuels's mother died when he was 6 years old. He was cared for by a housekeeper. July 14, 1896, with a companion he ran away from his home in New York and has never been heard from since. His companion returned after two days, but had no idea where Sidney had gone.

For ten years Mr. Samuels followed false clues, traveling all over the Eastern part of the United States. Now he is unable to travel and he waits alone at his home, 54 St. Nicholas avenue, New York city, while his son-in-law searches.

Mr. Franklin arrived here yesterday from Chicago. He will go from here to Omaha and from there to St. Paul. His brother-in-law is covering the South.

"We have no idea where the boy is now," Mr. Franklin said yesterday, "but if he is alive we want to get him home before his father dies."

Labels: missing, New York, Omaha, visitors

November 5, 1908

BALL PLAYER STRAYS AWAY.

Western Man Had $2,600 With Him.

Friends Fear Foul Play.

Circumstances surrounding the disappearance on Monday morning of W. H. Payne, a Western ball player and logger, with $2,600 on his person, have mystified the police, who have been asked to help locate him. Payne formerly lived in Triplett, Mo., and has a daughter named Arline, 17 years old, living there with an aunt. For the last ten or twelve years he has been living in Idaho where he was engaged in playing professional baseball and in the lumber camps. Two weeks ago he came east and went to visit his daughter. While there he renewed his acquaintance with J. W. Webb, and old schoolboy friend. He induced Webb to go back to Idaho with him, and last Saturday the two men came to Kansas City. Payne intended to purchase a new suit of clothes before returning to Lane, Idaho. The two men secured a room with Thomas Casey, a rooming house keeper at 700 Main street.

Monday morning Payne and Webb went to Lock's coal office, 513 East Sixth street, to meet Webb's brother, C. E .Webb. While in the coal office Payne said he would go to the bank and have a $100 bill changed and would then return to the office. He left at 10 o'clock and the brothers remained there waiting for him until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They then went to the rooming house, where they were told that Payne had been there and left word for Mr. Casey to hold his room for him and his friend. He left his suit case and clothes at the rooming house. He did not pay for the room he had used. He has not been heard of since that time.

Tuesday night Thomas Casey called at police headquarters and reported the disappearance of Payne. The Webb brothers reported his disappearance yesterday afternoon to the police. The police suggested that Payne had probably left town in that way to avoid paying the expenses of the trip, but J. W. Webb said he believed he had met with foul play. Payne, he said, carried his money in bills which were tied around his leg beneath his trousers. He often displayed the roll of bills and his friends fear that he has either been murdered or drugged and robbed. Payne is 45 years old and of stout build. His fingers have been broken and bent by playing baseball.

Labels: missing, police headquarters, rooming house, Sixth street, sports, visitors

October 1, 1908

POLICE ARE HUNTING

FOR MISSING PEOPLE

FRANTIC RELATIVES THINK

THEY ARE HEADED THIS WAY.

The List of Nine Includes a 75-Year-

Old Farmer Who Forsook

the Plow for Gay

City Life.

The reports made to the police yesterday concerned missing people principally, there being nine in all, whose ages range from 13 to 75 years. E. L. Barrett of Hamilton, Mo., telephoned that his daughter Nellie, 17 years old, whom he described, had left on an early morning train without leaving her future address. He was following on the next train and wanted the police to detain the girl.

For some reason or other George W. Shepard, 75 years old, took French leave of the dear old farm near Lone Jack, Mo., and headed for the gay city with its turmoil and strife. His aged wife was worried about him and, through a friend, asked the police to keep a weather eye out for Mr. Shepard. He is described as "black suit, sandy whiskers, soft black hat and blind in left eye."

Mrs. H. Gunther, 309 Washington avenue, Chicago, Ill., who signs herself "a broken-hearted mother," wants the police to find her son, Georg, 17 years old, who has been missing from home since June 25 last. She gives the police a minute description on which to work.

W. Emerson, 713 Washington street, this city, asks aid of the police in locating his wife. She is 27 years old, he says, five feet four inches tall and weighs 112 pounds. She has dark complexion, dark eyes and hair. Mr. Emerson said she left home with a man whom he names and describes.

The county attorney of Bedford, Ia., telephoned the police to be on the lookout for Fred W. Evans. Among other distinctive features given the poilce to aid in the identification is a "Roman nose that turns up." An officer went to Bedford to take Evans back to Cripple Creek, Col., it is said. He got out on a writ of habeas corpus and left for here. Henry von Pohl, sheriff of Teller county, Col., offers $50 reward for Evans.

W. Harry Walston, pastor of the Christian church at Minnie, Ill., writes that his son, Eugene Walston, 13 years old, left home last Friday with the intention of beating his way to Clearwater, Kas. As he would have to pass through Kansas City, the police were asked to be on the lookout for and detain the boy.

Thomas Atkins, chief of police of Davenport, Ia., wrote that Mrs. Chris Miller, aged 19 years, but looks more like 16, had left home and was headed this way. He gives a very accurate description of the missing woman, from her gold teeth to the four points on her jacket. He does not say w2h y she left home or what is wanted with her, only asking that she be arrested and notice given him.

Mrs. R. D. Curren, 811 Robidoux street, St. Joseph, Mo., said that her boy, Cleo Curren, 14 years old, had been missing since September 21. The Carnival, she thinks, may draw him there.

W. L. Myers, 1313 West Jackson street, Bloomington, Ill., is shy his son, Bert Myers, who has been missing from home for some time. Thinks he may head in here for Carnival week.

Labels: Chicago, Lone Jack, missing, police, St.Joseph, telephone, visitors, visual impairment, Washington street

August 29, 1908

IS MISSING NEW YORKER HERE?

Detectives Are Looking For F. D. S.

Bethune, Believed to Be Demented.

Faneuil D. S. Bethune, a prominent New York lawyer, who has been missing from his residence since last Saturday, is believed to have come to Kansas City and local detectives are looking for him.

Mrs. Bethune is prostrated at the Auditorium in Chicago, where she has been ill since she ended a fruitless search for her husband in that city. A reward of $1,000 has been offered for information which will lead to the finding of Mr. Bethune, dead or alive.

Bethune left New York last Saturday to go to Buffalo on legal business. He had been engaged in arduous legal work for nearly three years without taking a vacation and when he called his wife over the long distance telephone from Buffalo Sunday night, she noticed something strange in his manner of speaking to her and spent a restless night. The next day she asked aid in her search for her husband. Information to the effect that Bethune had talked from a telephone station in New York instead of at Buffalo led to the discovery that he had not gone there. It is thought he first went to Chicago and later started for Kansas City.

Labels: attorney, Chicago, detectives, missing, New York, telephone

August 12, 1908

HEARTSORE FOR HER BOY.

Mrs. G. W. Dorsey Is Ill Because Son

Has Run Away.

A broken-hearted mother is waiting the return of her 13-year-old son who disappeared from the home Friday night after attending the fireworks display at Pain's show with his father. While watching the fireworks Fred Dorsey, son of G. W. Dorsey, 4815 East Seventeenth street, met Frank French, 15 years old, and the two boys left the grounds together. Frank French returned home Sunday morning, but left again that night. He refused to tell where he had been, but denied that Fred had gone away with him.

Fred Dorsey started to run away once before. Last summer he left one afternoon, but when it began to grow dark he changed his mind and succeeded in reaching home before bedtime. He received a good spanking for that, and his father stated last night he believed that the boy would be afraid to return home if he had run off for fear of receiving more severe chastisement. His father said he would forgive the boy if he would only come back, as the boy's mother is ill from worrying about him.

Labels: amusement, children, missing, Seventeenth street

August 7, 1908

LOSES LIFE IN RIVER?

Coat and Hat of Newspaper Solicitor

Found on Bank of Blue.

Harry Taylor, a newspaper solicitor of 1514 Washington street, is thought by the police to have lost his life in the Blue river, near the Kansas City Southern railroad bridge, some time yesterday. A coat and hat which afterwards were identified by Mrs. Taylor were found on the river bank by a policeman. A bottle of phenol was found in one of the pockets. An effort is being made to find the body.

Labels: Blue river, clothing, Kansas City Southern, missing, newspapers, Washington street

July 12, 1908

NO TRACE OF THE PICKLE BOY.

Bodies Found Do Not Answer the

Lad's Description.

No trace of George Wesley Pickle, the boy who disappeared from his home at 1429 Summit street June 30, has been obtained by the police, and the man who is being held awaiting the investigation of the case is still in the county jail, but is remaining on his own volition, as no charge has been place d against him. Several bodies found in the Missouri and other rivers have been examined, but in each case it has been found that the body does not answer to the description of George Pickle.

The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Pickle, are firm in their belief that the boy is dead. Officers are still at work upon the case, but have uncovered no clues.

Labels: jail, missing, Missouri river, Summit street

July 8, 1908

POLICE CAN FIND NO

TRACE OF MISSING BOY.

MOTHER THINKS HE WAS

MURDERED AND ROBBED.

But Every Night She Sits at Her

Window Watching and Hop-

ing That He Will Come

Back to Her.

GEORGE WESLEY PICKLE.

Waiting night after night, hoping against hope that her son will return home, Mrs. Alexander J. Pickle, 1429 Summit street, spends the greater part of each night at her front window watching the walk leading to the house and praying that he will appear. every street car that passes the house brings new hope to Mrs. Pickle, and she watches it to see if her son gets off the car at the corner.

Whether George Wesley Pickle, 16 years old, a boy who never drank, smoked n or spent evenings away from his mother, is alive and well, or whether he is dead, is what police are endeavoring to unravel and the mother is anxious to learn. Young Pickle left his home, after bidding his mother goodby, Saturday morning, June 20, to look for work in the bottoms, and has never been heard of since that time. At the time of his disappearance Pickle had $160 in his vest pocket, the savings of seven months' work.

He was last seen at 10 o'clock that morning talking to two Missouri Pacific railroad checkers. Earl Hamilton accompanied Pickle on his quest for work, and he says he left him at the Union depot at 10 o'clock Saturday morning. From what Hamilton has told the police and the grief-stricken mother, George Pickle intended to steal rides on freight trains to the harvest fields of Kansas.

For two weeks George Pickle had talked about joining his brother-in-law at Genesee, Kas., and working in the harvest fields. The family had recently moved from 1624 Summit street to their present home. George had been assisting his mother around the house, putting up curtains, shades and tacking down carpets. He appeared to be restless and often spoke of leaving Kansas City to go to work.

MOTHER BELIEVES HE'S DEAD.

When seen yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Pickle said she believed the boy had been killed and robbed. She said if the boy were alive she knew he would write home, because he had always been such a good boy to her that he would not stay away from home without notifying her where he was. A letter from his sister, to whom he intended to go, written to the distracted mother, stated that George had not arrived there.

George Pickle was named after his uncle, George Wesley Pickle, who for thirteen years was attorney general of the state of Tennessee, and also editor of the Knoxville Tribune. Circulars giving a description of the missing boy and containing his photograph have been sent to the police of the towns in Kansas. A reward of $25 is offered for any information leading to the finding of the boy or his body George Pickle was 16 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, light complexion, blue eyes and had a scar over his right eye.

The police have made no charge against anyone in connection with the disappearance of young Pickle. They arrested a former associate of his and are holding him for investigation. No direct evidence has been unearthed against the man under arrest. Circumstantial evidence is that the arrested man has not worked for three months and he was behind on his board bill. The day young Pickle disappeared this chum paid $5 on his board bill and exhibited $100 in bills. Two days later he deposited $120 in a bank. The money was in $20 bills. The money possessed by Pickle was mostly in $20 bills.

The police evidently do not regard the circumstantial evidence as strong enough to warrant them in making a charge, yet they have held their prisoner longer than the twenty-four hours allowed by law in which a prisoner can be detained before a charge is made against him. Also it has yet to be proved that young Pickle is dead. The fact that he has dropped out of sight,taken in conjunction with the suddenly acquired wealth of former chum, does not prove anything. The young man may be alive and have his own reasons for concealing the fact. The chum may be able to show where he got the money, which the police seem to regard as a connecting link with Pickle's disappearance. Before a charge of murder can be made against anyone the body of the missing man must be produced.

Labels: missing, Summit street

June 24, 1908

THIS IS THE 'PORT

OF MISSING MEN'

SOME OF THEM HAD MONEY,

SOME HAD NONE.

Two Husbands Are Worrying Two

Faithful Wives and Piling Up

Telephone Bills by Remain-

ing Away From Home.

Mrs. Susie Poser called police headquarters by telephone from Tulsa, Ok., yesterday and asked that her husband, S. Poser, here for three weeks, be sought by the police. He is a plasterer, 30 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. He has light hair, blue eyes and fair complexion. Has been known to drink.

The mother of Samuel Keller, 17 years old, 913 Oak street, said her boy had left home Sunday morning and had not returned.

This report was among the lot of the missing: "Look out for George Wiley, 12 years old, blue overalls, blue blouse, barefooted and red-headed. Left home last Friday and not heard from since. Notify his mother at Independence avenue and Charlotte street, next to drug store."

Probably the most important person the police were asked to find, yesterday, on account of the fact that he was known to have had $868 and some valuable jewelry with him, was Frank Cook of Independence, Kas. His wife telephoned here and asked that he be located by the police.

Last Friday night Cook entered a hack at Fifth street and Grand avenue and asked to be driven to the Union depot to catch a 9 p. m. train. It was late and the train was missed.

"Bud" Landis, the driver, knew that Cook had with him a large sum of money. He drove slowly back uptown and at Seventh and Wyandotte streets called the attention of Patrolman J. F. Murphy and J. F. Brice, to the man in his hack. Cook was asleep. He had been drinking.

When searched at police headquarters, where he was booked as a "safe keeper," he was found to have $808, a valuable gold watch and chain and other jewelry. Cook was released Saturday morning and his money and jewelry returned to him. The missing man is 35 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs about 140 pounds, has light hair, blue eyes and fair complexion. His wife said he might be found in a sanitarium.

A doctor at 1306 Garfield avenue asked that the police be on the lookout for W. H. Madden, a patient who took French leave. The doctor said that Madden was demented. He wanted the man detained until he could be notified.

Bert Murray, a "patient" at the city workhouse, while working in the barn there Sunday concluded to leave. He did leave. As his time is by no means up, Patrick O'Hearn, superintendent of that institution, asks the police to locate Murray and return him, not to the barn, but to the workhouse proper.

Labels: children, Fifth street, Garfield avenue, Grand avenue, mental health, missing, Oak street, police headquarters, Seventh street, telephone, Union depot, workhouse, Wyandotte street

May 20, 1908

2-YEAR-OLD BOY RAN AWAY.

Restored to His Mother After an

Anxious Search.

For two long hours yesterday there was a distracted mother in Kansas City. That was Mrs. R. J. Nie of 432 Bales avenue, whose 2-year-old boy, Raphael, had disappeared. She missed the little tot shortly after noon and searched the neighborhood, but could get no trace of her offspring. In the meantime Patrolman O'Connor had found the baby at Independence and Bales avenues, ambling along as if he had business on his hands. Raphael made no objection when the officer took him in tow and seemed delighted at the long car ride to police headquarters.

When placed in charge of Mrs. John Moran, the little fellow began a tour of inspection of the quarters. When he landed inside the cell in the ante room Mrs. Moran shut the door on him, thinking to scare him. Raphael liked the cell as a "play house" and indicated that the door be left locked.

After Mrs. Nie had scoured the neighborhood she thought of the police and called up to see if they had her boy. They certainly had, she was told, and he was having a nice visit. Mrs. Nie boarded the first car for the city and soon Raphael, still in a good humor, was delivered to her.

Labels: Bales avenue, children, Independence avenue, jail, missing, police, police headquarters, police matron

May 16, 1908

BODY OF JOHN FAHEY IS

FOUND IN MISSOURI RIVER.

Farmer Near Sibley Discovered It

Thursday -- Missing Since

January 31.

The body of John Fahey, missing since January 31, was found in the Missouri river near Sibley, Mo., Thursday afternoon by a farmer, James Finn, while fishing. A Buckner undertaker was called to take charge of the body, and some of the stationary of the Kansas City waterworks department was found in a pocket. From this Fahey was quickly identified, as his disappearance became widely known about February 17, when to gratify the man's wife a waterworks trench at Twelfth and Main streets was re-excavated on the theory that workmen might have buried Fahey alive while he was inspecting the pipe connections on the work there the night he disappeared.

At midnight on the night of his disappearance he called up the waterworks department to say that he had just inspected the job, and the hole was ready to be filled. A gang of eight men was sent to do the work.

Sergeant M. E. Ryan, at police headquarters, a brother of Mrs. Fahey, went to Buckner yesterday and identified the corpse positively. There was 75 cents in the trousers' pockets. The body was taken to O'Donnell's undertaking rooms, and Deputy Coroner O. H. Parker held an autopsy. No marks of violence were found which, taken with the fact that he was not robbed, would seem to indicate that the man, either by accident or suicidal intent, got into the river.

There will be private funeral services at O'Donnell's undertaking rooms this morning at 10 o'clock, with burial in Mount St. Mary's cemetery.

Labels: Buckner, cemetery, death, Deputy Coroner Parker, drowning, farmers, Main street, missing, Missouri river, police headquarters, public works, Sibley, Twelfth street, undertakers

April 17, 1908

IS HENRY T. ZIMMER IN CUBA?

Friends of the Missing Man Believe

He Went There.

The present whereabouts of Ex-State Senator Henry T. Zimmer, who disappeared from his home in Kansas City, Kas., March 21, is still unknown. His friends have communicated with all of the principle cities of the South, but have failed to receive any information which would in any way aid in locating him.

The last word received from Mr. Zimmer by his wife was from Hot Springs, Ark., but before he could be reached there by a friend he had taken his departure. It is believed that he went form the Springs to New Orleans, where he took a boat for Cuba. He had often expressed a desire to visity this part of the country to intimate friends and it is thougth more than probably he was headed for Havana when he left the city.

Labels: Kansas City Kas, missing, New Orleans

February 24, 1908

SEARCH SEWERS

FOR JOHN FAYHEY

BELIEVING HIS BODY IS PROB-

ABLY HIDDEN THERE.

THE QUEST IS FRUITLESS

PARTY WALKS MILE THROUGH

A MAIN SEWER.

Wife of Missing Man Believes His Is

Still Alive -- She Thinks He

Has Been Injured and

Will Return.

Every manhole, every telephone cable conduit, every underground passageway, even the Walnut street sewer; every possible hiding place into which a body could be stowed, in the neighborhood of Twelfth and Main streets, was gone through yesterday by friends of John Fayhey, who disappeared from the knowledge of his fellow men three weeks ago. No trace of the body was found by the searchers. The search underground was as futile as the body hunt of previous Sundys through the outskirts of the city and in the trenches made by men in the water works department. Fayhey was last seen at 1 o'clock on the morning of February 1, with a party of drunken men, at the corner of Twelfth and Main streets. He was a foreman in the city water works department.

Jerry Ryan, engineer at the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company's plant at Twentieth and Walnut streets, was in charge of yesterday's explorations. Jerry is a brother of Police Sergeant Al Ryan and of Mrs. Fayhey. Others in the party were Patrick O'Conner and Tom Bryan, city firemen, and City Detectives Raftery and Halvey. Jerry Ryan, geared in hip rubber boots, entered every opening on Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Main and Walnut streets in the neighborhood of the spot where Fayhey was last seen. No trace of the body was found.

Then Ryan and O'Conner entered the Walnut street sewer at Thirteenth street and explored it south to where it empties into O. K. creek at Twenty-Second street. Ryan, who led the way, was provided with a safety lamp.

This lamp was carried to guard against sewer gas. It is a device imported from the coal mining district, and is valuable in that whenever it is carried into a cloud of sewer gas it is extinguished. O'Conner, who followed with a lantern, was enabled to tell, by watching Ryan and the safety light, where there was sewer gas ahead and to avoid walking into it with his lantern. Only one body of gas was met, but if the lantern had been carried into this an explosion would have resulted which probably would have killed both men. The detectivs and firemen walked along Walnut street and opened the manhole covers ahead of the two men who were walking in the sewer.

No trace of Fayhey's body or any other body was found in the sewer. Jerry Ryan said, when he came out:

"No body could lodge in that sewer. The water, although in no place over knee deep, runs with a very swift current, and would carry any body out into O K. creek. It was not necessary to explore the entire length of the sewer but I did that to make certain that Fayhey's body was not there."

When John Fayhey's wife was told last night at her home ot 1605 Olive street that the search through the sewer and the conduits had been fruitless, she only reiterated her former belief that her husband was still alive.

"I know his is not dead" she said. "I firmly believe that he has been hurt and will come home when he is able."

Police Seargeant Al Ryan, Mrs. Fayhey's brother, holds a different theory. He says:

"There is no doubt that Fayhey was killed, and that his body is concealed somewhere. We have searched Kansas City from center to circuference, above ground and under, but without result. We have telegraphed a description of Fayhey to every town down the river as far as St. Louis. I think that the men who made way with Fayhey were drunk and did not mean to kill him. I know, however, that they had an automobile with them and when they saw what they had done, they put the body into the car and took it away. Probably they threw it in the Missouri river.

"I know that Fayhey had no money to speak of on his person the night he disappeared and I believe that the men who were with him killed him in a drunken brawl without any reasonable motive. I expect that someone who knows all about the killing will come in one of these days and tell the story."

Labels: automobiles, Eleventh street, Main street, missing, Missouri river, Olive street, police, public works, Thirteenth street, Twelfth street, Twentieth street, Twenty-second street, Walnut Street