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

January 24, 1910

DEAD MAN'S HOARD

HIS LAST PILLOW.

FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS

IN SECURITIES IN CASHBOX

UNDER HIS HEAD.

Body of Oscar Schoen, Aged

70, Found Amid His

Savings.

With his head pillowed on a cash box containing $15,000 worth of negotiable securities, mostly government bonds and money orders, Oscar Schoen, a retired shoemaker, 70 years old, was found dead in bed in a squalid room at Missouri avenue and Main streets yesterday morning.

The old man's hand clutched a half emptied phial of morphine tablets while at his side lay a loaded 38-caliber revolver. One of the cartridges had been snapped but had failed to ignite.

Coroner Harry Czarlinsky, who was summoned, stated that death was due to morphine poisoning, whether taken as an overdose or with suicidal intent he was unable to state. He ordered the body taken to Freeman & Marshall's undertaking establishment.

MONEY ALSO IN ROOM.

Although Schoen had occupied the same room in which he was found for over two years, little or nothing was known about him by the owner of the rooming house. He was last seen alive on Thursday morning by Guy Holmes, the janitor of the premises. He told Holmes that he was feeling sick and that if it were not for the expense he would visit a doctor. He used to retire regularly at 6 o'clock every evening and rise at 8 in the morning, when he would go out and buy the daily papers, return and stay in his room. Rarely he made trips up to town.

Police headquarters was notified of the old man's death and Patrolman John P. McCauley, who was sent to investigate, made a further search of the room. Concealed behind an old stove in which Schoen had done his cooking was found $60 in bills and silver, and in an old carpetbag apparently discarded and thrown under the bed, the officer located several abstracts and deeds to Kansas City property in the vicinity of Thirty-first and Troost avenue, which are supposedly of considerable value.

WILL IN POCKETBOOK.

Schoen's last will and testament was also found in an old pocketbook. By its provisions all his property is bequeathed to relatives by the name of Goetz living in Kempsvile, Ill. Charles A. Schoen, a brother at Darlington, Ind., was named as executor. The police have telegraphed to all parties concerned.

One of the witnesses of the will was the manager of a local real estate firm, through whom Schoen had conducted his business. He stated that he know that the old man owned a great deal of property. Schoen at one time conducted a cobbler's shop at 2442 Broadway, but left there about four years ago, giving his reason for selling out and moving the fact that robberies were too common in that part of town.

Naturalization papers dated 1872 and taken out at Darlington, Ind., were found among Schoen's effects, together with several applications to different German provident associations.

Schoen had lived in Kansas City about twenty-two years. He has a sister, Mrs. Bertha H. Goetz, at Kempsville, Ill., and a niece, Mrs. Agnes Yak Shan, residing in Alaska.

Labels: Broadway, death, Dr Czarlinsky, immigrants, Main street, Missouri avenue, rooming house, Seniors, Suicide, undertakers

January 10, 1910

HOBOES RAID ROOMING HOUSE.

But Police Cut Short Their Rest; 17

in Jail.

Tired of loafing around on street corners, seventeen hoboes organized themselves Saturday night and made a raid on a rooming house at 427 Delaware street, taking possession of all the beds after driving the keeper and guests away. The police were notified and the gang taken into custody.

"We got to sleep in a bed once in a while to keep from forgetting how," declared one of the tramps at police headquarters. "But I reckon you've got some bunks here."

Labels: Delaware street, hoboes, police headquarters, rooming house

December 26, 1909

"BURGLAR" SAVED

AS POLICE COME.

Guest Mistaken by Roomers

for Robber, Imprisoned

in Guarded Closet.

"Come to 912 East Ninth street immediately," came a call late last night to police headquarters. "We've got a burglar locked in a closet."

The patrol wagon made a record run, but when it arrived only a crowd of badly frightened men and women roomers were found. There was no burglar.

"It was just one of the roomers," explained one of the crowd. "A man came out here tonight to visit a friend. He stepped out into the hall to look for a water cooler. The man had been drinking, and in his wandering through the dark halls stepped by mistake into a closet. A roomer, seeing the prowler, slipped up behind him and slammed the closet door."

The cry of "burglars" aroused the roomers. While the men rushed about in search of lodge swords and the women went for hat pins, one of the roomers stood guard with a revolver.

"Come out and I'll shoot," warned the guard in night robe, peering around his fortification, a chimney.

The prisoner took a drink. His courage restored, he shouted, "Help," thinking that he himself was the one being held up.

SOLID PHALANX.

The cohorts of the besiegers were now ranged in solid phalanx in front of the closet. There were all sort and manner of weapons. The men felt the edges of their lodge swords, and the women jabbed at supposed burglars, their forms outlined on the wall. The man with the revolver formed the advance line of attack. The rear was brought up by a boarder with a battle ax, used at a masquerade ball in the '60s.

"Help, burglars," came more audibly from the closet.

The friend in a nearby room was attracted by the noise. He came to the hall armed with a .44, not knowing that his guest was in trouble. He lined up behind the rear guard.

"Help, I'm suffocating," came another cry from the closet, this time more insistent and appealing.

GUARD CALLED OFF.

The roomer recognized the voice as that of his guest. The guard of nightie-clad roomers was called off. The guest with the jag was released.

A clanging of bells was heard in the front of the house. A squad of blue-coats came rushing in at the front door.

"Saved," cried the joyful man, emerging from his prison, mopping his brow.

"Stung," answered the chorus of nighties.

The police returned to headquarters empty-handed.

Labels: alcohol, guns, Ninth street, police, police headquarters, rooming house

November 28, 1909

WHILE IN FIT SHOT ROOMER?

Defense Planned for Mrs. Sadie

Geers, Charged With Murder.

Mrs. Sadie Geers, facing a charge of murder in the second degree, was bound over to the criminal court yesterday by Justice James B. Shoemaker. She was unable to furnish $5,000 bond and was returned to the county jail to remain until her case comes up for trial.

Mrs. Geers is held for the shooting which resulted in the death of Harry Bonnell, one of her roomers in a house at 509 East Sixth street, last Sunday afternoon. The defense will use the plea that the woman was subject to epileptic fits and that she shot Bonnell during one of them. The court appointed Jesse James to defend Mrs. Greer.

Labels: criminal court, jail, Jesse James Jr, Judge Shoemaker, murder, rooming house

November 22, 1909

WOUNDED MAN WON'T

TELL WHO SHOT HIM.

HARRY BONNELL MAY CARRY

HIS SECRET TO DEATH.

Revolver Found in Room of Former

Wild West Show Rider; Wom-

an May Prove an Impor-

tant Witness.

HARVEY BONNELL.

Lying on the floor in a dingy rooming house at 509 East Sixth street, with a bullet wound in his breast, Harvey Bonnell was found yesterday afternoon.

Although he knew that he was in a dangerous condition, Bonnell refused to tell how he received the wound. At the general hospital, where he was rushed in the police ambulance, he refused to talk to Norman Woodson, an assistant prosecuting attorney, who attempted to get a dying statement.

"I'm not going to tell how it happened," he declared. "Perhaps I'll die, but I'm not going to give anyone away."

He then turned over and then refused to utter another word.

When the police arrived at the scene Sadie Gear, proprietress of the rooming house, was seen going upstairs. She was agitated and declared that she was not in the room at the time. At police headquarters she maintained the story.

Sergeant Robert Smith sent several officers to the building, where everyone was questioned closely. Mrs. Gear was brought to the station with several roomers.

Patrolman Gurney Shaw, after a long search, found the pistol in a room on the third floor, which was occupied by Lee Rarick, formerly a rough rider with Miller Bros.' Wild West show.

ADMITS HEARING SHOT.

Though Rarick denied at first that he knew anything about the affair, he admitted that he heard a shot, and a few minutes later, Harry Gordon, one of the roomers, had brought the revolver to his room.

SADIE GEAR,
Considered an Important Witness by Police.

"I loaned it to Mrs. Gear a week ago," he said. "because I didn't want to keep it up here in my room. I'm sure I don't know who did it.

Gordon would make no statement to the police. Mrs. Gear was in a defiant mood when she faced Captain Whitsett. She asserted that she had frequently quarreled with Bonnell, who abused her.

"But I don't know a thing about the shooting today," she declared, "I got up for a moment and went out and then I heard the shooting. I went upstairs, and then they told me that Bonnell had been shot. Yes, that's the same revolver that was given me to keep by one of my roomers."

Captain Whitsett asserted last night that he expected the mystery would be cleared up quickly.

Labels: Captain Whitsett, general hospital, guns, rooming house, Wild West shows

September 24, 1909

CLEANING UP M'GEE STREET.

Eight Rooming Houses Must Move

by October 1.

Notice to move before the first of October was served by Lieutenant C. D. Stone of the Walnut street police station yesterday, to eight women now conducting rooming houses between Thirteenth and Fourteenth on McGee street.

The order is direct from the police commissioners and is a movement, Lieutenant Stone said last night, to clean up districts in the line of travel to the new Union station when it is erected.

Labels: McGee street, police board, rooming house, union station, Walnut street police station

September 21, 1909

STEEL CELLS FOR BABES;

SOFT BEDS FOR EVILDOERS.

"Oh, Please Don't Put Us in There,"

Pleaded Mother With Infant as

Police Thrust Her Into Dungeon.

A condition never before heard of at police headquarters in all of its history, existed there last night. Four women, keepers of public rooming houses, all had comfortable quarters in the matron's room. Down in the steel cell section of the women's department of the holdover, locked behind bars, were two worn women, each with a babe at her breast.

Both of the babies were ill and crying, but there was no room in the matron's comfortable room for women with babies in arms. Those who had the beds and slept beneath the sheets are women who today will be accused of harboring young girls in disorderly resorts.

Mrs. Nellie Ripetre, with a baby of 6 months old, was sent in about 9 o'clock p. m. for investigation. It has always been the custom in the past never to lock up a woman with a baby. If there was no room in the matron's room for the mother and the babe, room had to be made by putting someone down in the holdover. This negro woman lay on the concrete floor with her crying baby folded tightly to her bosom. The floor got too hard for the mother later on and she chose an iron bunk in one of the cells. There she lay all night. The windows were open and the place cold. Mother-like, however, she huddled her baby close to her, to keep it warm. Part of the time the child lay on top of its mother, covered only by her bare arms.

About 11 p. m. Mrs. Mattie Bell, with a 5-months-old child, was sent in from No. 2 station in the West Bottoms.. Her baby was puny, sickly and crying. The matron's room, however, was still filed with healthy, well-dressed rooming house keepers, so the mother and her sick child had to listen to the harsh turn of the key in a cell door.

"Please don't put me in that place," begged the mother. "It's cold down there and my baby is very sick."

"That's the best we've got," she was informed.

Mrs. Bell was booked for the Humane Society. She had been found wandering about in the streets with her baby. After she was locked up Mrs. Bell tried the concrete floor, and, like the other mother, had to creep to the steel slabbed bed in a cell. She complained to the jailer and the Emergency hospital was notified that there was a sick baby in the holdover.

In a short time a nurse and a doctor went to the cell room and relieved the distressed mother of her sickly burden. The little one was tenderly cared for during the balance of the night but the other mother -- she's colored -- her babe clasped tightly to her breast, spent a chilly night.

The four rooming housekeepers in the matron's room rested easily.

Labels: children, emergency hospital, jail, No 2 police station, police headquarters, police matron, race, rooming house

July 20, 1909

BABY BITTEN BY A RAT.

Infant, 3 Weeks Old, Attacked by

Animal in Cradle.

A 3-week-old baby, whose ear and hand had been torn by a rat, was taken to the emergency hospital yesterday by the child's mother, Mrs. Anna Holland, who has rooms at 914 East Eighth street. While Mrs. Holland was busy about the place yesterday she heard the infant crying and on going to the cradle saw a big rat jump out. The baby was covered with blood and its wounds are considered very serious. Mrs. Holland came to Kansas City two or three weeks ago from Wichita, Kas., and has been looking for employment. She has two other children.

Labels: animals, children, Eighth street, emergency hospital, rooming house, Wichita

July 5, 1909

ESCORTS RAN FROM

HOWARD'S REVOLVER.

BOTH LEFT THEIR COATS AT

THE AMBERSON HOME.

Alone, Clara Amberson and Her

Sister Fought a Losing Fight

With Murderer -- Girl Dies

After Four Hours.

ALFRED HOWARD.

Miss Clara Amberson, who was shot in the right temple by Alfred Howard, a rejected suitor, in the dining room of her home, 735 Kensington avenue, just before midnight Saturday, died at 4:20 a. m. yesterday. She did not regain consciousness.

In an unlighted room, and deserted by the young men who escorted them home, and who fled when Howard appeared with his revolver, Miss Amberson, assisted by her sister, Mrs. Mamie Barringer, battled in vain with Howard for possession of the weapon. Finally throwing Miss Amberson to the floor, Howard jumped on her, and then, as Mrs. Barringer seized him about the neck, he pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck Miss Amberson just back of the right temple and she collapsed. Believing that he had killed her, Howard turned the weapon on himself and sent the second shot through his own brain, and fell lifeless beside her. Surrounded by her mother, sister and friends, sthe wounded girl passed away four hours later.

In the light of subsequent events, it is believed that Howard contemplated the murder and suicide Saturday afternoon. It is known that he saw the young women at Forest park in the evening in company with young men, when he had been denied the privilege of escorting them or even calling at their home, and it is believed that the sight of the girl who was all the world to him, encircled in the arms of another man on the dancing floor, maddened him.

Four years ago Alfred Howard, then 22 years old, came to Kansas City from Iola, Kas. He secured a position in a railroad freight office, and roomed and boarded with Mrs. Anna Amberson, mother of the girl he killed. Miss Amberson was then a child of 13.

WANTED TO MARRY HER.

They were together a great deal. Howard assisted her with her studies, and when she was graduated from high school last year he declared his love for her, and asked her to be his wife. This was objected to by her sister and her mother because of her youth.

Six months ago Howard left their house, and shortly afterward went to Hot Springs, Ark. In the meantime Miss Amberson entered a wholesale millinery establishment and was rapidly perfecting herself in that line when he returned three weeks ago.

Howard had been in poor health since his return, but this did not deter him from declaring his ardent love for the girl whom, he told his friends, no other could replace. Miss Amberson found many excuses for not making engagements. Thursday he called her on the telephone and to his several requests for an evening she replied that she had previous engagements.

Saturday evening he called at the Amberson home and asked Miss Amberson to accompany him to a park or that she spend the evening with him as she chose. Miss Amerson smilingly told him that she had an engagement for the evening and that she was sorry. During the conversation he showed the sisters the revolver which he later used. No thought of violence crossed the minds of either girl.

SHADOWED TO FOREST PARK.

Miss Amberson and Mrs. Barringer were unaccompanied when they walked to Forest park, a short distance from their home. There they met several friends, among them Orville Remmick of 5212 Independence avenue, and Ed Doerefull of 4621 East Seventh street.

It is believed that Howard shadowed the sisters to the park. H e arrived at the Ambrose home shortly before 10 o'clock in the evening. The noise he made when he withdrew a screen from a window in the kitchen of the Amberson home and clambered in was heard by Mr. and Mrs. Joe Wharton, roomers on the second floor, but they ascribed it to a parrot. For almost two hours Howard lay in wait. He chose as his hiding place the bedroom of the sisters, which opens from the dining room to the north.

On their way home, Deorfull, who escorted Miss Amberson, and Remmick, who escorted Mrs. Barringer, suggested that they eat some ice cream. They stopped at the Forest Park pharmacy and chatted for a few moments with O. Chaney, the druggist.

RAN FROM REVOLVER.

It was warm and the young men carried their coats over their arms. When they arrived at the Amberson home, they conversed for a few moments on the porch just outside the dining room, when the suggestion that they get a drink of water was made. the quartet entered the dining room. Miss Amberson and Doerfull going to one window seat while Mr. Remmick took a chair. Mrs. Barringer went into the kitchen for the water, when suddenly Howard sprang out of the bedroom.

Holding a revolver which he pointed at Miss Amberson, he cried:

"Throw up your hands and don't scream!"

"It's Alf! Help!" cried Miss Amberson.

Doerfull was first to see the revolver and the first to get out of the room. He was closely followed by Remmick. Both left their coats and hats. The cry for help brought Mrs. Barringer back to the room. By this time Miss Amberson had grappled with Howard and had clutched the revolver. Then began the battle for possession of the weapon and the shooting.

HAD PLANNED THE CRIME.

Screaming for help, Mrs. Barringer, after the shooting, fled to the sidewalk. Neighbors hastened to the scene. Doctors declared Miss Amberson fatally wounded, and said that Howard's self-inflicted wound had caused instant death.

The police who searched his clothing found the note which he had evidently written some time during the evening in which he declared that "Mamie" (Mrs. Barringer) was the cause of the anticipated double tragedy, and asked that Miss Clara and he be buried side by side.

ESCORTS DIDN'T WAIT.

Ed Doerfull, the escort of Miss Amberson, told a reporter for The Journal last evening that he had never been frightened as badly in his life as he was when he looked at that shiny steel barrel and heard the command to throw up his hands.

"I didn't wait to learn any more about who the fellow with the revolver was," said Mr. Doerfull. "Mr. Remmick and I had escorted the girls home and stepped inside the house to get a drink of water. I was close to the door and when I heard the command to throw up my hands and I saw that shiny steel barrel of the revolver, I concluded that I had better play checkers and move.

"I did not stop to grab my coat or hat, but ran. I don't know how I got home, for I was badly frightened. I lay awake all night and got up around 6 o'clock and went over to Remmick's house to see if he got home all right.

"I did not know until then that anyone had been shot, as I was too far away from the house when the shots were fired to hear the noise of the reports.

"I don't know why I ran away and did not notify the police about the man with the gun, but I guess most anybody would act the same as I did if they looked into the business end of a revolver and were ordered to throw up their hands.

GOT THEIR COATS SUNDAY.

"I got my coat and hat this morning at the same time Mr. Remmick got his. We saw Miss Amberson's body then and we will probably go to the funeral together.

"I did not know the young lady very well, having only met her a few times at the park. I did not go back to the house today, as I had an engagement to go to a picnic at Swope park, and it was too late when I got back this evening."

Orville Remmick, who was with Doerfull when Howard entered the room with the revolver in hand, told his parents that he was taken by surprise, and that when he heard the command to throw up his hands and he saw the revolver, his first thought was for his personal safety. He said that he ran for the door and ran home.

REMMICK HEARD REPORTS.

Half a block away he heard the muffled reports, and when he got home he telephoned to the Amberson home and learned of the double tragedy. He feared for a while, he said, that his companion, Doerfull, had been shot. Remmick left his coat and hat at the Amberson home and called for them yesterday morning. He spent yesterday afternoon at Forest park and yesterday evening at Electrick park.

Miss Amberson was 17 years old. She was the youngest of three children. Besides her sister, Mrs. Barringer, and her mother, she leaves a brother, Will, who is in the navy. An effort was being made yesterday to notify him by wire and hold the funeral until his arrival, if possible. The Ambersons came to Kansas City from Salida, Col., six years ago.

Howard had been rooming for the last two weeks at the home of Mrs. Ellen Harper, at No. 801 Cypress avenue, just a block from the Amberson home. That he planned the murder and suicide is believed by Mrs. Harper, as his trunk was locked and contained all of the small articles which he kept about his room.

Labels: Cypress avenue, dancing, druggists, Electric park, forest park, guns, Kensington, murder, rooming house, Suicide, Swope park

May 15, 1909

FOUR ITALIANS SENT

TO THE WORKHOUSE.

BELIEVE THEY ARE BLACK

HAND SOCIETY MEMBERS.

Two Were Fined $1,000 and Two

$500 -- Any Attempt to Secure

Their Release Will Be

Fought.

Four Italians who were arrested by Detectives J. L. Ghent and "Lum" Wilson in a rooming house at 503 East Third street, and who are suspected by the police of belonging to the Black Hand society, were fined yesterday morning in the municipal court for vagrancy, and in default of payment of the fines were sent to the workhouse. Vincenzo Domenico and Frank Bruno were fined $1,000 each on two charges, while Francesco Amelo and Maro Choapa, the other members of the gang, were fined $500 each.

Ever since Italian business men received threatening letters demanding money a few weeks ago the detectives have been investigating the matter. Domenico and Bruno first excited suspicion, and after watching for several days, the detectives decided to bring them to police headquarters. When searched, both were found to be armed with revolvers. The other two Italians were arrested, and when their room, on Third street, was entered, where all had been living, several revolvers and shotguns were found.

In court yesterday morning, none of the prisoners professed knowledge of the English language. The court failed to establish that any of the men had been the authors of the threatening letters.

The police will fight any attempt to get them out of the workhouse as they regard them as dangerous characters and while it was not proved that they were actually members of the dread Italian society it is thought that they know more than they care to tell.

Labels: black hand, detectives, guns, immigrants, police court, police headquarters, rooming house, Third street, vagrancy, workhouse

May 8, 1909

LOVER MADE HER SEE STARS.

But When Bertha Marlowe "Came

To" She Still Was For Him.

Unconscious and bleeding from a deep wound in her face, Bertha Marlowe, 19 years old, was found in a rooming house at 210 1/2 Independence avenue last night. When she was revived at the emergency hospital she told the police that she had been attacked by her lover w ho, she asserted, deserted from the army. The girl, who is a laundry worker, told an amazing story of woman fidelity.

She says she came to Kansas City several weeks ago after her sweet-heart had left the army. Her home is in Courtney, Mo., but she gave her parents no intimation of her plans, save that she intended to go to work here.

Since joining the man she ways she has given him money that she has earned in the laundry; money that she received from home, as well as going to police headquarters and baling him out when he was arrested a week ago.

Last night she says he was drinking. She sought him and found him. As a reward he battered her on the face with a beer bottle and other ways mistreated her.

With her face puffed up almost beyond recognition, the ugly cut marring what is not an unpretty face, and reciting the story of mistreatment and imposition, Lieutenant Al Ryan asked her if she would prosecute her sweetheart in the event of his capture.

"Yes, I'll prosecute," said the girl.

There was a moment's pause. "No, I'll take that back. I guess I won't prosecute! I still love him!"

Whereat Dr. Dr. Fred B. Kyger applied some more arniea to the face wound and told the young woman to lie down.

Labels: doctors, domestic violence, emergency hospital, Independence avenue, military, rooming house

May 6, 1909

FOUND DEAD IN BATHTUB.

Charles Butler's Body Submerged,

and Hot Water Running.

Charles Butler, 35 years old, was found dead in a bathtub at his rooming house, 1520 Cherry street, last night about 6:30 o'clock. Butler was employed in a pool hall at Fifteenth and Cherry streets, but had formerly been a boilermaker, a prize fighter and a trapeze performer.

J. D. Locke, also a roomer, found the body. He was attracted to the bathroom by the smell of burning wood, burst in the door and found the body of Butler covered with water and in the tub, curled up as though asleep. Hot water from the gas heater was still running and had almost filled the tub. The smell of burning wood came from the wall at the side of the heater, which had become scorched.

Butler was troubled with an affliction of the heart. Death may have been due to this cause.

A letter dated September 25, 1907, was found in his pockets. It was addressed to "My Husband" and signed Myrtle Butler, his wife, to whom he had been married three years previously. Six months ago they separated. Last month she married a man named Harry Thompson and moved away from the city. Butler was seen frequently in the company of a young woman, and two days ago told his landlady that he was about to be married.

Dr. Harry Czarlinsky vivewed the body, but will make a further examination. A brother lives in this city.

Labels: billiards, Cherry street, death, Dr Czarlinsky, Fifteenth street, rooming house

April 18, 1909

OLD SOLDIER SAVES

LIFE OF A WOMAN.

KNOCKED DOWN MAN WHO

STABBED MRS. ETHEL GRAY.

George Ripley, in Mad Fit, Was

Using Knife on Keeper of Room-

ing House When Charles

Hendrickson Interfered.

The strong right arm of Charles Hendrickson, 68 years old and a member of Fighting Joe Hooker's command during the civil war, saved the life of Mrs. Ethel Gray, 25 years old, last night at 9 o'clock. Hendrickson knocked down George Ripley, an admirer of Mrs. Gray's, after he had stabbed her in the back with a dirk.

Mrs. Gray, whose husband is out of town, bought a building at 215 East Fourteenth street last week and opened it as a rooming house for men only. Hendrickson, who is a carpenter, and W. T. Huddleston, a druggist, were among the roomers.

"I have known George Ripley only a week," she said at the general hospital last night. "He made my acquaintance in a restaurant and walked home with me. He called two or three times but never made love to me until last night. When he came into the room I saw that he had been drinking and it was not long before he began making love to me in the presence of Mr. Hendrickson. I am a married woman and, of course, I paid no attention to him. Then he got angry and struck me."

Hendrickson caught the man's arm after he had landed several blows on Mrs. Gray's face. Huddleston heard the noise and came to the old soldier's assistance. Between them they quieted the man and locked him in a rear room, while Mrs. Gray ran to the drug store of Adolph Lahme at Fourteenth street and Grand avenue and telephoned the Walnut street police station for an officer.

While she was away Ripley escaped from the house by opening a window, but Hendrickson and Huddleston almost immediately discovered his absence and went to the front door to prevent him from waylaying their landlady on her return. Ripley sprang out of the alley between Grand avenue and McGee streets and Huddleston attempted to prevent him from reaching Mrs. Gray.

"This isn't your butt-in," said Ripley. Huddleston gave way and Ripley ran after Mrs. Gray. At her own doorstep he caught her and stabbed her once in the back. Then the old soldier, who was standing on the steps, stepped down and struck the would-be assassin in the face. Ripley was knocked down, but arose and rushed at the woman again. Hendrickson struck again and knocked the knife out of his hand. Then Ripley fled.

The ambulance from the Walnut street police station was called and Dr. H. A. Hamilton dressed the cut, which was in the middle of the back. The knife penetrated to the vertebra. While the physician was at work the woman told the story to officers J. S. Scott and E. M. Wallace and furnished them with a description and a picture of her assailant. Later she was removed to the general hospital, where it was said that she would recover. Ripley has not been arrested. He is about 25 years old and rooms at 1322 Wyandotte street.

Labels: Civil War, druggists, Fourteenth street, general hospital, Grand avenue, rooming house, Seniors, telephone, veterans, violence, Wyandotte street

April 13, 1909

GREEK HAS AWAKENED

ONLY ONCE IN 35 DAYS.

LONG-DISTANCE SLEEPER PUZ-

ZLES HOSPITAL PHYSICIANS.

With Organs of Body Apparently in

Normal Condition, Every Ef-

fort to Arouse Carolmas

Has Failed.

GEORGE CAROLMAS, THE SOUND SLEEPER OF

THE GENERAL HOSPITAL.

Lying on a cot in the insane ward at the general hospital, George Carolmas, a subject of the king of Greece, has for thirty-five days been asleep without interruption except for one day last week. Before being removed from his rooming house, 15 West Fifth street, on March 12, he ha slept for four days.

Carolmas came to America from his home in Athens, about eight months ago. He worked on the railroad as a track layer after arriving in Missouri. Like most of the thrifty foreigners, Carolmas saved most of his wages and horded it for the proverbial rainy day. In some way which has not been satisfactorily explained he lost his little savings and brooded over his misfortune.

The Greeks who knew him were aware that Carolmas was brooding over his loss, but little attention was paid until March 8. That morning Carolmas failed to get up and go to work. His landlord knocked on the door of his room several times during the day to awaken him, but failed to receive any response. In the afternoon he entered the room and discovered that his roomer was sound asleep and that speaking to him or shaking him would not waken him. Becoming frightened the Greek landlord summoned Dr. George Ringel of the emergency hospital.

CONSCIOUS BUT ASLEEP.

Four days later Carolmas was sent to the general hospital for treatment. He was examined carefully by the staff at the general hospital and found to be conscious but asleep. As far as the physicians have been able to discover every organ in the patient's body is normal. His breathing is regular and his heart action is apparently good.

Food is given to the patient five or six times each day. Part of the time the nurses furnish him with nourishment by pouring a small quantity of broth or milk in his mouth and allowing him to swollow it naturally. At other times the patient does not swallow and a stomach pump is brought into use. His nourishment consists mainly of milk and eggs. Very little nourishment is necessary.

When taken to the hospital the Greek patient weighted about 170 pounds., but since then he has lost about ten pounds. He is evidently about 35 years old. On last Thursday Carolmas woke up, and from all appearances was over his sleeping spell. He walked around the corridors of his ward and the specialists believed he was recovering. However, he became tired after being awake for thirty hours, and went back to sleep.

While he was awake last week Carolmas gave evidence of being hysterical. He followed "Pete," the man in charge of the ward, around and continually kowtowed to him. He would get down on his knees and kiss the attendant's shoes. Then he spent a great deal of time in prayer, which would be followed by a spell of crying. If the physicians or attendants atteempted to talk to him, he would break down and weep.

EVEN BATH DOESN'T WAKE HIM.

The treatment being given to him is the best afforded by the hospital. Every day he is given a hot water bath, then an attendant gives him a thorough massage. Treatment with electricity is not possible as the hospital is not equipped for it. What the hospital physicians are endeavoring to do is to build up the man's nervous centers, but about all they can do with him is give him food and a tonic.

From examinations by the best specialists in the city it is believed that Carolmas is suffering from a shattering of the nervous centers. His condition is scientifically termed as stuperous melancholia. It could result from narcolepsy, kidney disease, softening of the brain or from the sleeping sickness common in Africa. A tumor on the brain might also cause such a condition.

As a tumor could be diagnosed and the physicians have failed to find any signs of one in the case of the Greek, that cause has been eliminated. They have also decided that he is not suffering from narcolepsy. On account of his hysteria while awake last week, and the meager information or history of his health before arriving at the general hospital, the physicians are positive that his nervous condition is responsible.

People of Carolmas's nationality are high strung and subject to nervous diseases. If crossed or thrown into any excitement the Greek people are said to go off on a tangent and become nervous wrecks.

HAPPENED HERE BEFORE.

More than two years ago a man was picked up on the street who was believed by pedestrians to be unconscious. He was removed to the general hospital, where it was found that he was really asleep. He continued sleeping for 42 days, being sustained that long by forced feeding, and then died.

Dr. St. Elmo Sanders, former city physician, said yesterday that whenever a patient suffering from a continuous sleep had to be nourished by force chances of recovery were not good.

The man found on the streets two years ago finally slept so profoundly that if he was placed in a chair he would not move a muscle. His legs could be bent and the patient would not move them.

Dr. John Puntin, a specialist of nervous diseases, said that he had had a great many patients who slept for long periods. Most of them, however, would have short intervals of wakefulness. The disease is not necessarily fatal, he said. The physicians who have examined Carolmas believe he will recover, but will not say how much longer he might sleep. All of the physicians and specialists in Kansas City are greatly interested in the case.

Labels: doctors, emergency hospital, Fifth street, general hospital, immigrants, laborer, rooming house

April 8, 1909

ROUNDUP OF VAMPIRES

IN POLICE DISTRICT 4

TWENTY-SIX WELL DRESSED

VAGRANTS IN DRAGNET.

"Undesirables," Who for So Long

Have Defied Police, Find Their

Protectors Without Power

to Aid Them Longer.

Acting under express orders from the new board of police commissioners, Captain Thomas P. Flahive's men began yesterday to round up a gang of well dressed vagrants who for years have fattened in district No. 4 on the shame of 500 fallen women.

By midnight twenty-six male vampires were under arrest, and scores of other human vampires had fled from the scene of their long connection with the white slave traffic.

These hold degenerates, who aforetime flaunted their misdeeds in the faces of the patrolmen, and dared them to act, found yesterday that their pulls had vanished and that all crooks look alike to the police.

WOMEN GIVE BOND FOR MEN.

Also caught in the same net, which seined Kansas City from Twelfth to Nineteenth streets and from Locust to Wyandotte streets, were three of the women who supported these same well dressed vagrants.

So quickly did news of the crusade spread among the parasites that the officers who constituted the dragnet had to work quickly and silently. Four of those caught were found with suitcases packed, ready to leave the city. Captain Flahive believes that an exodus of vagrants has taken place. Twenty-four does not complete the count of those men known to the police, those men who live from the wages of unfortunate women. But in spite of the close search last night no more vagrants could be found.

Strangely enough the women seemed not to appreciate the work done by the police in delivering them from bondage, or perhaps it was fear. At any rate it was the woman, in most cases, who paid the $26 cash bond which liberated the arrested vagrant. All yesterday the telephone in the Walnut street police station was busy, and at the other end of the line was a woman who wanted to know if the particular vagrant whom she supported was arrested. Upon being in formed that such a person was under arrest, the woman, or her messenger, speedily appeared at the station with the necessary $26 in cash, and the vagrant was released on condition of his appearance in police court this morning.

Once liberated, all trace of the vagrant was lost and the district south of Twelfth street was as clean a district on the streets as any portion of the city.

IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT.

One other order given to the police captain by the board was to keep the scarlet woman off the streets at night. This order was obeyed to the letter last night, and the only three who fared forth were promptly arrested. Formerly it would have been impossible to have walked any block of that district after dark without being accosted. Usually he would have been met by groups of women, but it was different last night.

In No. 4 district, it is claimed, there are eighty-nine of the class of rooming houses referred to by the police commissioners in their orders to Captain Flahive yesterday and who are paying a monthly fine to the city. There are also hotels and rooming houses by the score which pay no fine and have been overlooked by the police entirely.

In order that Captain Flahive may make sure work of his cleaning up of the district, the commissioners have given him the pick of the men on the department, and have given him permission to use extra men. This morning the captain will confer with Chief Frank Snow and pick the men who are to fill the places in the cleanup.

At present the district over which Captain Flahive has control is lacking policemen. Several officers are forced to patrol more than one beat, which is a handicap when it comes to competent police protection.

Concerning the work, Captain Flahive said last night:

"I am going to clean this district. Within two weeks there will be no more well dressed vagrants loitering around the saloons and rooming houses. This order from the commissioners is one for which I have long waited."

"Why hasn't this cleanup taken place before?" the captain was asked. Surely other commissioners knew that these conditions existed here."

NOTORIOUS MEN CAUGHT.

"I have never been ordered to do so before," he replied. "But I do not wish to say anything about that. It is all dead, and I am going to carry out my orders now to the letter. This work is not a spurt, but it will be kept up, and this district will not know the well dressed vagrant after we have finished with them."

Among those vagrants who have been caught by the police are notorious men of the district, ringleaders in every kind of offense against decency. Many have been arrested before, but nothing ever came of the arrests. So bold did these vagrants become that they flaunted their misdeeds in the faces of the patrolmen, and then dared them to exercise the right of an officer.

The same tactics were tried yesterday, but without success. This time the patrolmen did not fear the loss of their stars for doing their duty.

The officers who made the arrests of vagrants yesterday are Sergeant Henry Goode and Patrolmen Mike Gleason and George Brooks.

Labels: Captain Flahive, No 4 police station, Police Chief Snow, rooming house, telephone, Twelfth street, vagrancy, Walnut street police station, women

February 14, 1909

POLITEO'S EX-WIFE

IN SPOTLIGHT AGAIN.

THIS TIME SHE HAS BEEN EN-

JOINED FROM SELLING LIQUOR.

Eva Springsteen Fair Caught in Of-

ficial Round-Up at Bartles-

ville, Ok. -- Her

Varied Career.

Eva Springsteen Fair, the woman who bewitched a Croatian priest of Kansas City, Kas., into marriage eight years ago, has again burst into the light of notoriety at Bartlesville, Ok., her present field. Among nine other holders of licenses she has been enjoined from selling liquor. She is now said to be the wife of a Bartlesville liveryman. Of the twenty-eight places where intoxicants are sold, twenty-two are listed for injunction.

Mrs. Fair, as she prefers to be known professionally, has left a wake of witchery wherever she has gone, but she served her piece de resistance when she inveigled Father Antony Politeo away from his priestly vows and his parish of simple Croatians to St. Joseph, where they were married November 19, 1901. Upon their return to Kansas City she is said to have left him at the Union depot and refused to live with him. Politeo, be it said, was straightway unfrocked and his wife obtained a divorce at Independence in the early part of 1907 on the grounds of abandonment and neglect. Soon after her divorce she went to Bartesville, where she has been living since.

MADE GOOD START, ANYHOW.

Many have been the vicissitudes of Mrs. Fair. As Eva Springsteen she was born in Manhattan, Kas., but later was taken by her parents to Atchison. There she was educated and received a diploma from the local high school. With other girl graduates, clad in commencement white, she sat demurely and listened with kindling ambition to the baccalaureate sermon, wherein the homilist shouted to them in his climax that "beyond the Alps lies Italy." Her intentions were no doubt good at first, but, figuratively, she tired of the irksome Alpine climb and strayed down into into the pleasant field of France an on to its gay capital, tarrying not far from the Moulin Rouge. After graduation she edited for a while the society page of an Atchison paper. She also waited behind a depot lunch counter in that city. On coming to Kansas city, she took the name of Mrs. Eva M. Fair. Here it was that she met Politeo on the street. She dropped her handkerchief. The priest picked it up and returned it to her with a bow. Smiles were exchanged and there was a stroll.

POLITEO'S ROMANTIC CAREER.

Politeo was a man of undoubted intellectual attainments. He gave inconsistent accounts of himself, however, and among other distinctions claimed acquaintance with Gabriel d'Annunzio and Sienkiewicz, the author of "Quo Vadis." By reason of his heterodox opinions, political and religious, he was banished from Austria and the church and went to Italy. Later he became reconciled with the church and his political heresies were pardoned by Emperor Francis Joseph. Then he was sent to America to take religious charge of his people in the coal fields of Pennsylvania. After that he came West and organized the Croatians who worked in packingtown into a parish. Thus as shepherd of his trustful flock he administered to their spiritual wants until the fair charmer tripped his path. Then began his undoing.

SHE MARRIED FOR MONEY.

Mrs. Fair and her lawyer cheerfully admitted that she had married the priest for his money. She claimed, however, she did not know of his churchly office until after their marriage at St. Joseph and that he wanted her to live with him as his housekeeper. This, she said, she refused to do. Five years later she got a divorce.

In the meantime she formed a sort of partnership with one George W. Robinson and together they kept a rooming house at 312-314 East Thirteenth street, this city. Soon she claims her partner became delinquent. She sued for dissolution of the partnership and the payment of what money was due her. At any rate Robinson, who was said to be a grain broker, dropped out of her life, and she kept pretty well out of the limelight until she began suit for divorce from Politeo.

Labels: alcohol, Croatians, Divorce, immigrants, Kansas City Kas, ministers, oklahoma, rooming house, Thirteenth street, women

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

September 14, 1908

"I'LL KILL MYSELF," SAID HE.

But James N. Allen's Fellow Work-

men Laughed -- He Is Found Dead.

For three years James N. Allen had worked as a dishwasher at the Manhattan restaurant. Saturday night he packed up all of his clothes at the restaurant and bid his fellow workers goodby. He informed them that he would commit suicide that night. Believing that Allen was joking, the men suggested various methods of suicide and jested with him until he left the place.

Going to the Henry house, on Walnut street near Fifth, where he roomed, Allen passed through the office, went to his room and locked the door. Then he sat down and wrote a note to his only friend, Sam Grassberger, a cook at the Manhattan restaurant, 420 West Ninth street. The note said: "I am going to end it all by killing myself. God bless you."

Before going to his room, he had purchased a bottle of morphine and the supposition is that he took the contents before going to bed. A maid found his door locked at 10 o'clock yesterday morning and the manager broke it down and found Allen dead.

Labels: Fifth street, narcotics, Ninth street, restaurants, rooming house, Suicide, Walnut Street

August 20, 1908

ROOMING HOUSES

ARE CLOSED.

Undesirable Element on Grand Ave-

nue Has Been Driven Out.

Fourteen tabooed rooming houses on Grand avenue between Twelfth and Sixteenth streets, have been closed by the police. Along with the women, of whom there were fifty or sixty, a great many loafers and crooks who lived in these rooming houses have left the district, and now the street is comparatively free from loitering women at night.

Labels: crime, Grand avenue, rooming house, Sixteenth street, Twelfth street

July 13, 1908

FRIGHTENED TO DEATH

BY DOPE FIEND'S CRIES.

Mrs. Jennie Elmer Was Ill From

Heart Disease in Rooming House

With the Crazed Woman.

When Rosie O'Grady went on a wild rampage last night at 8:45 o'clock she only intended to throw a man named Thomas Miller out of the house but her actions were so violent and terrorising that she literally frightened Mrs. Jennie Elmer to death.

The O'Grady woman was drunk and insane from the use of morphine. She quarreled with Thomas Miler, on the third floor of the rooming house at 501 Walnut street, which is conducted by Mrs. Belle Wilson. Miller ran out of the room and started down the stairs to the second floor. He was urged to greater haste by flower pots and cooking utensils hurled at his head by the hysterical O'Grady woman. She was using profane language and yelling murder at the top of her voice. Mrs. Jennie Elmer was lying in a bed in the rear room on the third floor suffering from heart trouble. She became greatly excited and asked George Conine, a roomer in the house, to call a policeman.

The landlady entered her room to quiet her and said she would call an officer. She went down to the street and summoned Patrolman A. L. Boyd, who went into the house and arrested the O'Grady woman. He was told Mrs. Elmer very low from the shock and excitement. As the policeman was leaving the building with the woman, Mrs. Elmer sank back on the pillows and gasped for breath. Dr. W. L. Gist of the emergency hospital was called by Conine, but the woman was dead when he reached the house. He said Mrs. Elmer had died of heart disease, caused by the fright she had received during the quarrel in the hall just outside of her door.

The police placed Rosie O'Grady, who is about 40 years old, in a cell in the women's department of the holdover. She succeeded in collecting a crowd of curious people around the station by her maniacal cries. She was not told that she had caused the death of the Elmer woman. Mrs. Elmer has a brother living in Leavenworth, Will Darling, formerly proprietor of the Delmonico hotel. A married sister lives in Chicago. Only her first name, Josie, and her husband's name, Lee, are known to the occupants of the rooming house. Their address is 1270 Polk street. The coroner was notified of Mrs. Elmer's death and took charge of the body.

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, death, narcotics, police, rooming house, violence, Walnut Street

July 6, 1908

"COCAINE MARY" IS DEAD.

Picturesque North End Character

Falls From Second Story Widow.

Minnie Palmer, who was better known to the residents of the North end as "Cocaine Mary," died at the general hospital at 5:30 o'clock last night from concussion of the brain, received by falling from a second story window to the pavement twenty feet below, shortly after 1 o'clock Sunday morning. She was seen about 1 o'clock sitting on the window ledge, and told a woman who lived in the house that she was trying to get a little fresh air before going to bed. It is thought she went to sleep and lost her her balance.

The woman was found at 5 o'clock Sunday morning by Philip J. Welch, night jailer at police headquarters. He called an ambulance and had her taken to the emergency hospital. Later she was removed to the general hospital, where an operation was performed in an effort to relieve the pressure of bone against the brain. Minnie Palmer lived at the rooming house on the southwest corner of Third and Main street

Labels: accident, death, emergency hospital, general hospital, Main street, narcotics, North end, rooming house, Third street, women

February 25, 1908

DEATH DEEPENS MYSTERY.

P. A. M'Millan, Blind, Was Shot in

Rooming House.

P. A. McMillan, a blind man, who was found in the stairway of a rooming house at 601 Delaware street the night of January 16, suffering from two bullet wounds, died last Sunday night at the general hospital. McMillan was shot through the neck and chest. An autopsy yesterday morning deeloped that it was the neck wound that caused the man's death.

Although McMillan was shot more than a month ago, the police have been unable to uncover the mystery of the strange tragedy. Stella Arwood, keeper of the rooming house, was arrested the day following the shooting, and a charge of felonious assault was made against her. She is now out on $1,200 bail.

There were no witnesses to the shooting, as far as the police know, and the officers admit taht definite evidence against the woman is lacking McMillan was able to tell the police that someone whom he did not know led him into the stairway.

Labels: Delaware street, general hospital, rooming house, visual impairment, women

January 30, 1908

MORE MEN ARE VACCINATED.

Health Officers Caught 157 in North

End Rooming Houses.

An impromptu vaccinating expedition was organized at the office of the board of health last night. Drs. H. A. Lane and George Dagg, Harry Heaton, a druggist; Victor Ringolsky, an inspector; and Charles H. Cook, chief clerk at the board of health, constituted the raiders.

The marauders paid their first visit to the Helping Hand annex at 308 Main street, where ninety-two men were cornered and successfully vaccinated. From there they made a rapid flank movement and succeeded in corralling sixty-five more "suspects" in 301 Main street. Patrolman Peter Campbell went along in blue and brass to represent the majesty of the law. One suspicious case was found at 308 Main street. The man is now isolated in the detention room at the emergency hospital until his case can be investigated.

Last Saturday night over 350 men were vaccinated in the North End rooming houses. It is the intention of Dr. Sanders to keep up this gait until every man in that section of the city has been rendered immune -- as far as possible. Few objected last night, and a poke in the ribs by Campbell helped them to make up their minds.

Labels: board of health, doctors, druggists, health, Helping Hand, Main street, North end, police, rooming house, smallpox

January 18, 1907

HE SAYS A WOMAN SHOT HIM.

Blind man May Not Recover From

His Wounds.

T. A. McMillen, the blind man who was found in a stairway at 601 Delaware street late Thursday night bleeding from a bullet hole in his neck and another in his chest, lies at the emergency hospital in critical condition. He insists that he was shot by a woman as he ascended that stairway. Stella Arwood, a woman who runs a rooming house at 601 Delaware,who was arrested soon after McMillen was taken from the hallway, was arraigned late yesterday afternoon before Justice Shepard on a charge of assault with intent to kill. Her plea was not guilty and she was released on a bond of $1,200 to appear in the same court next Wednesday for a preliminary hearing. The shooting still remains a mysterdy to the police. McMillen is said to have been seen in a saloon in company of an unknown man shortly before he was shot.

James Gibson and William Bulger of 1031 Cherry street, who formerly lived in Harrison county, where they knew McMillen, saw in The Journal yesterday an account of his accident, and called on him at the emergency hospital. From them it was learned that the blind man had been married twice. His first wife is dead, but a son, Albert McMillen, now lives in Gentryville, Mo. . Ten years ago he married Miss Jennie Strong in Harrison county, but they soon separated. They had a son, Winford, now 9 years old, who is with his mother in Washington, where she is married to a railroad engineer named Crosby. George Strong, a brother-in-law of McMillen, used to live at 341 Haskell avenue, Kansas City, Kas. McMillen, has been blind about five years. He was formerly a painter, but since he lost his eyesight he has been a book canvasser.

If McMillen does not die from his injuries he may become paralyzed in part of his upper extremities.

Labels: Cherry street, Delaware street, Judges, rooming house, The Journal, violence, visual impairment

January 6, 1908

MANY HORSES

DIE IN FLAMES

FORTY-TWO PERISH WHEN WY-

ANDOTTE LIVERY BURNS.

Two Heroes Carry Crippled Woman

From Blazing Rooming House.

Three Buildings Destroyed.

Loss $40,000.

Forty-two head of horses, most of which were roadsters owned by business and professional men, perished in a fire that destroyed the Jockey Club livery and boarding stables at 446 Minnesota avenue, Kansas City, Kas., last night shortly after 8 o'clock. A number of the animals were family buggy horses and were boarded at the stable by the owners. In addition to the livery stable loss, the hardware establishment of F. & F. Horseman, at 905 and 907 North Fifth street, and the tin shop of Cashman & Beard, at 909 North Fifth street, were burned. These buildings, which were small frame structures, were reduced to ashes and the contents totally destroyed. The aggregate loss caused by the conflagration is estimated at about $40,000, a small percentage of which is covered by insurance.

Not the least thrilling incident during the fire was the daring rescue of Mrs. Eliza Johnson, a crippled woman, from her room on the second floor of E. M. La Veine's rooming house at 901 North Fifth street. Mrs. Johnson, both of whose legs were amputated some years ago, was left helpless in her room when the smoke from the blaze next door filled the house. La Veine's house was ablaze when Patrolman Edward Fraker and Fireman Charles Abram found their way up the back stairs and carried her through the smoke and flames to a rear window and down a ladder. Mrs. Lottie Hartley, who had previously escaped from the same building, fainted when she saw the rescuers enter the building to save Mrs. Johnson.

ONLY NINE HORSES SAVED.

The fire was discovered by James McGuire, a stable hand, who noticed smoke issuing form the basement of the barn where a number of the horses were kept. He gave the alarm to several other employes of the stable who were sitting in the office, and before an investigation could be made flames commenced to shoot through the first floor of the building from the basement. An alarm was turned into fire headquarters, and while the stable is only a block from the city hall the flames had gained considerable headway before the first stream of water was turned on. he firemen did rapid work, but the water pressure was so weak that little could be done to check the fire until the steamers were brought into play.

As near as could be estimated last night by Emmett W. Uhrich, proprietor of the stable, there were fifty-one horses in the barn at the time the fire broke out. Thirty-seven of these were in stalls on the second floor of the barn and the remaining fourteen were in the basement. Immediate attention was given to the imprisoned animals, but the smoke and fire had maddened them and it was almost impossible to get them out of their stalls. Many were released from their halters and started out of the barn, but in their frightened condition they would invariably rush back into their stalls. Of the total number in the barn only nine were rescued.

The fire spread rapidly and when the hay was reached the flames burst forth as if fed by oil. He hardware store and tin shop, which adjoined the barn on Fifth street, were soon in flames and, as the buildings were old frame structures, they burned like kindling. At one time a large number of business houses in the vicinity of Fifth street and Minnesota avenue were endangered.

KEGS OF POWDER EXPLODED.

While the fire was at its height and the firemen fighting desperately to get control of it thousands of cartridges began exploding in the ruins of the hardware store. Two or three kegs of powder also exploded. This made the work of the firemen hazardous, but they stuck to their posts of duty.

It is said the fire started in the northwest corner of the basement among the hay bales there. Probably it was spontaneous combustion, as some of the bales were wet when put into storage a few days ago, and the barn is heated by steam pipes, which also run through the basement.

James McGuire, who turned in the alarm, says of the origin of the fire:

"I was coming up the street from Minnesota avenue, when I saw flames issuing from a window in the basement. I stooped and, looking in, saw horses in great commotion within the barn. One of them, a beautiful animal, had his nosed pressed through the broken pane of a window farther down on the west side of the building, as though pleading for rescue."

G. A. Vaughn, foreman of the stables, who lived on the second floor in the southeast corner of the barn with his wife, was sitting at a piano idly drumming on the keys. Suddenly he thought he smelled smoke, and, turning, saw a thin column arising from a nail hole in the floor near the entrance from the loft.

Vaughn says he had just time to help throw out some of the smaller articles of value in the room and help his wife escape. All his personal effects to the value of $1,200 were destroyed.

Labels: animals, buggy, Fire, Kansas City Kas, Minnesota avenue, rooming house

October 1, 1907

GOT THE MONEY AND RAN.

"Marshal of the Day" Escapes From

Police Captain Morley.

A man wearing a star bearing the words "Marshal of the Day" went into the rooming house at 1419 Grand avenue last night.

"The police are going to close up all rooming houses," he said, "but for $100 I can fix it so you won't be bothered. For $50 I can arrange to let you stay unmolested until after Carnival week."

Captain Morley, of No. 4 police station, was telephoned to. The latter advised giving the visitor a marked bill, and to hold him until a policeman could arrive.

The woman gave the man a $10 bill numbered 2160940 and in the left hand corner she marked three Xs on it. About the time the negotiations were completed, Captain Morley arrived in person on the scene. He escorted the "Marshal of the Day" down the steps but just as they reached the bottom, the latter jerked away and bolted down the street.

Captain Morley shot at the man several times but none of his bullets took effect.

Labels: con artist, Grand avenue, No 4 police station, rooming house

September 26, 1907

GRAY BOUGHT HIM A BED.

Policeman Tickled by Sidewalk

Sleeper's Explanation.

Elvin Gray, a patrolman, who walks a beat in the North end, last night found a man asleep on the sidewalk. Patrolmen have a habit of waking sidewalk sleepers by hitting the soles of their feet with their batons. Gray gave the sleeper a sound rap, and the man rose to a sitting posture with the exclamation: "Whoa, Maude."

The man's remark put the patrolman in a good humor. He took him to a rooming house and paid for a bed for him.

Labels: North end, police, rooming house

September 19, 1907

NERLING SHOT HIM

MACK ROGERS DEAD FROM SA-

LOON MAN'S PISTOL.

Mack Rogers, 50 years old, a carpenter, living at a rooming house on Osage avenue, in Armourdale, Kas., was shot and almost instantly killed about 11 o'clock last night by Bert Nerling, proprietor of a saloon at 1525 Main street. The shooting occurred in an alley back of Nerling's saloon, and was witnessed by George T. Maloy, of 3335 Charlotte, a friend of Nerling. It followed a free-for-all fight in a house at 1527 Main street. Nerling at once surrendered to the police.

It seems that Rogers got into a fight at 1527 Main street in which a number of persons were involved. In the course of the disturbance beer bottles and other missiles were hurled around promiscuously, some of them striking and breaking windows in the rear of Nerling's place. Someone, presumably a woman, fired two shots with a small pistol, at which Nerling armed himself with a revolver and went out to investigate. Maloy followed him to see what the trouble was all about.

FIRED AFTER BEING MOLESTED.

According to a statement made by Maloy, when Nerling stepped into the alley in the rear of his saloon he saw Rogers and others throwing bottles. He shouted to Rogers:

"What the hell are you doing, trying to smash up all my property?"

Rogers, it is said, immediately turned upon the saloon man and hurled a beer bottle at his head. Nerling drew his pistol and fired point blank at Rogers. Then he turned and went into the saloon. Rogers staggered some twenty or thirty feet and fell dead. A bullet from a 38-caliber pistol struck him full in the breast, almost directly over the heart.

Nerling was taken at once to the Walnut street police station, where he made a statement to Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Hogan and Police Captain Morley. Captain Morley ordered the arrest of all the people at 1527 Main street and those living in a rooming house over Nerling's saloon. Maloy made a statement to the prosecuting attorney which was substantially the same as that given by him to the police.

ROGERS WAS 50 YEARS OLD.

Coroner Thompson was notified and ordered the body removed to Eylar's morgue. An autopsy and inquest will be held this morning at 9 o'clock.

Rogers was nearly six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds.

The police this morning locked up a woman who goes by the name of Maud Nerling. She is said to occuply rooms over Nerlin's saloon, and the authorities believe she will prove a valuable witness.

Labels: Armourdale, Charlotte street, Coroner Thompson, Main street, murder, No 4 police station, rooming house, saloon, undertakers

August 28, 1907

THEY CAN SLUMBER ON NOW.

Baby Whose Coughing Kept Roomers

Awake is Dead.

Mrs. E. J. Wise, a frail woman, bearing a pale and emanciated child of less than 2 years in her arms, laboriously climbed the stairway leading to police headquarters about 3 o'clock yesterday morning. The child was suffering with tuberculosis. The woman said she and the babe had been ejected from a rooming house on Walnut street because the baby's coughing kept other roomers in the house awake. The woman and baby were cared for in the police matron's department until later in the morning, when the child was removed to the Emergency hospital, where it died a few minutes later.

The woman, who is a widow, came here with her babe from Webb City, Mo.

Labels: children, death, emergency hospital, police matron, rooming house, Walnut Street

July 27, 1907

TRIO BACK TO ST. JOSEPH.

One Is Accused of Having Stolen

From His Father.

Fred Folk, 23 years old, H. A. Barnes, 25 years old and Mrs. Cora Searcey, all of St. Joseph, were arrested at a rooming house at 516 East Eleventh street by Detectives Orford and McAnany at the request of Detective J. T. Frans of St. Joseph, last night on a charge of grand larceny. The trio, accompanied by two small children of Mrs. Searcey, came to Kansas City yesterday morning, bringing with them, it is claimed, personal property belonging to J. R. Barnes, father of H. A. Barnes.

The police say Folk is a paroled prisoner under sentence of three years in the state penitentiary on a charge of burglary and larceny. Young Barnes, it is claimed, had robbed his father of about $60 worth of property of various descriptions, and the woman is charged with having fraudulently drawn her husband's pay check from a packing plant Thursday and eloped to Kansas City with Barnes.

The prisoners will be taken to St. Joseph this morning.

Labels: crime, detectives, Eleventh street, penitentiary, rooming house, St.Joseph, streetcar

July 19, 2007

BEHIND ANOTHER'S BODY.

HOW WOMAN HOPED TO CONCEAL

TRUTH FROM HER FOLKS.

Allowed the Body of a Suicide to

Be Indentified As Hers and

Sent Home for Burial.

"I did not want my people to know of my circumstances. I preferred that they should think me dead, and that is why I said nothing to prevent the dead body of another woman being sent to my home as mine."

So Mrs. Ina Ford, 529 Walnut street, is said to have confided to a friend, Mrs. Blanche White, her reasons for not notifying her father, Edwin Hurst, of Muncie, Ind., that she was alive and well in Kansas City, notwithstanding the fact that Kansas City papers had informed her that the body of a suicide had been identified as hers and forwarded to Muncie.

On the afternoon of June 27, a woman who had been living with Frank Palmer, at 928 Genesee, went to the Fowler packing house, where Palmer was employed, and, after a few words with him drank carbolic acid from the effects of which she died soon afterwards. Palmer left city that night, and the authorities were given information leading them to believe the dead woman to have been Miss Ina Ford of Muncie, Ind. Mrs. Ford's parents were notified, and under their directions, the body was shipped to Muncie.

Mrs. Ford's father discovered the mistake as soon as the body reached Muncie. He notified the Kansas City police of the error in identity and sent the body of the suicide back to Kansas City.

When Mrs. Ford learned that the mistake had been detected, she at once wired her home. But she does not deny that she knew that the other woman's body had been sent to Muncie as hers.

Attempts to locate Mrs. Ford at her rooming house last night were ineffectual. Patrolman Larrabee and a newspaper man obtained an inverview with Miss White, an intimate friend of the Ford woman, in which it was learned that Mrs. Ford had left Kansas City. She is said to have told Miss White that she did not notify her parents of the error until she knew the secret had been discovered, as she was in poor circumstances and preferred they should think her dead than to know the truth about her. She avers that a former lover is responsible for the mistake in identity of the dead woman.

A searching inquiry last night developed the fact that the dead woman was Miss Ines Others, who had eloped with Palmer from St. Joseph, where her husband, Walter Others, resides. There was a slight personal resemblance between the two women.

Labels: Genessee street, police, rooming house, St.Joseph, streetcar, Suicide, Walnut Street

April 14, 1907

CAT LOST ON WINDOW SILL.

Owner Had Been Searching All Day

for the Animal.

It was reported to the office of the Humane Society in the city hall yesterday afternoon that a cat had been out on a window sill of the Majestic rooming house, Fifth and Walnut streets, all day long. Merchants on the opposite side of the street who saw the feline out there with the window closed down made the complaint. The cat appeared to be much agitated and was making its perilous position known.

When an officer went to investigate the case the cat had just been taken in. "That's a pet cat," a woman said, "and has been lost all day. We had no idea where she was until some man came up and told us that she was closed on the outside of a window. Haven't any idea how the cat got there."

Labels: animals, city hall, Fifth street, Humane Society, rooming house, Walnut Street

April 1, 1907

TRAIN KILLS FOUR.

TWO MEN AND THEIR WIVES

VICTIMS OF THE ALTON.

SPENT EASTER IN COUNTRY.

"Red Flyer" Crashed Into Vehicle
At Grade Crossing.

The Chicago & Alton's "Red Flyer" killed four people -- two men and two women at a grade-crossing on Fifteenth street at 4:50 yesterday afternoon. The dead are Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Monarch, of 1717 McGee street, and Mr. and Mrs. George Henry, whose home address is not known. The merry party were returning from a day's outing east of Kansas City, and were crossing the tracks of the Chicago & Alton in a light, double-seated spring wagon when the accident occurred. The place of the accident is about one and a quarter miles west of Independence.

The horses had cleared the track when the engine bore down upon n the vehicle, crushing it and tossing the occupants high in the air.

When the engineer stopped his train, after continuing several car lengths, the crew alighted and ran to the assistance of the injured, the two men and Mrs. Monarch were dead, and Mrs. Henry expired within a few minutes.

The team escaped uninjured.

The bodies were placed aboard the train and taken to the Union depot, where they were viewed by Coroner G. B. Thompson and removed to Stine's undertaking establishment.

The party had started out about 10 o'clock yesterday forenoon, and it was understood that they were going to Swope park to spend the day. However, it is presumed they changed their minds and drove to some point east of the city for several friends, among them Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Burtch, were to meet them at Swope park, and drove to that place, but did not find them.

How the party happened to drive upon the tracks in front of the train seems to be unexplainable to the friends of the two men. Mr. Monarch was driving and it is said that he has always been cautious about approaching cars. However, one of the horses that he was driving yesterday was a spirited animal, and for the first time was hitched double. There is a slight grade and it is presumed that the horses began to get anxious to get home were a little fractious and probably could not be stopped before they reached the tracks, after the sound of the approaching train was heard.

Though it was not supposed at first that any of the bodies had been run over, yet all of them were considerably mutilated and crushed. Mr. Monarch's injuries consisted of the top of his head being crushed, and the right leg broken above the ankle, while his wife's injuries consisted of both arms being crushed below the elbows and her chest crushed on the left side. Mr. Henry's head was crushed, his left foot cut off at the ankle, and the right leg was broken below the knee.

Mrs. Henry's left leg was mangled from the knee to the ankle, and the left arm was crushed up to the elbow.

The identity of the bodies were not established until a search of the clothing of the men at the undertaker's morgue was made, and a grocery receipt bearing D. H. Monarch's name and address was found in his clothing. A card bearing the name of George Henry was found on Mr. Henry's body. Inquiry was made at 1717 McGee street, and it was learned that Mr. Monarch lived at that number. It was also ascertained that he and his wife had gone out for an outing with Mr. and Mrs. Henry and several people who knew them called at the morgue and positively identified the quartette.

Mr. Monarch was employed as a solicitor by the C. F. Adams Installment Company, 1513 Grand avenue, and also conducted a rooming house where he lived and one at 1620 McGee street. George Henry worked as solicitor for the L. B. Price Mercantile Company, Fourteenth and Oak, a firm similar to that by which Mr. Monarch was employed.

Mr. Monarch was 30 years old, and his wife was about five years his senior. Both Mr. and Mrs. Henry were about 30 years old.

Labels: accident, animals, Coroner Thompson, death, Fourteenth street, Grand avenue, McGee street, Oak street, railroad, rooming house, Swope park, undertakers, Union depot