February 21, 2026
THIRTY YEARS FOR BLEDSOE.
Man Who Tried to Extort $7,000
From L. M. Jones Gets the
Maximum Sentence.
Assuring the court that he had no intention of harming anyone, Robert Bledsoe, aka C. H. Garnett, who tried to extort $7,000 from Lawrence M. Jones last Tuesday, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in the criminal court. Judge Ralph S. Latshaw sentenced him to thirty years in the penitentiary. The law makes the minimum sentence for this offense two years, but leaves the maximum to the discretion of the court. It means a life sentence for Bledsoe, who already is nearing middle age.
Only a few chairs held spectators when Mr. Jones stepped into the court room and took a seat. Judge Latshaw, after Bledsoe had pleaded guilty but before he had been sentenced, asked Mr. Jones to tell the story of the attempted robbery.
"I want to get at the degree of the guilt of this man," said the court.
Mr. Jones retold the morning's happenings, saying that he heard Bledsoe say he could not understand why the infernal machine had not exploded. "There must have been too much powder in it," said Mr. Jones.
Bledsoe told the court he had not meant to harm anyone. He said he had no confederates, but planned and executed the holdup alone. Questioning from the court brought out the fact that Bledsoe hailed from Dallas, Tex.; that he had seven years of schooling; that he had abandoned his wife six years ago, and that he had not heard from his mother in four years. He had gone to San Francisco to make a home for his family, he said, when he received a letter which induced him never to go home again.
At the sentencing, he had no reason to give why he should not be punished. Looking at Mr. Jones, who sat twenty-five feet distant, he obeyed the call of the deputy marshal who took him back to jail.
Labels: courtrooms, crime, criminal court, Jones Dry Goods, Judge Latshaw
