Hide Article Text (OCR)
DISCOURAGING DOUBTS.A Possibility that the Real Perpetrator of the Pekin Railroad Outrage ha« not Been Captured.The Peoria Tmn**rip* has interviewed the man arrested by Servant Keogh ou the charge of having committed the shocking murder at Pekin (particulars of which have been printed in these columns) and publishes the following :In an interview with a JTrarutcript reporter, he gave his name as Henry Johnson, and again as George Lottman, and said that he had lived in Peoria tor some years and up to within a abort time; that he left there on account of trouble with hia family, he claiming that bin wife and daughter are bad and keep a bad house in Peoria. He said further that he was hunting work, and had been in Pekin ou Tuesday afternoon ; that he rode out towards Tremont with a farmer who drove a team of black horses, and that at Tremont he took the train for Bloomington, whore he was arrested, what for he claims not to know of his own knowledge, but says the other prisoners at the jail told him that it was for tying a boy to the railroad track. He professes to have no knowledge of this, and says he was not near the railroad track except at Tremont, where he got on the train, and sticks to the story that he rode out from Pekin in the afternoon nearly as far as Tremont with a farmer.This part of his story is corroborated by officer Euler, who went into the country to hunt up the farmer, and also by Cornelius Hinsey, who lives six miles east of town. Hinsey came to town yesterday morning and saw the prisoner, and says he is the same man that was at his house about 5 o’clock on Tuesday after-noou, and whom a neighbor of his by the name of Hotstetter brought out from Pekin in his wagon. Hofstetter’s story Is that a man who, from the description given him, is the prisoner, asked to ride out with him on upper Court street in Pekin, about 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon ; that be took him into his wagon and carried him to within about a quarter of a mile of his residence, where he arrived about 4 o’clock p. m., shaking him off here because he was going to be away from home in the evening and did not want a strange man around the house when he was away. From the place where Hofstetter left him the prisoner found his way to Cornelius Hin-sev’s residence. Here he asked for a drink and something to eat, and on being questioned where be was going and what he was doing, said he was looking for work and was on his way to Bloomington. Hinsey recommended him to take the train at Tremont,which he said he thought he would do, and moved off in the direction of that town.From all this it would seem that the wrong man has been captured, though N*r. Cantwell, the father of the dead boy, on seeing the prisoner on yesterday morning, exclaimed that he was the man, he looked just the very picture of the fellow that his boy had described to him as the one that had committed the outrage.EahtvVdsuehhKcSie:usitlt;t!ana:tlrlt;nrlt;ha:Itttiaisaoo«lt;Hiaclt;tlUUtl
Newspaper Details
Bloomington Daily Leader
Bloomington, Illinois, US
Thu, Aug 18, 1881
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Thomas M.
IL, USA 05 Jul 2017
Other Publications Near Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington Pantagraph
Bloomington Sunday Leader
Bloomington Weekly Leader
Bloomington Leader
Bloomington Weekly Pantagraph
