A Hardened Criminal Once, Now He Helps Reform Others

Davenport, Iowa, 1903

CONVICT TO PREACHER

HISTORY OF STANLEY FORREST, MISSIONARY.

A Hardened Criminal, He Was Arrested For the First Time In His Life Here In Davenport Fifteen Years Ago Today — Served Term In Ft. Madison — Gave Life to Fellow Convicts — Dying of Consumption.

Fifteen years ago today Stanley M. Forrest, one of the smoothest hotel swindlers that the criminal world has ever produced, was taken from his bed in the Harper house, in Rock Island and locked in the Rock Island jail until morning. In the morning he was brought to this city, given a preliminary hearing on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses from the management of the St. James hotel. Although he stoutly protested his innocence he was convicted in the district court and sentenced to serve two and one-half years at hard labor in the penitentiary at Fort Madison.

Now, today, Stanley M. Forrest, his hair whitened through sorrows and sickness and his once powerful constitution shattered by consumption, is back in this city to close his work as a jail evangelist and a convict's friend, by addressing the inmates of the Rock Island and the Davenport jails in which he was incarcerated fifteen years ago. He feels that the disease from which he is suffering does not give him a great while longer to live, so what could be more fitting than that should close in his work in the city which saw the beginning of the end.

Interesting Life Story.

His life story is one of exceptional interest. It is the story of a life crowded with action. Forty-eight years ago Stanley M. Forrest was born in England. His parents were well-to-do and gave him an exceptionally thorough education. At the age of 23 he came this country, possessed in his own right of some little money. He traveled from one place to another until his money ran out and then started in to live by his wits. Fashionable hotels in large cities presented a target for his practices. His scheme of operations were above the plane of the ordinary criminal. His education and natural good breeding were brought to the aid of a resourceful mind and an ability at disguises and he was very successful, if the word be permitted. In the pursuit of his prey he traveled from one side of the country to the other, never operating in any but the largest and most popular hotels, securing a wide acquaintance with statesmen, jurists and prominent men of business. His affable manners and neat dress gave him easy passport to hotel lobby acquaintances. One single haul netted him $2,800, with never a finger of suspicion pointed at him or the necessity of any attempt at hiding. Then the crash came.

First Arrested Here.

A little over 15 years ago he drifted into this city and registered at the St. James. One day at dinner he checked his overcoat, as usual, and went in dinner. When he came out, according the story which he told last evening to a representative of the Republican, he presented his check at the wardrobe door, but an exhaustive search failed to disclose the garment. It was gone, but that did not trouble the buoyant spirit of Forrest, for he knew that the landlord was responsible for the garment and he was. The landlord advanced him money to purchase a garment to replace the one lost, and he purchased a new coat. That evening Forrest went to the Burtis opera house with a well known woman of the town. He was seen there by an attache of the St. James, who recognized his companion and followed them after the performance, across the river and to the Harper house. Having them safely located he communicated with the hotel and they secured Forrest's arrest, shortly after midnight on the morning of March 6th. He spent the balance of the night in the Rock Island jail and the next morning was brought to this city and lodged in jail.

Convicted and Sentenced.

The charge was that of obtaining money under false pretenses. Forrest waived preliminary examination for the circumstantial evidence was strongly against him. He procured an attorney and made a hard fight for freedom, but the evidence was strongly against him. The theory of the state was that Forrest, unnoticed by the attache of the hotel had gone to the wardrobe, procured his coat, hid it and then boldly presented the check, demanding either the overcoat or its cash equivalent. The result was a conviction, and Forrest stood to receive a long sentence in the penitentiary. But the judge had become impressed by his personality and the apparent frankness of his demeanor in telling his story and he sentenced him to two and one-half years at Fort Madison. The well dressed gentleman of the world donned the convict's stripes with a terrible spirit of revenge nestled down in his heart. As he worked through the sentence at Fort Madison it was with the one determination that, when he was released he would come back to Davenport and shoot the man who had sworn his freedom away. By exemplary behavior in the penitentiary he reduced his sentence eight months and at the end of one year and ten months he was set free.

Fall Was Fast.

But when he stepped from the institute, a free man, his naturally generous spirit again began to return, and instead of coming back to this city to execute his threat he went East. With the stain of the convict upon him he became more careless and bold in his operations and the result that it was not long until he was an inmate of the Ohio penitentiary, serving a year's sentence. He came to be regarded as a criminal whom officials might well fear for his shrewdness and ability at planning and executing affairs which baffled their powers of detection. He was exceptionally lucky, along with his cunning, and while his confederates were sometimes hauled up short he generally escaped, or if arrested for the crime would manage to find a loop hole of escape.

How He Came to Reform.

The causes which led to his reforming were as unique as his career has been. When he was in the penitentiary at Fort Madison a private secretary to the governor of the state used to appear pretty regularly at the penitentiary, that was before the day of the board of control, and make speeches to the convicts. In these it was his custom to praise them for the reformation which he saw being worked out and to tell them how dearly he loved an ex-convict and what he would do for them at any time that it would be in his power. He would generally end his little speech by giving them an invitation to come to see him at any time they were in need or wanted work or help. So it happened that about ten years ago Forrest, tired with continual evading the officers of the law, decided to try and lead an honest life. He drifted to Burlington. The first man he met that he knew was a cellmate of his at Fort Madison. His prison friends told him that he was on his way to see the redoubtable private secretary and Forrest joined him. They found the private secretary to be a very busy man, and after taking their names he turned to dismiss them. But Forrest's companion was insistent. He said he needed help. The secretary gave him a quarter, told him to eat supper and then help himself. The ex-convict took the secretary at his word and helped himself to the secretary's horse and buggy as soon as they reached the open air. The secretary never saw either article again. And Forrest went to Chicago to take his start at honest life.

Rise Was Rapid.

In the world of crime he had been what might be called a successful man. In the world of labor he was almost equally successful. When he arrived in Chicago he applied to the superintendent of the street cleaning department and asked for a position on the streets. He told his story from the beginning of his prison life and said that he wanted a chance. His education stood him in good stead and he was made foreman of a gang. Three months afterward his natural ability won for him the position of chief inspector of streets at a salary of $2,000 a year. He held this position for some time, and married while in it. All of his spare time he began to devote to the work of trying to make the prisoners in the jails of Chicago and neighboring cities better. He was remarkably successful in this line. When the time came that a cutting down in expenses of the street department of the city of Chicago eliminated the office which he held he turned his time more than ever to the new field which had opened up before him and continued to be successful. He entered the penitentiaries and the prisons and talked to the inmates as a comrade who had saw the brighter side to life. His arguments were of the convincing sort. When he met a man who, to his eye, and he is an expert judge of human nature, would be really benefited by a pardon, he immediately set himself to the effort of securing such a pardon, and often he was successful, for executives with the pardoning power came to regard Forrest as a man upon whose word they could depend.

Came to Davenport.

Five years ago, on the anniversary of his first day in prison, Forrest returned to Davenport and did a very considerable amount of work among the people of this city, especially in the jails, both here and in Rock Island. His teachings were productive of much good, and there is one man who will long remember him. One Monday morning, according to Forrest's statements, Mrs. Hill, the police matron, interested him in the case of Joel Bledsoe, at that time serving a sentence in the Rock Island jail for drunkenness. Forrest investigated the case, and as a result he secured Bledsoe's release by signing a personal bond for his future good behavior. Bledsoe was very grateful, and more so when a position was secured for him as janitor of the Y. M. C. A. building. The reform was permanent and effectual. Again three years ago Forrest came to this city and labored for a considerable length of time among the jail inmates.

Sorrows Heap Upon Him.

But the life of love which had been brightening the career of Forrest for seven years came to a sudden end two and one-half years ago, when he suddenly discovered that an ex-convict whom he had taken into his own home in Chicago to keep until a position could be found had proved ungrateful and betrayed the trust of the home. His wife and home gone, Forrest, a tinge of white added to his hair, began with renewed vigor his life-work with the criminal class. His efforts were meeting with greater success than ever, and he was gaining a country wide reputation, when, while at Springfield, Ill., he contracted, a severe cold which developed into the dread consumption. Since that time he has been traveling constantly, seeking health and working among the prisoners in various jails until, a wreck of his former self, with all hope of recovery gone, he has come to Davenport to make his last pleas to criminals and, perhaps, to die in the city of his first arrest and conviction. He will speak tomorrow forenoon at 10:30 o'clock in the Rock Island jail, and in the afternoon at 2:30 in the Scott county jail. Everyone interested in jail work is invited to be present. The local Y. M. C. A, will have charge of both meetings, which will be free, and they will furnish music for each meeting.

How He Works.

A representative of the Republican enjoyed a most interesting visit with Forrest last evening. He is a brilliant conversationalist to start with, and, added to this, his vast fund of experience makes him a most interesting person to listen to. He said: "I have probably been most fortunate in my chosen work, and I blame it to the fact that I know criminals, being a graduate myself; and I know how to approach them. The man who enters the jail and goes up to the prisoner, extends a hearty hand and exclaims, 'Ha, old fellow, glad to see you here,' isn't going to make a success of the work. One must know criminals and approach them in a way at which they can take no offense, yet understand your position. In my experience I have met many criminals and befriended many, and it is seldom that I have been mistaken. I remember once, in Maine, I secured a pardon for a convict in the Thomastown penitentiary in whom I had become interested. He was an Englishman named Bird, and was in for seven years for perjury. I took the pardon to him and found him in a most irritable mood. I drew him to one side and questioned him as to what he might do as soon as he was free, in case he were pardoned. He had recently been flogged for misbehavior, and remarked with an oath that the first thing he would do would be to kill the deputy warden. I took the pardon out before his eyes and tore it into little bits. I knew that that man could not safely be pardoned."

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 6, 1903, page 7.