Thieves' Smooth Trick

1909

WILKES BARRE, Pa., Oct. 6. — All records for impudent thefts were broken at Bloomsburg this week, when a furnace, with all its flues and attachments, was stolen bodily from the home of C. C. Barger. The thieves, John James, of Mausdale, and Joseph Kelly, of Danville, who were arrested today, admitted their guilt and were held under $500 bail by Justice Jacoby.

They learned that the Jeremiah Fowler estate, which owns the Barger house, was to place a new furnace in it, and Wednesday went to the house, said they had been sent to take out the old furnace, carted it away in a wagon they hired and sold it to a junk man. So plausible was the whole affair that not until yesterday was it discovered that the furnace had been stolen.


Bluffed By A Corncob

EVANSVILLE, Ind., Oct. 6. — Earl Sappenfield, an escaped lunatic, held policemen and detectives at bay for ten minutes with a small corncob covered with a handkerchief. The officers thought he had a pistol.


Howard Nesbit Convicted

Sentenced to Sixty Days, but Gives Bond for Appeal

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 6. — Howard Nesbit, brother of Mrs. Evelyn Thaw, received a sentence of sixty days in jail here. He pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempting to obtain money under false pretenses, and City Attorney Hoyt produced evidence to show that young Nesbit offered for sale at a pawnbroker's shop here a white sapphire ring for which he tried to procure $35. It was worth about $3, according to Jeweler F. I. Glouskin, from whom Nesbit tried to get the money.

Nesbit appealed the decision, but was taken to jail. Bail was fixed at $200, and J. F. Francis, who says that he is a New York City banker, arrived just after Nesbit's trial took place. He offered bond money and Nesbit was released.


This Is The Only Way

Do not reason with a conceited man; flatter him.

Insane Suspect in Arson Investigation Sets Fires to Form "New World in Air"

Pennsylvania, 1920

Weird Story Related at County Jail by Maniac From Austria

Denies School Burnings

Frank Karna, Arrested by State Police at Webster, Says He is Agent in Two Counties of Band Formed at Przemyal; Fired Lumber Yards

In the arrest yesterday afternoon at Webster, Westmoreland county, of Frank Karna, an Austrian, who was placed in jail in Uniontown the authorities have a maniac who has confessed to burning three lumber yards and a stable at Webster. That is the extent of the connection they have made between the prisoner and the fires in Fayette and Westmoreland counties that have caused a loss of $500,000.

Karna, whose conversation is of the rambling nature of the mentally unbalanced, denies that he had anything to do with the school house burnings, that he ever burned a school house anywhere.

Questioned this morning Karna told the officers he was working under an organization with headquarters in Przemyal, Austria, and that he had been assigned to start fires in Fayette and Westmoreland counties for a peculiar purpose. The theory of his organization, as he related it, is this:

That the smoke from the fires started by the organization goes into the air and forms a new world — one without ills, by reason of the fact that all germs are killed in the fiery process. This is the only remedy for the troubles now besetting the human race. The world is too old, it has stood too long in one place. It needs a change as a chicken house needs to be changed from spot to spot to allow the sunshine to kill the germs of disease that accumulate. The world will be happy as soon as all germs are destroyed. This will be when his organization has set sufficient fires.

Karna is six feet tall. He has a wild, staring look, with a weirdly serious expression of the face. He told the officers he came to America eight years ago and has lived at Rankin, Webster, Pittsburgh and Donora. He has two brothers at Donora.

Referring to the organization set up to cure the ills of the world by arson, Karna said the "captain" was John Yelen of Przemysl; the "farmer," Yuzef Bukowsky; the "justice of the peace," John Putys; the "burgess," Yedicy Tydzik, all of Sivysouigalicyoi, Austria.

While the officers were inclined last night to believe they had the firebug who had terrorized the two counties for weeks, they were today without anything on which to base any such presumption. The prisoner told an entirely different story today from that drawn from him after his arrest when he declared an "irresistible something" caused him to start fires and that before he could tell more he must "get some rest so he could think."

The story that the man had confessed to the burning of the Marion school building at Fayette City is denied.

Officers are convinced that no one man started all the fires. They were too widespread.

The arrest was made by state troopers.

—The Daily Courier, Connellsville, Pennsylvania, December 11, 1920, page 1.

Lunatic Stops The Train, Says He's J. P. Morgan

1909

LUNATIC STOPPED THE TRAIN

Imagined He Was J. P. Morgan and Consequently, What He Said Had to Go

The strange freaks of a madman caused some trouble near Central Islip, L.I., one night recently.

A man stood in the middle of the tracks among the scrub oaks and waved the well-known "stop" signal as an express train from the city approached. The engineer stopped the train and the train crew, all of whom expected to be informed that a wreck had been averted, as miscreants have been placing obstructions upon the rails at intervals, ran forward to meet the stranger, who walked with dignity toward the coaches.

"What's the matter?" demanded the first trainman, breathlessly, as he neared the stranger. No reply was vouchsafed. Nor would the man open his mouth until he met the conductor at the steps of the forward coach. The conductor asked the same question. "I wanted the train to stop as I wished to get on," began the man. "There's no station here among the scrub oaks," said the conductor, who hadn't time to get angry. "True," replied the stranger, "but there should be one. I am J. P. Morgan and when I want a train to stop it's got stop, see?"

He climbed aboard, unchecked by the trainmen, who began to see the drift of affairs. "My pass," said the new passenger, tendering an oak leaf to the conductor, who inspected and punched it gravely.

When the train reached Central Islip he was turned over to the police authorities.

—The Sheboygan Daily Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, December 16, 1909, page 7.