INDIAN BANDITS
ARRESTED
Willie Watson and Charlie Johnson
have been sentenced to serve 15
years in the Federal penitentiary
for various crimes, including; rob
bery. The commission of a crime
of the magnitude of a felony is so
seldom committed by Indians in Al
aska, where one-half the population
are Indians, that the robbery by
these Indian boys served as front
page news items in the local papers
for all of two weeks. Other crimes
occupied but a single issue, such as
crimes committed by the ranchers
who stormed the water system of
Los Angeles; the arrest of Jesse
Newton who pleaded guilty at Chi
cago to participation in the $2,000,
000 train robbery at Rondout, Illi
nois; the arrest of William J. Fahey,
U. S. Postal Inspector, who engineer
ed the deal from the inside; the kid
napping of Gustave Averyssel and
his children in Kansas City by six
men; and the robbery of a bank
there; the fist fight between Lowell
Sherman, matinee idol, and George
Baxtor, another actor, at the annual
Actor’s Equity Association ball in
New York City, and many other
such crimes.
The feature of the arrest of these
Indian boys, which has been omitte 1
in the reports by the Alaska Press,
is as follows: After the boys had
roamed the country, and had eluded
the twenty or thirty deputy mar
shalls and special officers, they re
turned to Juneau and went to the
home of Charlie Johnson’s mother,
feeling sure that the mother love
would be sufficient to protect their
presence under the very nose of U
S. Marshal Beaumont. The action
of this mother is characteristic. She
sent her youngest son out the back
door to go to the Marshal’s office
to tell the officers that the two
young bandits were at her home, and
to come quickly. Chief of Police
Mack, Deputy Marshall Truesdale,
and Patrolman Hoage went to the
house and knocked at 1he door. Mrs.
Johnson then went to the door and
kept her body between the young
bandits and the officers to protect
them in that way if any shooting
was done.
None of the officers have given
credit to this patriotic mother who
handed up her own son to the law
while her mother’s heart was griev
ing for the crime which her boy had
committed. But in telling the story
the officers report the arrest in
something like the following lan
guage:
“We were on the watch for these
bandits and naturally kept their
homes under surveillance. In that
way we learned that the desperadoes
had gone into the home of Mrs.
Johnson. We got re-enforcements
and surrounded the house. With
guns drawn we dashed into the
house and at once covered the crim
inals. The Johnson boy reached for
his gun and made a desperate at
tempt to shoot through his coat
pocket, but I yelled to him ‘hands up
or I’ll shoot/ and seeing that I had
the drop on him Johnson up with
his hands. But Wilie Watson, think
ing I was not watching him, reach
ed swiftly across to the window
where his gun lay, but I yanked out
my other gun and stopped him. Then
I put them both in hand-cuffs and
brought them to jail. The only
thing that saved my life was the
fact that Johnson did not understand
how to operate the automatic which
we took out of his coat pocket. If
it had been anybody else arresting
these boys they would have been
killed- I deserve great credit for
what I did.”
HARRY STASER TALKS
Morningside Hit Hard by An
chorage Marshal
(Anchorage Times)
Back from escorting two insane
persons to the privately-owned sani
tarium near Portland, Ore., where
Alaskans who have been adjudged
insane are “treated” under the con
tract system, Harry I. Staser, deputy
marshal, said today he would rather
attend a man’s funeral than to place
him in Morningside.
Deputy Staser said that the un
fortunate inmates of the Morning
side hospital, which is operated by
Dr. W. W. Coe, are herded together
like sheep and that their care seems
to be a secondary consideration of
the management of the sanitarium.
“Right now there are 273 unfor
tunate Alaskans in Morningside,”
said Mr. Staser, “and very few of
them ever come out. The govern
ment pays $48 per month per pa
tient for the care of these Northern
ers, but any visitor to the sanitarium
can see that something is radically
wrong with the institution. Whether
it is the contract system or the su
perintendent, or both, I don’t know,
but I would rather bury a man than
send him to Dr. Coe’s place.”
273 patients at $48 per montn
totals $13,104.00.
RELATIVE TAXES
It is commonly said that figures
never lie. At least the following
compilation will give readers an
idea of the relative commercial im
portance of various Alaskan towns.
These figures have just been released
by the Federal Officials in Juneau,
and show the amount of taxes paid
by the residents and business estab
lishments in the towns listed during
the calendar year of 1924.
The total tax collected from the
First Division was $162,091.53, about
10 per cent increase over 1923.
The standings of the towns in
this Division according to taxes
paid were.
Ketchikan . $28,619.22
Juneau . 9,670.13
Petersburg . 7,688.80
Wrangell . 6,003.19
Sitka . 3,641.48
Skagway . 2,351. TO
Douglas . 545-00
Haines . 482.70
f
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