The Outlaw's Only Friend Comes Home to Seattle

George Howe, who was the only confidant of Tom Blanck, has returned to the city from Victoria, where he had just commenced work when his name was first connected with the Blanck case. He was interviewed by a reporter.

"Wherever I walked along the street," said Howe, "the people would point to me as being the man who knew Blanck. I got tired of it and left before I lost my position. I have no explanation to offer at present about the reported dying statements coming from me, and as to telling where Blanck was if the sheriff could find him — all I will say is that I would not have given him up for a thousand dollars. I would not have thought of giving him up or surrendering him under any conditions.

"Now that it is all over, I don't know but that it is better for the poor fellow to be dead. I knew that he would never be taken alive as long as he had a shot in his pistol, for he told me once that if he escaped and was pursued and had only two shots left he would give his pursuers one and then commit suicide. That fellow had implicit confidence in himself to do almost anything when armed. He said that with a pistol in either hand he could kill a thousand men on a hill. I am satisfied that when Blanck approached the two men in the track he did not realize the condition he was in, or he would have killed one or both before they could fire on him.

"It is amusing to hear this talk about Blanck not killing the man who was killed. I have just seen the pictures taken after he was shot, and know it was him without a doubt. Anyone knows with a moment's thought that if he had killed [the man] he would have gotten his gun, removed the body and gone down the track with the two rifles, throwing lead in all directions. There is no question, of course, that Blanck was a bad man, but on the other hand he was one of the pleasantest fellows I ever met, and generous to a fault. He was a remarkable fellow. For instance, he never took a drink of liquor in his life, and was a total stranger to tobacco in any form. He didn't care much for women either. I asked him one day what he did with his money, and he replied that he used to buy anything that caught his eye, and when he got tired of it he would throw it away. At other times he would get a crowd of boys around him and buy them candy and such stuff, and give them a dollar or so.

"Do you remember how much talk there was about those patent bullet-proof cloth coats? Well, Tom heard of them and said he wished he had one. I have an idea that he got the notion of putting the padding in his coat from that."

Asked why Blanck had chosen him as his confidant, Howe said he really had no idea. The man seemed to take to him from the beginning and talked freely about himself, but of course Howe knew well that he would never say anything about him until he was hanged or died in trying to escape.

As to whether the wooden pistol was made in the jail, Howe would not talk, saying that Chief Rogers had taken it to pieces and made a careful examination, so the reporter should talk to him about that point.

"There is not the shadow of a doubt that Tom Blanck made that pistol," said the chief. He produced on his desk a great, awkward-looking weapon made of a shingle, a wooden awl and some pieces of glass and tin, then described how the pieces had been carved and bound together in a manner that raised much talk.