The Burglar Who Wanted a Razor Before Walla Walla

The 2:10 o'clock train out from the Lakeview depot yesterday afternoon over the Northern Pacific line bore Richard H. Ford, the young man who made such a bold dash for liberty from the county jail last Saturday morning, to the penitentiary at Walla Walla.

Mr. Ford's spirits were low, and he evidently was thinking of the bitter end of what he thought to be the greatest joke in his checkered career. He thinks he is a great criminal now instead of an ordinary thief with an insatiable desire for morphine, and in his letters he builds himself up to his mother as the burglar known all over the country.

It injured his feelings Saturday night when he was kept in a cell alone. He said that he realized that he had done Burkman 'dirt,' and regretted his action from that point of view.

Yesterday morning he called for Burkman and asked for a razor, saying that he hated to go to the 'pen' with his face looking so ragged.

'I guess they will shave you all right over at Walla Walla,' said Burkman, 'so it will save you trouble.'

Ford still pleaded, but Burkman, insisting that he had no intention of granting the request, did not carry it out. Ford had to get ready for his trip over the road. The patrol wagon came up a short time before train time, and Ford was handcuffed to Richard Burnett, who goes over to the pen for one year for burglary. A thief and a man convicted of attempted rape were also chained together.

At the depot quite a crowd assembled to look at the prisoners. Presently Ford and the wagon drove up, and there was a rush in that direction. The deputies, however, lost no time in getting the prisoners out of the wagon, and in a few minutes all of them were in the cars. The sheriff and several deputies took their places, and away went the train.

Ford has so many names that it is a hard matter to tell which to use. His arm has the initial 'H. M.,' which meant Richard Manning, but he has written to his mother at San Francisco, giving her name as Mary Ford and her address 1907 Eighth street, care of his sister, Mrs. Mulhaff. He is a San Francisco production without doubt, and it is said today, on good authority, that he did a 'four spot'—meaning four years—at San Quentin prison. It cannot be ascertained, however, what the charge was or the name he was under.

About 1891 he was in Helena, Mont., and a man who knows him by sight says that he was in jail there for burglary, effected his escape with three or four others, and was never recaptured. After that he went to Butte and was arrested for holding up a faro bank. He lay in jail eleven months but beat his case on a second trial. Ford claimed that if the faro bank was held up at all, Fredericks, the man who attempted to hold up a San Francisco bank, did the job. He never would admit that he was in jail at Butte.

After Tom Blanck's death Ford idolized him and wrote a letter to his mother at the address previously mentioned. He said that Tom Blanck was a man to be beloved, a hero and one to be worshiped. He then proceeded to tell how he escaped with him and was known all over the country as the 'famous burglar.' Having the fame, he had decided to go to the penitentiary, serve out his term, and then have the game. Then he became pathetic and asked mother if she remembered one Christmas night when a mysterious shot was fired on Union street. Then he proceeded to tell her that he was bringing her a $50 present out of money that belonged to the woman he was living with when she took a shot at him.

He could not close without telling of his youthful love. It was a pathetic story, with diamonds and sealskin sacques cropping out at all points. When he was a youth he fell in love with a beautiful woman. She returned his affection, but a husband stood in the way. The woman deserted her lord and came to him. They lived together happily. As Ford expressed it: 'I had a soft snap and let things slide.' Both were morphine fiends, so one could not reproach the other. One thing, however, Ford said he did not understand, and that was how the woman wore diamonds and a sealskin sacque. Finally Ford tired of her and went away. She used to write him letters, but he would not have anything to do with her, and at last committed suicide.

It is not generally known, yet it is true, that Ford attempted to get out of the city jail the night he escaped over the Blanck jail delivery. Monroe was at supper when Ford was brought in. Night Jailer Thornton put him in a cell in the boys' department, used as a hospital. Monroe came back in about an hour and went to look at Ford in the north corridor. He found him trying to dig out through the cement floor, using a pocketknife and an old chisel for a mallet. When questioned as to what he was doing, Ford replied: 'You fellows are always strong talkers. I thought I would see who was.'

Ford had cut a hole about a foot in diameter and about six or eight inches deep. If he had kept on he would have struck a large sewer.