The Telegraph Messenger Who Walked Away

Willhun Ash ton Is the Only One Yet Arrested.

The news that Morris Johnson, Agnes Woodward and Dick Rogers had been arrested in this city for the murder of Frank Cunningham, committed in Portland in 1897, caused a great deal of talk in this city Saturday. There was much surprise expressed in certain circles over the boat aboard by one of Watson's men bringing Morris Johnson and the Woodward woman to Portland by the 2:30 a.m. train. It was told by their friends here that they had been allowed at least an hour or two fore to settle up their affairs. However, the prisoners were without doubt the only ones arrested in the matter no one else came to object.

At an early hour Monday Dick Rogers was arrested by Captain Brick on charges of complicity in the Cunningham murder. Rogers is one of those four whom officer Watson came from Portland to arrest. As he did not apprehend him in time to be taken up the early train, he was left to await Deputy Sheriff Fitzsimmons' arrival from Olympia.

In the afternoon Rogers was seen in jail by the reporter. He is about 17 years of age and fatherless. His eyes are dark and bright and his hair is black. The whole air of the lad indicates sharpness, intelligence and an intimate acquaintance with the shady side of human nature. Indeed he passes any other boy of his rural life in this city, which was in April last, has been living with a young man who seems to have no other than to keep Rogers secure.

Rogers secured a situation with the American District Telegraph Company in Portland when it first operations there, and remained with the company until April last, when he came home and soon found employment with the American District Telegraph Company here. The fact that he remained so long with the company both here and in Portland, and that he was night messenger here shows that he was a capable youth, and the officers of both the Portland and Seattle offices speak in high terms of him as a rapid and energetic messenger boy.

Dick Rogers, during the brief interview today with him, emphatically denied all knowledge of the murder of Frank Cunningham.

"I don't know Cunningham," Dick said. "But I remember reading an account of his murder in the papers in the office. I don't know whether I was working in the day or night time when he was killed. The tickets are kept in the district telegraph office in Portland by Mr. Collett, and he can tell just where I was on the day that Cunningham was killed. I am not the least afraid, because I am innocent."

"Were you ever in Agnes Woodward's house in Portland?"

"Yes; I have answered some twenty or thirty calls from there and have been in the house that number of times."

"Have you been in the Woodward woman's house since you arrived in Seattle?"

"No; I never visited her since I came here."

"You are acquainted with Morris Johnson?"

"Yes; I know him. I made his acquaintance when in the employ of the Portland company, and have seen him since I came to Seattle."

Seeing that nothing farther could be secured from Rogers the reporter withdrew.

Soon after the arrival of Deputy Sheriff J. J. Fitzsimmons in Seattle yesterday from Olympia, he was interviewed and gave the following recital of the facts which led to the arrest of Johnson, Woodward and Rogers:

"Some eight months ago Agnes Woodward, who was mistress of a house of ill-fame in Portland, became suspiciously in the police court of that city in connection with the prosecution of a worthless fellow named John Lynch. On business relating to this case I was in her house one evening, when the Woodward woman said she could tell me something. I asked her what it was, and she asked me if I would be interested in a murder case. She said she knew all about a murder and would tell me some other time. I insisted on her continuing the story. Then she asked me if I remembered the murder of Frank Cunningham, and when I told her did she said she would at some time tell me the parties who did it. Finally I pressed her to relate what she knew about the affair. It was a straightforward narrative. She told how Cunningham came to town and went on a drunk; now he came to her house on the night of his death intoxicated, and how he met Johnson, Ashton and Rogers there. It was proposed that they go out for a 'time' in a hack, and a party was made up, composed of Agnes Woodward, Johnson, Ashton, Cunningham and a young girl named Nina Clifford. They drove up Front street. Morris Johnson struck Cunningham a terrible blow on the head with a sandbag, ending in his skull; the wounded man fell forward, his head striking Miss Woodward's breast and drenching her light dress with blood.

The hack was driven to a dark place on Taylor street and there they threw out, after being robbed of the money in the packet and a gold watch. I asked Miss Woodward if she would repeat the story to another officer, and she said she would. A month later, in company with Detective H. C. Wood, I called on her and she repeated the statement exactly as before, except that a woman named Stanley was alleged to have been in the hack, and not Nina Clifford.

"We investigated and found that about the time of the murder Johnson, Ashton and Rogers were unusually flush of money, and that all left Portland about a week after Cunningham's body was found, going to the Sound. Nina Clifford disappeared at the same time, and could not be traced.

"It was apparent that no conviction could be had on the unsupported testimony of Miss Woodward, and search was made for Nina Clifford, but to no purpose. One week Mr. Wood was in California and learned by the merest chance that Nina was in Marysville. Proceeding thither, he found her living a respectable life with her mother, under her true name of Etta Kraal. Wood secured an interview with her. With the advantage of his knowledge of the murder, he gained a full confession, but without telling Miss Kraal that Agnes Woodward had previously divulged the plan. The two statements tally perfectly.

"Wood immediately telegraphed to me to make the arrests. The requisitions were obtained. Johnson, Agnes Woodward and Rogers arrested. Ashton cannot escape, and the hack man, who is well known in Portland, will be apprehended tonight."

Ashton was arrested Monday morning at 6 o'clock this morning. Martin, known as 'Dirty Martin,' a sin, was arrested and locked up, as the police believe that he knows something about the Cunningham murder. It is claimed that his rig, the hack in which Cunningham was killed, belonged to Morris Johnson and Agnes Woodward. They are yet here together. A search of their lodgings may prove an asset.

He says at his friends that he will soon voluntarily return from the East to see the police face him with what they have got.