St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 27, 1902

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; ; “ veg 7 a oe vy PS. . “Ss Ps : x ay * * od ‘kK 7 A# Be . = Z ot * (a = & = £e ~ as “ , . ae 7 Ma) ] e oy “as . ; 2 : ~ BEY Q s > oS & F, » 4? - + : In this issue than in all the other local papers of today combined. 54. NO. 228. x ST. LOUIS, SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 27, 1902. FIGHT TO SWE AN OLD CROOK . Dispensed $20,000 a Year for Charity. NOW HELD FOR DESERTION COMMITTED CRIMES IN EVERY STATE IN UNION, HAS | @o the Post-Dispatch He Tells of His ' ‘Yéfe Bince His Graduation From London College More Than Thirty Years Ago. Rpecial to the Post-Dispatch. NEW YORK, April 26.—It does not seem ' possible that a man so steeped in vice and _erime as Alexander Skelly could have truly and permanently reformed, and yet this | @ame Skelly, with a remarkable record of | villainy, and who has also done some hon- | est things in his career, appears to be sin- cerely devoted to the new life into which es 3nan., | At the moment when he is fairly wel) | aunched in his new field of endeavor, when he is secretary to Mrs. Ballington | Bootn of the Volunteers of America, and when he ts intrusted with the dispensing of | } 620,000 a year by Mra. McAlpin, wife of ‘Gen. McAlpin, who is interested tn helping | ex-convicts to reform, a ghost of his past eomes back to haunt him. Skelly is under arrest, charged with deser ‘tion from the United States army, and also with stealing a horse of his troop when he fied from duty. He does not deny the ac n, and is now in the prison on Gov- ernor’s Island awaiting trial by court-mar- (tial, He has influential friends who will ke to save him, because it is believed that e is really repentant, and is doing a val- able work among 4 class of men most dif- } Hout to awaken ‘to spiritual life; but it Is btful if the influences so potent in the nary criminal courts will prevail in a | court soldiers, where desertion is con- el the most Gespicable of crimes. } ‘Wonderful List : of Crimes, | In the 63 years that he has lived Skelly thas been swindler, desperado, train robber, | highwayman, Indian fighter, chief of police | on the frontier, soldier, a regularly grad- | uated physician, college man, forger, con- , vict and a reformer of equally hardened (then. What Skelly’s true name is will probably never be known, but to talk with | htm its to know that he was born to the side of life; that he has the breed- ng of one had sroupesonal oppor- tual es at some time in his life. t as considering the life he has led, that Skelly carries his 53 years as though they were not more than He is of medium height, — a clear-cut face thin lips, a scrawly jet-black mustache, and Gark eyes that are keen, alert and steady. nergy and abundant nervous force are » Stamped on every bit of his muscular frame. Skelly told the story of his wonderful life to the Post-Dispatch as he sat in the pris- oners’ pen at Yorkville police court await- ing his transfer to the hands of the federal authorities. If he told the worst about himself he certainly kept little of the facts of his evil-doing in reserve. He impressed ene with the sincerity that must have at- tracted Mrs. Booth, when he came to her 4 vear ago or so after she had touched his heart in Sing Sing prison, and that also made Mrs. McAlpin trust him with large sums of money. He said he was born tn London of a fam- ily of excellent social and pecuniary stand- ing. After passing through Latin school he attended the College of the City of Lon- den, and was such a good student that at 21 he was graduated not only from the col- lege, but from the medical school as well. After graduation a desire for adventure, and also the fact that he had developed Rome wild traits that displeased his par- ents, caused him to come to this country, and soon afterward he enlisted in the army. “My experience with the army was va- ried,’’ said he. ‘I would serve out a term of enlistment, then leave the service for wild: trips about the continent, spending much of my time in jail or dodging officers. In the army I served under Gen. Miles, fol- lowing him in all his daring campaigns against the Indians through the South- west. I was with the famous troop that chased Geronimo and his band of Stooay: Apaches until they were captured. ‘Later served with Lawton. And I want to tell you he was the right sort. No better man nor soldier ever lived than Gen. Lawton. “T rose from the ranks as Y served and held in succession different grades of petty officerships. When Gen. Shafter was in command of our regiment—he was colonel then--L was his sergeant-major—and the general can tell you I was always a good sareier. He has done me many a good urn. ’ Fought Sioux With Buffalo Bill. “Buffalo Bill is another whom I’ve served with. When he led the troops to hunt down the band of Sioux headed by Yellow Hand, I was along and in at the death when the —* fight came that wiped off the earth at band of red cutthroats. “These army experiences covered 2 years. not all of it in the army, for, as I have said when my enlistment would expire I woul start off for adventures, many of which ended by my doing time in jail. I practiced medicine for a time down in E] Paso, Tex played cowboy in Arizona, was a road agent in California—and that reminds me Se experience in a certain town in a | as can : re you the name. wante nh @& western stat or— well, it was a holdup—and I knew the eon I was in was getting too warm for me. You know, United Siates marshals get a good, big mileage for taking prisoners to the fed- eral penitentiaries, and if you are wise you may know that some federa!] judges have arrangements with marshals to go percent- age on the mileage rakeoff. ‘Being wise, went to a judge in this town I mentioned and confessed to a minor charge of swindling, after intimating to the judge certain things, and asked to be sent away. At the trial the prosecuting atior- ney asked for a sentence of 10 years, but the judge demurred, and said he guessed two years would do. Then he turned to me and inguired if 1 wanted to go to the feder- al pemeentiery in Illinois. ‘I'd rather go further east,’ I told him. “ ‘Well, how would Kings County, Brook- lyn, do’ “*‘Just right,’ I told him. I went. The judge and the marshal made about $400 pees. and | got free transportation a ong way from the spot I was most anxious © avoid, a8 well as a good place to hide n. “Of course, I can’t tell of all the thin I've done as a criminal, although the mes are all outlawed now. I've been k enough without telli about it. are few states in the unjon I haven't lone something in that meant prison walls [found out, and more than once I got the & morphine fiend, Ht right. of thea when a medical ioe Ad a us rah Be : eat aw nt y ne wa i. a. secs we api ok

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