King Gilbert05

Waupaca County Post

Prime Time

March 2, 2006

When Waupaca Was Young

By Dan Nerhaugen

A local desperado gave justice the slip 100 years ago this week.

Atop the front page of the March 1, 1906, Waupaca Post was an item that began, “Sheriff Hess, for the first time in the nearly six years he has been sheriff and under-sheriff, has had a prisoner escape from him. He went to Clintonville last Friday and arrested Gilbert K- on the charge of having burglarized the Blue Front restaurant this winter, and was bringing him home by train, when [Gilbert] went to the toilet room, and, although the train was running 30 miles an hour, he opened the window and jumped. Sheriff Hess went back after him as soon as he reached Appleton, but was unable to find him. He has notified the officers in various parts of the state to be on the lookout for him, and he will probably be caught in a few days.

“Before [he] got away, he told Mr. Hess that he had been the man who had committed the petty burglaries in this city this winter and he also implicated his brother, Robert … who was arrested Friday, and is now in jail awaiting a hearing. [He] is a typical country town tough, never having been known to do a day’s honest toil, spending his time hanging around saloons and bowling alleys.”

The following week’s Post reported, “The young tough who skipped out of a car window while in the custody of the sheriff, was caught at Weyauwega last Saturday, brought to the city by Constable Fred Bellinger that afternoon, and is safely locked up in the county jail. He and his brother were taken before Justice Scott on Monday, and their examination postponed until March 14.

“He went to Appleton after making his escape, and from there came to this city, arriving here Sunday morning. He stayed here with his mother until early the next morning, when he left, and was next heard from at Merrill, where, on Thursday, he was taken into custody, and again made his escape, though the officers fired three shots at him.

“He next turned up at Abbotsford, Friday night, and took the Saturday morning limited train for Fond du Lac, where he just escaped the officers by taking another train north. When the train reached Weyauwega he jumped off, and ran into Officer Bellinger’s arms, who had been notified by Sheriff Hess to be on the lookout for him. If he had not left the train there, Mr. Hess was prepared to watch every inch of track in this city, and would have caught him here.”