THE WEYAUWEGA CHRONICLE

January 27, 1883

 

MEAD’S MURDERERS

 

            Slowly and surely the lines have been gathering around the murderers of H. C. Mead, until now the net has been pulled in, the result being the confinement of Alfred Vandecar, Tom Welsch and Charley Freeman.  It is not thought that Welsch was at Waupaca or took an active hand in the job, but that he is acquainted with the particulars and can a tale unfold that will throw some light upon the deed.  Welsch is 22 years of age.  He is about 5-1/2 feet tall and rather thick set.  He is often called “Stub” Welsch.  He said that at the time of the murder, Oct. 7, he was tending bar in a saloon at Stevens Point and was quite intimate with Vandecar and Freeman.  In fact the trio had put up a few jobs on different individuals, and finding that they worked well together, Vandecar conceived the idea of bagging bigger game.  Freeman used to be an engineer on a Central gravel train, and was somewhat familiar with Waupaca, having stopped there quite often.  One night when he and Vandecar were planning some way to make another raise, Freeman mentioned the fact of there being a rich old banker down at Waupaca, who had thousands of dollars in his safe, and if they had that money they could “fly high.”  One thing led to another, until it was agreed that they should go down and take the lay of the land.  This they did several days before the murder. They found that the banker slept in the bank; that there was a window in the rear of the building through which they could gain an entrance to his sleeping room, overpower him in his bed, bind and gag him, then rob the safe and make good their escape.  They decided upon Saturday night as the most opportune for the deed.  In the afternoon of that day Vandecar called Welsch aside asked him what he was going to do during the coming winter.  Welsch replied that he was going to work in the words.  Vandecar then told him that he and Freeman had cooked up a little job, and that if he wanted to go in with them he could make more money in two hours than he could by working in the woods for three winters.  Welsch, for some reason, concluded not to go, and Vandecar and Freeman took the train south on that fatal Saturday evening.  Nothing further could be got from Welsch on the subject.  He said that in a day or two he might be able to say something more.  On Saturday Freeman was arrested at Marshfield, where he was working in a sawmill.  At first he pleaded entire ignorance and pretended never to have been at Waupaca, and never to have been acquainted with Vandecar or Welsch.  He persisted that he knew nothing of the murder.  The detectives know this to be all gammon, and are confident that within a few days one of the murderers will confess.  Freeman is confined in the Portage county jail.

            The information which led to the arrest of Welsch is presumed to have been gained, in part at least, from one of the demmonde of Stevens Point.  She claims, so we are informed by a party to whom she told the story, that she heard Vandecar ask a man whether “he ever did any night work,” and whether he had a gun.  The man replied that he never had, but that he wasn’t afraid to take a hand, or words to that effect.  The woman did not give the name of the man to whom Vandecar’s conversation was addressed, but claims that she talked to him, and advised him not to engage in any scheme suggested by Vandecar’s remarks.  Welsch is alleged to have been on intimate terms with the woman making this statement, and is supposed to be the man alluded to by her.