Vandecar

It is almost a year since banker Mead was foully murdered. It is about eight months since Vandecar was put in jail here as being accessory to the crime. Since that time no particular developments have transpired to make the matter more positive or conclusive. A letter was sent to the sheriff from Miles City, MT claiming that some bird who had escaped from jail there had said something about the Mead murder. And now it is claimed that Jack Reilly who was brutally killed by brutal men in the Stevens Point calaboose knew something about the terrible Mead murder and Alfred Vandecar’s connection with it. But as “dead men tell no tales,” perhaps the public will never be any the wiser for what Jack Reilly knew about it, unless Vandecar chooses to tell what he knows about it. The Sentinel correspondent from this city seems to think that in the death of “Buckskin Jack” the State has lost an important witness and says: “The sheriff and detectives have been positive all along that Reilly knew more about the murder than he chose to tell. In fact, it was well known that he knew the whole story, and if not directly interested, was an accessory prius et ost defacto. He had not been subpoenaed yet, but a sharp watch was being kept as to his whereabouts, so as to have him on hand when wanted. Vandecar is still in jail awaiting his trial which will occur in January. The Sentinel correspondent called on the alleged murderer today, and for the first time the man was informed of the death of Reilly. He seemed much interested upon learning the facts, and with a knowing wink he said: “Now let ‘em do their best.”

[THE REPUBLICAN – Friday, August 31,1883 – Jack Reilly, the notorious “Buckskin Jack,” a well known bad character of northern Wisconsin, who has been keeping a disreputable den at Stevens Point, for assaulting a railroad boy with brass knuckles last week was arrested and placed in the calaboose on Thursday. In the night a party went to the place where he was confined and riddled him with bullets. Although it was a cold- blooded murder, in one sense, in another, it was only a taking off of a desperate villain and the community seemed to breathe easier when they heard he was dead. It is an awful thing to contemplate that whisky, bad women, and bad practices generally will so degrade a man, that when he is once rid of, no matter how, all decent people are wild with delight. And it’s just such places that that railroad boy was visiting, that will make railroad or other boys as bad as Jack Reilly.]