Did Not Want To Return Here

John Beck Protested Against Coming Home

THE POLICE APPEALED TO

Only When Beck was Threatened With Arrest Did He Agree to Come Back to This City

John Beck, who so mysteriously disappeared from this city on March 18 last, and whose absence has caused his friends a great deal of worry, returned here from Toledo Monday afternoon. He was accompanied by Jake Gwinner, Alfred Paul and Leslie Walker, of this city.

The man was evidently in a very troubled state of mind and it was thought best that he should be taken to the home of his brother-inlaw, Gus Jedele, who lives near Lodi, where he might have quiet. He went there Monday evening.

Beck was found at Lafayette and Ontario streets in Toledo Monday forenoon by Mr. Gwinner and the latter’s companions. When Beck’s Ann Arbor friends asked him to return home he vigorously objected, saying that it was his intention to go to Cleveland and not return to Ann Arbor.

“They’re after me there,” he protested to Mr. Gwinner. “and I will not go back.”

Beck was then asked where he was staying in Toledo. He took Mr. Gwinner and Messrs. Paul and Walker to a hotel located in the vicinity of the Toledo central police station. Here Beck pointed to his baggage, saying that he had it packed and ready to take with him to Cleveland on an evening train.

“I’M IN TROUBLE” HE SAID.

Kindly persuasion on the part of Gwinner and the other men to have Beck return to Ann was futile. He was bound that he would go to Cleveland, repeatedly declaring, “I’m in trouble, I will not go back.”

Drastic measures were then resorted to. The Toledo police were communicated with, and an officer was soon at the hotel interviewing the apparently demented man.

In company with the police officer, Mr. Gwinner and the others of the party, Beck was taken to the office of the chief of police, where he was again prevailed upon to return to his home. Still Beck would not be persuaded. He was then threatened with arrest and told he would be locked up if he did not return with his friends.

The threat had the desired effect and Beck accompanied by Messrs. Gwinner, Paul and Walker, walked to the railroad station, where the afternoon train was taken for Ann Arbor. The party arrived here at 4:56 o’clock.

Mr. Gwinner says that shortly after the train had left Toledo Beck began to rue his agreement to come home. He insisted on getting off the train at Pittsfield. When he found that his companions would not allow him to do this, he declared, “Then I’ll get off at Ypsilanti,” forgetting that the latter town was not on the line of the road.

When Ann Arbor was reached, the train was met by Deputy Sheriff Kelsey, who had previously been notified by telegram from Mr. Gwinner that Beck was on the train. He was taken to the Sheriff’s office, where it was decided by relatives that Beck should go to his brother-in-law in the country above stated.

HAD A FAT ROLL.

During the trip from Toledo here Beck told Mr. Gwinner that when he left Ann Arbor he had $150 in his possession. The half of this had been spent, Beck having only $75 when he reached here.

When he was asked to give the cause for his sudden departure he merely replied: “I’m in trouble, it would not interest anyone to know anything more.” Further than this Beck was close mouthed, as to the motive for his hasty exit from the city.

He explained, however, that when he left here he went directly to Detroit, where he remained one day. From Detroit he went to Toledo. This assertion is borne out by the hotel people who say that Beck was in Toledo for over a month.

Leslie Walker, who particularly noticed Beck’s appearance when he met him in Toledo, says that Beck wore an especially distracted look. His eyes were swelled and he had an appearance such as is noticed in persons who are in a state of dementia. Beck was walking along the street with his hands behind his back and looking vacantly about him. When he was met by Mr. Walker and his companions, he had $79 in his pocket.

The part of town in which Beck was found is on the border of one of the toughest localities in Toledo. If it had been known by some of the habitués of this section that Beck had had so much money on his person, it is a nine to one chance that he would have been quickly relieved of it and might possibly have been killed in the effort to take it away from him.