Salt Lake Tribune

23 January 1914

Page 4

 

 

HIGHWAY ROBBERY

          IS ALSO CHARGED

          __________

 

San Pedro Chief of Police

    Declares Hillstrom Is

         Wanted There.

          __________

 

            Joe Hillstrom, charged with the murders of John G. Morrison and his son John A. Morrison on the night of January 10, and Otto Applequist, said to have been a companion of Hillstrom and who is now being sought by the police, are the same men who committed highway robbery in San Pedro, Cal. Last spring, according to a dispatch received by the Chief of Police Grant yesterday from the San Pedro chief of police.

            It is stated in the dispatch that the descriptions of Hillstrom and Applequist, which have been sent to every city in the United States by the Salt Lake police department, correspond in every detail with the descriptions of the men who are being sought for the San Pedro highway robbery.  The San Pedro chief believes Hillstrom and Applequist are professional criminals and that in the detention of Hillstrom the Salt Lake officials have the murder of Morrison. 

            The dispatch reads as follows:

           

“They held up a street car here in San Pedro last May and left town the same night.  Hillstrom returned and on June 4, 1913, I arrested him, but neither the car crew not any of the passengers were able to identify him as he had his face covered with a black veil.

                        I recovered the veil hat and overcoat which Hillstrom wore at the time of the holdup, which were identified by the conductor of the car; the said clothing having been stolen from the house in which Hillstrom had roomed at that time. 

                        Hillstrom pleaded guilty to a charge of vagrancy and served thirty days in the city jail, and upon his release he disappeared. 

           

According to members of the Esilus family, at whose house in Murray Hillstrom was arrested by Chief of Police Fred Peters of Murray on January 14, they had known Hillstrom and Applequist at San Pedro last spring and Hillstrom had visited them t their home in Murray early last July.  

            Applequist, according to the San Pedro chief, is well known in Seattle and in Alaska, and the San Pedro official is of the belief that Applequist might have fled to the northwest.  Applequist is said to have written songs for the I.W.W. song books.