MOMENTS IN TIME: Robbery Earns Pair Seven Years in 1931

(03/22/2024)
Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm of the Calhoun Chronicle dated 10/29/1931.

Casey Carpenter Nabbed in Stumptown Robbery

The spotlight was again thrown on Casey Carpenter last week, but this time it will be at the expense of Gilmer county.  Monday of last week Carpenter and James Nichols were caught in the act of robbing the store and residence of Ott Poling at Stumptown.

It will be remembered that Carpenter was tried twice in the Calhoun county circuit court on a charge of assault on members of the Nichols family.  In neither trial could the jury arrive at a verdict.  Casey spent the greater part of the last year in the local jail where his imitations of a freight locomotive whistling for the water tank earned him this sobriquet.

Mr. Poling was awakened early Monday morning by prowlers in his store and investigating found Carpenter and Nichols in the room.  Missing nothing from the premises, Mr. Poling turned the pair loose.  Later he discovered that $15 in gold was missing from a trunk and called the state police who apprehended Carpenter at a home on Sand Ridge in this county.  They were taken to Glenville and after indictment by the grand jury, then in session, confessed to a charge of robbery and were sentenced to seven years in the state penitentiary.

Carpenter has a long record behind him.  While in the local jail he proudly boasted to residents of Grantsville that out of eighteen years he had only five days freedom.  Considering his age of 24 years this is likely an exaggeration but there is no doubt that he will feel quite at home at Moundsville.