Part Three: Catch & Release
In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, January 7, 1924, Reno County Sheriff Jesse Langford arrived by train in Kansas City for one purpose: to arrest Dr. Kenneth Uhls. He was also seeking clues regarding the whereabouts of George Elmer Davidson, believed to be the man who sold the preferred stock in the Uhls Clinic to the murder victim, Williams Gibbs. That same morning, Dr. Uhls notified Johnson County officials through his attorney, William S. McClintock, that he would appear in Olathe at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon and submit to arrest on a theft warrant. Much to the frustration of all involved, the doctor was a no-show. Later that evening, McClintock contacted Sheriff Langford to say his client was in a state of nervous shock and could not travel to Hutchinson at this time. When pressed, the attorney refused to reveal his client’s whereabouts, and further indicated that Mrs. Uhls, mother of a one-month-old daughter, is also in a nervous condition. The only assurance Sheriff Langford could obtain from McClintock was that when his client recovered from his “sickness” he would go to Hutchinson.
On Tuesday, January 8, Sheriff Langford learned that the other wanted man, George Davidson, lived in Ottumwa, Iowa. He promptly placed a phone call to the Wapello County sheriff’s office, seeking their assistance. When approached by local sheriffs seeking her husband’s whereabouts, Davidson’s wife replied that at present she didn’t know where he was. She confirmed that her husband was a traveling salesman and had recently sold stocks for the Uhls Clinic, but he hadn’t been home since Christmas. She then said she would make no further statement other than to protest her husband’s innocence of the charges in the warrant. Meanwhile, back in Overland Park, authorities concluded that Charles Westerhaven, the mystery man Uhls claimed to have approached him with power of attorney papers signed by Gibbs for the transfer of $102,000 in stock, was not a real person. They were convinced Uhls made up the whole story and no such man existed, nor did the witness who signed the power of attorney document. They concluded the signatures were forged. That same afternoon Johnson County authorities confirmed the identities of the two patients who left the sanitarium the previous week and were believed to be the men who robbed Louis Breyfogle of his bonds. The men were Frank Leonard, an ex-con from California, and Joe DiSalvo of Kansas City. A search began for both men.
Although Sheriff Langford had originally planned to leave late Tuesday and return to Hutchinson, he decided to stay an extra day. Although he kept very quiet, those around him believed he was is in possession of information about the whereabouts of Dr. Uhls. Instead, the sheriff had another plan to flush out the wanted doctor. Late in the evening on January 9, Langford arrested Uhls’s attorney, William S. McClintock, at his posh Country Club District home at 801 Westover Road. The arrest warrant accused the attorney of withholding information on his client’s whereabouts. He was promptly taken to Police Station #2. Meanwhile, it was learned that Uhls’ wife, Charlotte Uhls, tried to cash a check for $4500 at the Fidelity Trust Company at 1000 Grand Avenue the day prior, but was refused. And to further add to the doctor’s mounting problems, suit was filed before Overland Park Justice of the Peace, J.H. Baker, by City Ice Company against the Uhls Clinic for collection of $250 owed for ice delivered to the sanitarium.
Sheriff Langford’s gamble paid off. Dr. Uhls was apprehended at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 10, at the sanitarium of Dr. George Wilse Robinson, 8100 Independence Road. Uhls had been taken to the facility at 1:00 a.m. by Dr. Abraham Miller and Dr. Frank Hurwitt. Dr. Hurwitt explained to authorities that Uhls had come to them Wednesday evening and appealed for aid. He said he was without funds and needed treatments. Upon arriving at the sanitarium, Dr. Lynn Hershey was called into the dimly-lit lobby. Uhls, sitting on a couch, immediately recognized Dr. Hershey as a former classmate. Dr. Hershey reported Uhls was highly nervous but not insane. Uhls was allowed to retreat upstairs, where he quickly fell asleep. Dr. Hershey then informed Dr. Robinson that Uhls had been brought to his sanitarium. Dr. Robinson in turn called authorities.
After several hours of sleep, Dr. Uhls was taken to police headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas later that afternoon. In his cell, he told authorities how he had wandered from hotel to hotel in Kansas City the last few days, hoping the authorities would learn the truth in the mystery of the Gibbs stock transfer. He then went on to tell how his father started the sanitarium, and how it prospered under his supervision. But since his father’s passing the institution has fallen into the hands of receivers and all the family money was now gone. He revealed his wife had $10 when he last saw her a few days ago and that he only had $3 in his pockets. Then he broke down and wept.
Upon learning of Uhls’s arrest, Judge Thad B. Landon ordered the immediate release of jailed attorney, W. S. McClintock. And to cap off a very busy day Frank Leonard, one of the two men with arrest warrants for the robbery of Louis Breyfogle, surrendered to authorities in Olathe.
Friday morning at 3:30 a.m., Dr. Uhls arrived in Hutchinson on Santa Fe train #11. He was accompanied by Sheriff Jesse Langford and Kansas City area detective, Phil Kirk. Despite the early hour a sizeable number of people, including many women, were present to catch a glimpse of the doctor as he stepped off the train in handcuffs. Dr. Uhls was immediately taken to police headquarters, where mugshots and fingerprints were taken. The prints were then rushed to the sheriff’s office for comparison analysis to a fingerprint found on a letter which evidently had been taken from Gibb’s pocket by the murderer and subsequently dropped on the floor in the victim’s home. Initial analysis was inconclusive, but plans were made for further examination under a stronger microscope. After being placed in a jail cell, Dr. Uhls asked for a shaving razor. Since he had no time to pack any clothing before leaving Kansas City, he also requested a clean shirt. What was also clearly missing was any sign of the nervous conditions ascribed to him a few days earlier.
At noon, Dr. Uhls appeared before Hutchinson Justice of the Peace, T.F. Cox, where he entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of larceny of $102,000 worth of Uhls Clinic stock from W.E. Gibbs. Bond was set at $10,000. Representing Uhls was local attorney, William H. Burnett, who made an unsuccessful plea for a lower bond. The judge then set a preliminary hearing date of January 31. Unable to make bond, Uhls returned to jail after the arraignment. Throughout the arraignment, the doctor sat with his eyes downcast. His only spoken words were “not guilty.” Uhls’s attorney in Kansas City, William McClintock, was notified of the bond amount and indicated he would try to secure bond for him immediately.
When he returned to his jail cell, Dr. Uhls was visited by a number of reporters. “I have been so shamefully misconstrued on everything that I deem it advisable to talk only through counsel,” he said. His only other statement, made shortly thereafter, was “I do not think anyone in the world believes I killed Mr. Gibbs. I am the sacrifice to the public demand for an arrest.” Later in the afternoon, Sheriff Langford and others took Dr. Uhls to the crime scene: the home of William Gibbs, 13 Tenth Avenue East. They wanted to have him viewed by Mrs. Marion Hennessy, 17 Tenth Avenue East, who had told detectives that she saw a well-dressed man visit the home of Mr. Gibbs on the afternoon before his body was discovered early in the morning on December 30. She was able to describe the clothing worn by this man, whom she says first knocked at the front door and then went to the rear door. He came out of the front door about two hours later, she stated.
By Friday evening, detectives felt they had pieced together a motive for the crime. The sanitarium was about to float a bond issue, and the corporation needed to get hold of the preferred stock in order for the bond issue to proceed. Most of the stock was owned by Gibbs in Hutchinson, who most likely resisted any offer for the return of the stock.
Dr. Uhls spent little time in jail. He was released just before noon the next day, January 12, after his $10,000 bail was furnished by Timothy J. Lyons, a well-known Kansas City, Kansas, politician and former county commissioner. William Buck, a local Hutchinson attorney, was the surety on the bond. After hearing of the doctor’s release, county attorney Harry Brown immediately called Sheriff Jesse Langford and deputy prosecutor, Franklin Hettinger, and ordered Uhls be rearrested. Were more serious charges coming, and was Uhls considered a flight risk? “We have plenty of charges we can make,” said Mr. Hettinger. “Right now, our chief concern is getting him.” The order to rearrest Dr. Uhls came as a surprise to the sheriff and deputy prosecutor, who could only conclude that Brown had additional information on Uhls.
Immediately after his release, Dr. Uhls spent an hour with his local attorneys. He told them he was leaving that afternoon for Kansas City. Dr. Uhls had no official statement to make to the press, only a reiteration of a previous declaration that he would do anything within his power to aid the authorities in “clearing up the mysterious theft of the stock and the subsequent murder of Mr. Gibbs.” He was in good spirits as he left the jail. Dr. Uhls’s counsel stated after his release he was leaving immediately but did not say exactly how he was leaving. The fact that he did not take Santa Fe train #2 indicated he expected his rearrest was imminent. Authorities theorized he either drove back to Kansas City, or took an interurban car to Newton, Kansas, and from there caught an eastbound train.
Meanwhile, one report which reached Hutchinson on Saturday afternoon was that William S. McClintock, Uhls’s Kansas City attorney, planned to swear to a warrant charging Sheriff Langford with kidnapping him. Sheriff Langford did not appear worried over the prospect, stating that he considered McClintock’s arrest was, indirectly at least, responsible for the capture of Dr. Uhls, who for three days evaded the Reno County sheriff.
In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, January 7, 1924, Reno County Sheriff Jesse Langford arrived by train in Kansas City for one purpose: to arrest Dr. Kenneth Uhls. He was also seeking clues regarding the whereabouts of George Elmer Davidson, believed to be the man who sold the preferred stock in the Uhls Clinic to the murder victim, Williams Gibbs. That same morning, Dr. Uhls notified Johnson County officials through his attorney, William S. McClintock, that he would appear in Olathe at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon and submit to arrest on a theft warrant. Much to the frustration of all involved, the doctor was a no-show. Later that evening, McClintock contacted Sheriff Langford to say his client was in a state of nervous shock and could not travel to Hutchinson at this time. When pressed, the attorney refused to reveal his client’s whereabouts, and further indicated that Mrs. Uhls, mother of a one-month-old daughter, is also in a nervous condition. The only assurance Sheriff Langford could obtain from McClintock was that when his client recovered from his “sickness” he would go to Hutchinson.
On Tuesday, January 8, Sheriff Langford learned that the other wanted man, George Davidson, lived in Ottumwa, Iowa. He promptly placed a phone call to the Wapello County sheriff’s office, seeking their assistance. When approached by local sheriffs seeking her husband’s whereabouts, Davidson’s wife replied that at present she didn’t know where he was. She confirmed that her husband was a traveling salesman and had recently sold stocks for the Uhls Clinic, but he hadn’t been home since Christmas. She then said she would make no further statement other than to protest her husband’s innocence of the charges in the warrant. Meanwhile, back in Overland Park, authorities concluded that Charles Westerhaven, the mystery man Uhls claimed to have approached him with power of attorney papers signed by Gibbs for the transfer of $102,000 in stock, was not a real person. They were convinced Uhls made up the whole story and no such man existed, nor did the witness who signed the power of attorney document. They concluded the signatures were forged. That same afternoon Johnson County authorities confirmed the identities of the two patients who left the sanitarium the previous week and were believed to be the men who robbed Louis Breyfogle of his bonds. The men were Frank Leonard, an ex-con from California, and Joe DiSalvo of Kansas City. A search began for both men.
Although Sheriff Langford had originally planned to leave late Tuesday and return to Hutchinson, he decided to stay an extra day. Although he kept very quiet, those around him believed he was is in possession of information about the whereabouts of Dr. Uhls. Instead, the sheriff had another plan to flush out the wanted doctor. Late in the evening on January 9, Langford arrested Uhls’s attorney, William S. McClintock, at his posh Country Club District home at 801 Westover Road. The arrest warrant accused the attorney of withholding information on his client’s whereabouts. He was promptly taken to Police Station #2. Meanwhile, it was learned that Uhls’ wife, Charlotte Uhls, tried to cash a check for $4500 at the Fidelity Trust Company at 1000 Grand Avenue the day prior, but was refused. And to further add to the doctor’s mounting problems, suit was filed before Overland Park Justice of the Peace, J.H. Baker, by City Ice Company against the Uhls Clinic for collection of $250 owed for ice delivered to the sanitarium.
Sheriff Langford’s gamble paid off. Dr. Uhls was apprehended at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 10, at the sanitarium of Dr. George Wilse Robinson, 8100 Independence Road. Uhls had been taken to the facility at 1:00 a.m. by Dr. Abraham Miller and Dr. Frank Hurwitt. Dr. Hurwitt explained to authorities that Uhls had come to them Wednesday evening and appealed for aid. He said he was without funds and needed treatments. Upon arriving at the sanitarium, Dr. Lynn Hershey was called into the dimly-lit lobby. Uhls, sitting on a couch, immediately recognized Dr. Hershey as a former classmate. Dr. Hershey reported Uhls was highly nervous but not insane. Uhls was allowed to retreat upstairs, where he quickly fell asleep. Dr. Hershey then informed Dr. Robinson that Uhls had been brought to his sanitarium. Dr. Robinson in turn called authorities.
After several hours of sleep, Dr. Uhls was taken to police headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas later that afternoon. In his cell, he told authorities how he had wandered from hotel to hotel in Kansas City the last few days, hoping the authorities would learn the truth in the mystery of the Gibbs stock transfer. He then went on to tell how his father started the sanitarium, and how it prospered under his supervision. But since his father’s passing the institution has fallen into the hands of receivers and all the family money was now gone. He revealed his wife had $10 when he last saw her a few days ago and that he only had $3 in his pockets. Then he broke down and wept.
Upon learning of Uhls’s arrest, Judge Thad B. Landon ordered the immediate release of jailed attorney, W. S. McClintock. And to cap off a very busy day Frank Leonard, one of the two men with arrest warrants for the robbery of Louis Breyfogle, surrendered to authorities in Olathe.
Friday morning at 3:30 a.m., Dr. Uhls arrived in Hutchinson on Santa Fe train #11. He was accompanied by Sheriff Jesse Langford and Kansas City area detective, Phil Kirk. Despite the early hour a sizeable number of people, including many women, were present to catch a glimpse of the doctor as he stepped off the train in handcuffs. Dr. Uhls was immediately taken to police headquarters, where mugshots and fingerprints were taken. The prints were then rushed to the sheriff’s office for comparison analysis to a fingerprint found on a letter which evidently had been taken from Gibb’s pocket by the murderer and subsequently dropped on the floor in the victim’s home. Initial analysis was inconclusive, but plans were made for further examination under a stronger microscope. After being placed in a jail cell, Dr. Uhls asked for a shaving razor. Since he had no time to pack any clothing before leaving Kansas City, he also requested a clean shirt. What was also clearly missing was any sign of the nervous conditions ascribed to him a few days earlier.
At noon, Dr. Uhls appeared before Hutchinson Justice of the Peace, T.F. Cox, where he entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of larceny of $102,000 worth of Uhls Clinic stock from W.E. Gibbs. Bond was set at $10,000. Representing Uhls was local attorney, William H. Burnett, who made an unsuccessful plea for a lower bond. The judge then set a preliminary hearing date of January 31. Unable to make bond, Uhls returned to jail after the arraignment. Throughout the arraignment, the doctor sat with his eyes downcast. His only spoken words were “not guilty.” Uhls’s attorney in Kansas City, William McClintock, was notified of the bond amount and indicated he would try to secure bond for him immediately.
When he returned to his jail cell, Dr. Uhls was visited by a number of reporters. “I have been so shamefully misconstrued on everything that I deem it advisable to talk only through counsel,” he said. His only other statement, made shortly thereafter, was “I do not think anyone in the world believes I killed Mr. Gibbs. I am the sacrifice to the public demand for an arrest.” Later in the afternoon, Sheriff Langford and others took Dr. Uhls to the crime scene: the home of William Gibbs, 13 Tenth Avenue East. They wanted to have him viewed by Mrs. Marion Hennessy, 17 Tenth Avenue East, who had told detectives that she saw a well-dressed man visit the home of Mr. Gibbs on the afternoon before his body was discovered early in the morning on December 30. She was able to describe the clothing worn by this man, whom she says first knocked at the front door and then went to the rear door. He came out of the front door about two hours later, she stated.
By Friday evening, detectives felt they had pieced together a motive for the crime. The sanitarium was about to float a bond issue, and the corporation needed to get hold of the preferred stock in order for the bond issue to proceed. Most of the stock was owned by Gibbs in Hutchinson, who most likely resisted any offer for the return of the stock.
Dr. Uhls spent little time in jail. He was released just before noon the next day, January 12, after his $10,000 bail was furnished by Timothy J. Lyons, a well-known Kansas City, Kansas, politician and former county commissioner. William Buck, a local Hutchinson attorney, was the surety on the bond. After hearing of the doctor’s release, county attorney Harry Brown immediately called Sheriff Jesse Langford and deputy prosecutor, Franklin Hettinger, and ordered Uhls be rearrested. Were more serious charges coming, and was Uhls considered a flight risk? “We have plenty of charges we can make,” said Mr. Hettinger. “Right now, our chief concern is getting him.” The order to rearrest Dr. Uhls came as a surprise to the sheriff and deputy prosecutor, who could only conclude that Brown had additional information on Uhls.
Immediately after his release, Dr. Uhls spent an hour with his local attorneys. He told them he was leaving that afternoon for Kansas City. Dr. Uhls had no official statement to make to the press, only a reiteration of a previous declaration that he would do anything within his power to aid the authorities in “clearing up the mysterious theft of the stock and the subsequent murder of Mr. Gibbs.” He was in good spirits as he left the jail. Dr. Uhls’s counsel stated after his release he was leaving immediately but did not say exactly how he was leaving. The fact that he did not take Santa Fe train #2 indicated he expected his rearrest was imminent. Authorities theorized he either drove back to Kansas City, or took an interurban car to Newton, Kansas, and from there caught an eastbound train.
Meanwhile, one report which reached Hutchinson on Saturday afternoon was that William S. McClintock, Uhls’s Kansas City attorney, planned to swear to a warrant charging Sheriff Langford with kidnapping him. Sheriff Langford did not appear worried over the prospect, stating that he considered McClintock’s arrest was, indirectly at least, responsible for the capture of Dr. Uhls, who for three days evaded the Reno County sheriff.
