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Show Stealing Cows Still Is Risky Prize Calf Kicks Man Into Raft of Troubles HUDSON, WIS. They don't string you up any more for selling cattle you don't own, but you can get into a heap of trouble. Especially Espe-cially if you're wanted in three states for forgery and for violating federal parole. That's what a fellow who called himself Jack Desmond learned. All he had done, believed Lawrence Hope, St. Croix county sheriff, was to sell a registered bull calf he didn't own to Charles Reimer of Lakeland, Minn., for $75. By the time the FBI had finished routine checks Desmond was under $10,000 bail and authorities were urguing which charge to try him on. They said that Desmond's story started whvn he had just been re- leased from the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kas., and picked on the Hudson area as a good place to settle down. He got a job at the Houser-Interlachen dairy, about 15 miles from here. He met Mrs. Victor J. Barnum, a well to do 47 year old widow. Desmond, who is 36, said that he was 41. He courted and won Mrs. Barnum and quit his job. On Oct. 8 he was married. A few days later he sold the dairy's prize calf to Reimer. A couple of days later he and his bride left on an extended western trip. A charge of selling the calf under false pretenses was gotten out against Desmond. The bride's mother, Mrs. Victor Johnson, became suspicious over the repeated requests for money and war bonds she was receiving from the couple. Desmond and his wife returned here and he promptly demanded that his mother-in-law give him the key to their safety deposit box. She refused. He went to the courthouse to get a court order forcing her to give him the key. But Mrs. Johnson, the mother-in-law, had beaten him there. She voiced her suspicions to Dist. Atty. U. F. Gwin. Gwin was glad to know that Desmond was back in town. When Desmond showed up for his court order the sheriff arrested him for the calf sale. |