Show THE SAL! LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING DECEMBER 29 1935 f 100 Crimes Children Though They Were the Incorrigible Gonce Youngsters Terrorized a Mountain Region— and NotforTen Years Could the He ' Men of the Law Put Them Both Behind the Bars ft yt r Vv f ft gr$ f J V-- U' v JL 7': ' v 7 i' Vf$ ' it V “ i ' togqfc Y pf W£' j AI t k j i ir M Kf TMf I j VV! 'Ki ? i? ' THAT IN THESE ICY FASTNESSE- Sth Bey Bandit Holsd-U- p Between Jobs and All A Stats’ Police and Soldiers Couldn’t Run Then Out This Photo Was Taken Near Rye Colorado and Some where In the Mountain in the Background the Two Brothers Had It Hidden Care Which the Authorities Nerer Found w ' ' i ‘ ’ ANY good citizens smiled know- ingly and there were not a few sly winks in Pueblo Colorado the other day when the police quietly announced that their star witness had " mysteriously disappeared so they would be unable to bring Lester Gonce Jr to trial as an1 habitual criminat and put him in prison for life as they had hoped "" It wasn’t that the residents of th believed Rocky Mountain beauty-spo- t ! that their police were insincere’ Rather was simply more proof of the well mown fact that when the grown-u- p of the law tangled with the Gonce ’youngsters law and order usually earn out on the small end of the deal Thus the smiles and the winks Not once but a hundred times in ten years this had been so it seemed And the result was that the two Gonce “baby bandits' enjoyed a unique status among It’s in human nature ap- parently to want to see a kid get away from a cop and plenty of folks in the mountain towns rather got a kick out of the “Bad Boy Bandits” although no less than 100 crimes were charged up against them The colorful manner in which they dothed their misdeeds and evaded - the posses brought them undisputed ranking as Junior No 1 an$ Junior No ' 2 of the wild-wepublic enemies— a ranking incidentally which was dear to their hearts f pom childhood I An$ most spectacular of all was th ‘little matter of a stolen gun which weaves through th narrative of their ' nefarious exploits to lend a tang to an unusual saga of Th Gonees first leaped into proml-nenback in 1928 when Lester Jr and his brother Forrest both in their very early ’teens decided they wanted to be range gough-rider- s “Seeing men wearing hoots and biff hat and packing guns' that it what did it" their mother once They stole a revolver a explained pearlhandled weapon belonging to a farmer on whose ranch their father worked So armed they stole an auto ' which they soon abandoned for a couple of horses and topped it off by stealing a saddle before they were caught and sent to a reform school Inside of thirty days they had escaped twice and the last escape was a pre- lude to crime on a grand scale In a 7 few days police officers in Garden City Kan surprised ths two boys stealing ' gasoline from a parked car to fill the tank of their stolen machine There was a gun battle in which a hole was shot " ‘ 7 ar 8 t - their surprise upon arriving at th “abandoned” car when up popped the Gonce kids hidden behind it and held them up I The deputies had to surrender their suto their and badges and all their money to the two Gonce youngsters— and the losses themselves were as nothing compared with the guy- lng the officers took when they returned to Pueblo afoot and told their rueful tale ( ( The bad boys soon abandoned this car and holed-u- p in a mountain hideaway near Rye Colorado from whence they could make their frequent crime forays They struck rapidly and soon had a larder of ' stolen food in their cave an arsenal which would do credit to 'an army ' TRAILS END LOOK Unusual Camera Study of Forreit Gone Older of th Two Boy Bandit At 23 This Sullen Youth Already Has a Ten-YeRecord of Crime He’ in Prison Now Serving a Long Term for Hi Misdeeds 1 JLest SENIOR Gonce of Bed Boy Whoeo Conduct ' Bewildered t h a Posies — the F ther'e Killinf of M 'Father " I Two ( Deputy We a r Sheriff Sequel to Son’ Hie reers of crime! At that time the weapon was returned to the owner but now the police kept it At his trial Gonce acknowledged the killing but pleaded “qot guilty by reason of insanity” But although the state asylum head told the court that he was sane yet the jury because acquitted him of insanity I And inasmuch as the state ex- Sr the Eea-pa- d perts had already bank holdups and auto called him sane the thefts he was finally State had tp free him shot by sheriff's officers Then early this who surrounded him in Lester Gonce an Ordway Colorado Jear was paroled Not house rooming Within a few weeks he critically wounded he was again sought on was put in a cell and camp and but mansuspicion achool was let out for more than l aged to evade the in cash— the day so that the chilauthorities with his dren and others could lalcen e cunning until fils through the county ln ra d®' they surrounded him ' jail and gaze upon the in a rooming bouse surrendered to wounded “bad boy” in t and overpowered him his prison lair Then before he could draw Forrest was returned to ostthe n one of the three revolto the moment tame penitentiary t vers stuck in his belt the sheriff's of- serve out the unexpired vV y He was sent back to fice 1 e a r n e d years of his heavy sen’ the penitentiary te A VICTIM I tence that Lester serve the remaining 18 For a year the Gonce Cbarle L Fiieus Deputy Jr hd been months of his term e n walking family with both boys Sheriff Slain by Laiter Gonce Sr Because— (Right) in jail (Lester was sen©penlythrough By this time as yon tenced to serve from six can imagine the auth center of town thorities were fed up And as fate would to eight years for one of his bank rob- where the with the Gonees and have it Deputy Sherberies) kept pretty muqh nut of the fateful iff Fiseus who had newspapers Then one nignt former gun theme they decided to put suffered loss of his car Deputy Sheriff Fiseus who had retired entered away young Lester for THIS HANDSOME LAD— life on a fourth conand star and taken a and become a farmer was called to the Was BulShot and Fiseus’ Crippled by door of hia home and instantly phot to viction— this time for fine razzing in conselets This Is Lester Gonce Jr Younger Gonce had a storq robbem' But quence was ths first death tho of Bandits Boy a on the eve of tha trial officer to run across - Police worked diligently and finally arrested Lester Gonce Sr father of the friend’s the State’s star witth youth ' ‘ ' Lester started 'to boys and charged him with the murder gun tod slay Fiseus — and it was the same ness disappeared! FATEFUL GUN denied it but finally told everyzevolver which had been ' Give us adult bandits to cope with pull a gup Fiseus af- - Gonce when Actual Photo of the the gun used in the killing stolen several years before by his two every time — so Colorado’s police now thing and stated terward That the street was- soon filled with was placed before him And this was sons when they bad first set out on ca- - fervently aver all in one breath 7 Played Such an Imflying lead Fiseus emptied his portant Part iu the weapon and Lester fell to the tho of Saga t sidewalk critically wounded - Gone Family it Wa Stole u Witnesses claimed that the offl-- 1 cer had shot the boy four times Year Ago by after he had fallen helplessly to Bor tai is much of the sidewalk bub this Fiseus Their First ' and Oriental denied Crime — Six hotly Years Later® 7-- In most cities a deputy sheriff loveliness in San Francla Their Father who beat a desperado to the draw eo’s famous Chinatown— but Ued It to would have been greatly hon-- ’ if toyou ‘Were to visit there ©red But that night a lynch SUyHisSon's fifteen-' or a ten after minded group of several hundred day Captor 1 would b ' citizens swarmed around Fiseus yea? absence you Fa : chang ‘ home i They were held at bay aurprised by th which has come over it officers armed 35 long enough by A young generation has " fof the deputy to escape up This striking 7 grown In the meantime Forrest who had at the right photograph surrendered confessed to several tells the storyrauch better Crimea and within 24 hours he was than words Hera we see sentenced to asm from 20 to 30 two n genuine in state at tha years penitentiary beauties" right fresh Canon City Lester finally recov- ' from the marcelle 7 ered and hobbling on crutches r gowned in Jhe exoticallyshop went back to public school while he of their" silk was awaiting trial Here his bright- ancestral Pajamas land And they ness and attention to his lessons wear slippers I :l t He was won his teacher's praise Moreover they’re purchase finally acquitted and his shooting language 7 became an election issue which de- lng tan English from a little newspaper feated the incumbent sheriff who Chinese boy who is dressed had appointed Fiscua a deputy! w in the brightly colored tffJr After this Lester moved to Ra- - blouse and apron of all Ori- - ' ton New Mexioo and apparently ental youngsters! And the smiles on the pretty girls' reformed He prospered by operatfaces are very a small radio store Forrest ing FIRST DEFENDER— THEN PROSECUTOR in prison soon became a trusty as quite 1938 United States of x J Arthur Phelps Prominent Pueblo Attorney Snapped at Hi Desk Early a reward for his' good behavior America smiles in fact in the Gone Boy Career He Acted a Their Then one day1' he escaped in d Chinatown near the Gold- -' Then After He Was Lewyn ' Elected District Attorney He Sent Them to Prison for Their Crime guard’s car A few hours later en Gate has not changed I found him in Raton—and it took much in architectural ap7 v- i ( him only a few minutes to eonvinct pearance— but a vast dei Gtrough tha hat of one ©f the officers By this tim ths whole state was th “reformed” Lester that ths two velopment has taken place But no one was injured The boys es-- 4 Muse& f Hundreds of thrill seekers should start out on another round of in nearly every other way Joined the sheriff’s posses which wera crimej taped t 7 Its residents wear their do- 7 y hm v'Yn ui'i beating through the mountains Even Th youngsters returned to Colorado corative Oriental costumes' During a week’s rims they were credstole another car and then burglarized the National Guard waa called out ited with stealing eight autos robbing and retain many a store stocking up on ammunition bloodhounds were brought to th scene five stores of food money and ammuni- iog custom of the East but speak English fluently guns and food The following day their and a dozen iirplaties manned by crack tion and three banka of better than they ana often with a rood uni-- v " stolen car ran out of gasoline and a marksmen set out to run tbs youngsters $1000 in cash The boys operated withth out masks and defied the authorities at versity accent' And th 1st- passing motorist reported an automo-bil- e into tho open But all were unsuccesturn Finally Lester was cap- est development is a newsabandoned Under-sheriF R sful Th prey waa too small to be caught every ' paper published by a Chinheld in jail at Raton and tured ! Daniel and Deputy Charles U Fiseus ese editor strictly f r of Pueblo were sent out to investigate Law and order cam out on the small Forrest singlehanded captured that Chinatown readers bat —— 'Ada Ths deputies not suspecting it was a end of th deal locked cell he couldn’t But which a jaili The Photographer Caught These Two Chineso-Americprinted in English— well Beauties bandit-ca- r The boy left the mountains after a open shot rabbits en route Orieotal VVaring him his from "springing" that makes the cycle of kept Pajamas and High Healed American Slippers Buying th Firet e their ammunition News Picture tima and went to Pueblo where Forrest brother After series of single hsnded progress quite complete paper Published for Chines Readers he-m- en " d' l $1-0- 00 tjf e Nc r rs old-tim- f a -- ' st i4 boy-cri- ce again med pearl-handle- ' A - ‘ V There : ? Chinese-Ameri-ea- dol-or- ed high-heel- ‘ i 'j i f ‘ W 4 ‘ long-stand- -' ' ff -- aa English-Languag- wOM ) 1131 Kins VMlnw StwHwI laa Vi |