Iowa
Old Press
Des Moines Capital
Des Moines, Polk co. Iowa
November 5, 1922
TINSEL PROMISES MADE BY MARRIED MAN LEAD TO RUIN, GIRL
TELLS INVESTIGATORS
Sheriffs Obtain Confession From Preston Webb, Alleged to Have
Taken Fifteen Year Old Girl on Trip to Missouri
Promises of "a nice, big home, a big automobile" and
marriage, induced Mabel Hughes, 15-year-old mother-to-be, East
Twenty-fifth and Madison Street, to subject herself to the
advances of Preston Webb, 22 years old, married and the father of
two children, she told Deputy Matt Theis Saturday afternoon.
Webb was placed under arrest Saturday and signed a confession
that he had been intimate with the girl here, and had taken her
on a trip to Missouri. He was taken to the county jail where he
will probably be held on a state charge of committing a statutory
offense and federal charge of violating the Mann Act. When taken
into custody Webb stated that he wanted to marry the girl. He
claims that his wife who lives at 3101 Cornell street, and whom
he deserted last January, has obtained a divorce. No decree is on
record at the court house.
Theis and witness secreted themselves in the Hughes home Saturday
before Webb arrived to keep an appointment. They heard him talk
of the Missouri trip and intimated that he intended to take the
girl on another such jaunt out of the city. After Webb had been
in the house for some time, Theis stepped out of concealment and
revealed his identity. Arrest and signing of the confession
followed.
While waiting for Webb to appear, the girl told the whole story
of her relationship with the man. Mabel said Webb, Bertha Prock,
18 years old, and Clarence Speck went to
Chillicothe, Mo. She was to go but missed them the day they left.
Webb returned the following Tuesday and induced the girl to meet
him at a grocery store near her home the following morning. They
drove to Chillicothe where they met the other two and spent five
days, part of which was at the home of Webb's relatives. Two
nights they slept in the auto along the road, she admitted. The
next Monday they started for home when their car broke down. They
walked most of the way home, spending the night sleeping in woods
or
abandoned huts and either begging or stealing their food.
When near Des Moines, they were picked up by a man who said he
was a typewriter salesman from California. He brought them to the
outskirts of the city, where they had trouble with their machine
and camped for the night in a bit of timber. That night Webb left
the party and did not return.
[transcribed by L.Z., September 2012]