Other days

100 YEARS AGO April 18, 1923

■ Herbert Coons, alias the “Brass Kid,” noted confidence man, who, in 1914, escaped from the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases, was arrested at Beaumont, Texas, yesterday, according to a telegram received by W. H. Martin, warden at the state penitentiary walls. Warden Martin was not advised last night whether Coons would be returned but it is probable he will. Coons, under the name of J. H. Ward, fleeced a man in Hot Springs of $20,000. He and his four partners were arrested several days after the robbery. Coons was convicted and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. Feigning Insanity, Coons was committed to the State Hospital for Nervous Diseases, and from there, effected his escape by bribing two attendants.

50 YEARS AGO April 18, 1973

FAYETTEVILLE — Three escapees from a Muskogee, Okla., jail were arraigned at Fayetteville and Bentonville Tuesday on two charges each of robbery and one charge each of assault with intent to kill. … The three were arraigned in Washington County Circuit Court at Fayetteville on two charges of robbery. One charged involved the robbery of a grocery near Farmington Saturday, and the other involved the theft of a car after a Fayetteville family was held captive for several hours. … Earlier Tuesday, the three pleaded not guilty in Benton Circuit County to a charge of assault with intent to kill. The charge stemmed from a gun battle with state troopers Saturday night near Garfield (Benton County).

25 YEARS AGO April 18, 1998

FORT SMITH — A group of 38 Fort Smith physicians filed a lawsuit Friday against the Holt-Krock Clinic in Fort Smith and its owner, Phycor Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., seeking to get out of a noncompete agreement. The suit filed in Sebastian County Chancery Court claims that the agreements limit the physicians for 180 days after leaving the Holt-Krock clinic from practicing medicine within a 30-mile radius of Fort Smith or any of the clinic’s 10 other locations in Northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma. A separate agreement also signed by the physicians requires them to pay a “substantial management fee” for 15 years after they leave the clinic if they practice medicine within 30 miles of any of the clinic’s locations in Arkansas or Oklahoma.

10 YEARS AGO April 18, 2013

■ The Ozark National Science Center in Madison County began a new fundraising campaign Wednesday with advertisements in area newspapers. “To grow forward into the next 20 years, we need your financial report,” read an ad that ran in Northwest Arkansas Media newspapers. Readers were encouraged to visit onsc.us to make donations. Jenny Garrett, chairman of the center’s board, said the capital campaign officially began Wednesday, but the ads state that the center would be “steadily rolling out capital campaign announcements and pop up events this summer.” The board announced in February that it would suspend operations of the center in May because of a lack of funding. A news release sent out at that time cited the economic downturn. But on April 6, the board voted unanimously to keep the center open and begin a fundraising drive.