The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 4, 1898, Page 1

Call SAN FRANCISCO, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 189S8. VOLUME LXXXII—NO. 66. PRICE FIVE CENTS. MURDERER BELEW CAGED. Dixon’s Poisoner Behind the Bars for Killing Brother and Sister. He Told His Brother-zin-Law He Would Commit the Murder and After= ward Confessed the Deed. Constable Frank Newby and John W. Bird Hear the Human Monster Gloat Over His Crime. SUISUN, Feb. 3.—Frank Belew is in prison, charged with the murder of his brother and sister. He was arrested on a ranch eight miles beyond Elmira, at 10 o’clock, as a result of the vigilance of officers, aided by The Call, and was hurried here by carriage and placed in the County Jail an hour after midnight. The affair was so quietly conducted that none suspected the plans of Sheriff Rush. The suspected man had become careless and the climax was a terrible surprise to him. He is a strong man physically, but his hands shook within their circling bands of steel. His eyes filled with tears as he stood helpless in the presence of the officers of the law. His voice faltered, but faitering it still denied the charges. “Gentlemen,” he had said when the click of the manacles first made him- realize the clutch of justice, “you have the wrong man.” This he repeated many times. “I never did it,” he added, but there was no confidence in the tones, and they did not impress as being sincere. He licked .his lips with feverish per- sistency. He looked about him, as if in each shadow there might be some- thing to fear. The scene was a striking one. It took place under the open sky, the moon throwing a radiant light, which made all the land seem robed in white, and brought out with peculiar distinctness every detail. For months Sheriff Rush has been working to discover the murderer of Susie and Louis Belew, and during all of this time he has suspected Frank. Others were content to let the matter settle itself into a mystery, to let the assassination go unavenged and the law be cheated again. Sheriff Rush has made no loud protestations of his intentions. He has simply been following clews, patching together scraps of information, until finally the clews led to Belew, and the scraps became an unbroken chain. Then the Sheriff acted. Yesterday afternoon a train from the city was met at Benicia by a repre- sentative of The Cail. On board was the Sheriff. A conference followed, and results were sudden and decisive. The Sheriff did not get off as the train passed Suisun, his home town, but two deputies got on. These were Robinson and Fitzpatrick, two stalwart men, who would not dread a task because it may have danger init. When the train pulled out of Suisun few noticed the deputies, who came in quietly, and few noticed that the Sheriff remained in his seat. Yet their conduct was part of a plan. . At Elmira the party, which included a representative of The Call, took car- riages. There were whispered orders to the drivers, some curiosity manifest, some evasive answers necessary, and the vehicles rolled out of the little town. None but those carried by them knew the destination. The horses in front were put toa smart pace. The horse in the rear could hardly keep up, and at times the larger rig was almost lost in the distance despite the clearness of the moon. Mile after mile was reeled off without pause. The Sheriff knew that he might be obliged to go as far as Dixon and loss of time could not be risked. Suddenly the leading team was halted and there came from the carriage a sibilant signal for silence. The place had been reached. Leaving the horses by the outer fence, the visitors went through the gate, across a growth of dark verdure by a path well worn. A few rods from the gate stands a small house, a low whitewashed structure, that in the moonlight looked almost ghostly. No ray shone from within. No response was made to gentle knocks, and it was only when the knocks became emphatic and voices had been raised to shouting pitch that any sound could be heard inside the walls. Then there came a sleepy inquiry, “Who’s there ?” There was no indication of haste to open the door. There was no wel- come when the door was opened. But, with civil, yet scant apology, the depu- tifis pushed in, the Sheriffand newspaper man remaining on guard, so as to cover all exits. . “Put on your clothes, Frank,” said Fitzpatrick, and from the bed arose the man who is now in a prison cell. He is not, at first glance, an evil-looking man. He is distinc'ly animal, however. All his features are heavy, his bones and muscles large, his chest deep. A dangerous enemy in physical contest had he but courage. It was not until Frank had dressed completely and stepped out upon the lawn that he seemed to realize the seriousness of his predicament. He had made it appear that he thought the officers were in search of a woman. Sucha woman had been spoken of. She was a fiction created for a purpose. Completely clad to his overcoat, Frank is 2 big man. He had just finished pulling on his gloves when suddenly a weapon flashed in the hands of Fitzpatrick. “Put out your hands, Frank,” he said quietly, “you are the man who killed your sister.” For a hardly perceptible instant Frank hesitated. - He glanced at the circle * of faces, the array of weapons. . QONTINUED ON SECOND PAGE.. . » it broke me all up.” “~~|Btate. _Through the effor- ot~ taa Frank Belew's arrest for the fiendish | murder of his brother and sister marks an epoch in one of the most celebrated | crimes of the century. Retributive justice has overtaken the brutal wretch with the suddenness of a stroke of lightning, at a moment when he felt most secure, and when the pub- lic had given up all hope that the pois- oner would ever be brought to the gal- lows-tree. In spite of the cunning with which he planned the crime that swept his rela- tives away, and of the remarkable way | he sat at his sister's bedside and watched her drink of the waters of death as he held her hand, he has been outdone in cunning. From his own lips have been heard the monstrous confessions that stamp him as one of the most infamous demons that the ages have produced. Frank Belew’s arrest and confession are strange proofs of the truth of the statement of the immortal Webster that “murder will out.” The moral monster who committed that dark crime is the one man in all the world toward whom the finger of | suspicion was pointed by all who knew | the circumstances; yet the evidence seemed forever lost until the murderer himself gave it to the expectant world. Before the victims of the murder were buried The Call exclusively pub- lished the fact that Frank Belew was the murderer. His own shameful con- fession, at a moment when he little dreamed that hostile ears were listen- ing, is more marvelous than the tales | of Aladdin, more dark and damning than the blackest pages from Dante or Miiton, and more cruel than the stories of tortures common with savage races | and benighted tribes, in lands where | human blood is held of no more value | than water that »uns in ditches. | Though there has been no doubt in the minds of those who know Frank Belew that he r~isomed his relatives hope had beeil” ionn@oned “&nd the Dixon public believed the 'murderer would never be arrested. by a Call reporter in the Postoffice at Dixon. Discussing the murder of his brother and sister he said: *“We would all contribute liberally to help hang the flend who committed this dark crime. I don’t think a worse murder was ever and Sister. oo worka azo prani neen was met| ERANK BELEW, the Monster Whose Confession Convicts Him of the Murder of His Brother committed in the United States. It gave me lots of trouble, but I am glad ‘ combined force, seconded ably by Cap- they have let me alone now and are | tain Curtin of this city, whose zeal has hunting elsewhere for the criminal. I|been unflagging, the full details of the do not believe there are many persons | monstrous crime are to-day given to could have poisoned my relatives and | the bars confronted with an avalanche held my sister'’s hand while she was | of testimony from his own lips that he writhing in pain and slowly dying. | killed those who were born of the Tommy will tell you that I did more | mother that first taught him to lisp for her and Lewls while they were suf- | the words of prayer ar her knee, while fering than anybody else did, and that | those he murdered knelt by the same bedside. Lewis and Susie Belew were two of In its essential details the story of B. F. RUSH, the Intrepid Sheriff of Solano County, Who Ran Poisoner Belew to Earth. —_—— . the murder and of Frank Belew's con- fession is as follows: Satisfied that Frank Belew was the murde&rer of his brother and sister, The Call kept a reporter in the fleld for weeks after the other daily papers had abandoned the case. Lately it has maintained special commissioners and reporters In the fleld to aid Sheriff Rush and . those:who represent the the most popular young people in Dixon. They lived rogether in a humble cottage on the outskirts of the quiet little town. The night before they were poisoned, early last November, Frank Belew ate supper at the house. He was the one person who had access to the water and the food. When the victims took sick he was almost the first person to coma ta their home, He helped the in this county who will belfeve that I |the world, and the murderer is behind | nurses to make gruel, using water from the tea kettle he had poisoned. The monstrous murderer insisted on holding Susie Belew’s hand while she writhed in pain and pleaded with those around her to give her relief from the pangs of dissolution. He was with her to the end. At the funeral, which took place on November 10, Frank Belew was dressed in a suit of solemn black, apparently one of the most deeply affected mourn- e his mind slipped a cog. So fierce was the storm of rage, so high leaped the | lames of revenge, that he forgot a threat he had made the day before he poisoned his relatives for the purpose of a few thousand dollars—a threat that he would commit a crime would startle the world. The day before he poisoned his brother and sister the wretch who now stands confronted with his own con- fessions called upon his brother-in-law, John W. RBird, a Sacramento pho- tographer. He complained to him bit- terly, as he had done to others, that he had not received enough of the prop- | erty of his parents, who overlooked him in their will. : “I've just been down to"see Susie,” he said. “She showed me her wedding clothes and said she and Charley Eh- man were going to Nevada on a tour.” The flend then passed, gritting his teeth and regretting that his sister and brother were both about to marry, thereby introducing new people in the family to divide the hard earned wealth of his parents. In desperation he said: “They have not treated me right in regard to the estate, but I’ll have some of it yet. They’ll not live to enjoy it.” There was a pause, some interrup- tion causing a change of the subject. Then the spirit of murder again spoke, saying: “Bird, I'm going to commit a ter- rible crime to-morrow. I'm going to commit a tragedy that will shock the whole community.” Bird, whose wife was Frank’s sister, Ellen, said: “Do not do anything foolish, old man. Think of the consequences of such a crime.” Belew said no more about his plans of murder, though he seemed dogged, morose, determined. The men then separated and did not meet again un- til after the funeral, where both had attended apparently as sincere mourn- ers. Then there was a strange conver- sation. “Well, you did what you said you would do,” said Bird. “Did what?" asked the murderer, ap- parently startled. “Murdered Lewis and Susfe.” “Did I tell you that?” he asked in great trepidation. “Yes.” Then the sullen wretch studled for a moment and sald: “Yes, I do remember that I made a threat, but I didn’t you I had done it & i by TS, In the wild night of crime, however, | | | “Well, but I know you did it.” This was the substance of the re« markable conversation between the murderer and the one .man who best knew whose hand had caused the tragedy. 2 | Since that time Bird and Frank | Belew have often met at Sacramento i and Dixon, discussing the murderinall |'its phases, part.of the time when Con- stable Frank Newby of Dixon was se- | creted so as to overhear the murderer | admit without a tremor that he slew those whose death he pretended ta | mourn with bitter contrition. Bird, the strange - brother-in-law, who has kept the dreadful secret for | months to save his wife from the dis~ } grace of being known to all the world that | @5 the sister of an..infamous .moral lmonster, at last made -his. confessiom through fear. Hints repeated with increasing fre- quency and persistency led him to be- | lieve that the brutal wretch intended to murder him so that no human be- ing could confront him with more than suspicion. “Frank has been trying to get me to go out hunting in the tules for a long time,” said Bird last night. “He has been persistent in this request, and has planned in every way to get me to go with him to some lonely spot. 'When I refused he seemed more determined than ever, and I read unmistakably that he wanted to murder me because he wanted me out of his way.” geieds This- suspicion was corroborated by the fact that Belew tried to shoot a farm hand he owed money some years ago, pretending that his gun was acci- dentally discharged. When this failed he placed poison in a biscuit. The hand | made complaint at Dixon, whereupon Belew tried to make everybody be« lieve that the hand, who was @ stran- ger, was insane and had tried to com= mit suicide. “Frank has always admitted the crime,” runs Bird’s marrative, much of which Constable Newby corrobor- ates. ‘“He has never expressed ré< morse for the murder, but has oftern. laughed at the way he eluded the - officers and perpetrated what he. threatened. He said he did a good job and thought he was pretty. smooth in getting away with tha sleuths.” £ e When the idea of murdering . Bird while the two men were out hunting:. failed to pan out owing to Bird’'s re«: . fusal to go to the tules Frank Belew - - began to urge his brother-in-law -ta accompany him to the Klondike eoun= try, Bird fearing, however, that' the object was to murder him rather than to hunt gold. : § Then dark days of fear and suspictort came to Bird. His secret grew hedvy. It became a burden that bore him down, drove sleep from his eyelids-an made him suspicious that every mar<. gel he ate contained poison. = = It was for these reasons that the se+ cret of the dreadful murder finally - | came ta the ewn of. the suthoritios, -