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

PRICE FIVE CENTS. SAN FRANCISCO, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1898. WILETT CONFRONTED IN HAVANA PEOPLE JAIL BY THE MAN TO ARE TALKING NOW HOM HE CONFESSED OF WAR TO COME [efogogotoFototogogotoF-RogogaogogobototogoBoRoFoFoF g g ot 2 3 — f=geBaZaaga] R gm:sm:sanmuu1:(c(swQfiqannnfinnfinfignafinnngg o < v & 1 L Dmg \OT . 22 TORPEDO THEORY STRENGTHENED. G2 LO AD[NG 4911 o mmm——— b33 "W\ Ty e NEW YORK, March 3.—The Herald’s Washington corre: X% L% spondent telegraphs: Theories that the Maine was destroyed by gg pe I A 20, stationary submarine mine on the bottom of Havana harbor g | L% are much weakened by the information which 1 received to-dqy o ) ] T ga tending to support General Weyler’s declaration to the Madrid ool [ L AN fig correspondent of the Herald that no mine has been laid down in oo = s L & the harbor of Havana. o 55 | was informed that the Navy Department has evidence that B A Bt ; o5 :m[ tg_e rl;ighl: :fler threlalniva: sz'the Mjain; irr:1 ;};es hoa‘rb:rs(!:;]; oo Spaniards Believe the | o ain Sigsbee had a careful investigation male by me f O ? But He Is the Most fig Jaunch and a drag at the end of a line to ascertain whether there 3¢5 Hour to Flght Is onchalant of | % ¢ was a mine of any kind below the ship. I was told the investi- 0¥ H 5 ¥ gation covered all the area in which the ship would drift in B at ana. Murderers. LT swinzing at her moorings with the changing tide. Nothing sus- & | ™% picious was found, according to my informant. O B i gg This information .hafi not in any way strengthened the theory gg No Further Manifestations 3 i f Hi Crimes that an accident inside the ship was responsible for her destruction. = T Boasting o =3 S8 That is too completely contradicted by the evidence which has fig of Hostility Toward May Send Him to the gg already been submitted to the Court of Inquiry, as shown by the oo Americans. Gallows. rodee Herald’s dispatches from Havana and Key West. oo 8 g oo With the accid=nt theory eliminated and with the evidence o5 &0 Gy tending to show that there was no stationary mine below the ship, 3 & By the theory that is strengthened to-night is that the cJ_(temal ex- B Even the Volunteers Hold For All That He Cannot For-| & plosion, which was the primary cause of the destruction of the 3 Themselves in Check for bear Indulgence in Brag- | G ship, was caused by a torpedo of some description—not neces- %y the Battlefield. adocio. @ sarily an automobile torpedo, such as could have been launched ¥ ¥ 9 . ¥ from the Spanish cruiser Alfonso Ill, lying in the harbor near the Xy B Maine, but possibly a torpedo arranged to float down upon the ves- gy = s | Do sel with the tide and explode on contact. gy |[FOR PROCTOR’S BENEFIT. SOME TALES HE TELLS.| oo Bg oo k=222 -F-R=F-2=2:FeFuReFegePogePeFeReFeFaFeFuPegeFaeFoReFeFagatat=] - B o R R Rk Rk R-F-2-F=3-F-FoF=F-F-3:F=3:3:F=F=FcF-F=F=FcF=F=2=2 =] The Colmn Tdsuceais Arouae Makes Himself One of the Worst 5 Show For of the Distinguished Irons. P THE DEFENSES lN Copyrighted, 1555, by James Gordon Benmatt. Spectal Dispatch to The Call + KEY WEST, Fla., on board + REDWOOD CITY, March 3.—More : + the special Herald-Call dispatch’ + . 1 never lay on prison S + steamer Albert F. Dewey. March .4 Wilett, who was 4 3—Havana was loading shells in 4 - Redwood City Jail this 4 Its reserve magazines and talking 4 the last of the trio 4 about war and next Sunday’s 4 wanted for participation in the mur- ! ® % b(ull fidghttwhen“the De:jvey % de f C. A. Andrews at Bad n No- | steamed out past Morro to-day. e 'The General Commanding the | iy e v and & He was seen under circumstances to- i e the tahlk 0; !hse officltlrrs convince: 1 > a Sl | | one that the Spanish believe the y t would n\r:”s:\lm‘fi'h:::l::l‘\l i f Depa l‘tment Of the EaSt Pl‘O- 4 hour of hostilities is near at ¥ tatlonbe snancrmanita) + hand. Americans walk the streets ¥ 1 ‘shut his remar! pOSeS tO Be Ready for + unmolested. Publicly there is-+ bl if the light thatcame 4+ no s‘i“ of the hatred toward + lig! T +4 them known to be felt bv the + lue-gray eyes, in with the opening of the cell door had affected them. in The Call of to-day was pubiished exclusively an interview with Edward Gabriel, to whom Wilett had told with graphic detail the story der at Ba In the story he told to Gabriel Wilett had confessed that he had ordered Moore to “pump it into them”; that Moore had shot and had killed Andrews. In company with a reporter of The Call, Gabriel visited Wilett in his cell. As soon as Deputy Sheriff H. F. Butts the door of Wilett’'s Wilett, who had with his face turned from SWung open His eyes rested on his former and to whom he had crime. Not a le indicated that recognition on the Neither spoke for They simply looked Another’s and it seemed »e a duel between them. Gabriel broke the oppressive silence. ‘Don’t you know me?” he asked. ve seen you before some- answered the recumbent rian, show little apparent interest in his visitor. For a while the conversation dragged. but :soon Wilett thawed out. clined to make any statement relative to the tra v at Baden, but said he was willing to answer questions on any other matte about -his case until he had seen his friends and had obtained an attorney. He wanted to communicate with an un- cle in Texas, who he thought would help. him. He dictated the following telegram, and it was duly sent: Redwood City, March 3, 1898, George Loving, El Paso, Texas—Am in jail, in serious trouble. Would like to have an attorney. ~ JAMES WILETT. He said he had not seen the publish- ed report of Moore's confession and would like to hear what Moore had had to say. He was told in detail, but he refused to either confirm or deny any part of it. He was particularly ques- tioned as to whether Winters, one of the men who has been already condemned to death, was impli His only answer w He de- “You know I have my neck In a sling | head would not have induced him to | (pointing to Gabriel). I started to work | for him the day after Thanksgiving. 1| didn’t sleep well on the train on ac- | worked for him about eighteen days, and you don’t want me to hang my- self, do you? I will tell you what of the mur- | or, rolled over to see who had en- | of whom he had made an un- | He did not want to talk ‘ Murderer Wilett { | nothing on me, | would have done me no good. He put the shackles on me and took me to the Klondike on. From there we took the train to Prescott, where we arrived about 6 o'clock Sunday night. | for this place at 4 o'clock Monday | morning. | “I came on without giving them any trouble. You know I could have com- pelled them to get out requisition pa- | pers, but I didn’t care to cause any de- | lay, so T signed a paper that I would | go willingly. Here his grin broadened, and the cause of it was told in the following significant stc which showed how this man’s nerve and cunning never de- | serted him: | “On our way | cott,” he said, Ash Fork and salocn. We had up here from Pres- we stopped. over at went to the Klondike a few drinks there— the Sheriff and myself and some three | or four cowboys—and then the Sheriff | ordered me to go and sit behind the | bar. I had shackles on my feet, but | my hands were free. I sat in a | rocker behind the bar. Looking about me I spied a revolver about a foot | long, of 44 caliber, lying on a shelf under the counter. I rocked myself, and gradually edged near to the gun. When I lifted it up it caught on the raised edge of the shelf, and I guess the barkeeper must have heard the noise. 1 was watching him, and I no- ticed that a sudden change came over his face. I had an overcoat on that | the Sheriff loaned me, and I slipped | the gun into one of the pockets of the coat. Soon after the Sheriff asked for the coat, and I had to give it up and | with it the gun. I guess the bar- | keeper must have given me away to | the Sheriff. I could have killed the | Sheriff then, | me no good, and I have no feeling | against the Sheriff, because he was simply doing his duty. He asked me why I took the gun. He said people | dian’t pack those toys around just for | the fun of the thing. I told him that I intended to wait until we ot out on | the train to about | proposed to make him take ! He told me that forty guns held to his do that, and I guess that's so. I but even if I had n} We left | but it would have done | Bagdad, when I | Baden. off my |about the 20th of October. ted in the affair. | shackles by getting the drop on him. | place I stopped and worked at was Sa- Confronted by | He said he had no objection to giving a statement of his movements before and after the date of the tragedy at This was it: “I left Oakland The first lida, where 1 worked for this man I know at the right time, and if I have | Count of the shackles, but the Sheriff | didn’t I, Bd” he remarked, addressing to swing we will all three swing to- | did not get any sleep at all during the THE SUSPECT AND HIS Gabriel. NEW YORK, March 3.—Major- General Wesley Merritt, command- ing the United States army in the Department of the East, returned to Governors Island to-day, cutting“ short his trip to the fortifications and | | Qi) 29N o SIGNATURE. James Wilett the alleged accomplice of Moore, alias Raymond, in the mur- | der of Charles A. Andrews at the Grand Central Hotel in Baden last | November, is a disciple of the famous | Jack, Sheppard. He loves crime for the excitement and adventure it car- ries with it. He delights to boast of his criminal escanades and glories in the criminal record of his family. He tells the stories of his plundering ad- | military posts in his command and | hurrying home to look after more | pressing work connected with the | protection of the Atlantic Coast and preparation for possible trouble. He | was accompanied by Lieutenant | Strother, his a#id. They left this city | nine days ago and expected to be ab- ‘ sent more than two weeks. There was surprise at Governors | | Island when it was learned the Gen- | eral was coming back so soon, and the unusual activity found there this afternoon seemed to indicate that or- ders for quick work were ahead of | him. On the stone pier, near the‘ | regular landing on the eastern end | | of the island, 300 projectiles were | | lying and sixty-five military pris- oners spent the afternoon loading them, with the aid of a derrick, on a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad barge. The work was not completed to- night, but by noon to-mo_rrow this | ammunition will be speeding south- | ward. It is destined for K.ey West. The projectiles are fcr the eight, ten, twelve and thirteen inch guns, anfl | in Key West they will be kept until wanted by the fleet now in the neigh- boring waters. The lightest of these projectiles weighs 650 pounds and | the heaviest 1000 pounds. Key West is becoming the objec- tive point of department gctivity, and as soon as he has completed the work that brought him b'nck in such haste, General Merritt will go there to inspect the post and see what is needed to make it as perfect a st.n- tion as possible. General Merritt visited Fort McPherson, in Atlanta; Fort Barrancas, in Pensacola, and the Jackson Barracks, at the mouth of | ississippi. the“lM foum‘ll) p everything in fine shape,” he said, “and was much pleased with the condition of the | | | | Any Emergency. work them. After General Merritt’s visit to Fort Barrancas, twenty men and an officer were sent from there to San Rosa Rio. CONSUL GENERAL LEE CABLES THE PRESIDENT. NEW YORK, March 3—The Her- ald’s Washington correspondent tele- graphs: It was said here to-day that Consul-General Lee had cabled direct to the President yesterday that there was no longer any doubt the Maine was destroyed by an external explosion. The dispatch, it was said, had led to conferences at the White House yester- day and to-day. While the report that Consul-General Lee had sent such a dispatch to the President could not be confirmed at the White House, it is known, as it has been in the Herald, that Consul-General Lee has cabled the State Department that it was his opinion the ship was de- stroyed by an external agency. This | information, of course, has been con- | veyed to the President, and he is in pos- session of Consul-General Lee’s opinion and the circumstantial evidence which he summarized as supporting it. The Consul-General’s cablegrams on this subject have done much toward confirming the conviction in official circles that the Maine was not blown up by internal explosion primarily. Though Consul - General Lee’s opinion has much weight in official circles, the administration is careful not to in any way indicate that an official opinion has been arrived at of any kind. The President will wait for the report of the Court of Inquiry before forming any such opinion, and he will then have to determine upon the line of action which it will impose upon his adminis- tration. - There is no change in the opinion generally held among high officials of the administration that the controversy can be settled by diplomatic means, as it is believed Spain will concede to such demands as the United States may have to make. Officials of the State and Navy de- Gabriel. He then continued: “The next ventures and in th telling of them guns and the efficiency of the men. gether. I don’t want to talk about my | €ntire trip to San Francisco, where he until T have an attorney. I don’t|turned me over to Sheriff Mansfleld.” want to be put in a position where I| After having worked himself into may later have to contradict anything | 800d humor by this relation, he I may now say if I were to make a| Wwarmed up to Gabriel and began of statement.” { his own accord talking of mutual ac- When asked if he would tell how he | quaintances and matters in and about came to allow himself to be taken|Salida and Ripon, where he had without offering resistance he gave a | Worked for Gabriel. He asked to be #ogd-humored grin, as if he were tell- | allowed to talk to Gabriel alone, but img of a successtul practical joke that | this the Deputy Sheriff could not had been played upon some one else. permit. When Willett was working “Last Sunday,” he began, “I was |for Gabriel after the murder at Baden, standing on the depot platform at Ash|he had told Gabriel that he might be Fork, Ariz, when Sherif Ruffner came | arrested, and that if he were he want- up 'to mie and said, ‘Hello, Jim, I am | ©@ Gabriel to bring him some poison glad to see youw' T lm)ked'a( m'm ana | concealed in a plug of tobacco. This asked him what he wanted with me, | had come to the knowledge of the He -said, ‘Come around here, and he | Deputy Sheriff. took me into the depot warehouse to| Wilett said that he was known by his examine me and compare me with a | photograph he held in nis hand. He had another man with him, and he had his hand at his hip, where I knew he carried a gun. He is a quick man on cas lived there before. some one in/Ash Fork who knew his name had written to Sheriff Mansfleld. At the time of his arrest he was en- | the best thing I could get hold of. | made about $2 a day at this work. And | teristic grins. | said that he had made right name in Ash Fork, as he had | He believed that | first met in S8an Francisco. When asked | place I worked was at Ash Hill, Cal., driving a team for the Langtry grading outfit. I worked there twelve or four: teen days. From there I went to Hack- berry, Ariz., where I also drove a team for a grading outfit. I worked there about twenty-three days. The next place was about three miles out of Ash Fork, on the road to Williams, where I chopped wood. I was working there about three weeks when I was arrested. I never chopped wood before, but I did I the next place I landed was right back | here in California.” He ended with another of his charac- Wilett admitted that he knew both Winters and Moore, and Moore’s ac- quaintance at Folsom. Winters he had why he had made these frequent changes in residence he replied that he was trying to reach old Mexico, and that he would have got there in about the trigger. I had heard of him and gaged in chopping wood about three knew who he was, Anyway, I had miles outside of Ash Fork. another week. | he points to himself as a hero much | above the plane of the ordinary being. ‘It's fun to hold Up a man,” he says, and there are many ludicrous sides of the simple act of stopping a person on the street Wwith a jingle in his pocket and taking his coin away from him.” To E. A. Gabriel, a rancher of Salida, who employed him for several days harvesting a crop of potatoes a few days after the murdc- at Baden Wil- ett confided the storles of many of his escapades. Gabriel believed the man was only boasting and for several days paiu little attention to his tales. Then he notified the local police officer, who began an investigation of his stories, but by the time proof reached him that the boaster was a criminal ‘Wilett had disappeared. One of Wilett’s favorite stories was of how he had robbed a man in Los Angeles about seven years ago. He had then just been released from Fol- 1 ‘Contintied ‘on Third Page. - T shall be here for a few days and then will go direct to Key West. From there I shall probably proceed to San Augustine.” General Merritt declined to say whether there was any unusual sig- nificance in his visit to Key West, but said that one of the objects of his next trip will be to learn about transportation facilities and the con- ditions at Key West, which may make it a center of operations in case of trouble. San Rosa Rio, in consequence of the general’s inspection of Southern defenses, has at last become a gar- risoned post, and it is the intention of the Government to put men in the fortifications that are equipped with modern guns just as soon as the ordnance department turns them over to General Merritt. San Rosa Rio has fine equipment of guns and Jmomn, but not enough men to partments now expect that the report of the court of inquiry will be forwarded to Washington about the middle of next week. This will not remove all danger of trouble, however, for the trouble- some Cuban question still remains, with the sentiment in Congress in favor of intervention in behalf of the Cubans increased by the disaster to the Maine. In this connection there is considerable discussion of the plan of intervention to induce Cubans to accept autonomy. which has been outlined in the Herald and which has the approval of some of the members of the Cabinet. The official who first proposed this plan and (iiormulated its details said to me to- ay: “The cases of Great Britain and her colonies and of Spain and Cuba are not parallel. The colonies had been fitted by long continuance of practical auton- omy for seli-government, and if Cuba is to be eventually independent it would be better for her if it should come somewhat slowly. which crops out from time to: time. The arrival of more Spanish warships is eagerly awaited by the most loyal element. The vol- unteers are more restless. So_much for the city. As to the Maine, the tell-tale plates from her bottom found yester- day confirm more fully the theory now accepted as proven by Americans that only an out- side explosion could have caused the disaster. A report has been circulated in Havana for two days that the loss of the ship has. been already officially set dowri’ as due to a submarine mine be- cause of the latest discoveries made by the divers, and that-a dispatch to that effect has been sent from Havana to Washing- ton. The fact is the official de- cision regarding the matter can come only from the Court of In- quiry, and the latest information secured by the divers is in pos- session of witnesses who have not been heard by the court since the discoveries were made. R R PR R SO T T T PO R AR R R R R DR R R DR PR B S PCG Y + The nature of the latest developments, nevertheless, has been told by the Her- ald. All the work done recently at the wreck tends to confirm the theory of Powelson, fully outlined in the Herald, the publication of which caused a sensa- tion here. Since I cabled regarding the breaking of the keel and its being found in two sections, three more plates, the: natural position of which was near the keel, have been found in debris near the present highest point of the wreckage, which is nearly thirty feet from where they belong. The work done by the Spanish divers for Blanco’s Court of Inquiry yesterday caused much comment among Ameri- cans engaged at and near the wreck. One of them went down alone in the morning. He descended at a point about forty feet from that part of the ship where the mine is believed to have been located, and went around to that spot. He remained down only fifteen minutes. It was thought this man sought traces of a mine, or perhaps evi- dence tending to show an inside ex- plosion, and it was reported that two others who spent an hour under the water in the afternoon found something which they accepted as supnorting such a theory. This the American divers re- gard as both impossible and absurd, as they have had only one tneory- since they began work, and that has been that the explosion was from the outside. As to the fact that the initial explo- sion was due to.a mine under the ship, American naval officers and residents have been satisfied for days. The dis- cussion here now is mainly concerning the direct responsibility and whether the mine was placed after or before the Maine was assigned to that particular anchorage. In this connection I notice a more temperate tone on the part of Americans ‘. in discussing the affair than a few davs ago. It is now known that neither Lee nor Sigsbee believes the highest Span- ish officials had any knowledge of a plot or any intention to injure the Maine. An American whose view of the matter | would have great weight in Washington,