The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 8, 1901, Page 1

SAN FRANOISCO, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1901, PRICE FIVE CENTS BUCK TAYLOR, RECENT EMPLOYE AT SMELTING WORKS, IS ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF BEING I MPLICATED IN ° — RISONER IS CLOSELY GUARDED BY DETECTIVES AND SUBJECTED TO A FOUR HOURS’ INQUISITION Seymour, Lees and McParland Are Locked Up With the Suspect in the Hall of Justice and a Statement Is Taken ait. There the two dined, and then back into the sweatbox they went to await the ceming of the three inquisitors, for Gib- son had by this time returned to Vallejo Jurction for further action. Suspect in Sweatbox. Again was “Buck” Taylor put on the grill. They showed him no mercy. Two hours more of it and every question and every answer that fell in that room was taken down by the captain’s stenographer. About 10 o'clock Captain Seymour, Me- Parland-and Lees left the Hall of Justice, They were asked if they had any news of importance. All were flushed of face but outwardly cool. “Nothing of any importance,” was the unanimous reply. The end is expected to come to-day, and through the informacion obtained from this same “Buck” Taylor. The detectives have been hot on his track and they landed.him yesterday. It is thought that he has made a confession, or 2t least fur- nished enough information to locate his HERE was a vigil in the Hall of ;1 Justice last night over the bod. of 2 live man. of the 1 Four detective local police “Buck” force kept | the bay. Heis the police th the fabric t robbery 1 Locked in a secrecy far more impene- | held the stol- | , Assistant d of the Pinker- nas Gibson and suspect into | h questions t gave him | time. In the e Wrenn, “Buck” the street and un- A a nearby restau- N J/ { VARrou _JUECTRY Hora Ao peckaysemar AIVER WHIRLS THOUSANDS TO THEIR GANVES Great Floods in China Ruin Many Populous Towns. Mighty Yangtse Overflows Its | - Banks for Numerous Miles. confederates In crime and to enable the police and detectives to secure the stolen booty. “Buck” Taylor was at one time an em- | plove in the Selby Smelting Works. He | is a tall man, close to the six-foot mark, to The Call. Aug. 7.—News has wpress of Ja- | and rather slender. With small, piercing : lire disasters | €ves, a dark mustache and a tanned skin is responsible was | he looks as if he might play the part of er. He has always been known a buccanee He seldom fraternized as a reserved man. with his friends an when allowed to follow his own natural bent. When taken to the Hall of Justice on either | yesterday Taylor was clad in a dark suit been de- | and wore a goif cap. Missing Since Sunday. Taylor quit his job in the Selby Smelt- ing Works about six weeks ago, giving as sands of Chinese to isen to forty- and the ke, With | the reason for his action that he was il the a roof | Taylor lived in a cabin about one-half of ats are | mile from the plant and was far from - | the prying eyes of men all this time. Since | | 1ast Sunday Taylor had been missing. The | Viceroy ( g « in great | most diligent search failed to reveal any | Tung is cted embank- = % me © € the : about | Paffled the more the police seemed to & m from Wu Chang. Thou- | Want this man. Just what Captain Seymour discovered in his rigid cross-examination last night is not definitely known. At any rate, the intelligence he received was sufficient to instill into the minds of the inquisitors etc., to pre- of the bank, which has 1ld the river break e country in that dis- ¢ of the Yangtse, | the belief that the clew will lead to the ¥ will be washed away | 4iScovery of the gold and all concerned in its theft. To keep the arrest absolutely p § of thousands of peopie ma; . - s “ | secret and the identity of the prisoner un- nkow prior to the | 9T cover ylor's name was not even h. on the | ©0tered in the small book. When brought has been | Pt the Hall of Justice he was taken im- ter from ™Mediately to Captain Seymour’s room and he Chine after the ordeal removed to the detec- tives' thousands of | oY e lost 4 was cele- three , Reynolds—was est: men—Wrenn, Crockett ished. Vallejo Junction will be a busy place to- day. Teams will be on the roads, men on horsees scouring the country and detec- tives scattered from one station to an- The-first link is forged, so think | the police. They will be making chains of it to-day awry. In description Taylor answers in a few particu other. Continued on Page Threa. med well satisfied | trace of him in the neighborhood of Val- | lejo Junction and the more the hunt was | room, where the appointed guard | and if caleulations do not go | to the man seen by J. J. Riley, | THE GREAT BULLION ROBBERY “BUCK’’” TAYLOR, SKETCHED FROM LIFE LAST NIGHT EY A CALL ARTIST 85 [ | k3 CARELESSNESS BALANCES INGENUITY HE robbery of the Selby Smelting Works brings into view great carelessness on one side and great criminal ingenuity on the other. Until now the defective time lock on a Mint vault contain- ing $26,000,000 in gold coin has held the front of the stage for carelessness, but it is eclipsed at the smelting works, where gold bullion, amounting some- times to millions, was kept in a mere cupboard made of sheet steel about a quarter of an inch thick and without any special guard or watch. The thin steel was as easy of penetration with a drill as butter is cut with a hot knife. Tt is not gracious to comment upon such a state of affairs, and the Selby Company shoulders the loss without a murmur, still the event should be a warning to that company and to all others who are large handlers of the precious metals. Though robbing such a deposi- tory was an casy matter when the preparations were finished the preparations ‘themselves required a high order of criminal ingenuity. The man who directed the boring of the bottom of that steel closet had been inside of it often enough to know the method of disposing therein the bullion and probably had himself long and carefully arranged the placing of the gold bars, so that it had beccme a custom of the place. Otherwise the penetration would have been at random and likely to be where thé weight of the gold would have broken the manhole prematurely and disclosed the plot. It was positively by no chance that this was avoided. It must have been known, too, that there was no daily and careful inspection of the walls and immediate Gutside and surroundings of the huilding itself.. Such inspection would have disclosed the shaft which led to the tunnel as soon as it was sunk., The robbery is the greatest in the annals of the criminal world. It has a whimsical and prodigal feature, in that the thieves left $130,000 in gold bars untouched and spilled a fortune on the bay shore at the end of their red pepper trail. The leaders in the crime are no novices and the police of the world should immediately sesk to locate the criminal operators whose skill and experiencé mark them as capable of forming and carrying out such a scheme. . It is not easy to see their plan for converting and using their booty. The hardest thing in the world to convert and’ profitably get rid of is refined gold whe:x stolen. It is entirely impossible to get rid of Mint bar: anywhere {n the world, Gold refined for use In the Mint is at once detected. It is nearly as hard to get rid of such gold as was stolen from the smelter. It may be melted down to get rid of the marks and may be alloyed, but if offered for sale it must bear some smelter mark, and the wide notoriety of this crime will put all buyers on their caution so that if new marks are put on by the thileves inquiry at the smelter will at once expose the i looks as thoush there is much time and worry ahead of the thieves before they can buy a dinner with the proceeds of their erima. TWENTY-FIVE THOU SAND DOLLARS IS OFFERED AS A REWARD BY - THE SELBY SMELTING COMPANY Crockett and Its Vicini a Famous Place ty Suddenly Becomes for Detectives of All Conditions and Denominations EFORE the great bullion robbery | had lost its first freshness th Selby Smelting Company came | to the front with an offer of $5000 as a reward. This was done when all were left pop-eved in | contemplation of the magnitude | of the crime and before the sediment of | cool thought showed in the minds or ac- | tions of the company officers. Five times that amount is now offered for the appre- hension and conviction of the robbers and the recovery of the bulllon. Following is the declared offer in detail: NOTICE—$25,000 REWARD. List of Gold Bulllon stolen from the Selby Smelting and Lead Company's Works at Val- lejo Junction, Monday night, August 5.1801: | ‘Wt. Fineness. Value. Stamped. oz. Gold. Silver. Gold. 9598 Jumper No. 214, 452.55 85215 108 38,808 36 97 Jumper No. . 483.40 8831 107 8,834 42 | 98 Jumper No. 216. 460.65 884 106 8,785 42 617 = 935 ... 5,534 67 | 33 570 388 879 00 £ 87 119 46 93 | child, woman and man talk nothing else, nd the conductors on the trains have christened Crockett by a new name. They call it “Gold Brick’’ now. The detectives worked in groups yester- day. Contra Costa, Martinez, Pinole, Vallejo and other neighboring towns were visited, and In each place an investigation of some sort was conducted. The fever of the robbery has spread throughout this part of the country to such an alarming degree that detectives are born every minute. Sheriff Veale, Tom Gibson and some of the Pinkerton men returned to San Francisco early in the morning to re- port to headquarters. Dick Phelan Bobs Up. The Dick Phelan story has blown itself out. The paroled convict whose name was mentioned in connection with robbery walked into Captain Seymour's office in this city yesterday afternoon and Continued on Page Three. | venated life in this locality. | | | + 2,012 54 | 3,170 63 | 1,146 45 4,065 79 1,22 23 7,209 60 | 23,014 66 | 2,481 89 | 23,661 06 | 2 9 845 98 | 73 No. 3¢ M. 3452 813 1M 528890 | .18 5573 403 306 78 | 10 916 T 708749 | 5.30 6081 359 3,203 05 | 81 %5 89 % SeT4 9705 20 890 100 10,607 30 7 A.U. G.M. Co,, No. 27, 700 ft. ™ BT Fine Marked Selby Gold. Stamp,Wt.No. 1226 1237 1258 1239 Total $282,005 01 The above reward will be pald for informa- tion which will lead to the recovery of this ‘bullion and arrest and conviction of the thieves, or a like proportion for the amount recovered. SELBY SMELTING AND LEAD CO., 416 Montgomery st., San Francisco. San Francisco, August 7, 1901, Detectives Galore. This increase in the reward offered may act as an incentive to the amateur, and there are a number of such tearing up the airt of the Conira Costa hills from morn- ing until night. Detectives are as thick near Crockett as grasshoppers in the stub- | ble. Some of them are working hard, oth- ers are lost in thought all day long. Then when night comes the theories pop and tales of treasure trove and piratic battles fill the air. | Crockett has been made famous in a | day. When the tralns pass heads are poked out of the car windows and fingers are hurriedly pointed at the long line of buildings that inclose the smelting works. “Gold brick” is flushing through a reju- Stranger; | tically endeavored to break NEGRD MEETS WWFUL DEATH AT THE STAKE | Whites and Blacks Mete Vengeance to an Assailant. After Confessing His Crime the Culprit Is Quickly Cast Into Flames. PR BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 7.—With ag~ onizing screams and his eyes bulging from his head John Wesley Pennington, a ne- gro, was burned at the stake near Enter- prise, Ala., before a crowd of 500 enraged and determined citizens of Coffee County to-day. The mob was composed of both whites and blacks, and though the suffer- ing wretch pleaded for mercy and fran- the chains that tightly bound him. not a trace of sympathy was shown on the faces that peered at him through the flames. Pen- nington had committed a brutal assault upon Mrs. J. C. Davis, wife of one of. the most prominent farmers of Coffee County, and confessed his guilt. Identified by His Victim. The crime was committed yesterday aft- ernoon while Mrs. Davis was gathering vegetables in her garden. She was choked into insensibility and left lying In the garden. As soon as she regained her senses. Mrs. Davis crawled to the house and told her husband what had happened. A large pcsse was quickly organized with bloodhounds and they chased the negro until early this morning. when he was captured in a swamp. Pennington was bound hamnd and foot and taken back to the Davis home for identification. Word of the assault on Mrs. Davis had been sent by runmers for miles around Enterprise, and every farmer in the neighborhood had joined in the search. There is not a telegraph office in Coffee County, but the messengers traveled fast, and when the posse arrived this morning with Pennington at least 500 persons were gathered near the Davis residence. A great shout went up when the prisomer was seen by the mob, but at a signal the men withdrew to the woods and quietly awalted the result of the meeting of Pen- nington and Mrs. Davis. Mrs. Davis im-~ mediately recognized him and the negro broke down and wept. He admitted hav- ing committed the assault and pleaded for mercy, but no mercy was shown. Burned at the Stake. The negro was dragged from the house Continued on Page Two.