The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 14, 1902, Page 17

) N Diisariva R e e e S RS Fages 17 10 28 +4 4 3 < . + + = G * [ ] @EL +44+ @ all, - + e + + + ® P53 333344452980000 0% Pages L e e R R 028 E K * + + -~ + - ° YOLUME XCII—-NO, 106. SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, CONVICT CONFESSES THAT HE MURDERED 1902—FORTY PAGES. PRICE FIVE CENTS. NON-UNION TEAMSTER FOR BLOOD MONE Y SCORES GOTHAM SOCIETY Henry Watterson Ex- coriates “Four Hundred.” Compares the Present Doings to Former Simplicity. Veteran Editor Pours Forth Most Bitter Arraignment. Special ‘Dispatch to The Call. NEW YORK, Sept. 13—Returning to the ettack upon the “Four Hundred,” which he arraigned severely in his newspaper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, Henry Watterson publishes to-day other on the same subject, which is herewith reproduced in part: Ward McAllister, a rather orn gentleman, in- dred, it was his pur- recently an- articl abeisance to certain to be rich enough to That was five and 1 the good, old days, s a social, as wall as Mark Twain was paid for them in The dinners were b Chauncey being n ard toastmaster in or- LUXURY AND ALIMONY. “What now is called Lower Fifth ave- not be described as Mr. Dooley described Newport, ‘the abode of .’ where ‘the husband was a stiff-neck-d, high- Having its abutment on Square, there were then, and Deginning backed gon—plain, brick walls, , to which scandz] was & stranger, habitations that went by the name of home, the homes of the Coopers, elanders, Hewefts, Garners, s; solid folk who, if not as rich er Astors, were rich enough end the Astors in .ivc ts wholly unostentatious. » good society. Accuse one of the Four Hundred offer an insult, you be m THE FORMER SIMPLICITY. “As long as the average New Yorker had to work for his 1 and got his riches by t sweat of hi brow money cts and value. When Un- fenced round by a wooden of the Fifth Avenue frog pond, not a shop above Houston street, in Broadway—the old brick Roosevelt mansion at what is now. Dead Man's Curve, was a kind of advance guard of the march northward— the grandees of Gotham were content to live in brownstone fronts, as like one to another as two of a kind, and they lived exceedingly well. “The women were still women—God bless them—e little vulgarized by so much money, but ignorant of the pinchback #ids and graces of the demimondaine and unspeakable dirt of London and Paris. “The sea-going palace, the modern auto, the struggle for equivocal notoriety, the strife for titles, ealing from the tree of | forbidden knowledge, the aping of man- ners of a foreign swell and fancied-great, | marriage as an experiment and marriage &t home and abroad—in short, of weslth—inevitable to the sun-worship of money—these are among the features thet distinguish the Four Hundred from | other rich people, who do not need to af- fect anything, who heartily despise such proceedings, who, with fortunes secure nd social positions fixed, live without scandal ONE UNPARDONABLE SIN. certain circles, where money rules resence of gquality is indicated ne absence of all else, one unpardon- sble sin is conviction. Whatever else you are or are not, you must eschew enthu- siasm. You mey deal in vulgar double entendre, you may backbite or lie’ out- u may make love to your friend's e or inveigle his daughter, but you must not be loud. we would keep our women pure we must keep them ignorant, if not of evil at of dirt. But what shall be done? at can be done with those women who st upon knowing all that men know, a certain &nd not unreasonable who propose to keep up procession, share and It or Ladyship, Lord to a famous soclety as your Ladyship d infidelity. But we somewhere; and for seriously il in on, blood } aving followed the treatment of . He has becn abroad since July 15 and became ill on Wednesday last. ky and one part flam— | in the great and grow- | to extracing sunbeams | dinners were in solid | oduces the wife that was | to the wife that is, or ought to be.! In the it e—around that genteel, com- | singularly | the basis of what may | convenience, hol pursuit of pleasure | the con- | stant striving after ostentatious display | |“Jack” Quinn Tells Story of Crime to Warden Aguirre. Says That He Killed Otto Ekbert for Sake of Ten | Dollars. Detectives Hunting Man Who Hired the Cowardly Assassin. 4 L B HE murder of Otto M. Ekbert, a non-union teamster, on the ‘ night of November 9, 1901, will be avenged after all, though the foul deed has been on the list of wunpunmished crimes, a puzsle to the police and a cause of shame to the city. James Quinn, an inmate of San Quentin prison, has confessed that he is the mur- derer, and that he crept up behind his victim and delivered the fatal blow with a piece of gaspipe for the sake of $10 that had been offered him by a stranger in the Chief saloon, on Howard street, near Third. Chief of Police Wittman has Quinn’s confession in his possession, and three detectives are completing the chain of evidence against the man suspected of being the stranger who paid the blood money. Quinn’s confession was made because the convict feared that a for- serving @ sentence for burglary, was about to tell what he knew of the crime. - mer pal, William Connolly, alias “Bull” Conway, who also is now % QuINN. ‘Alras UacK” W ISR (G .UoHN.TNQMAS“RILV ! . & EKBERT'S MURDERER, HIS FAL AND THE MAN ACQUITTED OF THE CRIME. T_ AMES QUINN, a convict serv- ing a term in San Quentin prison for burglary, has made a full confession of the murder of Otto M. Ekbert, a non-union teamster, on the night of No- vember 9, 1901, and that foul crime is now certain to be avenged. There is no es- cape for Quinn, and the police are in pos- session of evidence that will doubtless lead to the arrest and probably to the | conviction of the man who inspired the murder. | Quinn's confession is in the hands of | the Police Department, and-three detec- tivés—Ryan, O'Dea and Thomas Gibson— are working on the case, completing evi- | dence already in their possession as to the | 1dentity of a mysterious stranger who gave $10 blood money to the criminal Quinn in payment for the commigsion of his cowardly and fatal assault. The ar- rest of the instigator of the crime is ' a matter only of hours. Ekbert was murdered about 7 o’clock on the night of November 9 of last year, on Townsend street, between Third and Fourth. He was on his Way home after the day's work, and had just left the barn of the Nolan Drayage and - Ware- house Company at Fourth and Townsend streets. He had just passed the narrow thoroughfare known as Clyde street when a man sprang out of the shadow of a | building and struck him on the head from behind with a heavy weapon. Ekbert sank to the pavement with a groan, his assail- ant bent over him, turned him partly over until the flickering light of a street- lamp fell upon his face, gave a chuckle as of satisfaction with his bloody work, and fied into the darkness. WOMAN SEES THE CRIME. Mrs, Alma Miller, who lives at 32 Clyde street, was the only witness of the trag- | edy. She was on her way home, and, as | it was raining, she held an umbrella well down in front of her. She leard steps approaching und raised her umbrella just in time to see the assassin spring upon his victim. She stood stock-still from fright and horror and-saw the murderer peer into the face of the Stricken team- ster. Then as he raised his head she gasped, “This is a terrible thing you have done!” He muttered a curse and took to his heels. Mrs. Miller, horror-stricken, ran to her home, a few steps around the corner on Clyde street. Her husband was not at home, and, beside herself at the horrible deed, she went back to the scene of the crime. A watchman had arrived, and the police were summoned. Ekbert lived but a few moments. He had been struck with a plece of gas-pipe and his skull fractured. John Thomas Riley, a teamster that had once worked for the drayage company but had left his employment before the teamsters’ strike began, was arrested and charged with the murder. Mrs. Miller tdentified him pogitively as Ekbert's as- sagsin. She was the only eye-witness of the-crime and she testified that she had a good look at the profile of the murderer's face and at his back as he fled past the street-lamp, and she insisted that Riley was the guflty man. Fortunately for Riley he was able to prove a complete alibl. By the testimony of a number of witnesses he established that he was on Bush street when the murder was done. The jury promptly ac- quitted him, In spite of the positive but mistaken testimony of the woman, On March 1 of this year James Quinn was sentenced to five years in San Quen- tin for burglary, under the name of Jack Quinn. Recently he sent for War- den Aguirre and confessed that he killeq Ekbert. He told of his crime in detalil, urging upon the Warden features that he hoped would mitigate his punishment, Subsequent to Quinn's incarceration, william Connolly, alias “Bull” Conway, went across the bay to San Quentin, also under sentence .for. burglary. Connolly knew of Quinn’s crime, and it was the murderer’'s fear that his . former pal would tell what'he knew that prompted him to confess, in the hope thus to short- en his sentence when the case should finally come to trial. MURDER FOR HIRE. Quinn's story is that murder was not in- tended. He claims that a stranger offer- ed him $10 if he would give Ekbert a good beating, and gave him the piece of gas pipe to do it with. He says that about 6 o'clock of the evening of the 9th he was in the Chlef saloon, 7i5% Howard street, beneath the St. David’s lodging- house. Connolly or Conway was the only other man there except the bartender. A man whom none of them knew came in. From his conversation they took him.to be a teamster. He told Quinn of Ek- bert, whom Quinn knew, and offered him $10 1t he would glve the non-union man a beating. The stranger produced the plece of gas pipe from beneath his coat and offered jt to Quinn as a weapon, at the same time explaining that Ekbert would soon. be leaving his employer's barn on Townsend street. Quinn says that he took the proffered weapon, left the saloon, and committed the crime as described. He claims that he did not intend to kill, and that he re- turned to the saloon in ignorance of the fatal result of his blow. The stranger listened to Quinn's story of the assault on Ekbert and then paid him the price of his crime and departed. Quinn spent part of the $10 over the bar of the Chief saloon, Connolly and others drinking with him. ‘Warden Aguirre had a clerk prepare a type-written transcript of Quinn's con- Cession. He then informed Chief of Po- lice Wittman of what had been told him. Wittman and Detective. Ryan, accom- panied by a stenographer, went at once, | l l to San Quentin. The original confession was given to Wittman, and the Chief of Police had an interview with Quinn and a fuller confession was made and put into manuscript. Quinn described the stranger accurate- ly, and Detectives Thomas Ryan, Ed- ward O'Day and Thomas Gibson have been on the man’s trail since the visit to San Quentin. They are practically cer- tain that they have him located, and have been waliting only to forge the chain of evidence so strong that it cannot be broken. The suspected man will be ar- rested within a day or two and Quinn and Connolly will be brought over from San Quentin to identify him. IN SHADOW OF THE NOOSE. Riley’'s escape from punishment for the crime of which he is now doubly proved innocent was narrow. He was a union teamster, and the position he had for- merly held had been taken by Ekbert, a non-union man. Riley was fierce in his hatred of Ekbert, and had been heard to boast that he would ‘‘get him soon.” His arrest followed promptly upon the mur- der, and he’was held to answer to the Superior Court on a charge of murder. His trial began April 22 of this year, before Judge Cook. Mrs. Miller was the principal witness against Riley. Her hus- band, James Miller, is employed at the railroad yards, and both he and his wife complained to the police that they feared wviolence on account of her testimony against a union man, in behalf of justice for the murdered non-union teamster. However, none was attempted, and the woman persistently maintained that Riley was the murderer. Riley - produced several witnesses who had seen him on Bush street close to the hour ‘when the murder was committed, and two men testified that they were smoking opium with him at 512 Bush street at 7 o’clock, when the crime was done. - Riley’s - former . employers, for CHI!P‘\!A‘}.OO‘!:I 4 AN R THERE sLeco BEAUMONT’S OIL GUSHER STILL BURNS BEAUMONT, Tex., Sept. 13.—To-night one large oil gusher is still burning, send- ing a volume of flame high into the air. Efforts made this afternoon to extinguisn the flames were not successful, but more boilers have been sent for and the plan eof smothering it with steam will again be tried. The small tank burned itself out this afternoon and the big one probably will die out by morning. Many of the oil companies have lost their pumping plants and have wired orders for new machin- ery. An examination leads to the belief that none of the wells have been perma- neutly injured. There is a new problem to be confront- ed as soon as the burning gusher is ex- tinguished and that is the control of the well. The gate valve has been melted off, and while it is probable that this can be replaced, it will be a difficult operation. Estimates of the damage still vary, but there is general acceptance of about $100,- 000 as the figure that will cover the loss. The first fatality of the fire occurred to- day, when B. L. May was killed by fall- ing from a derrick. Thirty-five or forty derricks have been razed to the ground in the Keith-Ward | tract. 87,500-barrel tank of the Higgins people is on Jdre, but the ofl is being drawn from the bottom and packed away, which will cventually starve out the fire. The great Texas Flora gusher is ablaze, sending flames eighty feet into the a! The Wood well is on fire. Several small- | er tanks are burning. The Higgins OIl | and Fuel Company are possibly the heav- iest losers. Kéith & Ward are large suf- ferers. Two wells of the Becky Sharpe concerp have been burned. Among the losers are Major Stribling, the Flora Tex- | as Oil Company, Brice & Parker, the | Horse Shoe Oil Company, A. B. Wood of | Galveston and Mr. Goodell. The burning ofl fleld is now under the command of B. 8. Cullinan, a Standard | Oil man, for years in charge of their in- terests at Corsicana. Judge Martin, of the District Court, officially put Cullinan in charge and to all intents and purposes | martial law is reigning on Spindle Top. | Cullinan has mustered 500 men to his ald. They have 100 steam boflers at their service and streams of steam were applied to-day. L T whom Ekbert was working, testified in his behalf. ‘William Grant, a marine engineer, testi- fled that he was on Townsend street and | saw the man running away whom Mrs, Miller said was the murderer, and he was positive that he was a much larger, | stronger man than Riley. Quinn answers that description. The trial lasted three days, and at its | close Judge Cock instructed the jury not | to regard Mrs. Miller's identification as | conclusive, since she did not have a good | look at the murderer's face and could scarcely be positive from the view she! had in the rain and darkness that Riley | was the assassin. The jury promptiy brought in a verdict ¢f acquittal. Across the avenue the mammoth | | brokerage | work the tidy sum of $12,973 and left town. BIG SUM IS LOST TO STATE Dan Kevane Guilty of More Stupid Fin- anciering. Biunder Robs School Fund of Thousands of Doliars. Chicago Brokers Sell a Gold Brick to Gage’s Man. Special Dispatch to The Call SACRAMENTO, Sept. 13—The State school land fund has been forced to bear the burden of another blundering bit of financiering on the part of Daniel Kevane, secretary of the State Board of Exam~ iners. This time the loss is $12,978 80 good yellow gold. There is a fund derived from the sale of school lands called the State school land fund, which the law authorizes the Board of Examiners to invest in county bonds. The interest earned from these bonds is applied to the support of the public school system of the State. As the principal can- not be used, it is desirable, from the standpoint of the school system, that the money from the sale of the school lands should be wisely invested, and that it should bring into the treasury the best obtainable returns. To this end the law authorizes the State Board of Examiners to make bids for bonds issued by the va~ rious counties, and to carry on and com- plete all negotiations for their require- ments. Riverside County is about to comstruct a new courthouse, and to accomplish this it voted an issue of $150,000 in bonds, to bear interest at 4 per cent per annum. As the investment is first class, it was known tjat the purchasers of the bonds would be willing to pay a falr premium for them. Following the procedure lald down by law, the Board of Supervisors called for bids. HEAVY LOSS TO STATE. The call was given widespread publicity, but, of course, the Board of Examiners did not see it, and when the bids were opened on September 1 it was found that the best bidder was the Chicago broker- age firm of Trowbridge, Niver & Co. This firm’s bid, which was accepted, was $156,417 for the $150,000 worth of bonds. The only evidence of purchase which the firm was required to give was its deposit of a certified check for $5000, made at the time the bids were submitted. Having thus obtained control of the Riverside bond issue the shrewd firm of Chicago brokers set about to dispose of it at an advance. Presently a representa- tive of the firm made his appearance in Sacramento and held consultations with Daniel Kevane, secretary of the State Board of Examiners. The result of the consultation was a meeting of the board on Thursday last, at which only Kevane and Assistant Attorney General C. N. Post were present, the other members— Governor Gage and Secretary of State Curry—being out of town. Kevane evidently had been persuaded that the State should have the bonds and upon his recommendation they were pur- chased from the representative of the Chi- cago firm for $169,3%5, an advance of $12,978 over what the firm had bought them for at a public sale of the Riverside Super- visors less than ten days before. PRICE OF GOLD BRICK. The broker’s agent lost no time in com- pleting the deal. A warrant against the State school land fund was at once pre- pared, the money drawn from the State treasury and the county of Riverside, through a local bank, was sent $156,417 | for the bonds, while the agent for the firm pocketed for his day's Another gold brick had been passed up to the people of the State of California | by the Gage administration. Under former administrations it was the practice of the secretary of the Board of Examiners to address circular letters at frequent intervals to the Auditors of the various ' countier in the State requesting them to keep him advised of any ap- proaching issue of bonds so that, on be- half of the State school fund, he might put in a bid for them at the proper time. This enabled the State to come into, dl- rect competition with private brokerage firms and other investors. Had this been done in the present instance, or had Ke- vane read the Riverside papers when he was absent helping Gage in his political and legal ventures, he would have been put into a position to procure the River- side issue of bonds for something like $13,000 less than he pald a firm of Chicago brokers for them. It is also probable tbat if Gage should devote more of his | time to the disposition of the funds of the State and less to the management of his Downey farm the resources of the school system would be in a healthier condition. BLUNDER FOLLOWS BLUNDER. This is the second heavy loss brought to light within four months sustained by the State school fund through mismanage- ment.- The sum of $16,637 39 was lost to the State by the purchase by Secretary Kevane of a big block of Kern County § per cent bonds at an immense premium at a date several months after Kern County had replaced them with a 4§ per cent issue. Two years prior to the pur- chase of the bonds the people bt jKern County at a public election voted to re- Continued on Page 18, Column &