The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 14, 1903, Page 31

Pages 3ltodd | "SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, JUNE 14, EPPINGER & CO.'S BUSINESS METHODS MAY RESULT IN THE INSTITUTION OF CRIMINA L PROCEEDINGS GRUNAUER TAKES BAGK HI5 GOLD Police Save Small For- tune for an Easy Mark. o ght is falling on the failure of Eppinger & Co. It developed yesterday that the firm, after receiving warehouse receipts for wheat delivered, again placed them on the market and secured money to stave off the impend- An investigation is being made by the creditors to discover whether the firm had wheat.on hand when it negotiated the receipts, and until the grain-book, withheld by the attorneys for the ruined firm, is turnexl» the accountants, nothing can be definitely learned. g\lfred G. Platt has been selected to assist John Jenkin in experting the books of the company. The London, Paris and American Bank alleges that 1720 bales of n bags are its property. A resident of Southern California is in this city looking for wheat he stored in the warehouse at Port Costa, for which he holds receipts. SUSPECTED ASSAILANTS OF LITTLE MARY SILVA MASK[U M[N HUB I 3 | ARE,CAPTURED ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF OAKLAND | | Description Given Closely Fits Three Bold Highway- g RIS G men Take P. Boien Z ’ R o 4 Aaraad - Prisoners. by Saniies ! 5 e 2 y Surprise. i \ mes A [ | . | Names Are J. Tlpt Secure $78-From Proprietor | | and Cash Register, Then | | | I and C. Nathan, , Begister, . , i Disappear. | i They Say. s ; ' ! Three bold robbers stealthily entered | - % 2 y the grocery store and saloon kept by P. AKLAND, June 1 v Bolen at the corner of Eighth and Point | swering the - description . of the | [ohos avenues shortly after 9 o'clock | : assailants ‘of Mary Sllva, the 14- | 1a5¢ night and succeeded In gotting away | | !’Mr-"“_’vs’\‘;‘ Who was assaulted | with ahout $73, The men did their work | and _("m""* loa trec Dby tWo|well and with the utmost coolness and | | men near l.‘: home, between Orinda | gexterity and left mo trice -behind them | | Park and San Pablo last Tuesday, | by which the police couldY possibly learn | | | are in the County Jail here. | of their identity or where they went. | They give thelr names as Jullus| Bolen keeps a small grocery store and | | A. Tift and Charles Nathan and |saloon and during the evening business i | | are belleved to be the men who com- | YTY duiet. Last night he was behind the | mitted the crime and for whom Sherifr | Par of his placc talking to John Driscoll, | | Veale of Martinez has been scouring the ,n‘).’;,‘,?,Z".‘;;‘h,T,"v“w',,";,‘I e i . | netghvoring country. © |of the barroom swung cpen and | i | i It was just about the noon hour that a | men noiselessly entered the place. & & | telephone me e from the outskirts of | of.them wore masks and «ll carried 'arge | | 21 | Berkeley was received by Sherii. Bishop | PIStols, cocked and ready for any emer- | i 2 that two men, anparently wishing to | BENCY that might preseni itself. Without | | = | avold Oakland, were making inquiries | V2Sting time or words, the strangers or- / | for the road to San Leandro. The de.|dered the bartender to throw up his | scriptions tallied with those of the as- | hands. B | [ THINKES IT A JOKE. | | d | Boien at first thought it was all a huge || f : | {joke and began to speak in a jocular | | | | | manner to the men. Driscoil took the af- | | | | | fair much more seriously and (he moment | | | : | he was ordered to throw up his hands he | | | |obeved without any further ceremony. | { | ‘Pinally one of the masked men ap- | | proached close to Bofen and in a deter-/| | | | |mined voice sald: “We mean business | { and we want all the money you have in | | | the place, so the sooner vou throw up | f i | your hands and deliver the goods the | | ter off you wilk be, for we don't intend to | | | |stand for any of your foolishness.” 1 Seelng that the fellow was determined, | | Bolen obeyed his command and told the | | ; robbers to go ahead. The bartemder was | | — | -rr:tchc;l from behind his bar and out into | ‘ the middle of the saloon. ©One of the | CCOUN' ST vy robbers kept guard over him, while a s ! NI SR Sy Ton Fond attacked the cash regisior. The | B e k| without a mask kept guard in the grocery | | b o s Ll store. - - d the former greatest admiration arations a st Lole- was an infer- reason or oth- look well to him with the Park st the final moment given and both men e. Eomething must Fletcher's wind. Either he was ove ned or had been iving too high. At any rate Lee was de ared the winner Grunauer was out Fletcher and his friends were loud 22400 n 1k had and Grun larly joyous himself. Preparations were the city when of the money they uer was not particu- jost to start back atrolmen Thomas Rourke and W. L. Ceinar arrived on the scene and placed the party under arr t6 this time Grupauer did not hav he least suspicion that wrong, and when the truth dawned upon im he was astonished. The five men and their to the Park station and later trans. 4 to the Hall of Justice, where they e examined at Jength by Captain Mar- After hearing the story that official red that they be booked on charges and Jarceny e_foot ‘race game is not a new meth- ¢ the bunko faternity, but Its ‘re- fval is looked upon with interest by the e. The amount involved in the case was considerable, and that Grunauer did ot lose his money can be atiributed sole- 1o the forethought of the unknown sta- n in communicating with the police the According to the police. there is good reason to believe that the money rought by Grunauer was the only coin i the scene, and it s surprising that he 4id not become suspicious and ask to see Lee's mopey. The accused men maintain their fnnocence, and the case will .no Soubt attract much attention when it someg to trial. - e anything was | victim were | ompt arrival of the officers on | ¢ CAHER Iy =7/ F\V ATTACKED TOOK THEM INTO CUSTODY. TWO MEN ARRESTED ON SUSPICION OF LITTLE MARY SILVA AND BEING THE BRUTES, K WHO THE OFFICERS WHO E TROUBLE WAITS WIDBER | Surety Company Files| Action Against the | Defaulter. —tian Augustus C. Widber, former Treasurer | of this city, who in 1598 stole $118,53697 | out of the city auits and who | a year later was sent to prison for seven years, is the defendant in a suit brought by the Fidelity and Deposit ; of Maryland. The suit is for , the amount the company which rety for Widber is out by reason of his defalcation. | According to the complaint, | drawn by C. H. Wiison, attorney for the trust company, the plaintiff became Wid- | y for §1%0,000. When it was dis- covered, April 22, 1898, that during the vear and a half following his election as Treasurer he had stolen $118,53697 from | the city’s coln bags, the company paid over to the city $100,000, the amount of its bond, and $816 66 interest. When Widber was convicted the city transfer- red to the company the judgment for the | amount stolen it had obtained against the | faithless official and upon this judgment | the sult 1s brought. Widber has aiready paid to the com- pany $788335. The payment was made September 14, 189, apd since that time no further payment has been made. { Widber will be released in a yery short | time and the suit is brought in the hope ! that some of his il gotten gains may re- main, out of which the surety company | can recoup at least In part Iits lonl | through his dishonesty, treasure which 1= | ber’s suret; ! siding, NOLAN GANG MAY GONFESS GUILT Santence on the Female Member Postponed for a Week x5 Docia Nolan, who was convicted by a jury in Department 12 of the Superior Court, Judge Burnett of Santa Rosa pre- of complicity In the robbery of Mrs. Emama Matthews at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ida E. Tuttle, 543 Haight street, on the afternoon of March 4, ap- peared for sentence yesterday. accompanied to the courtroom by two of her sisters, and during the course of the proceedings, which lasted over an hour, was seized with one fit after another, and her sisters were kept busy attending to her. When the case was called, Attorney Schooler for the defendant made a mo- tion for a new trfal, and sald that if a continuance was granted for three weeks he would produce afidavits showing that | the defendant had absolutely nothing to | do with instigating the robbery, and that the testimony of Ruby Grllls as to what occurred at the restaurant on Pine street was untrue. District Aggorney Byington asked that the ‘names of the partiés who were to make the affidavits and the exac¥ nature of their testimony be given, in aceordance with the law, but Schooler declined. The Jjudge cald thut ke would not con- sider for a moment the application for a continuance for three weeks, but would postpone sentence for one week. At that time Schooler must be prepared with his affidavits. A 3 It is surmised from a remark that Schooler dropped that the persons to She was | 5 sailants of Mary Sliva and Under Sher- ift J. J. Hapafin Jr. and Dc. aty J. H. | Reilley were hurried off to meet the | men, who, it was stated, were heading | down Broadway toward Oakland. Hanafin_and Rellley lost no time. Go- ing out of the Sheriff’s office they saw a £00d looking horse and buggy standing in the street and immediately appropri- ated it. The horse belonged to Dr. 0. D. Hamlin and a half hour afterward he was around mourning the loss of his rig and telephoning descriptions of the | stolen buggy. : Well out on Broadway and heading for this ¢'ty the two men were seen coming along . the street and were stopped and placed under arrest. One Is tall and the other under the medium height. One wore a dark suit and the other a light one. The shorter of the two wore hob-nailed shoes. Sheriff Veale has been following the tracks of two men, one of whom wore hob-mailed shoes. The taller had brown, kinky hair and this was the descrintion given by Mary Silva of one of her two assallants. They ceem to tally identically with the descrip- tions sent out and the officers are jubilant. | When the men were placed under arrest the shorter of the two, who gives the name of Tift, said, “I guess you've got the wronz men. Tnder Sheriff Hanafin spoke up and said, “what do you think we want you for?’ #Why, for assaulting that girl the other dav."” Tift exzlalned at the jail afterward by saylug that they had already been stopped by one Denuty Sheriff, who also suspected them of the crime. Nathan, the elder of the two, would say nothing. Tift stated that they had been working on Union Isiand, near Stockton, and were miners from Colorado. He said they left Stockton or last Wednesday and came to San Francisco and yesterday morning crossed over to Alameda and went to Lafayette looking for work and were re- turning from there when they were ar- rested. % Sheriff Bisho»n has communicated with Sheriff Veale and arrangements will be made at once to confront the suspects with the girl and sece if she is able to fdentify them. —_———— Claims He Was Irresponsible. Frank Risco, who was arrested after a hard fight on Thursday evening on Clay street by Policeman Welsh for denounc- ing President Roosevelt and charged with battery, was convicted by Police Judge Mogan yesterday. Risco said he had just arrived from the country and had_evidently got ‘knockout drops,” | which had affected ‘his mind, as he did not know what he was doing. He had no recollection of saying anything against the President. He was ordered'to appear | for ‘sentence to-morrow. L e e e i make the affidavits will be Nolan, White- | law and Davis, who will admit commit- ting the robbery and exonerate the wom- an from any participation in it. Tt is thought probable that he’ has not yet ob- tained ghe congent of all of the male de- fendants to make the affidavits, and de- sired as long a continuance as possible ‘for the purpose of carrying the project into effect. i i i While their companion was bu en- | gaged in rifling the till, the other two | men took good care to guard the place thoroughly. One held his gun in the faces of Bofen and Driscoll, while the | | same material as the man without the The men went ahout their work in manner that showed plainly that th knew all_abgut the game, The man who went behind the bar lost no time in open~ ing the cash register apd rifling it of its entire contents, about $7, and several keys and small articles of no great value. XEEP CLOSE GUARD. other retained his position as lookout in | tore, ready to give the alarm | ¥ passer-by happen in. When the man behind the bar was done with the eash register he coolly stepped | up to Boien and demanded that the latter | turn over all his loose cash. Bolen stood | still while the burglar went through his | pockets and took all his money, more than $70, but, .strange to say, overlooked a valuable gold watch in the grocery- man's vest pocket, When the burglar had finished with Bolen he went out into the grocery store and emptied the till under the counter, securing only a few small coins and some telephone checks for' his pains, The cash register of the store, containing the day’s receipts, was close at hand, but the burglar overlooked it, as did his partner, who stood guard over the store a few feet away. ROBBERS RUN AWAY. When the trio had finished their work they quietly left the place by the Eighth- avenue entrance. As soon as they reached the street they took to their heels and lost no time in getting out of sight, running as fast as they could in the di- rection of Golden Gate Park. When robbers ieft the place Boien went at once to the telephone to summon the police. He tried for several minutes, but the telephone was out of order. Then he went to a nearby store and rang up the O'Farrell-street statior Several officers were at once detailed to the scene of the hold-up, but when they arrived no trace of the robbers was to be found. Bolen lost several minutes at | the telephone and this gave the men | ample time to escape. The police are still working to get a clew to the high- waymen, but .there is little chance of their being captured. Boien had his wits about him at the time of the hold-up and is able to fur- | nish a gcod descrivtion of the men. He | stated last night in an interview that all three were rather short and stockily bullt. The man without the mask wore a light gray suit, had light halr and com- plexion and a sharp, pointed face. The other two were somewhat similar in appearance. Both were ratner short and heavy set. One imme % suit of the mask 2nd tke other was attired in dark clothes. All three were exceedingly cool end deliberate in their mannér and wasted neither time nor words in tke per- formance of their work. —_—————— Chickens Lead to Trouble. A. Foster, a money broker. secured a warrant from Police Judge Conlan yes- terday for the arrest of Thomas F. Mec- Gee, a blacksmith, on a charge of bat- tery. Foster alleges that he sold some property-in Marin County to MecGee and there was some money due for c¢hickens. He called upon McGee on ¥Friday, asking for a settlement, and McGee struck him and threw him out. ——————— Colored Hostlers Have Trouble. Irving Washington yesterday sccured a warrant . from Police Judge Conlan for the arrest of James Strange on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. He al- leges that 'while he was reclining on the grass at Inzleside on Friday afternoon Strange fired three shots at him, but the 1 bullets missed him. ReturnedReceipts Placed Again on Market. TARTLING evidence of possible fraud, which may result in the criminal prosecution of the members of the firm of Ep- pinger & Co., were brought to the rface yesterday. Warehouse re- ceipts turned in by A. B. Costigan & Co., after wheat belonging to them had been shipped from the warehouse at Port Costa, were placed on the market by the ruined grain broke These receipts were turned over to the International Bank- ing Corporation and to M. Blum and a careful investigation is under way to dls- cover whether the firm pursued sharp methods in its frantic efforts to raise money. F. C. Gibbons, a member of the firm of A. B. Costigan & Co,, admitted yesterday that he had heard that Eppinger & Co. had placed warehouse receipts by his company on the market, but stated they had a perfect right to do so if they had the wheat in the ,warehouse. He stated that Guring the months of Decem- ber to April of this year his company had shipped 4000 tons of wheat to various places. He sa'd the wheat was stored there for their accommodation and every time a shipment was made one of the re- ceipts was surrendered. He sald these re- | ceipts were now held by M. Blum and the International Banking Corporation. In speaking about the matter he said: “When we held the receipts the wheat was in the warehouse at Port Costa. When we surrendered the ,receipts we surrendered them with Instructions to Eppinger & Co. to make the shipments. Whether they shipped these iots of wheat or other lots we do not know. They could do the latter if they 5o desired. 1 understdand there are some receipts on the market which earry our | indorsements and these might be the ones 1 mentioned. The shipments began in De- cember and continued through to April They amounted In all to about 4000 tons. TALK OF PROSECUTION. These very receipts, which were in- dorsed by Costigan & Co. and turned over | to the International Banking Corporation, to bind .a loan of $26.800, may be used in proceedings of a criminal ‘nature. The corporation’s representatives are waiting patiently until the missing grain book is | produced, in\wrder to discover whether Eppinger & Co. had wheat on hand when they negotiated the warehouse receipts. It 1s now stated that there are ware- house receipts in circulation representing some 20,000 tons of wheat and a great deal of barley, and it is a well-known fact that there Is actually in the warehouse only 3000 or 4000 tons of wheat, the greater part of which s screenings and sweep- ings. There have been assurances by banks interested that they purpose to follow the matter to the bitter end, not hesitating to institute criminal proceedings If neces- sary. Colonel F. E. Beck, representdtive of the | Internatioral Banking Corporation. stat- ed yesterday that his company held a number of the warehouse receipts in- dorsed by Costigan & Co. He was loth indorsed | indtvidual | Attorneys Refuse to Surrender Grain Book. o . to speak,”as he thought too much noto- rlety had been given to the failure. How- ever, he sald: “We have made ourselves entirely fa- millar with the history of these receipts and at the proper time the whole matter will be ventilated. So far as the insti- tution which I represent is concerned, N we can say for ourselves that we propose in conjunction inde- to follow this matter up, with other banks, or if necessary pendently. We are thoroughly in with Wells, Fargo & Co. in the ini steps which they have taken to this e 1 have every hope that in due time the inside facts will be fully developed and the responsibility placed where it prop- erly belongs. MAKING HASTE SLOWLY. “I would Hke to say further that the implied criticism of the press and public about the banks getting lukewarm in fol- lowing this matter is not justified by the facts. There are difficulties and techni- calities involved in a serious affair of this kind which bring to mind a trite old saying that ‘it is well at times to make haste slowly.’ | “There is mo desire on the part of the banks to avoid following this matter to the end. I have been assured by other institutions that it is not the intentiol to do so.” Judge de Haven of the ted States District Court will be asked togmorrow morning direct Hen- r/ Ach and Peter F. Dunne, at- torneys for Eppinger & Co. and the Pacific Coast Warehouse Company, to pro- | duce the warehouse gram book of the ! firm. Upon this book the creditors place their hopes of arriving at a definite idea of what wheat passed in and out of the warehouse at Port Costa. The attorneys for the bankrupt firm will not deny that the book is In existence, but decline to hard it over to the receiver until ordered to do so by the proper tribunal. There was a special meeting in the offics |of Messrs. Naphtaly, Freidenrich & | Ackerman yesterday afterncon of the at- | torneys for the creditors and those of the | bankrupt firm. Messrs. Ach and Dume i represented the ruined grain merchants, |and Messrs. Freidenrich, Lilienthal and | Butro the creditors. Mr. Freidenrich made a formal demand for_the grain book, and Mr{ Ach ignored the'request. . The attor- neys held an interesting discussion. The attorneys for the creditors have de- cided to ask the cotirt for am, order to | compel the ruined merchants to show cause why théy should not be adjudged gullty of contempt of court for ignoring the order of the court to turn, over to Recelver Wadsworth-all the:books and papers of the company.. Messrs.' Ach and Dunne made a plea for further time, but the attorneys for the’creditors declined to grant an extension. FHad they been able to secure a hearing before the United States District Court they would have made their demands yesterday. They | must wait until to-morrow morning. when the matter of declaring Eppinger & Co. iand the Pacific Coast Warehouse Com- pany bankrunt will come up-before tiie District Judge. * BANK CLAIMS GRAIN BAGS. Alfred G. Platt, the expert aceountant, has been practically cngaged by the cred. {tors to examine the books of both con- cerns. Recelver Wadsworth has retained cem:l:mud arhle 32, Columm 1.