The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-02-09
AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA.
The King Case.
From Sha Nor E.,ik .Tnnrnsl


Since our last report Detective Thayer has
succeeded In getting $50 more Of the lost
money. II WAS part Of Potts's "swag,'
which he had left with q party on Bas,
Market square to send to his wife when he
(Potts) left to join Mollie johnson at Will.
Transport, Pa, where she was bound when
arrested in Baltimore.
King, when squeezed frat by Thayer
gave the following account of the disposi.
ton of the money--viz., Potts, $4,000;
lawyers, 1900; Maude, $3.50 his father,
$500: to Mr.. Brown, $3.50; board, 5000
had himself, $4,000; spent for whiskey,
&C., $lO6.1 3-total, $10,106.l3. Two hun
dred and fifty dollars of the $3.50 which
Maude received she used to try to bride the
negro George Champagne to let King out OF
Jail, and after Champagne left the Jail the
hue and cry was raised that Msude had
been robbed of $3.50. Officers Steele, Gully,
and McCann, arrested Champagne the same
night he left jail, and 1920 of the money
was recovered, he having spent $50 of it on
q "new rig" King gave the detectives
sll0 of the money as reward for getting
the rest. os. -a .as...
Potts Was pulled on Tuesday last, taken
to Colonel Corprew's Office, and there e1-
amined. He brayed the subject brsvely,"
but the scrutiny of Thayer was too much
for him, aud when the dispatch was shown
to Potts announcing the arrest Of MolIe
Johnson in Baltimore he wilted, came
down, and, in the language of the detec-
tives, "blowed the gaff," and told all he
knew.
That night he was taken 70 the Atlantic
Hotel by the beaks to work upon, when he
asserted that he was not married to Kings
sister, and much other information which
we do not deem prudent to make public,
for the reason that as the case is to be
tried it might have some influence upon
the jury. and thereby thwart the aims Of
justice.
King, since he made his first disclosure,
has become logged and obstinate in regard
to revealing where the $4,000 he said he
had was secreted, evidently for the pur-
pose of making the best tel ms, with hope
that the money mi ght be :)nsideration.
After the money was st1s'u by King it
was hidden in the yard at l'o'ts's house, on
Queen street, and resurrected after Potts
was discharged from Jail. All sorts of ru-
mors are afoat since the arrest of Potts.
One is that ne robbed King, and when dis
charged took the money back in jail and
proposed that as they both had the credit
of the robbery they should receive the gain.
Such statements are transparent humbugs,
at which only gudgeons bite.
The sequel has developed, in our opin-
ion, that Potts was not in the plot until
King gave him the $4,000 for hush money
for had he been he certainly would have
received at least half the plumber instead
Of not quite one-fourth.
Potts wasa Confederate soldier and served
in the Stonewall brigade, and it is said
that he has wife and family now living
at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. After the
close of the war he came to this city, and
for some time was employed around the
wharf of the Old Dominion Steamship
Company as laborer.
We have seen Thayer, and judge from the
expression of his face that King had dis
gorged. If such is the case, and we think
it very probable, We put down our figures
of the amount recovered as follows: From
King, $4,000; Mollie Johnson, 81 $50 ;
from store on east side of Market square,
$50. Total, $40.
One thing we do know, and that is that
Thayer had King and Potts yesterday morn
ing in the sergeant's Office moralizing with
them on the folly of holding on to that
which could do them no good and in order
to test their sincerity, demanded their ulti-
matum or not, and that King NOTED !"
and forked ov er, with the delusive hope
thet it would 60 easy with him, as the
Express Company would be induced thereby
to "let up the case" This they have no
power to do, as it would be compromising a
felony, sud all therein implicated would be
amenable to the Law.
TERRIFIC SronN.-A correspondent in
forms liz that a tremendous storm of wind