St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-31
THE BOY BANK ROBBERS.
Found at Pelican, Wis.,, and
Brought Back by Detect
i've O'COnnOr.
A Chase of Eleven Hundred Miles and
a Clever Piece of Detect
i've Work.
Recovery of $5,767 Out of the $6,O21 Stolen
and Its Return to the Cashier.
They Had Divided the Pluuder, but
Hadn't Had Time to Invest 1t.

| Hadn't Had Time to Invest 1t.
When Detective John OConnor topped from
the train at the Union depot about o'clock yester
day afternoon, no one in the vast crowd of pas
sengers and idle-s that lounged around would
have taken the two dapper, boyish looking
youths who accompanied him for bank robbers.
The ideal bank robber is man of large physique
heavy jaw and big beard, while the faces of the
two boys had never yet felt the keen glide of a
razor. 1t is perhaps needless to say
that the boys in question were
Edward Mason, the whilom messenger of the
Peoples bank on Seventh street, and Chas.
Parker, his accessory, both of whom skipped out
week ago Saturday night with about $4,000 of
the banks money.
Their capture was effected on Friday at noon,
at the village of Pelican, near the lake by that
name in Wisconsin. The lake is in Lincoln
county, on the line of the Milwaukee & Lake
Shore road, and when Detective O'Connor stepped
off the train last Friday he found the youthful
fugitves at dinner. The return train was due
IN just five minutes, and with gentle hint that
their little game was up they were ordered to
prepare for travel. The boys regarded their
arrest with different emotions. Mason turned
white and began to culver, while the face of
Parker, the oldest boy. did not blanch move a
muscle.
Their language was extremely simple,
but what there was of it told the
whole story of the robbery. They
had with them couple of small new leather
satchels with shoulder straps such as one carried
by tourists. In these satchels found the
the money stolen from the bank, about equally
divided, showing that they had made fair
'sdivy'' of The ill gotten money. The money
missed by the bank was intact with the excep-
| ton of about $3.50, which had been disbursed for
travelling expenses.
The journey to st, Paul was not marked by
any particular incident. By dint of persistent
quizzing the boys gave an account of how they
| left St. Paul, but touching the robbery they were
inclined to be reticent After securing the
money they made an equal division and then
deiberated as to what course they should pursue
to elude arrest. They finally decided to buy
skiff and float down the river, and with this
intention they went to West ST. Paul.
Here they purchased a boat for $50 from a
Frenchman named Bunato aud at once embarked
on their voyage. During the night thsy reached
Hastings, when they changed their minds about
| keeping to the river, and leaving they made for
| the railroad depot where they took the first east
/ bound train that came along. From this time on
they scarcely knew where they stopped or dis
embarked, so circuitous was their route.
A CLEVER PIECE OF WORK.
For the clever capture Of the boys Detective
John Conner is entitled to credit OF the shrewa
est piece of police work that has been accom-
plished III long time. The officer left St. Paul
Wednesday and up to the time of the capture of
the boys he had travelled distance Of loo
miles On the second day after leaving he struck
| their trail and then the trouble commenced.
On that day. as he was going into Milwaukee, he
observed that the papers carried by the train
boys contained full accounts of the robbery,
and believing that they might be circulated so
as to reach the boys, who were believed to be in
| that vicinity, he purchased all the papers con-
tanning the account that he ran across. After ef-
| fecting their arrest he forwarded two kilograms
notifying Chief Clark OF the fact but
for some mysterious reason neither of the dis
patches were sent on, not reaching St. PAUL until
yesterday
On reaching St. Paul the boys were taken to,
city hall and locked up, when Mr.. Rittenhouse,
cashier of the Peoples bank, was sent for, The
money recovered was at once turned over to him,
being as follows: Total amount recovered,
S., 767; shortage from the amount missed, S254.
The money recovered divided as follows
currency ...'.......'..... ........'.''1o'o ot w
Gold .................."' 2I2 81
In so cent silver pieces. ............... $50 50
The 1854 alluded to includes the expenses of
the boys home. Considering that the bank is
only out the insignificant sum OF 5254-that being
the total shortage-the upshot of the affair may
be deemed exceedingly fortunate.
THEY KEEP MUM. q
After being locked up the boys
! visit NV I'm
they had very little to say Mason, the youngest
and more modest of the two, hid himself i'll a
corner fthe cell and refused to converse. He
is a tall, slender lad, with fair, clean cut
features and frank, gray eyes. He was dressed
in dark GETAWAY coat, dark pants and vest and
blue flannel shirt Parker was inclined to be
glib but for obvious reasons he not per-
mitted to say much. He admitted that
they had pretty good time and that he
sorry they had been caught. He is cool and col
lected, and takes the matter more in the light of
joke. He is attired in black coat, brown
pants, blue flannel shirt and wears red necktie.
Yesterday afternoon he was visited by his grand
mother, an eminently respectable lady with
whom he lived The latter stated that the last
seen of him was about O'Clock last Saturday
night At that hour some rang the door
bell and asked for Charley. The latter put on
his coat and went out, this being the last seen Of
him.
In conversation with Mr.. Rittenhonse yester-
day afternoon the latter admitted that he had in
terviewed the boys and obtained statement as
to how they got into the vault. He refused,
however, to state what the boys had said. saying
that the bank officials were not through with the
case yet and that as they believed there was
more in it they intended sitting it to the bottom
During their travels the boys stopped at Wan
sau, Wis, where they registered by the names
of Chas Cobb and Edward Stanton, and pecul-
iarity of their journey was that they never pur-
chased railroad ticket<but always paying their
fare on the train.
The boys will be arraigned in the police court
| tomorrow morning.