Morning journal and courier., 1884-09-10
SAM PINE Rnum

! vfct i'm the State Prison, Alias
 RObert Broyvn,,' Under Sentence for Two Years for the COl1insvfIIe
 RurgIary-RecOrd Of His Crimes
 Ills Prison Escape and Other Exc
 plO1ts.
 The notorious ''Sam Pine,n who has been
 looked for high and low and put sheriffs and
 constables to their wits ends, and who was
 accounted most willy as well as outrageous
 criminal, has been found He has been in
 Wethersfeld State prison since early in last
 June where he was under sentence for two
 years for 8 burglary in Co1linsville and was
 identified recently by Warden Sargent of the
 State prison as the criminal so much searched
 for in this part of the world-Sam Pine.
 How the identification was brought about is
 as follows: Ex-Sheriff Crosby, of Bridgeport,
 since Pine ''gave him the slip and escaped
 from Bridgeport jail.
 few days previous to Pine's escape
 Sheriff Crosby was renominated by the Re publicans of Fairfield county. Immediately l following Pines escape the convict's daring
 escape was used political lever to defeat
 Crosby and it undoubtedly did, for the Dem
 ocratic nominee was easily elected. Of
 course MT. Crosby felt very much aggrieved
 that his charge should escape and immedi-
 ately took measures to effect his recapture.
 To this end he employed competent detec-
 tive, who, armed with all the necessary doc | uments, began to make a secret investiga-
 tion. The days passed into weeks and the weeks into months, yet the detective kept at work During all. this time he travelled
 thousands of miles, followed up every clue to
 the end, went to every place that held a sus- l picious negro and did everything that human power could conceive and the physical body l could endure.
 l One clue opened up very promising and
 the detective congratulated himself that at
 last he was about to find his man. The clue
 led him from town to town, from village to
 village, all the time growing greater in it's
 proportions. Necessarily the work was slow | and of less indomitable pluck would
 have given it up, but the detective per
 severed and finally the skein led him to
 Providence. Here, again, his hopes were ] dashed to the ground; the man under ar
 rest there was not Pine. Disappointed and dejected he turned in another direction
 worked up more clues and finally relinquish-
 ed the case; Pine had disappeared as com pletely as though the earth had swallowed him.
 Several weeks ago Sheriff Crosby, who by
 that time had expended nearly $1 ,OOO, as last resource had large number of photo graphs of Pine sent to all the prisons and jails in the country, accompanied by the re- quest that the wardens or jailers receiving them would closely examine their colored prisoners with the express view of trying to find Pine. By this means the escaped con- vict was discovered and Sheriff Crosby was accordingly made very happy One of these photographs was sent last week to Warden Sargent of the Connecticut State prison. The warden made careful examin- ation of his prisoners, among whom was the Robert Brown mentioned in the first part of this story, if such it may be called He in- stantly recognized Brown ast being the mo- torious Sam Pine, but to make the identity more complete he requested Sheriff Crosby ! to come to Wethersfeld. The sheriff ar rived in Hartford last Saturday morning | and immediately went to the prison. One glance at Brown was sufficient and one glance by Brown assured him that the Zig was up." The sheriff held a long converse tion with Pine, during which the whole ground was retraveled, the intention of the sheriff being to worm from Pine the name or ! names of the person or persons who assisted 1 him to escape, but the convict was reticent and refused to divulge On Monday Sheriff Crosby returned to l Bridgeport with the intention of | getting all the papers necessary to make the | final commitment of Pine for his crimes in Fairfield county, but in this he was unsuc- cessful as District Attorney Fessenden was away from home. Yesterday his return was expected and undoubtedly by noon to-day everything will be completed and Pine can look forward to an uninterrupted stay of six teen years in the Wethersfeld institution. At the end of that period if the New York au- thorities care about prosecuting him he may have the extreme pleasure of spending term of years in Sing Sing, and at the end of that period, when Pine is white headed and his form is bent and tottering with the weight of years, who knows but that half 8 1 dozen other States may make a demand on I his body! Indeed, there is no doubt that if l sentence for life had been pronounced on him he might have effectually disappeared from the every day walks of life as to fulfill the number of periods of imprisonment which he has got to undergo
 The burglary committed in CollinsvilIe, in which Pine was connected, was at the store of Alfred Allen; goods valued at $SS were stolen, including forty silk handker- chiefs, revolver and a quantity of cheap ewelry. A few days later a negro was ar 'ested. He gave his name as Robert Brown, md was tried and pleaded guilty to the 'rime. He seemed to be in hurry to get lone with the trial, and 8 broad grin passed g 'ver his face when the sentence was for two ears in the State prison. He seemed to | onsider it an excellent joke. A few days T ater he was taken to the Wethersfeld insti- t ution, where he donned the convict dress, Il lad his hair clipped, learned the Clock" step. a nd inside of a week had so fallen into the Il r1son routine that he seemed, to stranger. Q have been there for years
 Fines record as criminal is known all yer the country. Nearly every leading pa- : CT in the country devoted considerable :, pace to the dastardly outrage Pine commit D ,d on Miss Stocum, of North Salem, West . hester county, N. Y., in June, 1883 For D 'me time Miss Stoeum's life was despaired =. :. Another negro was arrested on suspi- on of being the assailant, but proved to be le wrong man and was liberated. The ex- tement occasioned by this dastardly crime ju 1d the hunt for Sam Pine are well remem- tv cred by newspapers, and are vividIy re- fa embered by everybody living in that sec M on. Such was the fear of Pine that women aI Id children were panic stricken at sight of W strange colored man and hardly dare show ly lemselves out of doors at night Deputy herlH Erastus Finch, who was very active II, pursuit of Pine, issued handbills giving a a r1 escr1pt1on of Pine, one of which fell into f' mes hands. Pine therefore revenged himself Pl stealing that deputy sheriff's horse and bug Tn North Salem while the sheriff was busy F. uniting for Pine. The Hartford Post. which A .n we exclusively yesterday the news of Pines II entlhcation, thus details the further ex- co oits and crimes of Pine: On steaIino Den w, y Sheriff Finch's team Pine drove fo Pnr- y's Station, about four miles away. bitched le officers horse under Reynoids' shed ent into the barroom and took d drink VT, liking with a number of the violent Ivncb, :" 8 about the DrObabiIitv If p;-.oi. .-1I I of