Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-12
TAKEN BY TONS.
How the Big Mills Are Robbed
of BraSses and Metal.
CONFESSIONS IN COURT
Which Fully Expose the Methods Of
Well-0rganized Gangs.
OLTVERS HAVE LOST THOUSANDS,
While Nearly All Other Mills Suffer
Very Extensively.
CONFESSIONS IN COURT
)LTYERS HAVE LOST THOUSANDS,
A PECULIAR LAW WHICH MAY STOP IT

In the Criminal Court yesterday there
was rather a sensational scene Three pris-
oners turned States evidence and made a
series of startling confessions. The case on
trial was that of Oliver Bros. & Phillips,
the Iron manufacturers, against Emerson
Conners, William Brooks and James Brooks,
for receiving stolen goods. There were two
counts in the indictment against the three
young men. The first was that charge
stated above, and the second was violating
an act of Assembly which makes it illegal
to buy brass, or other metal from minors or
irresponsible persons"
The case is something of a curiosity on
account of the latter charge. The existence
OF such law is not generally known. 1t
was passed by the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania in 1866 for the counties of Allegheny
and Schuylkill. 1t provides penalty of
not more than $500 fine, or Imprisonment in
the workhouse, for the purchasing of cop
per. brasses. scrap iron, lead or pigmetal from
boys under q years of age, or from other ire
sponsible persons. Yesterday Assistant Dis
that the purpose of the law was to take away
TEMPTATIONS FOR BOYS
30 lay around iron mills and steal metal. If it
was made criminal offense to buy metal from
them. it was believed that safeguards would be
thrown around the rising generation as well as
the mill-owners. There have previously only
been two other cases tried under this law. One
of them was an Allegheny county case, the
wear after the law was enacted. Some years
later another came up, and the constitutionality
of such law being doubted it was carried to
the Supreme Court, where the validity of the
act was affirmed. Under this law, to make
case it would not be necessary to prove that a
man knew the goods he was buying to be stolen,
but if 1t can be shown that the person who sold
1t to them was minor, conviction would follow.
-Four boys whose ages range from l6 to 20
years, stole a lot of valuable brasses, worth SO
or $50, from Olivers mill, on the Southside, last
January. Their names are Richard Murphy,
Michael Broderick, Richard Foley and Amos
OCOnner. They were arrested for TIE thiev-
ing. and on Monday last, when brought into the
Criminal Court, pleaded nolle contendre.
THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS LOSS.
David b. Oliver, one of the mill owners, was
the first witness yesterday. After testifying to
the circumstance of the theft IN question he
told of the outrageous robberies his firm have
suffered from in this same line. Within the
last year, he said, the brasses and metal that
have been carried off would aggregate in their
value several thousands of dollars Generally
on Monday mornings these things are found
missing. Almost anything movable is stolen,
but the thieves prefer brasses, because they
are most valuable. Roll brasses are the easiest
converted into money and bring the most
They are worth from is to 2S cents per pound.
The thieves have frequently stolen the brass
oil cups off the engines and other machinery.
This stealing has been going on for several
years past John Evans, superintendent of
the mill took the stand and corroborated Mr.
divers story, identifying some of the brasses,
which huge castings were brought into the
courtroom. Five had been stolen on this oc-
casion.
AN EXPOSE MADE.
Richard Murphy" called the clerk This
was one of the young fellows who stole the
metal, and the clean breastlle made of not only
that but other depredations the Southside
sent a ripple of astonishment over the court
Murphy is only l6 years old, but the way he
told of his crime would have outrivaled the
GOODNESS of men experienced in dark things
He testified as follows:
"Conners keeps a junk-shoD on Seventh
street. He would give US bags to bring him
stuff. On this Sunday l went there with the
Others. He gave us liquor and got us the bags
He told me not to steal any railroad brasses be-
cause the detectives are 'on to us Then we went
TO divers mill and took the five roll brasses
We put them in the bags and had reached the
corner of Seventh street, when the police gave
us a chase. l was the only one caught at that
time. The other fellows got away.
u had stolen brasseS before that time-once
at divers mills and another time along the
river. sold them at Corners. Each time he
gave me bags to carry the stuff in. heard
there that one fellow made as high as SIS
day"
HIS ACCoMPLICEs CONFESS, TOO.
Michael Broderick. who helped Murphy
steal the brasses substantiated the above,
adding that while at Connors' he had been told
TO call back again, and that when they we're
about starting out for Olivers' mills that Sun
day Conners had said to him, watch out you
don't get ketched." He said he had also stolen
brasses before. Conners usually paid cents a
pound for brass.
Richard Foley also made complete confes-
sion in his testimony against the three defend
ants. He testified to having taken two of the
brasses to the yard OF Conners' place, where
they were covered up with dirt. Subsequently
when Corners was arrested Brooks, who was
there, told him he had better leave town but
he was arrested before he could skip. Foley
boosted that this is not the first time he has
stolen brasses, and he said Conners had eau
toned him not to steal railroad brasses be-
cause Detective Wh-atly, of the Lake Erie
road, had warned him that he was being
watched. Witness admitted, however. that
Conners had paid him nothing for the brasses
from Olivers.
George II. Quail, attorney for the defend
ants, is trying TO show that they did not buy the
brasses. and that at least three of them were
never at his house. the police having taken
them to the lookup for safe keeping. The trial
will be concluded to-day.
WHOLESALE STEALING ELSEWHERE
This case suggested a line of reportorial in
ouiry yesterday. 1t was found in that way that
organized gangs of thieves in various parts of
the two cities are working the mills for all
they are worth. A workman at Carnegie e.
Co.'s Thirty-third street mill says that firm must
lose as high as 5000 per year in the loss of
scrap iron and brasses. These brasses are
'boxes' in which the axis of the rolls revolye
One of these boxes" weighs almost 80 pounds.
At and 10 cents pound thief earns quite a
sum of money. Parks Black Diamond Steel
Works and Jones Laughlins' iron mills all
suffer to a tremendous extent from metal
thieves.
A. NJ. Byers & Co., few years ago, caused
the arrest of gang of these thieves and since
then have had to use extra precautions to pre-
vent their brasses from walking of. Painter
Sons d Co. say they have not been bothered
lately, but that the practice of metal stealing
among mills generally counts up to an enor-
nous figure
A policeman Of considerable experience says
that fences" in the shape of novels. caves and
Pittsburg and Allegheny for the receipt of this
metal. He believes that there is regular
conspiracy between the various gangs as to
prices and the location of easy mills to work.
DrpTpn aTIup