Morning journal and courier., 1889-01-19
A REL1EyEp CommurITx.
The Breaking Up of a troublesome Class of Midnight marauders lA Eastern Connecticut.


 The Breaking Up of a Troublesome
 Class of Midnight marauders Ah
 Eastern Connecticut
 NEW LONDON, Jan. 1s.-Through the dog- ped persistence of 6 modest looking town ! Marcus Barstow, of Chestnut Hill, near East Killingly, in Windham county, the acts of band of rival house thieves, outlaws and midnight marauders have been \ brought practically to an end. This gang has for many years terrorized the eastern border between Connecticut and Rhode Isl- and, along the turnpike roads between New London, Norwich, Plain6eld and Danielson- vile on the one hand, and Westerly, Bris- tol and Providence on the other. People along the Quinebaug and among the whirring spindles of Congressman Russell's protective district are breathing easier and the former now go to sleep at night. The mauraders Tn question were the Warren family. They kept up @ reign of terror.
 Only few years ago large posse Of con- stables was required to break up the opera tions of band of horse thieves, whose head quarters were in Hampton, Conn, and who
 literally terrorized 8 circular section or
 country of which the town of Foster, R. l.,
 was the centre. Stables were continually
 being emptied, and one day @ human body
 was found in the we'll on the Hammond
 farm near Foster Center. This mystery was never cleared up.
 It was in this wintry, desolate country, on lonely road northeast of Hopkins Mills, R. l., that the famous murder of Bill Ide by his mistress, Jeannette Putnam, occurred on March 21, 1878. The Warrens lived in the old Elisha Handel house in a lonely spot leading from Hopkins Mills, R. l., and not far from East Killingly.
 mi Izz -.A ,G kI,s- Ca, at present given out by the officers, were Ed mond Warren, who leased the premises and who had wife and four children his elder
 brother, Capt" Josiah Warren, the leader l of the gang; his younger brother, Edwin, and Elmer Phillips. All of them are shrewd- | tie story and 8 half shanty-like house in which they lived has always borne hard name, and there have been but few years in | it's history when the vilest of white birch | whisky and charcoal burners rum could not be procured there.
 The father of this precious family was old Erastus Warren, poverty-stricken man, | egotistical in the extreme, who had belief ! that he had been cheated in financial trans \ action he once had with neighbor of reput- | ed wealth. He swore that forever after the | community should pay to him and his sons | loose that could be conveniently laid hold of. | The cynical old head of the family led the ! way and his three sons were not slow in fol- | lowing him.
 While the thefts of the gang have not been of startling importance in individual cases, | yet it is believed that they extend into the | thousands in number. They literally levied ! tribute on all the surrounding country. ! Among their more recent levies were the | stripping of clothes lines in Whitestone and | the theft of all sorts of farm utensils from
 Frank Oatley, Fred Shampaign, William Reach, Henry White and J. P. Kendall. 1 They carried off all of Henry Warren's pumpkins from an open field, not respecting | the Warren name, and they broke into Cal ! win Perry's woodhouse. The wife of Edward l Fairman, teamster, found herself one morn- | ing without any watering pot, broom or family stovepipe. The garden shovel and ! hoe were also gone. John Chase, on the | William Bodwell had his flock of Thanksgiv- l ing chickens stolen. They relieved James | W. Burlingane's milk wagon of both milk ! and meney; from Henry Wallace they stole ! scythes, forks, sledges and saws, and from | Albert Monclo they stole clothing of all | kinds.
 Milton Case lost the family silver spoons; | 'Bijah Sweet of Foster had flock of twelve | fowls taken by them, and Elwood Sweet of \ the same place had twelve bushels of meal ! carried off.
 A horse was taken from Daniel Paine of
  I Shippee lost another, and so did George | Leavens, a well known merchant Of Daniel- | sonville Charles Phillips of Scituate drove | home with load of grain, left it under the shed and the next morning had to go for ! another load to keep his hogs from starving. John Whipple of North Seituate lost large flock of turkeys. Nearly twenty horses have been run off recently from the section | beyond Johnston in Rhode Island, and it is believed that the valuable horse owned by | the city of Providence, which was usually driven by Superintendent of Streets Allen \ was the work of the same pack of daring | scoundrels.
 People grew excessively weary of this mid | night proving. Constable Barstow tackled
 the case and got young Henry Dsggett to hell him.
 Daggett then went on an oetensible hunt ing expedition and went into the Hande
 House and bought some cider. He espied 1 pair of Cape Cod ishermans woolen stock
 ings hanging in the fireplace. These h'
 bought of Edwin Warren, and Mr. Alber
 Monde, citizen of Chestnut Hill, subse
 quently identified them as his. Warrant | were at once procured for the arrest of Phil lips and Edmund Warren, and Constabl
 Barstow went after the men, He found then
 in 6 new resort, the Simon Woodell house, al
 isolated habitation in Killingly. He peepet
 l in through torn window curtain at midnigh
 and found the family registering over som |, good things taken rom James burlngane
 He went in and arrested Edward, "Captain Josiah, Ed Mofitt and wife and others of tn Clan Warren just at the moment they wer planning how to dispose of Burlingame'
 milk cans in Rhode Island for cash.
 Captain Warren escaped, vowing ven geance, but was captured last week in thicket in the Pine woods by the constable
 and Phillips was also captured by the pluck , constable. The "captain" and Phillips vii
 have to go to Wethersield. Everybody ha ; been retaining stolen property for severs l days past. The Warrens had a pile of boot ' hid away which was found, and Edwar 3 Warren's 12 year old son revealed the pre- 3 sence of large dugout in the garden of tn 3 Handel house, which was completely file with stolen farming tools, with their handle painted red so as to disguise their ownership The woodshed of the Handel house was 8 ingeniously partitioned off as to conceal } hidden chamber, accessible only through l trap door to which access was had by lad t der. Here were vast quantities of stole l plumbing of all sorts-enough to start , series of secondhand stores. Other hidin 3 places well stocked with stolen goods weI r \ revealed.