Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-02
CONFESSION OF In OUTLAW.
ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS MADE By
sHIEN, THE DESPERATE.
He and Dorsey, Alias Thorn, Guido
"Black Bart" and the Other Celebri-
ties-Detective Hume's Great Work.

-
cess in this State as highwayman, and
was heralded to the world as the peer of
"Deadwood Dick Claude Duval," and
other real or mythical freebooters.
But BLACK Bart" must now either go
into business again or step down from his
pinnacle of fame.
Charles Dorsey, alias Thorn, and alias a
number of other names, with his compan-
ion, George Shinn, can give the POS"
cards and spades in the road agent business
and even then he would not be in it, to
use the popular phrase.
The RECORD UNION recently furnished its
readers with a series of lengthy and inter
esting accounts of the careers of these no.
torious desperadoes up to the time of heir
confinement in the San Quentin State
Prison; told of their remarkable and daring
escape from that modern bastile, and OF
their subsequent sensational capture in
Chicago, three years after their escape, by
detective j B. Hume Wells, Fargo d Co. s
famous criminal catcher. When the des-
peradoes passed through this city en- route
to San Quentin, in charge of detective
Hume and Captains Fisk and Reddy, re-
porter of this journal boarded the train, ac-
companied the party to the bay, and had
interviews with both Dorsey and Shinn
and the officers-all of which were pub
Gshed at length.
DETECTIVE HUME's WORK.
Although praise was coming from all
quarters for the great achievement of de-
tective Hume, still that official was not
satisfied to rest on his honors. During the
trip down to the bay, previously men
toned, he informed the RECORD UNION
representative that he had only started in
on the case. He was satisfied, he said, that
since their escape from San Quentin, Dorsey
and Shinn had committed innumerable
depredations in the northern part of the
State, including several stage robberies.
Captain Aull, now of the Folsom Peni-
Tertiary agreed with him. He did not
propose to stop in his Investigations until
he had proved what he believed was true.
'But what can you do?' was asked.
dorsey, or Thorn, has a life sentence to
serve, and Shinn has a long term to serve"
That's all right" was the detectives re-
ply, II simply want to fasten these crimes
where they belong, so that the public and
the people by whom I am employed may
see that it was not alone because Dorsey and
i
have been tracking them for three years"
Both Dorsey and Shinn stoutly main
tanned at that time that Immediately after
their escape from the Penitentiary they
worked their way East until they reached
Chicago, where they remained until cap
tured. They denied positively and en-
phatically that they returned to California
at any time after they arrived in Chicago,
until the officer took them back.
CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE.
But detective Hume, while in Chicago,
obtained evidence that proved the state
ments of Dorsey and Shiun to be false.
This evidence was in the shape of letters
which had been sent to parties in Chicago
by Dorsey and Shinn from California in
the past two years-letters that were mailed
from Brighton, within a stones throw, so
TO speak, of Sacramento. This satisfied
him, beyond peradyenture, that his former
conclusions about the stage robberies were
right
Hef@en set about to properly establish
his case.
All successful detectives look first to
confession from criminals, and in this d.
reciion detective Hume resolved to make
his first move He held conference with
his old friend and adviser, Captain Aull,
and they agreed upon plan. Dorsey's
shrewdness they knew too well to attempt
anything in the pumping" line, but
Shinn is much the inferior in every wsy of
Dorsey and they resolved to work on him.
10 do this successfully il was necessary to
remove Shinn entirely from Dorsey's in
fiuence, so arrangements were completed
for the formers transfer TO Folsom. ShiDn
was brought up to Sacramento Friday
evening and remained over night at the
City Prison. Yesterday morning ne was
taken to Folsom, detective Hume going
along with the party.
In the afternoon Shinn was taken into
Warden Aull's private office and inter-
viewed for three hours and half by the
Warden and detective Hume.
The result was complete confession.
Shinn acknowledged that he and Dorsey
did return to California after they reached
Chicago. and that they perpetrated crimes
in various parts Of the State with such au-
dacily and rapidity as to cause the belief
that a veritabe regiment of highwaymen
had been turned loose to terrorizs the
people.
sKINN's CONFESSION.
He made what he declared was a clean
breast of everything, and related what they
had done and where they had been from
the time of their escape up TO the time of
their capture in Chicago-and it is a record
of crime, in conjunction with their previous
histories, that has probably never been
sdualed in the history of the Pacific coast.
Immediately after their escape, said
Shinn, they made their way to Sacramento,
after UNDERGOING many hardships. Reach
ing this city, they purchased a stock OF
provisions and then went out into the
brush, about q quarter of mile east of the
north levee and Eear the bank of the
American river. Here they camped in a
place which, az Shinn himself says, must
have been cut out by nature for "ro5eer' S
roost." 1t was in the midst of a dense
thicket, and il would be next to an impos-
sibility for a person not familiar with the
place land it appears that very few persons
are familiar with it) to find it.
After resting for quite while IN their
hiding-place, Dorsey and Shinn decided
that it was high time to be up and doing
again. They felt satisfied that they were
fully equal 10 the task of eluding the OH
GERS who might be on the lookout for them,
and they knew from the accounts pub
lished in the newspapers relative to their
escape that the authorities were not on
their track.
Dorsey suggested, however, that it would
not do to stay in any one place too long,
with the exception, perhaps. of their strong
hold on the American river.
THEY GO EAST.
They knocked about the country and
finally got out of the State, heading for
Arizona. Here they shifted about consid-
erably, working at most anything, and now
and then, when an opportunity presented
itself, doing little lob" or two of the
kind in which they were most proficient
earrsting, burglarizing and the like.
Eventually they reached Chicago and
STAYED there for a while. But Chicago was
not lively enough for them, and they con-
cluded to come back to dear, old California,
where there were wilderresses and noun
tain Businesses, just the thing for stage rob-
bling and train.robbing.
They did return and the first place they
headed for was their rendezvous on the
American.
They were not idle long.
The first lob" they undertook was a
successful robbery, though not very sue
cessful financial operation. 1t was on the
forenoon of the Sd of July of last year that
Dorsey and Shinn located themselves near
tbe trestle lust north of the American river
bridge. A buggy containing two men was
snnrosching. and the desperadoes decided
to "hold them up" Dorsey secreted him
self beneath the trestle and primed his
shooting irons, so as to be ready in case the
victims should demonstrate, and Shinn
fAa rood and Vraita1 for