Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-04

note the number of times that Mr. Coogan
has found shelter at San Quentin and Fol
som. A penal servitude of over twenty
years since 1862 is no laughing matter, but
the effect on Burglar Coogan is by no
means perceptible and the grin that orna-
mented his far from handsome face thirty
years ago, if it has changed at all, has
grown broader. Despite his fifty-three
years of age and his reputation as a hope
less criminal, the old man is today any
thing but vicious looking
But Coogan's grin was unusually broad
the other morning, and there was an i'm
mediate cause. His laugh was at the ex
pense of Judge Love.
Coogan had fallen into the hands of the
police department, but not as Coogan or
Hogan or Nichols, the aliases under which
he has served time. The old man had been
drinking and could not walk to the salts
faction of Policemen Webster and Maloney.
AT the city prison he gave the name of
Harry Nicholas. When the jailers searched
him a murderous looking bulldog revolver
came to light and he was charged with
carrying concealed weapons. To the ordi
nary citizen this might have meant 250
days imprisonment.
On the morning Coogan came before
Judge Love he played the innocent granger
dodge, and he played it we'll. He was
farm laborer from Napa, he said, and had
not been in the city over an hour before he
was arrested. But he had encountered the
smooth city sharp, and during that hour
he had been made intoxicated and had been
robbed of fifty dollars. AS an evidence of
the rough treatment that he had received
Coogan exhibited beautifully blackened
eye AS traveller he had right to carry
Z l,. L..
and walked out, followed by his attorney,
Leopold Englander, an ex-police officer
who resigned his position to practice in the
police courts.
In the corridor Coogan and Englander
encountered Detective Tim Bainbridge,
whose peculiar detail is to keep an eye on
the ex-convicts. Tim spotted Coogan at
once and was naturally curious. He fol-
lowed the eX-convict and Englander to the
property clerks office, knowing that the
police court practitioner had his eye on
something of value. Englander and Coo
gan went to claim gold watch that was
taken from the latter at the time of his ar
rest. The detective insisted on seeing the
timepiece. To his surprise-and to Coo
gan's-he was able to identify the watch
as one that was stolen by burglar who
entered the room of Fred Myrick over the
saloon at tie Oaklank driving park. The
burglar entered the room while Myrick
was sleeping, removed the sleepers trou-
sers from under his pillow and took the
watch and fifty dollars. When this dis
covery was made Coogan still grinned,
but it was sickly grin, and it grew sick
lier when he was taken back to the city
prison and booked zen route to Oakland"
Detective Ben Holland came over after the
l,,,,,S ha, ,,,n nnlr1 -
a fair way to reach San Quentin again.
Coogan is known as the cleverest house
worker" in California, and is believed to
have committed more hotel burglaries in
the state than any other man.
The most amusing incident of the old
mans life perhaps is his experience with
Governor Perkins, or rather Governor Per
kins' experience with him. The beautiful
park at the Folsom penitentiary will long
stand as a monument to Coogan's art as a
landscape gardener. His work there at
tracted the governors attention, and the
chief executive naturally wanted to see the
man. Coogan was produced. To make a
long story Short the old mans kindly face
wen the governor, and he was pardoned.
But the governor was not content with
this. Coogan must be given chance.
The old man left the penitentiary and
became Governor Perkins gardener, and
model gardener he seemed to be. 1t was
not long, however, until the governors
neighbors in Alameda county began to be
troubled by burglars. No one suspected
the smiling, jovial old gardener until the
police took hold again where the governor
left off in the reformation of Coogan. 1t
was then that the neighbors found that
the governors gardener had played dual
&c
posies by daylight and turned off" their
houses, as the police say, while the flowers
were growing at nighttime.