The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-19

apolinaris water. Mr.. Drummond caus-
ually referred to the 30 missing bars.
COCHRAN MAKES CONFESSION.
The detective had made up his mind by,
this time that the old weighing clerk
was the guilty man and suspected several
other employees of the mint as being his
accomplices About I O'Clock in the af-
ternoou Cochran seemed to realize the
mission of the mysterious Mr.. Drummond
Poor old CDchrani' he exclaimed, as
he suddenly rose from his chair; Poor
old Cochran is done for"
What do you meant" asked Mr., Drum
mond
''My God, took the gold!' he said.
Il am alone responsible. never broke
a seal or l never entered the compart-
ment, and yet an the bars went in before
the gate was sealed
Then, in an intensely dramatic man
ner, the old man told how he had been
tempted and how he fell. Bars of silver
had for long time been piled up against
the grating of the gold compartment. One
morning, when he entered the big vault
after the silver had been taken away, he
saw little bar Of the gold with the end
peeping out from the bottom of the graf
ing.
But. 1 didn't take that one,' he
shouted. Somebody else must. have got
it. But that little bar Of gold suggested
to me a method of getting more. That
bar had fallen from the top of the piles of
bullion and had been wedged in the bot
tom of the compartment, between the
grating and the other gold bars"
HOW HE GOT THE BAR
Cochran then told how he stood on the
top of truck and with a crooked stick
raked down bar. He always wore loose
clothing, he said and was able to carry a
single bar out of the mint without sus-
picion. In five years he stole ten bars.
He doesn't remember whether the first
bar was stolen during Mr.. Fox's superin-
tendency or subsequently, When he
found that he could not prevent the
opening of the vault he realized
that his crime would be detected
Early on Saturday morning of last
week, after the seals had been broken
on Friday for the weighing, ne determ-
med to steal and conceal as many bars as
possible
That morning he raked down ten with
his crooked stick. Near each end of the
big vault is a ventilator. The ceiling is
vaulted one. He stood on a truck and
with the aid of the stick pushed the bars
of gold into the ventilator. and they top
pied over into the space between the roof
and ceiling Of the vault. Early on Mon
day morning he stole ten more bars, and
pushed them into the other ventilator. He
was CudDIGu 10 no bHlS WOFh ulODSerNeu.
just back of the double doors of the big
vault, he had a private closet He was
only enabled to get to this when the inner
door was closed after he had entered
Everybody knew of his custom and the
fact that the old wheigh clerk was in the
vault with the door closed caused no sus-
picion.
HIS HIDING PLACE REVEALED.
''Twenty-one bars, you will find up in
the ceiling. All gold! All goldr5 he
Kissed, clutChing the detectives arm, as
he told the story in the hotel room on
Friday
The employees of the mint were as
founded when Mr.. DrummOnd and Mr.
Morgan raked out gold bars from the
ventilators. But 20 and not 81 were
found, Their value was $l00,437. 49,.
That left shortage of 1913, 656.08.
Cochran had not been placed under ar
rest butwas einu tfDe2 scare" of two of
Chief Drummond's detectives Mr..
Drummond returned, and Cochran final
~ told him that there were a gold bari
and gold coin probably worth $4,000, I'M
his house at Darby. He volunteered TO
help the detectives to find them With
Mr.. Drummond and Mr.. Morgan, the
weigh clerk was driven TO the old-fash-
toned house.
There the secret service chief made
remarkable discovery. The rooms seemed
filled with secret panels. In closet,
Cochran slid back a mysterious door A
safe was revealed, and in it a 81 O0O-bar
was found In dOor-ways, panels were
opened and glittering eagles and double
eagles were brought forth by the hand
full. Then the old man led them to the
third floor, pulled up a carpet, pushed
back panel and between the floor and
the ceiling of the room beneath more coin
was found. In all, 81 $50 were gathered
up. In the attic complete smelling plant
was discovered
HOW THE COIN WAS OBTAINED.
Here the trusted mint employee had
melted down the stolen bars. Under a
fictitious name, he explained, when he
wanted to have the bullion turned into
coin in the mint, from which he had
stolen it, he took it to an express com
panys office. 1t was shipped as bull
lion; old Cochran, the weigh clerk re-
ceived it; it was turned over to the
crucible and the stamp, and at the ex-
press Office the masquerading capitalist
received the coin on its return.
While at the house Chief DrummOnd |
learned much of the past life of Coch- !
ran. He had been married 10 years !
when his wife secured aadivorce, owing !
to incompatibiiity of temper. She mar
ried again. From their two grown |
daughters, tender letters addressed to |
their father were found among his eff
fects One only recently came from a |
daughter in Paris Another from a
daughter in Maine said that within !
month she was coming to NOrristOwn, !
N. j., to start a school. She longed to |
ee her father.
To his two hearers Cochran told how |
way back in the SOS he had discovered |
Negus, his predecessor, in the act of rob |
bling the vault. The old man drew forth |
the three time-stained gold bags. "There |
they are" he said, "They contained the |
gold dust that Negus was carrying off"
Cochran at that time was Negus' assist
ant, and he was rewarded by being made |
a weighmaster. He showed five dozen |
lucent neckties. Il bought these for a |
lawn party" he explained, $50 the ladies' |
Of the church could sell them for 80 cents
apiece"
WHERE SOME OF THE CASH WENT.
Chief Drummond and Mr.. Morgan were
shown by Cochran a complete secret sys-
tenn OF electric signal wires through the
house. Even the stalls in the stables
were connected with his bedroom. None
of the servants slept in the house. Coch
ran said he had spent 50, 900 in improving
the place, but denied that any of the
stolen gold had been used for that pur-
pose. This statement is, however, doubt
ed, as he lived fully up to his salary. He
said that two mortgages, aggregating
in ~ e. E,.,11