Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-07

~&AM does not run beyond
the Negus case, to
which Cochran. the Philadelphia mint thief,
referred when he claimed that his theft of
gold bullion was justified because he had
saved large amounts to the government
Cochran was the assistant to the weighing
clerk in 1851. when $4,000 Of gold dust was
stolen from the Philadelphia mint, and 1t
was on his Information that the thief was
apprehended. The claim which he made
when arrested in Philadelphia was that he
was entitled to all of the salary of Negus,
his predecessor. as well as to his own. The
IS one or many cunning tricks by which
Cochran will seek to evade punishment for
his crime.
Cochran May Plead Insanity.
They will try the insanity dodge in Coch-
rams case" said the director of the mint,
Mr.. Preston. discussing the case few days
ago. But do not believe that they will
succeed in getting him off. He had no con-
sideration for others. He did not stop to
think of the position in which he was plac-
ing them. The position in which 1 was
placed was most awkward. 1 had weighed
the gold into the vault in 1887, and while /
could not have been held legally responsible
Tor any shortage, l would have been held
10 a moral accountability. And the most
unpleasant feature Of the case for me was
this: When the investigation of the theft
was made 1t was found that some of the
missing bars had been in the last row and
that one of them should have been at the
bottom of the last pile of gold. OF course
II Cochran had not confessed. they would
have said that even II he had hooked the
gold. which was near the door, it would
have been impossible for him to have got
at these bars, which were placed under such
an enormous weight of metal. 1t was a
fortunate thing for me that Cochran did not
keep his mouth shut, though it would have
been a good thing for him IL he had. When
he made his confession he told how he had
gone into the vault after much Of the gold
had been removed and had taken ten bars
from the last stack and shot them into the
ventilator. That completely exonerated
me. Cochran made the case very easy for
nothing there would always have been a
doubt whether that gold really went into the
vault In 1887. ! knew that 1t went in be-
cause l saw every bar put in place. A rec
Of bullion. and the bars from each melt are
marked SO as to be thoroughly identified.
had an old invoice of the New York assay
office. and with this in my hand. I checked
each bar of gold it went into the vault.
Melt No. SO and SO would be entered as con-
tanning so many ounces of gold cast in so
many bars. These bars and their weights
had to check with the invoice as they were
put on the truck. Then followed the work.
man with his truck into the vault and saw
each of the bars unloaded and put in place.
In the meantime, MI. FOX sat there ana
watched the deposit Of the bars and watched
the bars until they were all in place and
the vault was ready for sealing The lat
ticed door, behind which these bars were
protection as to separate this gold from the
other bullion stored in the mint.
COchran's Cute Methods.
Cochran may be crazy" said Mr.. Pres
ton, but he is the kind Of crazy man that
want to see behind bars. He was cute
enough to draw $40 On account Of his salary
only a few days before the discovery of the
theft was made; though he had more than
S, 900 at his house and did not need the ad-
vance on his salary at all. The prepara-
tons which he had made to conceal his
crime were remarkable. He had safe set
in the wall Of his house so cleverly that
you could hunt all day and not find 1t. He
had secret springs in the panels of his
door, and behind them he had concealed a
full METERS outft-crucible, tongs, gloves
and everything. He had circular stove
in the top of his house made expressly for
melting. He melted the bullion and added
silver to 1T so that it was neither standard,
sterling or fine. In this way he avoided
the possibility Of suspicion when the ex-
press company delivered the bullion at the
mint for him. Oh, he was a cute one But
he went all to pieces when they proposed
to take the bullion out of the vault and coin
1t. He begged the acting superintendent
to have bullion sent over from the New
York assay office. One Of the arguments
that he used was that the bullion was piled
up so prettily that he liked to show it to
visitors and that it would be a shame to
disturb 1t. When he heard that they had
asked me to send a man over to supervise
the weighing out. he got leave Of absence
ana hurried over to Washington and
Iound MIN at my house at 10 o'clock at
night. He begged me then not to have the
vault opened. When l told him that a |
man had already been sent over from NV
office, he shook his head and said that
- Gvnl -
He said something about q workman get |
ting through the wall behind the vault and |
told me that the wall was only four inches
thick. found when 1 went to Philadel- |
thick. 1 began to suspect something when
he talked about the bullion being missing
When the gold was being weighed out he
went to the superintendent of the mint and |
told him that he would be thirty bars short
That Is just the amount that he had |
taken"
I asked Mr.. Preston to tell me what other
robberies there had been at the minis of |
the United States.
The Nesu. Case.
There was the Negus case in Philadel- |
phla in 1891 he said. ''Negus was the |
weighing clerk and Cochran was at that |
time his assistant 1t was during the great |
solo lnnux following the opening of the |
gold beds In California in 1Si9 So much
Solu aust was coming around the Horn to |
we" ioTk ana coming to the mint for COIN |
age tnat 1t was sometimes five or six weeks
Derore a depositor received his money IN
the meantime, all that the depositor had
was receipt from the Weighing CLERK
mere were not so many checks on tho
weighing clerk then as there are now and
there was so long a period between tho
time when the gold was received and the
time when 1t was coined that there Vas
plenty or opportunity for Negus to helm
hlmself He took about $4,000 worth IF
gold Cochran suspected him and set a
watch on him and he and another NAV
reported the case to the superintendent
Negus fled and I believe he was na,,or
punished. After this theft the nelter ava
refner and the register were made 10 cbantl
on the weighing clerk for greater ca fatv
We improve the service gradually as fauIts
are brought to our notice. A change which
L made very recently requires the weigh-
ing Clerk to turn over his receipts Of hnii
ION every day instead of monthly az Nc
he rule Under the old system. half !. Iii
lion dollars worth of bullion somat,n,n
accumulated In the hands of the u,siahir
clerk before he turned 1T over
The next robbery after the Naors 49,
!! mink. was in San Francisco in 1894 %,
1870. The cashier Of the San Francisoo
mint, william Macy received from IT,
coiner one day $4,000 in double eagles o rr
credited the coiner with only 100000 Tha
other $4,000 he kept. He also stole ,ho,,t
sl2 900 from the ordinary funds of the n'int
the funds used in paying current cxn.n