Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-29
Sharp Work by Pacific Coast De-
tectives.
TEE end OF Two WEEKS PURSUIT
Capture and Confession of Express
Office Thieves.
RECOVERY OF THE MONEY

THE DALLES, Oregon, October 29.-After
two weeks endeavor on the part Of de-
tectives and local officers, the parties who
robbed the Pacific Express Company S
office in this city Of $4,000 on October AZ
have at last been apprehended and placed
under arrest, and all but 500 Of the money
recovered.
Frank Klein and Otis Savage, young men
of respectable parents, living here, are in
jail, having made a complete confession of
the theft. Many clews were followed by
detectives, but all proved fruitless. until
Sheriff Driver suggested that possibly
Klein and Savage, who have been living in
idleness about town, and who once be-
longed to what is known as the Hawthorne
gang of desperadoes, might be implicated.
1t was reported that the young men were
separated from the gang on account of a
disagreement as to the plan for robbing a
Union Pacific train at a point between here
and Portland. Shortly after separating
Hawthorne and pals robbed a store here of
lot of guns. pistols and ammunition. and
left for their rendezvous near Mt. Hood.
1t Is said the only clew to the robbers was
a bar of steel, sharpened at one end, which
fastened into hook, found beside the
empty treasure box on the floor of the ex-
press Office on the morning Of the robbery.
Following the suggestion of Sheriff
Driver, Detective Sam Simons of Portland
and Lord of the Surety Company OF Kansas
City visited the shop and living room Of
Klein and Savage, which is in a barn In
klein's yard. The walls Of the room
bristled with guns of every description, and
the room also contained an anvil and tools
for doing light blacksmith work.
Sheriff Driver, learning this, took the steel
tools to Salem Rowe, one of the gang who
is confined liz the penitentiary, and from
him learned it was fashioned in his shop
by members Of the Hawthorne gang from
q drill stolen from a Union Pacific loco
motive at the time they contemplated the
train robbery. Rowe also stated that Klein
was by trade an expert locksmith, who
possessed key to the express office. ARM
ed with this information Mr. Driver ac-
companied by Detective Simons returned
to The Dalles and caused the arrest of
Klein and Savage.
They were captured without resistance
at tneir rooms ard confined in separate
apartments at the hotel where District At
torney Jayne and Mr.. Simons attempted
to gain confession from them. They with
stood all advances for a time. Finally
Klein broke down and sobbingly confessed
the whole matter, telling where the money
was hidden. Search was instituted for the
money, and bag con tanning 1855 in gold
was found In cesspool, under a Chinese
wash house, which once belonged to the
Savage estate, two bags with 81 800 in sill
YER were found under an old building near
the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and one bag which
mad contained 5000 in gold, and from
which $500 had been extracted, was dis
covered buried in Kiein's back yard.
Savage at first maintained stolid silence
when told of klea's confession, saying he
was innocent of the crime but when con-
fronted by his pal he had nothing more to
say. Klein also confessed that they had
robbed the post office here on the night Of
September g.
These arrests break up one Of the worst
gangs of robbers in this section, and re-
lieve Express Agent Hill of the odum
which suspicion cast upon him when the
dispatches enormously stated that he had
been arrested for committing the deed.