The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-21

with robbery as the motive. His victims,
| Mr.. and Mrs. F. s.. H. Weber. were emi-
nently respectable residents of Sacramento.
Mr.. Weber conducted a grocery-store orpo-
site the State Capitol and the family resi-
dence was in the same building over the
| store,
On the night of December 20, 1894, after
Mr.. Weber had closed the store and he and
his wife were about to retire, their home
was entered by the robbers who, the evil
dence in the case has shown, had been
watching their opportunity for some days.
On the day OF the murder the Southern Pa
cific had paid its employees and Weber,
who supplied many of the railroad men,
was known to have received considerable
i money.
| r. Kovalev and his companions in crime,
for it is known he had at least one, and it
is believed two companions. noted the re-
ceipt of the money, and that night con-
cealed themselves about the premises con-
veniently for the execution of their in
tended robbery.
AS the robbers entered the family apart
ments they encountered Mr. Weber on a
porch in the rear of the kitchen and one of
them dealt him a blow with an AK that
ended his life Mrs. Weber, hearing the
noise, went into the kitchen, as is sup
posed, and seeing the awful work in prog
ress, turned to flee, when she, too, was
killed.
The investigation that followed the dis
covery of the murder proved the crime
had been committed for the purpose of
| robbery, as the house had been ransacked
| from one end to the other. It is known
| the murderers secured several hundred
| dollars, but the exact amount has never
| been known.
The investigation also developed the fact
that once outside the house the murderers
went to an old shed in the yard and there
took off their outer clothing and put on
garments stolen from the house of the
people they had killed.
The crime created great excitement at
Sacramento, and as one result all the
tramps and bad characters who could be
rounded up were driven from the city.
Rewards of considerable amounts were
offered and great deal of detective work
was done on the case, but for some time to
no purpose. Following out what appeared
to be valuable clews, the Sprout brothers
were arrested and discharged at the pre-
| liminary examination, as was also "Shy
Red," whose real name was Landt.
1t was some months after the murder
that the first real clew pointing to the
murderers was discovered. A man named
Bennett called one day on Captain Lees,
chief of detectives of this City, and in
formed him that photographer named
| Stevens had told him that he knew who
the Weber murderers were, and wanted
him (Bennett) to furnish money to go to
| Sacramento to claim the reward. Ben
nett's statement was not very explicit and
Captain Lees took very little stock in it,
but told him to bring Stevens to head
quarters. Bennett failed to do so, and de-
tectives were sent to see Stevens. He
| knew very little of the affair, but referred
the detectives to Wall wislaw Zakrewski, a
| Russian Finn, ship carpenter, who fur
nished the police, with the story of the
murder.
| Zakrewski made q statement to Captain
Lees to the effect that he had first met
Kovalev, or John Durbroff, as he then
gave his name, in August, 1894. He met
| him several times later, and in February
| Kovalev had taken room at his house.