The record-union., 1895-02-04
GALT'S FIREBUG NOW IN JAIL.
William Galloway Admits Having Set
Two Fires.
His Clever Capture by Detective Tim
Lee-The Story Told by
the Prisoner.

William Galloway was arrested IN
Stockton Saturday evening by Detective
Timothy Lee on charge OF incendIa-
rism committed at Gait, and has madesa
full confession.
For several months last year the resi-
dents of Gait had been in a continual
state of uncertainty and unrest, owing to
the fires that had been of frequent occur
rance in their little burg, and the fact that
threatening letters had been received by
various citizens.
Such was the frequency OF the lncen-
diary fires, and so great was the loss en-
tailed upon the insurance companies in
terested, that they engaged the services OF
ex-Chief of Police Lee to ferret out the
perpetrators.
The only clue lay in an anonymous let
ter directed to James Graham, who con-
ducts the Commercial Hotel in Gait, and
which was received by him from San
Francisco, via Sacramento. The letter
read:
GRAHAM'S WARNING.
"Hello, Gait! How's fire now dav?
now L will tell you, Mr.. Graham. will
change this, if you will leave that what
called Commercial Hotel, we will not
-
from this date May 24th and if you don't
in 20 days, we will do the job yet. We
have tried already three times, seeing
your guards went back and wrote that
letter, when we was in Gait, now what
will you do? we will burn it if it takes
six months, as long as you are there. and
the best thing you can do is to get out, or
you will the trouble and death. ours,
Truly, FIREMAN.
"P. S.-Keep your guards on hand, we
can fight as well as they can, for we are
going to have that Hotel down TO hell be-
fore We give up and don't you forget II, II
you leave, it will be all right"
THE DETECTIVE AT WORK.
Obtaining possession of this letter, Lee
procured specimens of the handwriting
of all the suspected persons in the case,
and on comparison found that the scrawl
bore the closest resemblance to the CHI
Biography of Galloway.
He then had several letters written to
that person, and placed the answers and
the anonymous letter in the hands of
some of the leading experts on chirogra-
ply in the State, who all gave IL as their
opinion that they had been written by
the same person.
In the meantime Galloway had been
traced to Stockton, where he had Joined
the ranks OF the Salvation Army, and as
soon as Detective Lee was satisfied as to
the authorship of the anonymous letter
he placed Galloway under arrest and
questioned him closely, but without ef-
tecting confession.
GALLOWAY OWNS UP.
The Captain of the Salvation Army
was then requested to interview the
prisoner, and eventually persuaded him
TO confess. The prisoner acknowledged
in the presence of Lee, the Sheriff and
Chief of Police of Stockton, that he had
set fire TO the Phoenix Saloon and bar
ber shop that stood directly in the rear of
the hotel, and had also fired the hotel it.
self
When asked what motive induced him
to commit the crime, he said: II did 1t
because Mr.. Graham had not treated me
right, and 1 wanted to scare him away
from town."
Yesterday morning Detective Lee
brought his prisoner to Sacramento and
lodged him in the County Jail.
Galloway is a slight-built young man,
and does not appear to be very bright.
h g shows no hesitation in speaking of
his crime, and apparently does not
realize the magnitude of the offense he
has committed. He declares that he
would have made a full acknowledg-
ment Of the crime when he was arrested
on suspicion, some months back, if be
had been questioned on the subject. In
conversation with a RECoRD-UNIoN re-
porter yesterday Galloway said:
NOW, see here. L am perfectly willing
to tell you about the whole matter, but
you must come out in the yard, w here we
Will be alone"
HE TELLS HIS STORY.
Seated on a bench in the Jail yard, he
told his story in the following words:
~ had worked in the hotel for some
months when it was conducted by man
named Jake Haller. He treated me fine.
Then he sold out and Jim Graham began
running it. l kept on working for him.
/ was washing dishes. Graham kept
nagging at me all the time, and l got mad
at him and concluded to try and run him
away.
You see, there had been lot of fires
around town, and several barns were
burned, but l had nothing to do with
that. l think that crazy man that Sheriff
Cunningham caught was the person who
burned them. He told Cunningham that
he was building line of railroad from
the Capay Valley. and the barns were on
his right of way.
well, l got 10 thinking about the mat
ter, and L concluded TO try and drive
Graham out of town. SO l wrote him a
letter, but that did not seem to scare him
much; so one afternoon l got glass fruit
jar and filled it with coal oil, and about
IL o'clock one night l went to the back
part of the Phoenix saloon, that stood near
the hotel, and opening the door of little
woodshed, put the jar of coal oil in an
empty barrel and lit it with match.
SIT BURNED LIKE THE DICKENS.
And it was all l could do to get my trunk
out of the hotel before the whole saloon
was blazing. You see, | was afraid the
hotel might catch fire also, and L did not
want to lose my clothes.
After l put them in safe place I
went and helped to fight the ire There
was an old man sleeping in the saloon
and they had to carry him out because
he could not walk. | was sorry for him
and forgot he was in the building when /
touched it OF, or | don't think / would
have burned the place.
well, even that did not scare Gra-
ham. So one afternoon, after I pot
through cleaning the lamps, | took the
lamp cloth-it was full of coal oil-and
went up stairs, into the cook IS room. |
put the cloth on the floor against the wall
and piled lot of the cooks clothes over
1t and touched it off with match. Then
l ran out and hid in the water-closet.
When she got to blazing good Mrs. Gra-
ham-who mad gone into a closet under
the stairs that lead to the upper story of
the hotel to get a of tomatoes-saw
the fire. She screamed and then [ ran
with the crowd into the house and helped
put the fire out.
You see, did not want the house to
burn. If l had l would have pinned a
blanket over the window and poured coal
oil over everything, and then she'd have
gone a-booming. No, L only wanted to
scare Graham away. Some of these Off
GERS think l had someone in with me, but
l didn't; did it all alone amt going to
lie about, nohow."
LOOKING FOR OTHERS.
Detective Lee SAYS there is not the
slightest doubt but there are other incen-
6arI0s and about the Ujpinitv off Cali