The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-02

put a. detective there but the landlady
would not have it and / have to cover the
! house from theoutside.n " $. II: ].
+ The trunks were taken to police head
quarters while the captain was telling his
story. There was a long macintosh coat
in each, which the captain thought, We're
| worn by the two men while committing
! the robberies here. Their hats were the
| same shape and make also. - :.
There are a dozen men who have iden-
/ captain, land there is positive. proof that
| the dead robber Browning murdered Cor
nelius Stage at the Ingleside House on
March 16 j.. p .:-.=:
my reasons for saying. so are many.
| Both men, in the end of October last,
| bought a bicycle from the Cleveland Com
pany, on McAllister street, near Larkin,
/ pawn tickets In their trunks. One was Tor
a Cleveland wheel pawned on January 81
| by Williams under the name of Mcclure.
| The Others were. for filled-case gold
/ watch, a Smith It w essen revolver, a box
of cartridges: and two new evereoats.
Browning still had his own bicycle. a II.
'"Qn March II Browning went to j. w.
| Leayitt,. the manager ::of the Cleveland
| Company, and hired wheel. for Williams,
Saying they were going for ride in the
country. Browning returned the wheel on
| Monday, March IS, two days after Stagg
| was murdered. Leavitt observed that there
were scratches on his face, which Browning
accounted for by saying that he had taken
| a header off his wheel.
| .Now, on the night Of the, Stage muir
der Robert Lee, the colored man, saw two
| men riding on bicycles a few minutes be-
| fore the. :'hold-up. Traces of the wheels
| were seen and footsteps were traced from
1.-The hotel toa cul.de-sac where there was
a barbed-wire fence. ..:. -. -
r"The two men had run into this barbed-
wire fence in the darkness, and, no doubt
| thataccounted for the scratches on Brown
| ing's face. We traced the footsteps back
| from the. barbed- wire fence to a wooden
| fence, where they evidently had their
| wheels waiting for them, and they rode off
| in the direction of the beach. s
''The smaller. of the two men. wore mar
row toe pointed shoes No. 6, and the taller
| broad toe pointed shoes No. 8, which could
| be seen by the marks of their footsteps. In
Williams trunk we found No. 6 shoes and
| in Browning's Nos shoes, corresponding
| to the footsteps seen near Stagg's hotel.
"There is another point: In all theSac-
rafnento robberies and train robberies,. it
was particularly observed that when the
| smaller of the two men held his pistol
pointed his hand always shook. 1t was
hold-ups in Hagerty'ss saloon lat the Cliff
House on September 25 and February q.
..To go back to the bicycles. The one
| found near Marysville was the one pur-
chased by Browning from the Cleveland
Company. Before they left the city on
Sunday week, they hired Westminster
wheel, 1886, from Perkins ID Walker, cor
ner of Van Ness avenue and Market street,
and Williams IS now fugitive from JUS:
tice on that hicvcle s. :.
81 have ascertained from Mrs. Johanna
Liijequist, the landlady at 800 Golden Gate
avenue, that the men were absent for days
at different times, which would account
for the different robberfes committed by
them. Il ~. +.
.tMr.. Leavitt of the Cleveland Company,
when shown the pictures of the two men.
sent to the State prison for horse stealing
i'm Anador County, at once identified them
as the men who had purchased bicycles
| from him. Mr.: English when shown
| Williams picture, at once identified it5as
that.of his former stableman. = There have
| been others who also identified them, be-
| sides, of course, the people of the houses.
where they roomed. ., Il .~..::- &. +
The captain is also firmly convinced
that Williams and Browning held up
| Robert D. Hagerty and shot him through
! the body on September 25,. and also held
UP his brother Frank and four customers
on February 21. Everything points to that
i conclusion: fl: . II. !. ~
He isequally convinced that they We're
| the men who held up several saloons In
| Mission and Western addition about the
beginning of thewinter, besides others in
4 which tall and short masked man Fl Cured.
Mr.. Gard found peculiar-shaped knife
/ in the pocket of the dead robber at Reeds
Crossing. 1t opened by q clasp and had a
| long, keen narrow blade. This, combined
i n
captain to seriously think that the
| murder of Eugene Ware, the ST. Nicholas
| drugstore clerk, was done by Browning
and Williams. The murder was commit
ted about the middle of November At
that time Williams was living at. 305
| Grove street and Browning in a house on
! Van Ness avenue not far from Grove street.
they were close to the st. Nicholas drug
store and had ample opportunity to study
| the ways of the murdered clerk. ..<:
| 81 would not say positively said the
/ captain, that either of them murdered
! Ware, but putting this and that together it
| lis not unreasonable to suppose that they
| did. They have shown themselves to be
desperate and dangerous men who would
not stop at any hing ~. :: .. ~. IS. -.
'tY on are rig hit, said Mr.. Gard. 81 can
tell you of an incident showing the cool
ness of Browning. While working on
/ Barry's ranch, near Marysyille, heSwas at
i dinner one day and the man opposite him
objected to something he said. Finally
the man called Browning a liar. Brown
ing rose up, reached across. the table and
struck him square in the face KIN ocking
1 him down. Then he gently resumed his
dinner, asif nothing had happened -; I {
/ Mr.. Leavitt said yesterday that Nels
| Olsen, a boy in his: store, saw Browning
and Williams coming along the San Pablo
road, at Oakland, on their bicycles. They
were covered with mud. 1t was about
three weeks ago, Just about the time the
| train was held up near Stockton Olsen
1 spoke to them, and they said they had just
| come from a visit to a friend in Berkeley. "
| Last week Mr.. Leavitt got dispatch
i from Sheriff Wilson of Oroville, asking if
E"J. s. Browning was in San Francisco.
i Browning got there last Monday or Tues
lday, and represented himself as an agent
/ for the Cleveland bicycles. TX
Every effort is now being made to cap
ture Williams, ALA Brady. Mr.. Gard re-
i ceived the following dispatch yesterday
/ from one of his detectives: -.
i Strange man on bicycle seen going through
/ Gridley about IL 40 last night at the rate OF
i twenty miles an hour. Ahern, Snyder and my
/ self went up Immediately ON handcar. Il mott
| fed all officers at daylight. Ahern, Snyder and
Il i. 7 Z