The San Francisco call., 1895-12-29
Not Among the Bold Bad Rob.
bers on the Ingleside
Car Line.
PAT WEIGH WAS ALSO ABSENT
Officer ]. L. Stoddard, Wearing Star
No. AIS, Comes to the Rescue
of the Prisoners.

John F. Bronner, resident at the Pal
ace Hotel, is in thorough accord with Cap
tain Lees of the Police Department and
believes that the three men now i'll custody
are the villains who nearly scared him to
death last Wednesday night, when they
shot Cashier Clark and carried away the
days receipts of the Ingleside Track bar,
as they were being conveyed to the City
on the new electric road.
Bronner, like a score of other people who
were taken before the prisoners cell, could
not recognize them by their features, be-
cause on the night of the hold-up the rob-
bers had their faces covered by handker-
chiefs; but the general makeup OF the
men, together with the fact that they were
In detention, gave him the impression that
they must be the real culprits.
In pursuance of this and at the sugges-
ton of the police, Mr.. Bronner yesterday
swore to complaint charging Fred Gardi-
ner, Patrick Welch and Joe Middlemiss
with robbery. The men were regularly
booked in the City Prison and Judge Con-
Ian placed them under $4,000 bonds each.
This they have been unable to secure and
they are still in durance vile.
Captain Lees feels morally certain these
men are guilty; that they deliberately
planned the robbery, and that they were
intent upon being successful in it, even at
the cost of one or more lives.
Chief Crowley agrees with Captain Lees
in this belief, and most of their subordi-
mates make it point to keep mum on the
subject, or else agree with their superior
officers. There are a few, however. who
manfully declare their belief that at
least one of the accused men is innocent.
This Ingleside robbery furnishes one
very pointed case which illustrates the
amount OF wrong and hardship that can be
done by the fear of placing ones self
prominently in opposition to the dictum
of superior. Here are three men thrown
into dungeon, under heavy bonds, and
heralded to the world as accused of most
outrageous crime. At the same time, one
of these men-Joe Middlemiss-has as
clear an alibi as if he had been IN the Po-
lice Commissioners room, with these ge IN
tlemen present. Still, he suffers the ig
nominy of incarceration, without an ef-
fort being made to liberate him and right
him in the eyes of the public.
Captain Lees stated yesterday afternoon
to discuss the case through the news
papers. He had caused complaints to be
flied and he would rest the cases with the
court. Captain Lees should know now.
for he has been told by one of his own
men, that Middlemiss could not possibly
have been one of the men who held up
the Ingleside car when nearly $1,000 was
stolen and two men shot.
In explanation of this it must be said
that Middlemiss, not Gardiner, as erron-
eously published yesterday, is the man
who claimed to have come in town from
the track on Wednesday afternoon some
time prior to the robbery. He said in a
straightforward manner that he was quite
drunk and had been put off the car. He
waited until the next one came along and
essayed to get aboard. His condition was
very apparent and the conductor was in
clined to wave him off. At this juncture,
SO Middlemiss claimed. when cross-ques-
toned by Captain Lees, a police officer
told the conductor to let him alone and
he (the officer) would see that no harm
came to the "drunk."
Middlemlss felt very grateful for this
act of kindness and in his muddled brain
decided to remember the name, or at least
the mum Der, of the kind officer who saw
him safely as far in town as Fourth street.
All he could remember was officer 413.
He was sure that was the right number.
Captain Lees sought out No. 413 and
found that Officer Rourke bore that star.
AS Rourke was entirely away from the
Ingleside, working in the North End,
and as he has ceased wearing his star or
uniform since he has been hunting up the
North Beach fends, the conclusion was
Immediately reached that the prisoner
was telling falsehood.
This impression went abroad, and to
nearly everybody Middlemiss and his
friends who were captured on the ocean
beach by dozen clever detectives last
Thursday night. were guilty beyond any
reasonable doubt.
Besides the actual culprits in the rob-
berry, there were number of men who
knew differently. One man especially
Officer Joel L. Stoddard-of Captain
Gillen's Seventeenth-street Station, knew
positively that Middlemiss had absolutely
nothing to do with the case and should be
liberated.
Yesterday he called on Captain Lees
and told him what he knew, and it was
concerning to this story that the Captain
was adverse to giving out any informa-
gion on the ground that the case was in
court and he did not want to discuss it in
the newspapers.
The story told by Officer Stoddard is
plain and corroborates Middlemiss in
every respect excepting the number of the
star he wore. Middlemiss claimed the
friendly officer wore star No. Alb and
Officer Stoddard's star bears the number
415-surely not very grave mistake for
drunken man to make.
Stoddard saw the effort Middlemiss was
making to be accepted as a passenger on
the car. He saw that the bemuddled fell
low was far from the center of town. and
that he was likely to get hurt trying to
board rapidly moving cars, so he kindly
volunteered to take charge of him. keep
him quiet and land him safely at Fourth
and Mission streets, which he did.
During all the trip the policeman had
Middlemiss safely pinioned up against
stanchion of the car, and that very same
car is the one which left Ingleside track
twenty minutes before the robbery Oc-