The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-21
DEATH FOR KOVALEV,
Continued from First Page.

In the latter part of the month Zakrewski
got Kovalev drunk, and while intoxicated
Koyalev told the story of the murders. He
described how he and companion had
watched the Weber place for three days;
how they had gone to the house at 10
o'clock the fatal night; how one of them
had hid behind door on the porch while
the other waited in the yard; how old man
Weber had come out with a candle, and
how he had been struck on the lead
with an ak. Zakrewski gave all the de-
tails OF the crime as told to him by Ko-
valev
Captain Lees went to work ON the infor-
nation obtained from Zakrewski, and
shortly afterward found one George Petit
ton, who had also known Kovalev or
Durbroff, for the real name of the murderer
had not yet been learned. Petition and
Kovalev were arrested last New Years for
being drunk and Kovalsv preferred a
charge of grand larceny against his COM
panions, which was dismissed the next
day. The night they spent in Jail Petition
| saw watch in kovaley's possession with
| Mrs. Webers initials on it, but the next
day the watch was gone, ana it was sub
| sequenty found among some refuse by an
attache of the jail. This led to the arrest
OF "Shy Red and when he was discharged
| the police were confident the murderer of
the Webers had been in Jail. 1t was
through this incident the police secured
Petition as a witness and cot the informa-
ton he possessed. He told of reading the
papers to kovalev. when the latter would
ask eagerly to have the Sacramento news
read.
Patition identified the watch in the pos
session OF the police as the one Kovalev
had worn, and all he knew pointed to Ko-
valley as the murderer. Finally shoe
maker named Davis on Third street was
| found for whom kovalev had worked pre-
vious to the murder. The three suits of
clothes found in the shed the morning
after the murder were brought to San
Francisco and shown to Davis. He identi-
| fed pair of trousers as having been worn
| by Kovalev, and the police then believed
they had sufficient evidence 10 warrant an
arrest.
| The murderer was arrested on the night of
June 81 at 715 Howard street. this City, by
| Captain Lees and Detective Cody. He
was in bed and with him Arnold Levin,
who was also placed under arrest. Levin
was not suspected of being connected with
the murder, but was suspected of being in
possession OF valuable information. He
was subsequently discharged from Gus
| tody.
| In the meantime man named Dowdi-
gan had been stopped by footpads at San
Jose. He used his knife on one OF them
and the next morning the corpse OF the
| highwayman was found in q vacant lot
! The murdered man was known as
| Mathewski, but subsequent events
proved he was Mathewski Stcherbakov
and that kovalev had been his
accomplice. 1t was also believed Dowdi-
| gans knife-thrust had not killed Stcher-
bakoy, and that fearing he would reveal
! his knowledge of the Weber murder Ko-
valley had finished him, as three knife
wounds were found in the body, and Dow
digan insisted he only inflicted one of
| them.
| After the arrest of koyalev the body of
| Stcberbakov was exhumed at San Jose.
and the coat and vest found on it were
| identified as having come from the Weber
home.
The evidence gathered by the detectives
OF this city was so strong against KoyaIev
that he would doubtless have been con-
victed had he not made the confession he
did.