The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-16
LUNGS RoBBER SHADOWED.
TRACKED BY THE TOWEL WITH
WHICH SING WAS GAGGED.

Bound HIm-The circumstances
That Led Up 10 Matthew's Arrest.
Henry Matheny was arrested by the
detectives yesterday morning. charged
with being one Of the men who robbed
Sing Lung. the Broughton street laun-
dry man. Saturday night.
W. X Bell, who was arrested shortly
after the robbery. and who was identi-
! fed by the Chinaman as one of the men
who made the assault upon him. is be-
lieved TO be innocent Chief McDermott
/ is satisfied that the Chinaman was mis-
taken as to Bell. Lung identified NIath-
! eny as the tan man who choked him
while a shorter man tied and gagged
him. but it was after considerable hes
itation.
Matthew's arrest is a queer and interest
ing story, and shows how circumstantial
evidence may fasten around a man and
queer condolences occur. Sing Lung was
robbed between Il and y o'clock by two
white men, who entered his place with
a bundle, which they said they had
brought 70 be Numbered. and asked him
to tell them the cost.
When Lung started TO open the
bundle one OF the men seized him
by the throat and held him
while the other took a towel from the
bundle which they had just brought in
and bound 1t around his head, tying it
with some strips Of cloth. With another
towel from the bundle he bound Lungs
hands. Then they rihed the till of 80 odd
dollars and made off. The Chinaman said
that the towel which was bound around
his head was saturated with kerosene,
but Chief McDermott thinks more likely
it was chloroform.
Lung, in describing the men to the
police, said that one was a tail, power
full man and the other a short, medium
sized man. In the account of the rob
berry, which appeared in the Morning
News the next day, il was mentioned
that the paper which the men had
wrapped around their bundle when they
entered the place was picked up, and
that Macon label of the Southern Ex-
press Company was on the package with
the address Of wv. B. Overflow" % West
Broad street. w. " Overton boards at
20 Liberty street, but formerly boarded
at 80 West Broad street. When he read
the account in the Morning News, he
wondered if 1t was his name that was
attend police court yesterday morning
for the purpose of getting more light on
the subject.
1t happened that w V. Overton was
the address on the paper, and not W. b.
Overton. Chief McDermott found that
Overton was in court and had an inter-
view with him. He was shown the piece
of wrapping paper and identified it as
the wrapper Of an express package which
he had received from Macon some time
before. The paper had been in his room
at No. 2l0 Liberty street, he said, and
he had seen 1t there Saturday afternoon.
How It found it's way TO the Chinaman's
shop in the hands of the robbers was
| mystery he could not explain. In answer
| to quest lions, Overton said that he occu-
pied the room in company with young
man named Matheny, and that Matheny
had come into the room saturday night
between IL and II o'clock, changed his
shoes and gone out again. OVerton was
in bed at the time.
The chief began to make inquiries about
Matheny and concluded that he was JUS
tilted in arrasting him. Detectives
Wetherhorn, Kiley and Scully went to the
| boarding house and got Matheny and Sc
cured some further information there
about him. They found that he had been
out of employment for over two months
and without money, and that he owed for
two months board.
Matheny was confronted with the Chin
/ aman at the barracks. The latter is an
| ignorant fellow and cannot talk English.
He shook his head when asked If that was
the man who robbed him. and though in
| the room for some time with Matheny did
not identify him. Chief McDermott finally
| told Matheny that he could go. When he
put on his hat and walked out the Chin
| aan followed him. Presently he came
back with Sam Lee for an interpreter and
| I'm Gta fa1 was nm g
| of the men who robbed him. He explained
| that he could not recognize the man until
he had put on his hat, light Alpine hat
| bent down the middle.
Matheny answered the description given
| by the Chinaman in every respect, and
| Chief McDermott was put out because
| he did not recognize the man at first. He
sent out and had Matheny rearrested
and this time he locked him up.
He is tall, dark, powerful looking fell
low of about Is years of age apparently.
| He took the charges against him very cool
| ly and made little attempt TO disprove
| them.
Two years ago Chief McDermott arrest
| ed a young man named Louis Stevens for
| beating a Chinaman and breaking his jaw
bone. Stevens had to pay a fine of $3.50
with an alternative of year on the gang
| The alteration was about bundle of
| laundry which Stevens had left with the
| Chinaman. As soon as Chief McDermott
heard of the robbery Saturday night the
old case came to his mind, though he had
forgotten the Chinaman's name. He sent
for Sing Lung and was not surprised to
find that it was the same man who had
been beaten two years ago. The broken
| jawbone was stin in evidence.
IL occurred to the chief that
| Stevens might know something about
the case. He decided to send for
him and found that Stevens was
| boarding at the same house with Matheny
| and Overton. There was nothing to impli-
cate him in the robbery, however. Other
boarders at the house were sent for One
of them identified one Of the towels which
had been used to bind the Chinaman as
belonging to him and which he had missed
| few days before. Overton said he
thought it was a towel which he had seen
in his room a day or two before The
strips of old cloth which We're used to
bind the towel to the Chinamans head
were identified by several of the boarders
as the same which they had seen in the
| bath room.
The circumstances very plainly show
| ed that at least one of the parties
who robbed the Chinaman had come
from this boarding house, and Chief Nc