The record-union., 1895-01-10
CONCERNING THE WEBER MURDER.
How the Stolen Watch Was Found in
San Francisco.
Secreted in a Hole in the Wall by
Someone Who Had Been Jailed
and Released.

Someone who has access to the secrets
of the police department. has been giving
the detectives away again. There are
many things in criminal matters which
should be given to the public. in the in
terest of justice, for it is often through
this means that murderers and other
criminals are landed in jail.
But there are frequently other facts
that should not be divulged-facts that
would not aid outsiders in identifying
criminals, but which might enable
shrewd detectives to lay their hands on
them before they suspected they were in
danger.
1t will not aid anyone outside of police
circles in terreting out the murderers Of
Mr.. and Mrs. Weber in this city to know
that one of the tiendS has been in the
San Francisco JAIL and that a broken
watch which he left behind him was one
taken from Mrs. Weber at the time of the
murder. But if the murderer-now at
large-were TO remain Ignorant of the
fact that the watch had been found and
identified it might be possible for the
officers in that city to find him again.
Now that someone has given away this
important clew, however, that murderer
when he learns of III will not lose any
time in getting out of harms way. Evil
dently the leak" was sprung in this
city, for Detective Lees of San Francisco
is too experienced III his profession to
give murderer a hint that the officers
had even suspicion as to his identity.
TO be strictly correct, the watch found
in the San Francisco jail was not con-
cealed under the seat OF a clOset,' where
it would be certain TO be discovered. The
burglar jammed the watch into an old
crevlce in the wall, where he supposed 1t
would not be found, and 1t was by the
merest accident that bit of the chain
was seen by a trusty, who pulled 1t out
and thus found the watch.
This was only four days after the MUIR
der in this city. The cases of the watch
had been mostly torn OIL, and the works
so badly wrecked that 1t was not sup
posed anyone would identify them. But
il was Just possible to make out the in
scriptiOn showing that IL was he watch
presented to Mrs. Weber by her mother.
To determine, among the various
prisoners that had been i'll the Jail, which
one it was that had secreted the watch,
was what puzzled the officers. and is still
puZZIing them. y large number of
drunks and disorderly characters had
been taken in between New Years Day
and Thursday last and most OF them dis
charged.
The detectives have since been trying
not yet found the right one. One thing
is certain, however. and that is that he
will not stay in San Francisco after he
learns that Mrs. Weber's watch has been
found and that there is a possibility of
the officers spotting him.
Captain Lees is naturally very indignant
that anyone should throw him down"
by disclosing SO important clew, and
one that could be followed to success
only by the utmost secrecy.
There are still other facts, however in
the possession of the San Francisco de-
tectives which have not been made pub
lie, and which the RECoRD-UNIoN will
not divuige for the mere qualification of
curious people, because they are of such
nature that their publicity would tend to
the defeat of justice. They are directly
in line with the finding of the watch, and
there is good reason to believe that one or
more of the murderers will soon be safely
in iail.