The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-01
ROBBERY IN THE MINIS
HOW SNEAK THIEVES HAVE STOLEN
UNCLE SANS GOLD BULLION.
The RObberies at Philadelphia and
How They Were Discovered-Facts
Concerning other Thcfts.

WASHINGTON, Oct. S0-l VISITED lnS
mint at Philadelphia last week. 1t now
contains more than 100000. 900. and II has
5o.OOO.OOO in standard silver dollars in a sin
gle vault The San Francisco mint has, L
am told, more than $5O,OOO.OOO worth OF
precious metal stored away. and in the
vaults OF the mint at New Orleans there
are now something like $20.O00.000 worth OF
gold and silver. During my stay in our
Philadelphia treasure house I shown
the different methods by which Uncle Sam
guards his hoard Every atom of gold
and silver is watched. and. although tho
mint has handled more than a billion and
a half dollars worth of bullion since IL
was founded. only n small part has been
lost. Still the temptation 10 theft is great.
and every now and then the Treasury De-
partment finds a shortage in some of the
minis or in the government assay Offices
in different parts OF the West. The true
details of such thefts seldom get into the
newspapers. They are filed away in the
records Of the Treasury Department and in
the minds of the detectives and officials
who have aided in exposing the crimes.
During the past week / have heard the
stories of a number Of such robberies. and,
in my study Of them, have had access TO
the records of the treasury. in connection
with Hon. r. r. Preston, the director OF the
mint. Mr.. Preston has charge OF all the
minis in the United States.
He is the chief watchdog" OF Uncle
Sans treasures of gold and silver. and he
knows more about the mint, perhaps, than
any other man connected with the govern
ment He has been in the employ OF the
United States treasury for the past forty
years. and he is to-day one OF its most ef-
ficient officers. You remember how. about
tu-n - n
weigh clerk at the Philadelphia mint. stole
bars to the value of $4,000 from the gold
vault, stealing it bar by bar from a stack
of S16.OO0.O0O worth of gold bullion, which
was there stored away. Mr.. Preston was
one OF the officials who superintendent the
putting away Of that bullion, and he was
acting director of the mint at the time that
Cochrans theft was discovered. The first
great steal in the Philadelphia mint oc-
CURED forty-three years ago, just before
Mr.. Preston entered the government scrv-
ice. and. curiously enough. this theft was
detected by Cochran, who under
clerk of the robber. and who by exposing
his superior got the place of weigh clerk,
which he held for forty years. and in
which no was at the time his own great
robbery occurred. During the Investigation
at Philadelphia the thief, Cochran, told AIr.
Preston the story and Mr.. Preston re-
peated il to me to-day.
STOLE a FORTUNE IN GOLD Dust.
1T was away back i'm 1883" said the d.
rector Of the mint, when vast amount OF
gold was coming I'm from California, that
the first big robbery occurred. The culprit
was James l.. Negus and he was the
| weigh clerk OF the mint. There was at this
| time no assay Office at New York, and all
| of the gold dust and nuggets were sent by
the banks Of the different cities TO Phila-
| delphia TO be reduced to bullion Negus
had the handling of this treasure. and ne
for a long time carried a systematic
stealing from the different deposits sent in.
1t was his business TO take charge of them,
weigh them and put them into the vaule
until they could be melted. BY taking a
nugget or pinch of dust from each de-
post. he was able TO steal thousands OF
dollars. and he probably carried on his
stealings during the whole of the four
years that he was in the employ OF the
mint. Cochran was at this time a hoy
working in the mint. He acted as Negus's
assistant. He led TO suspect that
Negus was taking out gold dust and SUBJ
stitutng black sand for il in some of the
deposits. He took occasion to reweigh sew
eral deposits when Negus was not present,
and found that they were from five TO ten
ent of the mint and charged Negus with
the theft. Negus was called up. lie con-
fessed and stated that he had stolen $1,000
worth of gold dust. AS you may see from
the letters here in the records of the de-
partment, the treasury officials believed his
confession but they did not think he should
be arrested, as he had made restitution.
He was allowed TO go free. Within few
weeks he sailed for Europe, and that was
the last that was ever heard of him. There
was no cable in those days, and the prob
ability is that he carried goodly amount
of gold away with him. The robbery was
not from the treasury, but from the banks
who sent in the gold, and there was no way
of telling just how much he stole.
1T was in this way that Henry $. Coch-
ran became weigh clerk of the mint" Di-
rector Preston went on. He took the
place OF thief. and there is no telling how
soon he became thief himself. He told
me that he did not steal anything from the
mt until after the deposit Of that sl6,00c.-
600 in gold bars, but his connection with
the mint lasted for more than forty years
and his position was the same as that OF
Negus. During his whole term of employ
ment ne had the confidence or every one.
have a letter here, signed by Daniel Stur-
geon. who was Treasurer OF the United
States when he was appointed. 1t Is he
who advises the appointment. and he de-
scribes Henry s. Cochran as honest, able
and co lrteous. Cochran seemed TO be crazy
for gold lie fell INA love with the precious
metal, and when we found that he had
robbed the mint of $4,000 he hated TO give
I'D his stealngs and he complained bitterly
when the money found in his house was
taken away When he was appointed weigh
clerk he was about twenty-three years old.
When his robbery was discovered he was
sixty-three He was then a deacon In the
PRESBYTERIAN Church. and was organizing
a campaign for the Salvation Army ia the
nechborhood i'm which he lived. He had
been married and divorced He had a
erovn-up daughter. lie appeared to bs
eminently respectable i'm every way AMI
sin he had been stealing for years"
TWENTY-FIVE TONS OF GOLD.
GLOW did you come to suspect him OF
the robbery | asked
ct was through his own actions, re-
piled the director of the mint He had.
YOU know, the charge Of the vaults which
contained the gold bullion. Mueh of this
bullion had been untouched for years. In
the vault from which the robbery was
made tAere were sl6,0o00O worth OF gold
fs.<-