The San Francisco call., 1896-01-01
THE BANDITS TO. BE HELD,
Judge Conlan Believes Middle
miss, Welch and Gardi. :.
ner Guilty.
Captain Lees Has Evidence That the
Robbers Intended to Wreck
the Car.

Police Judge Conlan has virtually made
up his mind that he will hold to answer
before the Superior Co urt the three men,
Gardiner, Middlemiss and Welch, who are
under arrest OH charges of robbery in con-
nection with the Ingleside car "hold-up."
The accusation against these men is
too serious for me to assume the RESPONSE.
bility OF discharglng them, no matter how.
strong an alibi they may prove" stated
the Judge yesterday to a CALL reporter.
1T makes no difference to me if the
Superior Court discharges them ten min
utes after 1 hold them to answer, my duty
is plain, and 1 must see that they get be-
fore the proper tribunal and are tried"
The Judge was fresh from his moonlight
ride to the ocean beach with Detectives
Cody and Gibson, where they showed him
the circumstantial evidence pointing to
the guilt of Joe Middlemiss and Gardiner.
Continuing. Judge Conlan said: ~.
! saw the spot where the bag of money had
been hidden in the sand at the foot OF the
seventh support to the pier Middlemiss and
rake up the sand to find the bag. The place
before they arrived there was all smoothed
ever, and of all that wide eXpanse of ocean
beach only this one spot was disturbed. Then
when the police closed in on the pair they
climbed onto the pier and ran out TO its end,
where they lay down. No one can make me
believe now after seeing that pier that these
men were drunk. When ! got up the re re-
fused TO go out to the end of it on account of
the danger OF failing off. No, those men must
have been sober, and they knew just what they
were doing.
Under the circumstances it is not
probable that the three prisoners will be
liberated on the strength of the strong
alibi they are depending upon until jury
passes upon their cases in the Superior
Court. More than ever is Captain Lees
positive he has the right men, He is ad-
verse. however, to telling exactly how he
expects to secure their conviction, but his
conversation clearly indicates that while
he does not pretend to claim the men were
the direct robbers who shot Cashier
Clarke and his com panion Bronner, he be-
lieves that the prisoners assisted the rob-
hers. Captain Lees said:
Do you remember when Jimmy Hope was
caught in his attempt to rob the Sather Bank,
at the corner OF Montgomery and Commercial
streets? Hope was upstairs trying to bore his
way into the roof of the vault. Tied to his arm
was string leading TO the street. and his pal,
man named Cummings, was supposed 10 be
on the outside to pull the string and notify
Hope in the event of the approach of the po-
lice. Cummings did not attend to his busi-
ness or else we would never have captured
Hope. Instead of looking out for his confed-
crate, Cummings stepped into saloon oppo-
site the bank and got drunk with e lot of
printers
This Ingleside case is only repetition of the
Hope case. These prisoners, Middlemiss, Welch
and Gardiner got drunk. They did not give
the proper cue 10 their cenfederates and the
robbers tackled the car on which there was
but $1400. when they were looking for the
$4,000 carried in by Assistant Secretary Cullen
on car or two ahead.
1t has come to the notice of the police
that on the night of the robbery some mis-
creants had pulled the spikes holding
down the rails of the lngleside track. The
purpose, no doubt was to wreck one of the
cars. Whether the attempt was made for
the purpose of robbery or with intent only
to do mischief can only be surmised. Cap
tain Lees, however, believes that the deed
was part of the programme of the robbers
he has in the tolls.