The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-28

Roanoke for some time past has been
infested with band of robbers and out
claws, that according to the confession of
zone of the members of the organization,
is unsurpassed for general lawlessness by
anything of the kind ever before brought
to light in this community.
1t will be remembered that few weeks
ago number of masked men went to the
residence of j. b. Peters, IL respectable
truck gardener, who resides about two
miles northwest of this city, and robbed
him, full account of which appeared in
The Times Since that time the officers
have been on the lookout for the perpe-
traitors of this bold and fearless crime
and at last have succeeded in running the
conspirators to earth, or at least n few
of the number, among them being the
chief or ringleader.
1t will be remembered that only few
days ago Fred Steinbrecher was arrested
on the charge of stealing gun and pis-
tol, the property of Geo. G.. Huff.
Officers Eanes and Rigney made the ar
rest, but the whereabouts of the gun had
been learned by Officer Moss. This ar
rest led to the ferreting out of the perpe-
TRAITORS of the Peters robbery and
numerous other cases. Some harness
and q. saddle was also found in Stein
brechers possession, which has since
been identified as stolen property. Fol-
lowing. the arrest of Steinbrecher, Jno.
Moheer was arrested by Constable Via, of
the county, on the charge of being inn
.plicated in the Peters robbery. He is
now in Salem Jail awaiting n preliminary
trial on Monday. 1t is not likely that he
Will be sent on, as the authorities will
doubtless be unable to make out q case
against him.
There is no doubt but that Stein
brecher Is the leader, and from all infor-
NATION is undoubtedly the worst and
most daring criminal that ever struck
Roanoke Among the members of his
Jessie James" gang were Walter jam
isen, the 16-year-old son of L. +. Jami-
SON. a boy named Witt, the son of A. p.
Witt, who resides on Fourth avenue W.;
Fred Bentz and d. L. Patel.
1t seems that the father of the jam
ison boy suspected that his son was en-
gagged IN crooked work, and he at once
devised plans to learn the truth. His boy
confessed the robbery TO his father and is
now.wiiling to turn States evidence. The
tales of robbery and bold plans, which
had been concocted by the leader of the
gang, are extremely sensational The
Jamison boy is Il confirmed reader of
dime novels of the blood and thunder
order, and his whole mind seems taken
up with daring deeds and the perpetra-
ton of some hellish work Young JAM
ison and Witt, in their confessions, claim
that Mohler and Maxey have not been
mixed up in the robberies in any way.
The two boys were arrested by Officer
Moss at O'Clock on yesterday morning
at residence of n man named Chocklett.
where they were both sleeping. Chock-
lett lives near the race track The officer
was all alone, and his action in going
alone was commercially brave, as the
young desperadoes were always armed
and it was believed would shoot before
submitting to arrest. The officer, how
ever had no trouble in bagging his game,
and as II consequence three of the gang
are behind prison bars
Jamison confesses to the Peters rob-
berry, and in his confession duplicates
Steinbrecher, Patel and Bentz The
two latter are still at large. Jamison
claims that they are now away with two
horses, which were stolen from ]. H.
Doran and f. r. Bower, and it was with
the hopes that these two men could be
captured by the officers of the law that
The Times withheld the publication of
the story until now
Such story of crime as detailed by
this young boy is hardly concei yable, but
to show the utter depravity to which
frail human beings can sink The Times
will enumerate a few of the robberies
planned, and the result of the several at
tempts as detailed by this boy.
A plan, according to his confession,
was concocted to rob q man named ,
Lemon, who resides on the rock road be-
tween Salem and Hollins The band of
robbers were placed at various points i'm
the vicinity of Lemons residence with
SteinbrechGr at the front door. At
given signal the boys was to begin shoot
ing and the leader was to rush in and
secure the booty. Mr.. Lemon, however.
came to the door with a gun in his hand,
and the would-be robbers ran.
Among other cold and daring robberies
planned was that of citizen of Bedford
county. Jamison says that Steinbrecher
is an adept ut raising the denomination
of paper bills, and on this occasion raised
ten dollar bill to the denomination of n
hundred, and went to this farm house
where they knew some money was kept
and secured change for the above
amount, and would have raided the house
had the farmer not become alarmed and
closed the door on them before they were
able to force an entrance Steinbrecher
wanted to force the door, but the balance
of the gang were afraid of being shot and
ran away. According to the confession
OF the boys, Steinbreeher's wife is as bold
and bad as any of them, and lent her in
nnence and assistance in the preparation
OF the hellish work. A bold plot had
been formed by them to rob the resi-
dence of Mrs. Capt. r. B. Norman, and
1t is stated that Mrs. Steinbrecher went
there IN order to locate the whereabouts