The San Francisco call., 1896-02-22

claim the reward. Benefits statement
was not very explicit and Captain Lees
took very little stock IN it, but told him to
bring Stevens to headquarters. Bennett
failed to do SO, and detectives were sent to
see Stevens. He knew very little of the
affair, but referred the detectives to Wall
wislaw Zakrewski. Russian Finn, ship
carpenter. who furnished the police with
the story of the murder.
Zakrewski made statement to Captain
Lees TO the effect that he had first met
kovaiev, or John Durbroff, as he then
gave his name, in August, 1894. He met
him several times later, and in February
Kovalev had taken room at his house
In the latter part of the month Zakrewski
got Kovaev drunk, and While intoxicated
kovalev told the story of the murders He
described how he and companion had
watched the Weber place for three days;
how they had gone to the house at 10
O'Clock the fatal night; how one OF them
had hid behind a door on the porch while
Weber had come out with candle, and
how he had been struck on the head
with an AK Zakre Wski gave all the de-
tails of the crime as told to him by Ko-
yalev.
Captain Lees went to work on the infor-
nation obtained from Zakrewski, and
shortly afterward found one George Peti-
Durbroff, for the real name of the murderer
has not vet been learned. Petition and
Kovalev were arrested on New Years day,
1895, for being drunk, and koyalev pre-
ferred a charge of grand larceny against
his companion, which was dismissed the
next day. The night they spent in Jail
Petition saw a watch IN hovalev's 8 posses
sion with Mrs. Weber's initials on it, but
the next day the watch was gone, and it
was subsequently found among some re-
fuse by an attache of the Jail. This led
to the arrest OF shy Red, and when he
was discharged the police were confident
the murderer of the Webers had been in
Jail. 1t was through this incident the
police secured Petition as a witness and
got the information he possessed: He told
OF reading the papers to kovalev, when
the latter would ask eagerly to have the
Sacramento news read:
Petition identified the watch in the pos
sc sSlon of the police as the one kovaley
had worn, and all he knew pointed 10 Ko-
valev as the murderer. Finally a shoe
maker named Davis, on Third street. was
found for whom Kovalev had worked pre-
vious to the murder. The three suits of
clothes found in the shed the morning
after the murder were brought to San
Francisco and shown to Davis. He identi-
fled pair of trousers as having been worn
by Kovalev, and The police then believed
they had sufficient evidence TO warrant an
arrest.
The murderer was arrested on the night
or June 21, at us Howard street, this City,
by Captain Lees and Detective Cody. He
was in bed, and with him Arnold Levin,
who was also placed under arrest. Levin
was not suspected OF being connected with
the murder, but was suspected OF being in
possession of valuable information. He
was subsequently discharged from Gus
tody.
In the meantime man manned Dowdi-
gan had been stopped by footpads at San
Jose. He used his knife on one OF them
and the next morning the corpse of the
highwayman was found in vacant lot.
The murdered man was known as Ma
thewski, but subsequent events proved that
he was Mathewski Stcherbakov, and that
Koyaley had been his accomplice. 1t was
also believed Dowdlgan's knife-thrust had
not killed Stcherbakov, and that fearing
he would reveal his knowledge OF the
Weber murder kovaleV had finished him,
as three knife-wounds were founo in the
body, and Dowdlgan insisted he only in
ficted one OF them.
After the arrest of Kovalev the body of
Stcherbabov was examined at San Jose,
and the coat and vest found on it were
identified as having come from the Weber
home. The evidence gathered by the de-
tectives of this City was so strong against
Kovaley that the jury deliberated but a
few minutes before returning a verdict OF
guilty