The Saint Paul globe., 1896-11-01

nicely piled up and was such a beauti-
full sight to show to visitors. that the
government had better bring some of
it's bullion from New York and coin
it. / laughed at this, and Cochran
then insinuated that the gold might
not be all there. When he found that
We really intended to coin the gold, he
came over to Washington to see me,
thinking there might be yet chance
to stop it. He called at my house
here at IL o'clock one night. and asked
ii 1T was really true that the govern
ment was going to take the gold out of
that vault. 1 replied, Yes He then
said: Well, you won't find all the gold
there. Some of it is missing. 1t was
never rightly weighed, and is not
there 1t was at this time that I
began to suspect him, and L said to
myself, We'll, If any of that gold is
lost, I think you know where it is.'
A day or so after this we opened the
vault. and we found the gold was
just $4,000 short. Still, the seals were
intact. The steel walls of the vault
were unbroken, and there was no sign
as to where the gold had gone. Coch-
ran seemed very nervous, and upon
finding that he was suspected, he con-
fessed that he was the thief He
showed how he had fished the gold out
with a crooked wire. He would pull
it down from the pile and drag it to
the door of the vault. and then by
slightly pushing the door at the bot
tom he was able to get it out through
the crack between the door and the
floor. He had carried it off, bar by
bar, in his lunch basket, or in his
trousers pocket, and had taken it to
his home in the suburbs of PhiIadel-
phia."
SOLD THE GOLD TO THE MINT.
''What did he do with the go;d?'' I
asked
'He sold it right back to the mint
from which he had stolen it," replied
Mr.. Preston. "He did not dare to do
this without remelting it, as the gold
was so fine that 1t would be sure to
create susupicion. He had at his home
crucible, and he remelted the gold,
mixing it with silver and lead This
last product he sent to us through the
express company, and was able to do
so without suspicion. We found one
bar Of gold in Cochran's house the day
he confessed, and we also found $4,000
in gold eagles. 1t was a curious house.
1t was honeycombed with secret closets
and it was in these that the money was
found. Cochran kept up his stealing to
the last. The day the weighing was
completed Cochran came down early.
He was there before any of the other
employees Of the mint. We had
weighed part OF the gold. The vault
was open and there was a truck in it
loaded with bars of bullion. Cochran.
finding no one about, picked up twenty
of these bars, and one at a time threw
them into the ventilator shaft of the
vault, so that they fell between the
roof of the vault and the floor above.
When he confessed he told where the
gold was, and we got it back The re-
mainder was partially covered by that
which we found at the house. and we
received something from Cochran's
property and his bondsmen. Uncle
Sam is, however, still $4,000 or $4,000
short from that robbery, and the su-
perintendent of the mint, Col Bosby-
SHELL may have to pay this"
What did they do with Cochran?"
asked
He was tried and sent to the penf
tentary for term of six years and
seven months. He is now in prison.
He weighed 250 pounds when he was
arrested. He does not weigh $50 now.
and has lost 100 pounds since his theft
was discovered.
''Do you think ne was insane?''
''That is a question:" replied the di
rector Of the mint. HE seemed to he
a monomaniac on the subject of gold
He claimed that he had saved tI,e
United States millions of dollars bv
guarding its treasures, and he was in
dignant when the gold was taken from
him. Since that time we have not kent
geld bullion in vaults of this nature
and there viii probably never be a rob,
berry OF that kind again"
Has Uncle Sam ever lost as r.ucl,
as this IN the past?"
There was little loss in Cochran's