The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-27

nue., on suspicion Of having been a
''par' Of Adam Stroh, the burglar who
shot Baldwin Gardner in his residence
last Saturday evening.
He is reported by the police to be a
dangerous and sullen character. He
was sent from Los Angeles to San
Quentin for two years on g. charge of
burglary and was released last Janu-
airy. He has a long criminal record,
and the police are elated at having him
safely slowed away in the tanks in the
City Prison.
After his arrest he was taken to Cap
tain Bohen's office and questioned, but
he refused to say anything regarding
Stroh's career or his implication in the
recent shooting. He is known, however,
to be a PAL of Convict Collins, who
is now serving fifteen years sem
tence at San Quentin for burglary.
Last evening Stroh's rooms at S27
Ellis street were searched and lock
picks were exceedingly conspicuous.
An eight-ounce bottle of strychnine
was also found in the room.
Charles Biers, whose house was first
entered on Saturday evening, was I'M
able to identify Stroh as the burglar
when he was taken to the tanks last
evening.
The houses of Charles S. Bier and
Baldwin Gardner were not the only
ones entered that eventful night, for
the residence of Charles Brown and
son received a visit that almost ended
in a killing.
The detectives discovered Stroh hid
ing on the roof of the Bier residence
While the officers were searching for
a means of reaching Stroh. the des-
perate burglar made his way into a
room of a servant in the Brown house
hold The girl had, after barricading
the door with her trunk to prevent an
incursion from the interior of the
house where she supposed the burglar
to be, opened the window.
Stroh, seeing the light in the win
dow, sprang inside and confronted the
frightened woman. She screamed, and
then attempted to drag the trunk from
the door. Stroh begged her for his
mothers sake not to make an outcry,
and when the door was opened slipped
into the hall and into the dining room
and made several efforts to light the
gas there, as shown by half-burnt
matches lying about the floor. He ap-
parently found the rear entrance, for
he made his way into the yard from
the rear of the residence.
Attracted by the noise a crowd had
collected In the rear of the houses and
Stroh evidently feared capture from
that direction, for he climbed the fence
separating the Brown yard from the
area of the next house and thence
made his way again through halls and
rooms to the roof. Being a second
time discovered by the officers he took
a desperate chance to elude them. A
telegraph wire extending from the roof
on which he stood to a telegraph pole
some distance away was his only
means of escape, and he unhesitat-
ingly jumped from the roof and start
ed to swing himself toward the pole.
Fearing to lose their quarry the
officers fired two shots at the daring
crook, and the swaying body dropped
into the yard below. The yard into
which he dropped was that of Baldwin
Gardner, and while the officers thought
his body was lying lifeless on the
ground he was making his way into
the residence of the man he shot.
Gardner saw MIN on the porch of his
residence, and as he called to the Of