The San Francisco call., 1897-04-06

The whisky loosened his tongue and l
asked him bluntly: Now is it not fact
that you and Butler are related TO each
other? l have a curiosity to know, and as
he is going back TO Australia to suffer the
penalty for his crime there can be no
harm in telling me-
ITO my surprise he admitted that But
ler was his brother. and that h came TO
| the City from the mountains in Sonoma
County ut his request. To my eager
questions this was what he told me as
near as | can recollect:
Richard Ashe is my brothers true
name and we are natives of England. He
is between four and five years younger
than /. l left home when | was about 13
years of ae and have never returned, so
that l have rot seen nor heard OF my
brother for nearly thirty years. When
| We were children we looked exactly like
each other and we have apparently kept
it up.
"For number OF years l hsve been
working in the mines and on ranches in
| this State, and while in the mountains of
| Sonoma County ! saw San Francisco
paper IN which there was an account of
the arrest of Butler, alias Richard Ashe,
| for the murders in Australia. The name
| Richard Ashe and the picture in the pa
| per made me wonder if it was my brother.
| 81 wrote him letter to the City Prison,
telling him who l was and asking him 70
let me know if he was my brother. That
was about the middle of February. / did
not go TO the postoffice for about a month,
and found a letter waiting for me. 1t had
been there for about two weeks. l opened
it, and sure enough it was from the brother
| / had not seen or heard of for nearly thirty
years.
He implored me to come to the City
and try to save him. Here is the letter;
you can read it for yourself
II at once recognized Buffers hand
writing from what had seen of it in the
newspapers" continued the gentleman
"and that confirmed for me the truth of
the mans story. l wanted to get pos
session of il so that it could have been
published. and offered him 81 10, all :he
money l had in my pocket, for it, but he
said he would not part with it for $1,000,
as it was the first and would probably be
the last he would receive from him.
'The letter spoke of family affairs, men
tioning the place OF their birth, which l
a N sorry to say / have forgot, and then
| went on to speak of the disgrace to the
family if he were hanged for murder
Then he went on to urge his brother to
come to the City at once and try to save
him, as it was his last ray OF hope. He
described the interior of the City Prison,
that the first cell vas where women we're
kept, then there was No. ., and next TO
No. was the cell in wnith he was con-
fined. He wrote that every morning about
6 o'clock he was allowed to leave mig cell
to go to the sink at the end of the prison
to wash his face and hands, and about the
same time the drunk cell was opened and
the 'drunks' put outside, so that the
prison-keeper and the TRUSTEES could re-
move the bedding and wash out the cell.
The scheme detailed in the letter wa
for his brother to come to the City, get
drunk and be arrested. He was to shave
himself leaving the inch of closely cropped
side whiskers on each side of his face. and
instructions were given as to how he
should dress himself. Then in the morn
ing when Butler went to wash himself he
would wait till the 'drunks' came out of
their cell and he would take his brothers.
place among the 'drunks, his brother to
walk on to his cell and quietly lie down
until he was disturbed. By that time
| Butler would have been discharged along
| with the other 'drunks' and at liberty.
Butler ingenuously wrote that his
brother could easily prove his identity
and could say that he walked into his
(Butler's) cell by mistake. l wish | could
! have memoriZed the exact words of the
letter, but that was in effect what its con-
tents were, and 1 was amazed at the in
genuIty of the scheme.
Butler brother then told that as soon
as he could he came TO the City and at
once filled up with water front whisky,
and was arrested. When he was taken 10
the City Prison he looked into the cell
where mis- brother wrote that he was con-
| nned, but he was not there. When the
| drunks' were ordered out he looked
| everywhere, but could find no one WHO re-
bled his brother, and it was not till
Detective Balm bridge and Corporal Ger
mainn spoke to him that he learned his
brother had been removed to the County
Jail. He had not seen any paper from
the time he wrote to his brother. and
therefore did not know that he had been
taken from the prison. He spoke to no.
body about il, as the resem blance to each
other might have been noticed, ana that
was also why he gave the name o. Rear
don and said that he was born in Ire
land.
After listening to this extraordinary
story | asked him if he had gone to the
County Jail to see his brother and he said
he had been afraid, as the police had
taken his picture and he was sus picious
he might be arrested.
II again pressed upon him to give me
the letter, but he refused and said all the
money in the world wouldn't buy it. He
said he would return to the mountains as
soon as he got look at his brother, and
as had business to attend to uptown I
had to leave him, but gave the dollar to
help him on his way back.