The morning news., 1897-01-14
DETECTIVES RAID 4 FENCE.
One of the Thieves Caught, But the
Others Escaped.

others Escaped.
The city detectives made a good haul
yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, one
of the men most wanted escaped, but one
thief was captured and a considerable
quantity of plumber recovered.
For some time the detectives have had
their eyes on Dan Rivers and William
Baker, two negroes. who arrived in the
city about a month ago, and who ap.
peared to lead an easy existence without
being compelled TO undergo manual labor
10 keep the wolf from the door.
There has been considerable stealing
from the railroads during the last few
weeks without any clue to point to the
thief Several valisAs have been stolen
from the Central railroad depot. belong
ing TO passengers by the Florida Central
and Peninsular railroad.
In the forenoon, Rivers pawn
ed a coat and Mary Green, a col
ored woman with whom Rivers has been
-seen a good deal pawned a sacque ana
several other articles.
The Green woman was arrested on sus-
picion, and Chief McDermott instructed
the detectives to go ahead and make a
raid on the room occupied by Rivers and
Bacon in Jones street lane, near Bull
street. in the rear of the residence at No.
10 Jones street, east
Detectives Scully, Kiley and Godbold ar
rived at the place designated about 3
O'Clock IN the afternoon. Scully and Kiley
went into the yard while Godbold waited
outside in the lane Rivers came out in
the yard partly dressed, having on only
his shirt and trousers He was immedi-
ately placed under arrest and Detective
Scully took a good hold in the waistband
of Rivers trousers in the back. As soon
as Rivers saw he was in the hands of
officers he made break, the
waistband of his trousers gave
way and Detective Scully was left
with only strip of cloth in
his hand. Kiley was about to shoot but
was prevented from doing so by Sculy,
there being a supicion that the negro
was a thief, but no positive proof of the
! fact In less time than it takes to tell
| Il the negro was on top of the fence and
! into the next yard from which he jumped
| into an adjoining yard, and made his
| escape. The detectives attempted to fol-
| low, but the man was too fast for them
| Rivers is strong, active young buck
| fully six feet high. lie has two fingers
off of one hand. He had on neither hat
nor shoes when he escaped
DdhtE was captured In the mouse with
| out difficulty. The detectives were not
disappointed Three valises filed with
! clothing were found I'm the room occupied
| by the men, and a large lot of loose
| clothing. The valises and clothing were
| taken to the barracks. When Baker was
examined, fourteen pawn tickets were
found on him. Three of them were for
bicycles. Baker said that two other bicy-
cles had been pawned in Augusta. lie
claimed, of course, that Rivers did all the
| stealing and merely gave him the things
| to pawn. Baker had on a nice suit of
clothes. and three suits of underwear all
| of which he claimed Rivers had given him.
Besides the three valises found in the
room there was a large trunk which had
been pawned, the ticket being
found on Baker. There was
lot of womens clothing in
| the room, which may have
been stolen or may have belonged
! to the women of Baker and Rivers. Most
of the good clothing had evidently been
pawned. A lot of photographs. taken all
the way from Michigan to Florida, were
found in the valises, and also a new oxford
| Bible.
Baker had another room on
New Houston street near Gem
etery, where he lived with a
woman. The detectives searched that
room last night and recovered more plum
der. They have little hope of seeing Riv-
| ers here again. He and his pal have
worked Charleston, Augusta and Column
| bia as well as Savannah, and he has doubt
| less gone to one of these cities. The own
ers of the property recovered by the de-
| tectiVes can now come forward and identi-
! fy it.
The room in which the men and plunder
were found was rented by notorious ne
| gro woman, Josephine Young, who had
| evidently been keeping the fence for them
| and harboring them. With her was a col
ored girl named Doyle, whose father claim
ed she had been illegally detained by the
woman. Both of these women were ar
rested later in the afternoon. and locked
up in the barracks. In spite of the char
! acter of the negroes, the family living ia
! the house above was never disturbed, and
thought they were of a quiet and peacea-
BILE character. The appearance of the de
tectves in the afternoon created consid-
| erable excitement.