Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-03
FOLLOWING UP THE CLUES
Officers Investigating the Burglary of the
Hyattsxille Post Office.
Discoveries Vhoch May Lead to Iden-
tthcattOno 01 the Robbers
Prints of q Shoe.

| New Year morning, a full account of
! which was published in Saturdays Star,
| Is being rigidly Investigated by the au-
| thorities. Several clues have been obtain
| ed by the officers who are working on the
| case. From these and other facts they
| have an idea as to the identity of the
parties implicated in the job. and are now
| trying to lay their hands upon them. 1t
is now generally believed that the men
| who burglarized the post office at Upper
| Marlboro December % did the work at
| Hyattsville. Measurements of the auger
hole in each of the dynamited safes have
been taken. They correspond exactly.
Further, each hole was bored in precisely
| the same spot in each safe door. Post
Office Inspector Little, who visited Hyatts-
vile Saturday night, is confident that the
two robber:es were committed by the same
men.
| Another significant fact is that two men
| answering the description Of those who
were seen lettering around the station op-
posite the Hyattsvile post office New Year
eve We're in the village several days be-
| fore the Marlboro robbery They were
first seen by Mr.. John F. Hickey, whose
ONCE IS about seventy-five yards from the
post ONCE, on the opposite side of the
street. They were standing near the rail-
| ROAD track in earnest conversation with
their faces partly turned toward the post
once. one was a TALL heavily built man,
| with a dark mustache and reddish-brown
mar wearing derby hat. dark blue over
| coat and dark pantaloons. His companion
| was clean-saven, fairly well-dressed
young man, stoutly built and not over
five feet five inches in height. He wore a
some time talking. then walked down past
the post office and retraced their steps.
MIR. Hickey's Suspicious.
| Constable Rarr was no ssipu Tho +,..o
and Mr.. Hickey, who had become suspic.
ious of the two strangers, called to him
and remarked that it might be well to
keep an eye on the men. Soon afterward
| the strangers walked off toward Baltimore,
but returned later They went directly to
Mr. George Tise's store, where the post
office is kept, and tried to sell a device
to prevent lamp chimneys from smoking.
Later on they were seen in Bladensburg
which is on the road to Upper Marlboro.
1t is thought that the men continued on
the road to the county seat committed the
| robbery there and returned to Hyatts-
Vile New Year eve to effect the robbery
at that place, which they had planned
some days before. 1t is certain, at least,
that wherever they may have come from,
they passed through Bladensburg. for the
two bits, the brace, the two large chisels
and the monkey wrench which they left
at the Hyattsville post Office were identi-
fled Saturday evening as the property of
Fred Heller, stolen from his black smith
shop i'll Bladensburg the night before the
burglary at Hyattsville.
Two Loiterers Seen.
AS stated in The Star, Henry Clarke,
| colored, saw two men lettering around the
station at II O'Clock Friday night. Other
citizens, among them John Bowles, at one
time a Baltimore and Ohio railroad de-
tective, state that there were three men,
two on the platform and one in the shadow
of the rear doorway. Shortly after II
o'clock one of the men whom Bowles had
seen on the platform entered Ellis news
agency, opposite the station, and bought a
cigar from Bowles, who was behind the
counter Bowles' description of him tallies
of the two men seen by Mr.. Hickey sew
eral days before the Marlboro robbery
Michael Fleischman, the gateman at, the
watch box in which the burglars assorted
their plumber, also states that there were
three distinct piles of papers on the bench,
thus showing that there were three persons
| engaged in separating the valuable from
the worthless. They took their time, too,
and up to 5 o'clock had not departed from
the watch box. At that hour Tom Sharp,
colored, who works for Mr.. +. II. Smith,
passed by and saw light shining from the
small window of the watch house In all
probability, the burglars were then waiting
for the early train to Baltimore.
This theory is not without foundation
Richard Mathews, colored, and his wife
went out on the early train which reaches
Hyattsville at 5:d2 o'clock. AS they got off
they passed three men who seemed to be
making their way to the rear platform of
the last car of the train. 1t was quite dark
and neither Mathews nor his wife paid any
attention to the men. They are uncertain
as to whether they actually boarded the
train, nor can they give any description Of
the parties.
A button was found Saturday night near
the wrecked safe. 1t is probably from the
overcoat of one OF the burglars. OF more
Importance, however, are the prints made
nai-heads, distinctly traceable in several
places upon the outer shutters of the show
window These shutters incase the win
dow only three-fourths of it's height, the
glass being unprotected from the top of
the shutters to the ceiling of the porch
The burglars broke these upper panes of
glass, and in climbing through the aperture
upon the shutters. 1t is difficult to judge Of
| the size of the shoe from these impressions,
but it was undoubtedly a narrow one.
Were Desperate Characters.
The burglars, whether expert safe crack
ers or only semi-professionals, are without
doubt desperate characters. The cool man.
ner in which they took possession of the
| watch box, remaining there within a few
yards of the scene of their crime until
nearly day, is evidence of their nerve, and
the finding of an almost emptied box Of
Smith & Wesson 32-caliber cartridges upon
the top of the dynamited safe leaves little
room for doubt that, had any one come
upon them in the midst of their nefarious
| work, blood would have been shed and