The San Francisco call., 1898-08-01
The Documents in the Becker Creegan Forgery Case Bob
 Up From the Void.
Found in a Safe Where They Did Not Be- long and No Reason Given of How
 They Got There

the papers in; the Becker-Creegan case was an affidavit of a witness or the eX- penSeS he had been cOInpelleQ- 10 lllCul lO attend the trial. '7'.,., c,,,,.,
 Curry did not hesitate in saying that the papers had been stolen, and he remarkeQ that the persons who stole them had made. a good clean job of 1t. Then .Ihe Cali made public the fact that the docu- ments in the forgery case had olsaP5 alP5 peared and warned the persons interested in the conviction of the :fofgers mat some sharp move was contemplated. Ihe publication of the loss of the papers pos were accountable for their disappearance realized that any move that would be made would meet with strong opposition in the courts and delay optaineu uitH .l the papers could be replaced and nothing would be gained. It was hinted by some of the city officials that the persons Who were responsible for the disappearance of the documents made a bold move. 10 cover up their tracks by returning the papers to the County Clerks office.
 Early yesterday morning Deputy Mul- cahy. was again in the once seareIllii}g st III E for the lost documents. He kept at It till long after noon, and then gave up Tn disgust He was lounging in cigar store near the City Hall, where many or the clerks in the city congregate, when Chief Lees approached him ana asKeo ilslftsel for information concerning the missing papers. Harry Piper .ex-Chlef- .DePu5 P ba County Clerk, was standing near W anu Wi,,,d, ltU I
 where the papers were, He said they were in the vault where the documents relat ting to probate matters are kept
 faI nut them there myself, ne sdIa, ''shortly after the. conviction or lAe t"1 men, They can be tounQ III tio elii'11t safe in the vault" 4,
 He named the exact pigeon ho1e, o,,9,, 'tb f bs were in, but said he could not open .ae nae IaIit In which they were because ne Was out of the office and had no right t2 l enter ter the place. Deputy Mulcahy prevailed gt oi him 10 try to open. the door or the vault and. Piner consented but when he tried inc combination of the lock on the door he said he had either forgotten. the com hfnatfon= or that the combination had been changed. Not long afterward Deputy he knew the combination he was prevailed on 10 open the door With Deane were Chief Lees, Deputy Mulcahy and several reporters As soon as the door. or the small safe in the vault was opened Null cahy reached to the pigeon hole that Piper designated and drew out the missing pa They were placed exactly as Piper had stated. though Piper had not, in his ofti- cial capacity, been in the vault for. several the only papers bearing on criminal cases to be found in the whole. of the vault. It seems strange that the documents bear ing on the Becker -Creegan" case should have been selected from all the thousands of criminal cases, many of Which are or for safe keeping and then put away after the two men had been convicted. r Chief Lees, however, was delighted to know that the papers were again safe; l and after they had been examined ana found complete Deputy Mulcahy locked them in small safe that he has 1urlsdic- | ton over and made a record on the books, where they could be found.