The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-21
AN HONEST EX-CONVICT
HE FOUND A 1925 BROOCH AND GAVE
II TO DETECTIVES.
Clarence Able, just Released from
Prison, Surprised the Suspicious
DetcctiVes-His Career.

A young colored man who had killed am
other and had just been released from prison
after serving a year as punishment for the
crime arrived in this city without money
and without friends and last Wednesday
found a brooch set with diamonds and
pearls in the snow on the viaduct. No one
saw him pick up the brooch, and when he
put it in his pocket he was safe from de-
lection for the time being. He kept it
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
BY one of the hundreds of ways known to
criminals he might have disposed of the
jeWelry safely. 1t was worth $125. Monday
morning he passed CHIEF of Detectives Col
bert on the street. He hestated for min
ute and then called out to him: Here,
chief, I've got something L want to show
you
Chief Colbert knew the young man, knew
that he had just been released from prison,
and he told him to go with him to the police
station. Closeted in the chiefs Office, the
young man told the story and showed the
brooch The gold base was untarnished and
the filigree work was clean. The chief
knew that on Wednesday morning there
was three inches of snow on the ground.
He took the brooch and suspected that the
young man had stolen it, because he knew
that he had just finished term in prison.
The record of reports of articles lost and
stolen was examined and it was found that
Henry Mas, Of No. 438 South East street,
had reported that his wife had lost brooch
like the one the colored man had turned
over to Chief Colbert. Mrs Mas called at
the police station yesterday morning and
identified the brooch as hers. She lost it in
August She supposed it had been lost in
some clothing which she had sent to the
laundry. The suspicion that the young coll
ored man had stolen it was made ground
less, for in August he was in prison The
person who found the brooch and then lost
It was evidently afraid to report the loss to
the police because he knew it was not his
property. Chief Colbert did not return the
brooch to Mrs. Mas. He told her to call
at mis- office this morning. When she calls
she will meet the ex-conVict who found her
jewelry.
The ex-convict is Clarence Able. He is
twenty years old and his home is at No. 735
West North street. More than q year ago
he went to Chicago Up to that time he had
never been known as criminal. There he
quarreled with a man, and in a fight with
him killed him. He was tried and SEN
fenced to from one to fourteen years in the
Pontiac Reformatory for manslaughter
His good behavior at the prison was APP
preciated by the authorities, and he was
given credit on his sentence for 1t. AT the
same time the long and-short' gang Of
hold-up men which had terrorized Chicago
was in the Reformatory. Their friends on
the outside carried to them revolyers files
and saws. Young Able heard them plotting
to cut through the bars and fight their way
to liberty. He told the prison officials of
the scheme and it was frustrated. The
gang was sent to Joliet Penitentiary. Able
was released at the end of the first year of
his sentence, and few weeks ago he came
to his home in this city
Chief Colbert was surprised that an eX-
convict should come to him and give him a
piece of jewelry worth $125, when it was
supposed to be lost to the real owners ir
reVocably and when the man who found it
had good opportunity to safely convert it
into money. If Able had been arrested on
on him said 5.hief Colherf RI "I,e wouid
have been charged with stealing it," The
detectives, being somewhat pessimistic on
the subject of human honesty, regard this
case as peculiar one.