The San Francisco call., 1898-05-29
FrieDds of Deputy Tax Col. Iector Krohn Believe
 Him Innocent.
Place ConfideDce in His Story of tbe Alleged Robbery of the
 County's Vaults.

about A bag containing about $200 in silver was on top of the safe and in the open safe was a package containing about S100 in currency. The robbers had not made very clean sweep. On the desk where krohn had been work ing at his books was a small sheet of paper containing the following letters and figures:
 Memo 210 17S.5O c 91OO Small 8.45, Total 4S7.95 Bag 750000. Total 79S79
 The "S' stands for silver coin; the 'C' for currency; the word small for small coins and the word bag" for the bag containing gold taken by rob bers. Krohn explains that this was a memorandum of the amount of money contained in the safe. When search was made silver, currency and small coins were found. but the bag of gold was missing. Though the robbers left behind them more than $500 in cash they carried with them the piece of lead pipe they are supposed to have used as a weapon and the bunch of keys. Neither has yet been found.
 To-day the tax collectors books were turned over to Expert M. D. Wood. His investigation of the accounts has as yet failed to produce from the books any corroboration of the figures con- tained on Krohn's memorandum of cash on hand. It has been Krohn's s custom to make frequent cash deposits with a local bark The last deposit made by him was on May 12, when he received credit for $230.
 Those who claim to disbelieve the story told by Krohn point to the fol- lowing list of what are alleged to be suspicious circumstances: That the tiine-lock on the money safe should be set so that 1t would not begin to work until so late an hour as Il o'clock at night; that fifty-five minutes elapsed from the time Krohn says he was at tackled before the night watchman heard the crash of breaking glass; that Mrs. Krohn should become alarmed for the safety of her husband at so early an hour as 12o'clock; thatthero robbers left behind them several hundred dollars and carried away with them the lead pipe and keys; that a memorandum of cash should be left in a conspicuous place on the desk, when the books fail to show the amount of cash on hand; that the back door of the office should be open; that the bloody finger prints outside the back door show that al l least one of the robbers was wounded when Krohn has no remembrance o1 having inflicted a wound; that Krohr was rendered unconscious by wounds that are merely superficial; that | being unconscious, he should pro- test against a suggestion to carry hin back into the office; that the night watchman was unable to see the rob bers in the office after hearing the breaking of glass; that there is no trai of blood from bloody hand prints ir the vault to hand prints on the marble Tagging near the front door, where Krohn was found; that the time was al hand when Krohn would have to make his final accounting for the collection of taxes which became delinquent or April 25; that so great an amount o1 money had accumulated between May 12, the date of the last deposit, an6 May A, the date of the robbery; that there were no evidences of violent struggle.
 On the other hand, Krohn's friends rightly assert that there are none o1 the foregoing alleged suspicious cir cumstances that are not possible of in 1 nocent interpretation when considered as possibilities or even probabilities They point to the fact that Krohn has ] always been a young man of exem- plary habits; that he has never beer | known to make use of greater amounts of money than would be justified by hi: circumstances in life.
 Lew Krohn, the Tax Collector, ha, | signifed his intention to make good tC 1 the county the amount stolen as, undel | the law, 1t should have been turned
 over to the County Treasurer some
 time ago. He considers that this fac
 renders him responsible for the loss even though the money were stolen-s | nuestion of which he has no doubt.