The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-13
THEFT ON THE SANTA FE.
King and James Plead Guilty at
Raton-Downen Acquitted.
TF'rom the Albuqueroue Citizen.1

GFrom the Albuquerque Citizen.1
The trial of T. ]. DoWnen, formerly
head brakeman on the Santa Fe road,
was concluded in the district court at
Ration, the jury bringing in a verdict
of not guilty. DOwnen was charged with
participating in the theft of a quantity
of merchandise from the cars of the
company. The specific acts complained
of were committed on freight No. SO.
which left La Junta on the morning of
August %, 1898, and on train section
which arrived in Ration September 10,
1885. Cases of gloves consigned to Bah
bitt Bros. at Flagstaff, A. T., were bro
ken into and four dozen and a half
gloves, half of which were worth $3.50
per dozen, were found to be missing.
These articles had been shipped in car
No. 6,715, which formed part of the
train of August %.
The conductor of the train was Wal
ter N King; the head brakeman was
the defendant, T. J. Downen; and the
rear brakeman was Louis James. All
three were arrested. Downen was the
only one who contested the case and
won OUT on the proposition. King
entered a plea of guilty to the first
count in the Indictment brought against
him, charging him with embezZlement;
and James entered plea of guilty to
the third count in the Indictment, charg
ing him with a similar offense.
The evidence against Downen was al
most entirely circumStantial The wit
nesSeS called upon to testify for the
prosecution were F. c. Fox, trainmas-
ter; o. G. Hansen, a glove manufacture
er of Milwaukee, Wis; Terrence Sheely,
check clerk for the Santa Fe at Chi
cago; Allen Alden, day car sealer at
Ration; Peter McCanna, chief clerk of
the Santa Fe at Albuquerque; John
Vercamp, chief clerk for Babbitt Bros.
at Flagstaff; Roger Shelly, check clerk
of the Santa Fe at Chicago; w. E.
Loeffer, check clerk for the Santa Fe at
Deming, N. M; John J. Kinney, super
intendent of the special service depart
Inent of the Santa Fe railway at To-
peka; David Strum, of Ration; H. B.
Phelps of Ration; Deputy SheriffS Cocker
and Lee of Ration; c. A Orahood, dry
goods salesman for Pierce & Draper at
La Junta, Col; Louis James, one of the
defendants. The witnesses for Downen
were the defendant himself and George
J. Pace who testified as to the good
character of the defendant.
The testimony of John ]. Kinney was
interesting as showing the system en-
ployed by the company in detecting sys-
tematic pilfering. He said in part:
During the months of July, August
and September we had advices that
shipments were arriving at their desti-
nation under Chicago seals, in a pilfer-
ed condition, such goods being taken as
dry goods, shoes. whisky, cigars, re-
volvers, tobacco and clothing" Witness
stated that he Immediately began in
vestigations by checking shipments
from the initial point to destination,
getting the names of the crews that
handled the various shipments, move
ment of cars, and after checking from
80 to 40 days found that all the cars, or
a large percentage of them on which
damage reports were made, were ham
died on the New Mexico division by
Conductor w. N. King and Brakemen
Downen and James.
No goods except two suits of under
wear handed to the officers by the de-
PENDANTS wife, and pair of undressed
gloves found on the person of the de-
PENDANT, were traced to the defendant,
A large quantity of goods was found in
a cache, which the prosecution asserted
had been slowed there by the defendant.
Louis James, one of the defendants, tes-
titled against DoWnen, but failed to give
any testimony indentifying DoWnen
with the specific acts complained of.
Downen claimed, under oath, that he
had purchased the gloves of Pierce &c
Draper at La Junta- This testimony
had been anticipated by the prosecution
and c. A. Orahood's testimony was to
the opposite effect. DOwnen also testi-
fed that he bought the underwear in
La Junta. DOwnen denied all knoWI-
edge of any pilfering.
Defendants King and James will be
sentenced by the court later in the SEES
sion