The San Francisco call., 1899-07-31
WORK FOR THE
GRAND JURY OF
CONTRA COSTA
Charges Against Two
Constables.
FREIGHT TRAIN R0BBERlES
SAID TO BE IMPLICATED WITH
WELL-KNoWN THIEVES.
Ran in San Quentin for a Burglary
Said to Have Been Planned by
One of the Consta-
bles.
FREIGHT TRAIN R0BBERIES
SAID TO BE IMPLICATED WITH
WELL-KNoWN THIEVES.

y
has been unearthed by Detective I. l..
Ryan of the local force and Special De
tectives Crowley Maloney and klndeion
of the Southern Pacific staff. TWO con-
stables of Contra Costa County are lInpl-
Gated and the matter will be laid before
the Grand Jury Of the county, so that IL
can be probed to the bottom.
On April 9. IL and IA freight trains on
the Southern Pacific route from this city
were robbed and articles comprising hard-
ware, clothing, silks cotton goods, nose
corsets, brushes, leather goods, Worces-
tershire sauce, handkerchiefs, scarts,
overshirts, linen collars, black silk ties
and ribbons and other miscellaneous
goods stolen, including a box of tea con-
tanning 100 half-p pound packages. case
of brass faucets and a nickel-plated cork
puller.
The Southern Pacific detective depart
ment, after being notified of the robber1es,
soon ascertained that Joe Petancue, a
young man who had been sent TO the In
dustrial School from Oakland, Joe Will
Ii 1s, alias "\. hitey," and John Doe"
Rice. alias District" were implicated in
the robberies Williams is now servi-.g
a sentence of two and a half years in
San Quentin for burglary in Crockett and
Rice is waiting his trial in Salinas for
burglary.
No trace of Petancue was found till a
few days ago. when it was discovered
that he had enlisted and was a casual at
the Preside. Late Friday night he was
Ryan, Special Detective Kindelon and
Sheriff Veale of Contra Costa County.
| Saturday morning he was taken TO Maru-
nez by Detective Ryan. Sheriff Veale and
Special Detective Maloney and on infor-
nation given by him an application was
made TO a Justice of the Peace there for
three search warrants. About five hours
were occupied in getting the search VIZ
| rants and when the officers went TO Ine
! colo of "a he ut nj llfa
in the evening, where the property was
supposed to be, they only found the nickel
plated cork puller, and they have no hesi-
taton in saying that owing to the delay
in issuing the search warrants ample time
was given for the property TO be con-
cealed.
In the presence of Charles a. Sweeney,
d Constable and Deputy Sheriff of Contra
Costa County. and Gambs. the soldier,
Petancue, accused them of being impli
! Gated in the train robberies. He said that
| his part of the robberies was to get on TO
| the trains, break into the cars, and
| they were passing Antioch to throw out
! the stolen property. which Sweeney, who
was provided with horse and wagon,
| was 10 pick up and take to Gambs sa-
| loon. Both Sweeney and Gambs denied
| any participation in the robberies, but
corroboration of Petancue's statements
! of April Il Sweeney hired a horse and
wagon, from Chases livery stables at
Antioch and the horse answered the de-
scription given by Petancue. Further cor
roboration was found in the fact that
Sweeney had shipped through Wells
Fargo's, under the name of Davis, case
| of faucets to William StultZ, a plumber
on Seventh street, Oakland.
| Gambs accounted for his possession of
| the nickel-plated cork puler by stating
that he bought it from two young men
who dropped into his saloon. Petancue
| said he gave ii to Sweeney, and Sweeney
| sold it to Gambs.
| plicated by .Petancqe from the fact that
he offered him and Williams and Rice the
use of his boat in connection with the
| ticles stolen from the freight cars. Petan-
| cue also told an interesting and romantic
story about Moiles He said that Molles
was enemy of Chief Detective Crowley
of the Southern Pacific, and wanted the
discredit upon Crowley and curry favor
with the Southern Pacific by notifying
them that he could lay his hands on the
robbers Moiles also planned with Petan-
/ cue and Williams that they should rob
Davis general store at Crockett. The ar
! rangement was that Petancue and Will
Jams should break into the store, and
when they came out with their booty
uoiles and his brother would be on hand
and attempt to arrest them, which would
show that Moiles was conversant with the
perpetrators of crime in the county. This
was carried out. but before breaking into
the store Moiles gave Petancue some
mo money an an !, ojr TeIoIerb ~ tb M0es Mole had mott
to be broken into. but warned him to keep
quiet about it, as he wanted to capture
the burglars. When Petancue came out
of the store with his booty Moles
put a revolver to his head, and Pet
ancue dropped his plunder. Moies'
brother rushed at Petancue, but Moiles
shouted to him to let him alone, and
Petancue ran. Moies fired six shots
at him. and the bullets came so close to
hIm as to be unpleasant
Moles actually intended TO kill him and
drawing his revolver, he emptied il at
Moies, but none of the shots took effect
Meantime Williams had come out of the
store, and was captured by MoIes and
his brother, and for this he is now serving
two and one-half years in San Quentin
Petancue went to Antioch after the
burglary and gave Sweeney two watches
that he had taken from Davis store and
told Sweeney that he wanted to get away.
Sweeney gave him So and promised to
forward the watches to HIM at Sacra-
mento, which he did, as verified by the
officers. After getting away Petancue
went to Colorado and recently came hack
and enlisted in this city. as he wanted to
go to Manila. ~
According to Special Detective Malonev
Moles was anxious to get a yearly mass
from the Southern Pacific and early In
May he spoke to Maloney about the frain
robberieS and notified him that anotbar
was to take place. Malonev uros
anxious to know his informant but MoIleS
declined to satisfy his curiosity Tbarsa
were no other robberies.
Petancue is now in the Countv Tai1 =.
Martinez, and will be tried for fbe troi1
robberies according to his own confassiot,
He is a reckless youth, 23 wears of Cra
and belongs to Oakland. He was On So
of the battle-ships during the fight before
Santiago.