The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-11
TOOK BACK
 THEIR GOLD Smelling Works Officials
 Recover Bars. JACK WINTERS CONFESSES Waded into Water and Brought up the Treasure. Claims That He Committed the Rob. :. bery Alone-He May Go Free
 and Receive $25, 900 For
 His Shrewdness.
JACK WINTERS CONFESSES

San Francisco. Aug. 10.-Jack Wins ters. who was arrested for the Selby Smelling Works robbery has confessed the crime and so far $l30.00 worth .o1 bullion has been recovered from the bay where he had sunk it.
 For three days the detectives made every effort to induce Winters to -co11< fess but without avail.
 Finally he asked to see Superinten~ dent Ropp of the works. who. he said. was the only friend he had. In his cons versxion with Ropp. Winters's man. ner indicated that he knew where tfe gold had been hidden. Ropp told hifn that they had strong case against him and that he would be sent to pris- on for thirty years. He said:
 You will be an old man when yoo get out, and 1t will do you no good tc hide the gold. We know it is hiddef In the water near the works and wi will search every inch. You may sure that the gold will be found befereA you get out of prison." ,.f
 Winters finally weakened and told Ropp that he had taken the gold and would take him to the spot where is was hidden. The criminal. in com- pany with Superintendent Ropp and a force of detectives left on a tug last night for Crockett.
 There they waited all night for low tide. Winters pointed out the place ae the end of the railroad wharf. behind the coal bunkers at the beginning of the Vallejo ferry slip.
 At that point at low tide the mud i9 about four feet deep covered by foot of water. When the tug reached Crockett Winters pointed out the\spot in the water where he said he mad thrown the gold.
 Superintendent Ropp marked theA place on the wharf and the tug steam ed away to await for low tide. This
 morning Winter himself got into the mud and water up to his neck for an hour and a half and groped for the missing bullion
 Today $130.O0e worth was recovered This includes the four bars or nne gold. Winters had put some of the bars in bags. He said that one of the bars had been broken and some small bars had dropped out.
 IL ia now only a question of carefui search to find the rest of the $SsV,oVss Winters claims that he did the jop alone. He says he made fourteen tripA from the vault to the wharf where hs dropped the gold. The smeiter ofri- cials, however. are positive that ne Le ceived assistance from some one. The detectives think that his story that ha did it all himself is not true.
 Winters when he had made up his mind to tell all he knew about the crime was exceedingly willing to give all the information necessary toward the recovery of the bullion. He acted more like one of the detectives than a prisoner. As soon as he arrived at the waters edge he picked up three stones, and pacing forward, tossed one lntd the water. It fell to the south of the spot at which the prisoner stood. An- other stone fell to the east and third was thrown directly in front of Win ters. l
 That" said the prisoner. twill mark the water boundary of the place where your gold Is hidden"
 Stepping to the left. Winters drew a nail from his pocket and asked for 8 hammer He then paced off few wards to the right and drove another nail in the timber.
 .The gold" he continued, twill be between these two nails. somewhere in the line marked by the stones l just threw into the water"
 A small skiff was secured and Into it Sheriff Vale. Detective Kimball of the Pinkerton Agency and two laborers were loaded. Winters assisted in the search for the bricks. He talked glib ly all the while. The deep mud finally put a stop to operations, and 1t was decided to build a cofffferdam before trying to recover the rest of the treas- ure.
 Winters told the officers that he planned the robbery long ago with min- ute detaly. He had been two or three months working on his tunnel. It had taken two nights labor to cut through the brick wall of the smelter. Most of the boring in the bottom of the vault had been done in the night when the gold was taken. He carried the plunder, which was very heaVys from the vault to the water and de- posted it where the water was from three to six feet deep at low tide. The distance from the vault to the cache was about a quarter of mile, and ne trade fourteen round-trips He was at work four hours on Monday night. Four small bars of refined gold he con- cealed among the stone of the break water, just at the further mouth Of the railroad tunnel
 His purpose had been to use this gold for present needs. Winters, on his last trip. had perceived that dawn was breaking. Not daring to complete the trip. he laid on the shore the two bricks which were found Tuesday morning where the robbers boat was supposed to have landed. The trail of red pepper ending at that point had been a blind.
 In view of the fact that promises of clemency were made to Winters in con- sideration of his unearthing the golds it is thought that his punishment will be light
 Detective Gibson is quilted as saying that 1t was promised Winters by Pres- ident Ralston of the Selby Smelting Works that he should not only not be prosecuted, but should receive $26000.
 "Winters cannot be prosecuted" said Detective Gibson, flor there is no evi- dence against him. All that has been drawn from him was secured by the detectives under promise that it would not be used against him. Under such circumstances. it would be extremely difficult to secure a conviction."