Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-03-05
FACTORY LOOTED,
Youthful Thieves Strip Shoe Factory
of Much Property.
Cieveriy Rounded Up by Marshall Breer. ..rvo
Held for Grand Jury

case of wholesale thiovino on1
destruction Of property to the yaIue nr
several hundred dollars was discovn,al
~ the shCe factory buiIdine Sun.ia,.
Joseph :. Whitney. who IS cmpIova1 nc
Watchnan at the buildina. whilo moi,
ing ms rounds, entered one of the ,Ics-
cts and discovered that tba la,l ,i,,i,c
traps and connections had been remoy-
Cd bodily and carried off. Further in
NestiSation showed that nearly avarv
l"Set ara SINK in the building had
been robbed Of piping in the sama
III ilihef' ana also that the switches
ana other electrical fittings had heen
destroyed and large quantity of cop
Per and brass stolen
Nf. hitney 1T once reported The loss
TO G. II. Hichborn. who has charge of
the shoe factory building and the mat
ter was placed in the hands of CITY
Ma:Shal Hrecn. who after making n
thorough search. succeeded in locating
the stolen metal on the premises Of one
ii. HandVerger. a Hebrew peddler. who
lives near the shoe factory. There we're
200 or 300 pounds of the lead. and IL
was hidden in the attic
From information rec ciVed il is sls-
peCtcd that the havoc was the work Of
Il gang of boys who make practice of
lCatng around the streets and railroad
station. one OF them being Frank Lar
rabee. aged -. who returned last fan
from serving a two years sentence at
Thomaston for breaking and entering
cottages at Lake Cobbosseecontea.
Marshal Breen arrested tarrabce on
Water street. Monday forenoon. and
soon after captured two more of the
gang. Henry Holt and Tom Stcrons.
The trio were locked up. and ut
O'Clock in the afternoon We're given a
hearing before Judge Andrews. There
were present as Witnesses. Abraham
AschkeHasy ana II. Handvergtr. Tho
sWore positively as to the identity of
Larrabee ana Holt as being the boys
Who had sold the metal to Handver~er.
Max Slosberg Of Gardiner was also
present as an Interpreter for Aschken-
asy. who cannot speak English.
No evidence was submitted to show
that Stcl ems was in any way implicat-
"a and he was discharged. but Doth
Lalrabee and Holt We're bound over 70
III" April term of court in the sum of
$500 each. and We're committed
1t is not known when the lead was
stolen. but there are indications that
warrant the belief that the stealing
had been going on for some time. Il
was not the first break that had been
made. for about two months ago tn"
building was entered ana 4 set Of pipe
dies ana the stock that went With
them were taken.
The success of City Marshal Erren
in quickly spottinG and accommodating
evidence against the prisoners reflects
much credit upon his ability as an Of
ficer The finding Of the property alone
was a clever piece of work and the
quick arrests are added laurels for Au-
gusta's chief guardian Of the peace.
L.arrabee has a Tad record ana is
considered by the police to be one of
the smoothest young criminals in this
section. When arrested for complicity
in the burglarizins Of the cottages At
the lake in the fall Of 1895 he escaped
from the officer who made his arrest
and was not seen for several days. Hut
one day he dressed himself in female
raiment and called at the Jail to see
Young man named Duke. who
was then in durance. and came
very near making success
of his visit. but somehow. the
turnkey, James Mckenney. saw
through his disguise and Larrabee re
mained in Jail until he was brought up
for trial and sent to Thomaston