The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-26
nResponsiblefo rThursday
Night Robbery and Arson
Are Arrested
POLICE DO GREAT WORK
with No Clue to Begin on, officers
Round Up O'COnnor, O'ROurkc
and Sullivan in Less Than
Twenty Hours.

! glary. OCOnnOr and Sullivan nave con-
/ fessed to having robbed Brand & Wub-
ben's feed store, Joseph Rybak's grocery
store and Joseph VOLTS tailor shop
Thursday night. They both claim that
! O'Rourke was with them, and that it
was he who set fire to the feed store.
AS a police record there are very few
! that equal that Of the force in this par
! ticular case Without a single cleW TO
| start on, in less than twenty-fo hours
! after the crimes have been committed,
| the three criminals are behind the bars
| and every bit Of the stolen goods recover
ed. When the police started out Thursday
night all they knew was that three men
had been seen in the darkness. They had
| received no description whatever, and in
| side of two hours Sergeant Pat Murnane
! brought in the first one of the trio with
all the cigars that had been stolen
! O'Rourke came in early yesterday morn
ing in tow of Detectives Daily and
Sweeney. officers Tom TIaggerty and Will
liam O'Neill had hard skirmish for Sui
livan, but finally rounded him up at z
o'clock last night.
O'Connor, who was the first one to be
| arrested, has been in the central station
several Zines on charges of this char
acter. When Sergeant Murnane was
hurrying along Seventh street carly yes
terday morning he caught a glimpse Of
him and knowing his past record imme-
diately apprehended him. 1t took the
! sergeant but moment to convince O'C0n-
nor that everything was known, and with
| a little persuasion O'ConnCr readily
| agreed to take the officer to the "plant,"
where the goods were hidden. Ina cellar
| under a barn was found fifteen boxes Of
cigars hidden in an old garbage can, ever
which had been thrown some worn out
carpet. The central patrol wagon brought
| No oil sta
The crime occurred at 1870 and by 2:45
O'COnnor was behind the bars, and the
! police had the entire story of the affair.
| O'COnnOr told the officers that he, 'SFid
er," and another young fellow whose
name he did not know broke into the
feed store, and that O'Rourke, as they
Were leaving, tossed a lighted match into
the baled hay that was piled up in the
rear end. They then forced their way into
Rybaks store and took the cigars and
departed.
O'ROurl<e wouldn't 'Peach."
Yesterday morning Chief O'Connor de-
tailed Detectives Daily and Sweeney to
bring in Spider O'Rourke, who is well
known in police circles, having been mix
ed up in q number of small transactions.
After searching around for him. they To-
Gated him in a West Seventh street sa-
loon and brought him to the central
station. O'Rourke has all the instincts
of the criminal and refused to tell the
officers anything.
When Charles Wolf, who conducts a
tailoring shop at I'll West Seventh street,
came to his store yesterday morning, he
found that the glass in the front door
had been broken and the place ransacked.
Six entire suits, four coats and one over
coat had been taken. They were all
clothes that had been left with him to
repair.
OConnor told the police that O'T4curke
had broken the window and opened the
way. He said the three stood in the
doorway until a street car had passed,
when Spider bumped backwards into
the glass door. The noise of the passing
! car drowned the crash of the falling
| glass. The glass broke off squarely at
the bottom, leaving the upper portion in
| tact. The upper portion slid down in
! the frame when the burglars left and
! for that reason was not noticeable, all
the broken glass being on the inside.
OConnor told Detectives Sweeney and
DAILY where the clothes had been taken
! to and the detectives went behind En-
, merits brewery, which is surrounded by
a high fence, and found everything there,
a little bedrag gled, but just as OConnor
said. The clothes were brought to the
station and hung on line in one of the
cells to dry. Wolf identified the gar
| ments later in the day. He was loud in
his praise for the work of the police,
| as the clothes at the least were worth
$500.
| All the Articles Recovered.
In ORourke's house Detectives Daily
and Sweeney discovered two caddies of
| chewing tobacco that had been stolen
| from Rybak'S and guitar that had
been taken from Brand & Wubben.S feed
| store. With the exception possibly OF a
! few cigars that had either been Smoked
or lost, the police have recovered every
| article taken Thursday night. Mr..
| Wubben first thought the burglars had
| taken the cash drawer from the safe
| containing some rings and his insurance
| policies, but later found they had not.
| The arrest of William Sullivan, the
third person implicated in the affair, was
! the result of clever and hard work on
the part Of Officers Haggerty and OMEN.
! The officers started out yesterday with
! nothing but a description of the indiVid-
! ual wanted, and, as Sullivan has no
| criminal record whatever, their task was
| dcubly hard. They searched the town
all day and finally found a clue which
| brought them to Sullivans home, 243 East
| Thirteenth street Haggerty approached
from the front and O'Neill from the rear.
| A young woman answ cred the ring, and
said that Sullivan was not at home. The
| officers Swallowed the house, and shortly
| after o'clock saw Sullivan enter. Officer
| Haggcrty followed him into the front of
the house and Sullivan tried to make a
run cut of the back door. He landed
| squarely in the arms of ONeill, who was
! gency.
Sullivan Broke Down.
When captured, Sullivan broke down
and told the same story as OCon-
| nor. His parents are respectable people,
and have the entire good will of the
neighborhood in which they live. Sui
Ivan in all probability was the tool of
the other two. both of whom have a
criminal record of some length. Both
Sullivan and O'C0nnor are in a very
peritent mood, but O'Rou. Ike takes his ar
rest as a matter of fact. and something
that cannot be helped by worrying.
Great credit is due the police force in
| general, and the officers who made the
arrests in particular for the promptnes IS
and despatch in handling the affair The
officers who brought the men to the sta
ton had little to work on when they
started out, but their knowledge of police
work and of people of all sorts in the
city, led them urerringly to the right
place at the right time. Especial credit
is due Sergeant Pat Murnane, as his OPP
perfume pinch was in a great measure
responsible for the swiftness of the 9TH
ers.