The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-29
THE HARRINGTON PUBLISHING co
GREAT SILVER ROBBERIEs
MYSTERY UNEARTHED BY DE.
 TECTIVE DoNEELLY.

AsN ~A- o1 04s
 TECTIVE DONEELLY.
 Assisted by Chief o'RsiIiy of waiIing.
 ford-Intsrnational silver Company
 Lost Thousands of. Dollars worsA oi
 Metal-other Concerns suffer Losses
 silver Sought at ?. s. Assay omos in
 New York cisy-Hundred osnee. ss
 stolen Silver Rseovered-The ah,evss
 Arrested.
 One of the largest silver robberies in the history of the state was thoroughly unearthed yesterday by Detective Hen. ry J. Donnelly, after he had spent about g year on it's solution, assisted by Chief of Police Daniel O'ReilIy. Thou sands of dollars worth of sheet silver and silver articles have been stolen from silver manufacturing con. cerns in both Meriden and Wallingford during the past year, and the mystery as to it's disappearance was solved by these officers yesterday.
 About a year ago Detective DonneIly made up his mind that great quantities of stolen silver were being brought to this city from some part of the state and were being taken to New York and sold. Last fall he made thorough cAn- vass of the silver manufacturing towns with but little success until he struck Wallingford.
 There he found out from Chief O'Reil. ly that silver was being stolen from both the shops in that town and from the international Silver shops in Mers iden.
 For about two months Detective Don- nelly has been shadowing two men in this city who he thought were taking the stolen metal to New York and thera disposfng of it. He did not make him- self known to the men, hoping to catch either one or both of them with some of the goods in their possession.
 This week Tuesday he saw one of the men with satchel in his hand hurry- ing to the depot He stopped him ara took him to police headquarters. On his arrival there 1t was found that the man had over 200 ounces of sheet s-lver in his bag. worth a little over f1rty-two cents an ounce. He interrogated the man who was perfectly frank in his am swers. He said that he had bought the silver of Joshua Sutta of 175 Meadow street, who runs what was formerly the old Sherman place at that address, and who is a manufacturer of badges and ornaments
 Detective Drlnelly telling the man to tsay nothing about the matter let him go, keeping the silver. He then started out to find the owner. He went to Essaal al lingford. and Chief O'Reilly e - meeting of one representative of each of the five silver shops but none of them could identify the silver. Detec- tive Donnelly and Chief O'Reilly then went to Meriden and made a thorough canvass. meeting with no success until they arrived at. the Barbour shop at the corner of Colony and Cross streets. which is one of the shops belonging to the International Silver company. There they saw Superintendent Hobson; who readily recognized the metal as be- ing taken from that shop. He further said that over 5000 ounces of sheet sil- yer, besides a lot of other silver articles, some of which had been lined with gold. had been stolen in less than the last three months. They had also lost about 2,000 ounces prior to January 1. Super intendent Hobson said that he had a suspicion that a certain man. who had been acting strangely, was the one who was doing the stealing. His name is John H. Booth. and it was decided to put 9 close watch on him. but to give him a chance to steal another load of goods. This was on Thursday. Yester- day morning Booth was the first man to arrive at the shop, getting there at about 6:30 o'clock. He was seen to go through the room in which he works into another room where the silver is stored. He stopped at the door, which was locked, and taking a key out of his pocket was seen to open the door and enter He then went to the vaults and opening them took out number of sheets of silver, which he bent up and put in his pockets. He then went to work.
 Detective Donnel1y and Chief O'Reil1y GHCIl WELL Lilt gClilGl-Ol- pUllCG UL9 VlGT- iden. accompanied by Superintendent Hobson. and told him what they had seen. He immediately had warrant issued for Booths arrest and gave 1t to Detective Donnelly. Booth was in the habit of taking his dinner with him. so ruse was decided on. Chief Van Nostrand of Merfden, Superintendent Hobson, Chief O'Reilly and Detective Donnelly then went to club house near the factory The detective tele- phoned to Booth that his wife was ill and wanted him to come home imme- diately. A short while asterward they saw Booth hurry from the factory to-; wards his home They followed him.. and as he entered they followed him in. He hurried into the inner room and tak-s ing his coat off he hung it on a peg. Detective Donnelly followed him into the room and grabbed the coat. As he did this Booth turned around and went into the sitting room where the rest were and sitting down said, Well, gem. tlemen. there is no use talking: you have certainly got me with the goods!" In the coat pockets were found a large, 1, amount Of sheet silver which he had stolen that morning, and had bent in his vice so that he could get it in his pockets. At the time the officers arr rived at the house they found Booth S