The San Francisco call., 1904-03-05
John D. O'Brien Shot
in Left Thigh by
Thief.
Loot of Tailor Shop
Found in Room
of Crooks.

John D. O'Brien. a reporter for The
Call and one of the best known news
paper men of the city, narrowly es-
capped a fatal wound at an early hour
yesterday morning in a chivalrous effort
TO prevent a vicious thief from killing
a policeman. Fortunately the Ieaden
missile missed a vital spot and only in
flicted a flesh wound in O'Brien's left
thigh
The thief whose murderous attempt
was baked by O'Brien is known as
Charles H. Wright. In company with
another thief, who gives his name as
Robert Wedin. he attempted TO burglar
iZe a room at 405 Kearny street. The
lodger awoke and made an outcry suf-
f1cient to attract the attention of Po-
nceman Daniel ]. Keohane on Pine
street and Policeman O'Connor who
rushed down from Dupont street.
O'Brien was talking to Keohane at
the corner of Pine and Kearny streets
when the outcry came. Both men saw
the two thieves bolt from the lodging
house at 405 Kearny street and rush up
Pine street. O'Brien and Keohane took
into the Astor House, a notorious resort
on Pine street. O'Brien followed Keo-
hane UP the stairway, and in a narrow
niche off the hallway discovered the
two burglars. Wright drew a revolver
with the evident intention Of shooting
Keohane who had missed his quarry
in the rush upstairs. The plucky re-
porter grappled with the intending
murderer and wrestled with him for the
revolver.
Baf1ed in his original intention,
Wright turned his gun on O'Brien and
sought in every way to take his life.
He managed to explode the weapon
once, the bullet taking effect in
O'Brien's leg. Notwithstanding the
wound the reporter continued to strug-
gle with the burglar and finally sue
ceeded in wrestling the revolver from
Wright, but not before he had checked
the fall of the hammer with his finger
and received a painful bruise.
Policeman Keohane came to O'Brien's
assistance as quickly as possible, but
the fighting was in such close quarters
that it was impossible TO rescue the re-
porter from his peril until the weapon
had been wrested from Wright and he
was powerless TO do further harm.
Keohane grabbed Wedin. the other
burglar, and threw him downstairs into
the waiting arms of Policeman O'Con-
nor. who was mounting in pursuit of
the thieves OBrien after taking the
revolver away from Wright passed it
back to Keohane and managed to hold
the thief until the policeman came to
his aid.
Wright and Wedin for more than a
week past have occupied a room at
4O5 Kearny street. In attempting to
loot the room of fellow lodger they
were discovered. First, they attempt
ed to escape by stringing a line Of bed
clothes from a rear window. Wright
stood at the head of the stairs with
a drawn revolver while his companion
prepared the improvised rope Sud-
denly they abandoned that idea of es-
cape and dashed down the stairs into
Kearny street. Pursued closely by
O'Brien and the policemen, they sought
the shelter of the Astor House, where
Wright made a losing fight for freedom,
even to the point of attempted MUIR
der
wright was Sullen anu cOmDatlVe
after he had been overpowered, and
Wedin was smilingly non-committaI.
Both denied knowing one another but
in Wright's possession was found a
photograph of the two men, taken to-
gether last September.
After the two men had been taken
to the Central station, Detective Jerry
Dfnan and Policemen sMcShane. MCGEE
and Groat made search Of the bur-
glars room and discovered nineteen
waistcoats. fourteen coats, seven pairs
Of trousers and bolt of cloth, all of