The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-10
TRIAL OF DRISCOLL
sAFEBLowER EN- FEED PLEA
 OF EoT GUILTY.
Jury Out Fortysfive Minutes and Recommended Him to Mercy. Russell to .e Tried
 Today.

Albert Driscoll. safe blower. was last night at o'clock found guilty of bur. glary by jury in the criminal division of the City Court of Montgomery. He was recommended to Judge William H Thomas. presiding over the court for | mercy, when the time for his sentence ar rives.
 Tho verdict seemed to meet the ap. l proval of Driscoil. From the time the | jurors retired at S:15 o'clock until the l verdict was announced he displayed the | first signs of concern, exhibited by either he or his companion. J. E. Russell since their arrest in Mobile on December g. He remainded in the court room until the verdict was announced. His nervous ness was apparent Throughout the three-quarters of an hour of waiting, he conversed with a small boy. who saw in him the realism of ideas gleaned from penny dreadfuls.
 When the verdict was announced and the recommendation of mercy, handed the court, Driscoll bowed approvingiy to his counsel and at once joined a deputy sheriff and walked to the jail in which he has been confined for the last five months.
 Accused of Safeblowing,
 With the conviction of Driscoll, prac- tically all of one of the most sensational criminal cases on the records of Mont gomery County, closes. Driscoll and Rus sell were accused of forcing a safe of the Montgomery Theatre on the night of December 8 and making a haul, produc- tive of over $150 to them, in bringing about a controversy between the courts of Montgomery and Mobile Counties and causing one of tho most daring pieces of police work on the part of Police Captain W. H. Taylor and Sheriff W R. Waller of Montgomery in secreting the two men and spiriting them away from under the very nose of the Mobile police.
 Driscoll and Russell and their doings have been boons to the newspaper men. The stories of their crime of their arr rest. of the court difficulties, of their criminal records, of their two attempts to escape have all been choice bits of gossip
 The crime with which the men were spe- officially charged was with having broke into the music house of the E. F. Forbes Plano Company on Dexter Avenue, where they attempted to enter the safes of the music house and succeeded in blowing open the safe of the Montgomery Thea Ire whose office is in the Forbes store. When they were captured in Mobile, 1t developed Sat they were wanted in JdCkSOnNlllet F H.. dIiu ndu pcCn IOnOW- ed to Montgomery and Mobile by Jack sonville officers who were robbed Of their catch just at the moment of vic tory. The men had served terms in the Vermont penitentiary. They claimed to bc artisans and of good families.
 They were arrested in Mobile on war rants chareing carrying concealed pis- tols and having in possession burglars tools. When it became known in Mobile that the men were wanted In Montgomery and elsewhere. the Mobile authorities developed a startling affection for the safe blowers. Instead of resist ing the charges the men readily elected to at once begin their hard labor sem tences for Mobile County and were ac- cordingIy sent to the camp of the Vinegar Bend Lumber Company in the county of Washington.
 Coup of Waller and Taylor.
 Montgomery authorities believed that the shipment of the men to Vinegar Bend meant certain escape. The Convict Board on an order from the City Court of Mont gomery granted writ of removal from the Vinegar Bend camp to the Montgom- cry County jail.
 Sheriff Waller and Police Captain Taylor went to Vinegar Bend after the men, At the convict camp they had no trouble but on reaching Mobile they discovered that the police authorities of that city were busy swearing out writs of habeas corpus. etc, to pro- hibit the men from being removed to Montgomery.
 The situation was realized by the Montgomery officers and despite the protests of the prisoners they were taken in a hack and given free drive through suburban Mobile. The men were then secreted on train which had previously been searched by Mo