Arizona republican., 1905-02-03
DEPARTURE OF n'CLAIN
He Could not Await the Funeral of
 His Wife.

Detective w. D. Sims left last night for Des MOines, Iowa, with Ed Mo Clain, the fugitive from justice, after rather an eventfuI week in Phoenix. When askey yesterday the nature of the crime for which McCIain was held to the grand jury, MT. Sims said it was con- structiVely highway robbery, though it was not a knock down or sand bag ging incident. The crime itself prob ably would not have resulted in a very severe sentence and it might have been settled by jail penalty of a few months. perhaps evading the peniten- tiary entirely. But what made the man so badly wanted now is the grief of the surety company who furnished his bond in good faith that he would stay and take his chance with the court
 McClains habitat was in the questionable resorts of the city and to begin with it is sNsupposed he had rolled a man of a few dollars, intending to join his wife in Omaha at once. When he got to the depot platform in Des MOines, he acCOsted a stranger and asked him the time. The stranger pull ed out fine watch, the works of which cost $65, and told him the time. In stantly McClain seized it and told the stranger that he was a detective and he was certain that was stolen proper ty and he would confiscate it. He also told him to call at his office down town in an hour or so and he would by that time have made a search of his records and determined whether it was stolen property or not. If not he would restore it.
 The stranger was too much appalled,  while McClain was fading away in the darkness. But instead of hunting for McCIain's office he appealed at once to the police. In the meantime Mo Clain went straight to a pawnshop and put up the watch for a certain amount of money and a pawn ticket and forth with returned to the depot and took the train for Omaha. Inside of an hour the detective assigned to the case by the chief of police had located the watch which was still left in the care of the pawnbrOker to await develop ments.
 After reaching Omaha and making a little raise of money, MCClain sent the necessary amount, together with the pawnticket, back to the broker and asked that the watch be forwarded to him by express. This instruction was
 
 took the watch also took a detective and when McCIain got the watch out of the express office, the detective got McCIain.
 The funeral of McClain's wife or Bertha Belmont as she was known in Phoenix has not yet taken place but it is understood that services will be held today. It was not regarded as ab- solutely necessary that her husband should be present. He did not appear to take a great deal of interest in her death and he was not especially de- sirOus of staying to see her buried. Yesterday he asked Detective Sims to take him to her trunk. He said he be- lieved there would be found in it Q for diamonds valued at $40. The ticket was not found but there was something else cOnfirmatOry of the fact that she and her husband had been in Des Nfoines. The detec- tive had said that he had for some time shadowed Mrs. McCIain on the streets of Des MOines and he had furnished q description of the clothing she wore at the time. Such clothing as the officer had described was found in the trunk.