The San Francisco call., 1905-08-07

he entertained strong suspicion that the
murder of Policeman George W. Brown
last December was committed by this
youthful band of thugs. From Elmer
Crowhurst he has learned much OF the
carnival of crime that the gang carried
on, and while direct evidence is lacking
the Sheriff has hopes that he may ex-
tract a confession as to who shot down
the brave Datrolman in the street when
he approached q suspicious character who
was lurking in the darkness.
The younger Crowhurst was taken into
custody this morning by Deputy Sheriff
Tom Carroll. Sheriff Barnet suspected
that the lad, young as he is. had been
implicated in some of the hold-up work
of the gang, and ordered that he be ar
rested Two hours later the Sheriff had
a statement from the young criminal
that explains several hitherto unsolved
hold-up mysteries of the last year. 1t is
probable that charge of robbery will be
placed against the lad, but Sheriff Barnet
is disinclined to try to send the boy to
prison. because of his age. and he will
urge sending him to a reform school.
'It is pretty tough to have to collect
evidence of murder and wholesale rob-
berry against mere boys" said the Sheriff.
''They are a hard gang, but with all this
mass of criminal evidence against them
they nearly all think of their mothers
and the pain that exposure has caused.
LONG CAREER OF CRIME.
1.-THE career of crime of these boys ex-
tends over more than a year and includes
very many robberies of all kinds They
were regularly banded together with a
definite organization. They planned their
crimes together, and generally two car
ried out the plan. They would then meet
and compare notes as to what they had
done. The very fact that they escaped
detection for so long mace them bold,
until they actually committed a murder"
As the case stands now three of the
BOYS have been connected with the Cook
murder Nearly all of them have been
connected with one or more hold-ups.
Schneider has been connected with the
Cook murder. but none of the confessions
show that he had any hand in any of the
other highway robberies that were COM
mitted.
James Crowhurst was the leader of the
gang. He it was who planned most of
the crimes. worked out the details, got
most of the money. gave his name to the
gang and prepared the badges of their
criminal combination. How Crowhurst
came 10 escape being in the Cook holdup
that resulted in q murder no one seems
to know, unless it was that he wanted
TO work out the robbery of James Miller,
the pottery man, as MS especial DuSlllSSS
This leader Of the gang is a locksmith
and mechanic in q small way. He used
to tour the country as a repairer Of
locks. lawn mowers and bicycles. In his
grip that was supposed to contain tools
he carried a lot of skeleton keys and two
revolvers. His younger brother generally
accompanied him, and the boy to-day
told the story of several trips through
the country and robberies that were COM
crrir sc
session of Sheriff Barnet.
But the older Crowhurst had an I'M
fortunate way of boaSting about his
deeds. and this has furnished other mem
bers of the gang with information about
him that they have freely given to the
officers Percy Pembroke has told Of
two cases where Crowhurst boasted of
crimes and to-day the younger Crow
hurst substantiate Pembroke's state
ments. One was in the case of Mrs.
Nash Of Berkeley, who was robbed in
her own house. James Crowhurst showed
clippings about this case to his COM
panions and said that he did 1t.
FAILS AT IDENTIFICATION
Mrs. Nash was at the County Jail
again to-day, but she is not positive
about her Identification. The other case
was the cracking of the safe of Whitall,
Tatum e. Co., glassware manufacturers
Of z5 Stevenson street. Crowhurst
worked in the mandatory and one night
slipped back to the works, cracked the
safe, took $500, but left $4,000, which he
was afraid to touch. and afterward told
the story to his brother
Elmer Crowhurst to-day told how he
first came to work with the gang. He
said that his brother wanted some one to
go out with him on a job one night and
threatened that he would beat him to
death if he did not go. The younger
Crowllurst went and liked the life so
well that he continued to participate in