The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1906-11-24
Relates Manner of Accom-
plishing Austgen Safe
Blowing Job.
BILLS ARE RECOVERED
Found In Possession of Mayor Beck.
er's Son Who Picked Them
Up from Gutter.

Captain Pete Austgen and ]. ]. Aust
gen, whose safe was blown open by
Hanson and Van Tassel, went to Chi
cago this morning to interview Han
son and see if they could not learn the
whereabouts of the bills that were ia
ken from the safe. They learned that
the papers had been thrown into the
gutter by the fleeing robbers and upon
their return to Hammond found that
a wallet had been picked up by Mayor
Beckers' little boy. who has been play
ing with it ever since, little realizing
that 1t was part of the cast away loot
of a murderer.
Captain Austgen had an interesting
conversation with Hanson in which he
cleared up several perplexing things
about the recent Swallowing.
1t was also the purpose of the cap
tain to recover what was left of the
$1S4, which was taken from the
wrecked safe. J. J. Austgen reports
that there was a total of $184 ia en-
and of this amount he recovered $149,
which will mean a loss to him of only
$50 and the safe.
Hanson when seen by the captain at
the hospital in conection with the Cook
County jail, was rapidly recovering
from his bullet wounds and told in de-
tail of the robbery and the manner of
leaving town.
He said that he and Van Tassel
gained entrance to the Austgen store
through the transom of the front door.
1t did not take more than ten minutes
to gain an entrance and operations
were begun shortly after nine o'clock,
One of the men watched the passers
by while the other drilled the hole in
the safe. Then they put in the explo-
sive and went to the rear of the store
to wait until the explosion should take
place.
They had already prepared the means
of exit and so when the explosion tore
off the door of the safe it was simply a
question OF grabbing the contents and
getting out.
This they did by means of the side
door. They ran down the alley to Rim
bach avenue and here they threw the
wallet that they saw contained nothing
of value to them and walked over to
right down through town.
There did not happen to be a street
car and so rather than run the risk OF
being suspected they started north on
Holman street with the intention OF
following the car tracks until a car
should come along. They walked all
the way to the Chicago Junction tracks
before the car came and then got on
Sieverts car. The rest of the story
in all of its horrible details has already
been correctly told.
AS soon as Captain Austgen found
where the papers had been thrown he
returned to Hammond and began 8
search for them. He inquired OF every
one in the neighborhood if they had
seen a wallet and finally Mrs. Becker
remembered that she had seen her little
boy with some bills and a wallet in his
| possession.
The boy and the papers were soor
found and they proved to be ones that
| the robber had thrown away several
days previous. Mr.. Austgen was GLAD
to recover these papers not much be
cause OF their value as for the reason
that the papers were private and he
was glad of their return.
Hanson swears that Van Tassel wa:
the only man with him and admits thai
he (Hanson) fired the shots that caused
the death of the policeman.