The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-11-18
Lebenthal Appears to Be Least Guilty of the Two
 Offenders Gordon Declared to Have Been Always a Crook and the Companion of Crooks

Term In Fen1LenClary-
 Mrs. Lebenthal Guiltless,
 It Is Now Claimed
 Abraham LebenthaI has confessed. The much talked of theft of the jew els of Mrs. Charles M. Cole has been cleared up Thirteen of-the IS dia- monds stolen have been recovered Of | the thirteen that have been returned, only one was in possession of the man who was given the States prison sen tence. while the other twelve have been returned through the agency of Morris Gordon. the trolley conductor who found the jewels. and who is only , serving a sentence of six months in ! jail though the most guilty culprit-
 This morning Sheriff Sidney E. flaw | lay was informed that Lebenthal de- sired to speak to him privately, as he had something important to tell. When the sheriff came to Lebenthal the lat ter threw his arms about the sheriff's s neck and kissed him. He stated that he wanted to confess everything. The confession shows that Mrs. Le- benthal, who was found guilty with her husband by the jury, and later al- lowed to go free by the court. is ab- solved entirely from all guilt in the | Gfiair. The woman DeAcNeQ enIlTG-g | in her husbands innocence, not even | having any idea that the jewels had ever been brought to her husband by lGordon.
 The authorities are still working on | the case, and intend to clear up the mystery of the other five diamonds I within a short time. The fact that | the family of Mrs Lebenthal have la | bored long and hard to bring about | the finding of the jewels. by employ | ing detectives is a sure sign that they Il do not intend to give up now, though Il Lebenthal, whom they had believed really innocent. is also guilty with Cor don. but in a lesser degree
 | Gordon's statement to Attorney Klein places him in a bad light. es- pecsally with those who had maintain ed from the start that he was led on by his Uncle Lebenthal- It shows that before his advent into this city he was a crook among crooks. knowing some of the notorious criminals about New York It Yas his attitude dur ing the trial pro&edinss that had 6af- of this city said this morning: Tn all | my experience. which covers a period Icf 15 years in the criminal courts of thisl county, I have never seen a man who exhibited such an impressive air of truth" It was asked at the trial. | What reason has Gordon for confess ing. when he knows that he will be Isenterced?"
 
 day. Gordon realized that he was at the end of his rope, and that if he did not confess he would land eventually in jail and would today be serving the sentence which Abraham Lebenthal has been condemned to serve
 | Sheriff Hawley said this morning that he did not know when 1t would be possible for Lebenthal to be taken up to the States prison Those who have recently seen. the man say that he will never come out of that instftu- ton alive. He appears to be growing | W eaker every day. He Is now so weak that he cannot lift his hand above ms head without an effort. Sheriff Haw- ley says that when he is taken to l Wethersfield he will be placed in the hospital. where he will have much bet ter care than he could at the county jnil, where the hospital facilities are n ot such az to compare with the States priscn-
 lt "Gordon came to me soon after find ing the jewels do not know how soon. He told me about them and gave them to me. At first he wanted to advertise the find, but then again decided not to. He wanted me to ad- wise him what to do. I put the jewels under the window Tn the store do not remember. whether I looked at them or not Gordon told me about the so that was in the bag. He gave me $S which he owed to me. Then he went away from the store. I told him to still keep working with the trol- lev company as by leaving he might create suspicion. Gordon told me that the motorman on his car saw him pick up the jewels. but that he had agreed not to tell anybody about 1t. The package lay under the window for some time I told him to take the package back. Gordon then went to New York When he returned to this II city he had two clippings from news | papers showing that reward had been offered for the return of the jew els One showed that the jewels were worth $10,oOO and the other s2.000- Cor don told m that he ought to realize about q. 900 on the sale of the Jewels Some of this money he was going to give to Uncle Holzman; $500 to man in Akron Ohio. who had succeeded In getting him out of jail. while he was going to use the remainder to set him. self up in the cigar business. In the meanwhile Uncle Holzrnan kept com ing to me demanding the package: , told him I did not know anything one day. He said that he was com ing to see me in a few days.
 "One day I took the package from the window. Taking a small sized awl . took the diamonds from their set tinEs I put the diamonds in a hand kerchief. and the scraps of gold and the other jewels into another hand kerchfef A few days after. Gordon came to the store. It was in the even- ing I locked the doors so that no , one could get in. and even put paper over one of the windows so that no one could see what we were doing. I gave Gordon both handkerchiefs- Then he opened one of the packages and hand ed me a diamond stick pin. which he said he would give me for my trouble. which he also said was about the equal
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