The Ocala evening star., 1911-04-05
CATCHING THE CRIMINALS

CATCHING THE CRIMINALS
III. III. Horace, the man wanted in |
with the mail pouch rob- |
berry at Lutz Junction, March 23. was |
captured here last night by Deputy |
Sheriff Clyde Moxley and committed |
to the county Jail, from which he will |
be taken to Tampa for trial He said |
his son. Cicero Horace, found the |
money near Brooksville, and gave him
$500 of II. He had only a few dollars
on him when arrested
Mail Clerk J. J. Abbott was taken |
to Tampa late yesterday afternoon in
an automobile from Brooksville, where
he was arrested yesterday morning,
accompanied by Deputy Bell and sew
eral office inspectors. Abbott was
placed in the county jail. having ever
since his arrest denied emphatically
that he got the money or knew what
became of ft.
According to the story the elder
Horace Is said to have told in Ocala
after his arrest, his son Cicero Horace
saw Mail Clerk Abbott hiding the
money in the hollow tree and then
went and got IT. II Horace made the
statements credited to him he and his
son may be held as accomplices, but if
he is shown to have been ignorant of
the fact that the money was stolen
property he probably will be released
after he has restored all of it in his
possession. However, as the robbery
was so widely known and discussed it
Is hardly possible that the man when
he found $4,000 in the woods could
have been too simple to suspect where
IL came from.
Evidence Against Abbott
There is no direct testimony against
Mail Clerk Abbott but the circum-
stances of the case are said to be
strong enough to convict, and so
strong that no very serious attempts
to get him to confess are now being
made. The place where the money
was found in the woods is about half
way between the Brooksville postoffice
and Abbott's home and on a direct
line between the two places That is
one of the circumstances.
The hole cut in the mail sack when
IL was robbed is declared to have been
so small that no one could have taken
out q package the size Of the one con-
tanning the money, and the probabili-
ties are that no one would have at
tempted robbing the pouch without
some knowledge that it contained the
money, which. so far as known, no one
but the parties sending and receiving
and Mr. Abbott himself had. The mail
clerk makes up the pouch for west
coast points the train between
Tampa and Lutz Junction and is be-
lieved to have retained the package,
later cutting the hole in the mail sack
as "blind"
The Tampa Times says that the boy,
Cicero Horace, was arrested in
Brooksville Monday night by Sheriff
Law and Detective Bell, and question
ed as to where he obtained the money
he had been spending so lavishly. AT
midnight without having gained any
information as to where young Cicero
had garnered in so much wealth in the
fifteen years of his natural life, his
inquisitors turned the boy over to the
jailer and sought out the mother of the
youth, who lives just on the edge of
the city. One o'clock came and no in
formation from the mother, further
than that there was a $50 bill in the
house and that she knew of no other
money and had no information as to
where this came from.
Returning to the Jail Detective Bell
and the sheriff of fernando county
informed the boy that If he did not re-
veal the hiding place of the money
they would see that his mother was
sent to jail. This statement from the
officers touched the spot. The youth
gave in. "I have hidden the money in
the back yard said he, land If you
will let me go there / will find it for
you"
ma N
the boy. with the use of a spade. un-
earthed the part Of the treasure which
he stated was all he had. In total
with the $50 that had been found in
the house the entire amount found in
the boys possession was 1920, in de-
nominations of three 500 bills, many
twenties and tens. Cicero then related
the story of his finding the money in
the hollow Of tree hard by the city
OF Brooksville. According to the
youths account of his find he was
hunting and his dog traced a rabbit to
his den in a hollow oak. On approach
ing the tree he found sack hidden in
the hollow and as he was about to re-
move the sack, there stood behind him
a negro whose name and person he
knew to be that OF the cook on a ser
vice train of the Tampa Northern
RAILWAY, WHICH train ndQ llS mead
quarters then in the city of Brooks
willie. The negro demanded to know
what was in the sack and after the
boy had opened 1t demanded half of it's
contents. Cicero relates that he agreed
to divide with the negro and that each
under oath would not tell where they
got the money.
Later in the day Mrs. Horace told
her story IT was that her husband
who Is a painter and doesn't work
save when there is real necessity for
so doing. found the money, and that
he had gone off to Ocala to spend part
of It. So Cicero was released.
The authorities are looking for An
derson. the negro cook, who is said te
have gone to Georgia to astonish the
coons there with the size of the vel
lowback bills he has in his jeans.
Rev. A. T. Robertson of Louisville