Henderson gold leaf., 1911-12-21
A BAND OF BURGLARS
ROUNDED Up BY POLICE.
The City Police Department
Makes a Big Haul.
A DOZEN VICIOUS NEGROES
SENT UP TO CHAINGANG.

For Several MonthS Fast They
Had Been Plying Their Ne
farious Trade in This City
Many Homes and Several
Business Houses Have Been
Entered and Robbed.
One Of the prettiest and most
commendable pieces of work that
has been accredited to the Hen
derson police department in a
long time was the rounding up
during the latter part of last
week Of an organized band Of
burglars and thieves that have
infested this city for several
months past, and as a direct re-
suit Of this good work about a
dozen worthless and vicious ne
groes are now serving terms of
from five to eighteen months on
the chaingang. Nothing has
happened in Henderson lately
that has caused more general
satisfaction and universal ap-
prOVal.
Two or three of these negroes
were captured and sent up sew
eraI days ago, but the real den
Of thieves was not discovered and
broken up until last Friday and
Saturday, when seven or eight
more were apprehended by the
police, tried in the Recorders
Court, convicted and sentenced
to the roads as follows: Joe
Reavis, fifteen months; John H.
Perry, five months; Will Satter-
white, twelve months; Silvestus
Roberts, twelve months; Will
Johnson, six months; Tom John
son, sixteen months, and John
Harris, eighteen months. The
evidence against them was con-
elusive, practically all of them
being found with the goods on
thep /" and they took their med
icine without offering to appeal
to the higher court.
A very simple thing led to the
detection and rounding up of
this notorious gang. Policeman
Champion, who has for some
time been keeping a close watch
out for some clue to the many
burglaries and robberies that
have been taking place here,
happened to notice a suspicious
negro with a new watch and at
once took him into custody. He
said he got the watch from an
other negro, and the other negro
was promptly arrested. The
blame was passed on to a third
negro and he was arrested. In
this way John Harris, one of the
gang, was finally apprehended.
The evidence against him was all
sufficient and he was sentenced
To the chaingang for a term of
eighteen months.
Policeman Champion was sat-
iShed that Harris could tell a
great deal if he only would, and
SO kept urging him to make a
clean breast of the whole affair.
At first Harris showed little in
chnation to give away his pals.
But when the officers started
with him to the chaingang where
ne was to serve an eighteen
months sentence. he handed Mr..
Champion list of the names of
the whole gang and told him of
different places where he would
md stolen goods that had been
taken from the Watkins Hard
ware COmpany's store about
three weeks ago and from anoth-
er store more recently. Warrants
ior all the negroes named by
Harris. and also search warrants
tor their quarters, were at once
secured. The arrest of the ne
groes and the search of their
premises followed Immediately.
besides finding a considerable
punch of the stolen goods at the
home of James SWEET, who had
Received and stored them know
ing them to be stolen, practical
y every one of the negroes was
found to have a nice pistol and
other articles on his person, the
same having recently been stolen
Eom the Watkins Hardware
lompony's store or some other
Store IN town. The negroes and
,-e stolen articles were at once
@gEought into the Recorder s
CoIrt. and Recorder Powell made
snort work of the whole busi-
ness, passing sentences on them