The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-01

l missal of the men on aceount of his dis approval of the manner in which the men handled the case which resulted in the capture of w. J. Phillips and Bob AL exander, after pistol battle with the detectives in West End
 | Commissioner Barber rendered a written | statement to newspaper men, explaining | his action in the case. It follows: BARRIERS STATEMENT With reference to the discharge of the I four detectives from the police force to- l day, I will state that this has been rec- | commended by me only afer the most ma ture deliberation. I had hoped to take the police force as found it, and use it with | out the dismissal of a single man, but after a very extended investigation into | the recent West End robbery of McKel- | vey's store and after receiving full con- fessions from the two men under arrest for this robbery, which confessions are substantiated almost in every particular by the detectives themselves, as we'll as by some Of the most respectable citizens in West End who were eyewitnesses of the whole affair, find it a matter of im-
 
 ment of public justice as it should be conducted with these men on the force. have. therefore, requested their dis charge on these grounds, as well as on the grounds of insubordnation on the part of two of them. The charge of in- subordination, however, is very insig- nificant one in this instance, in compari- son with all of the facts in the case, many 1 or which l cannot at this time offer to 1 the public, as their publication would thwart me in my plans In connection with this whole matter.
 ] "ARLIE BARBER, Commissioner" Detectiye Crenshaw told the police ] reporter of The Age Herald. who was , on the scene of the battle few min utes after 1t happened. that there was a third man in the plot but that he had gotten away.
 LOST ONE FOR TWO The third man was the lookout said CrenshaW, and we have an idea who he Is, and are going to make an ef- fort to capture him tomorrow so don't mention him in the story" The third man was not mentioned and despite the efforts of the detectives they have not been able to locate this man. Cren- SHAW SAPldlueu WHY the third | got away: This third man was what l Is called lookout man and is always stationed on the outside to warn the ones Who are working in the event anything happens He stood on the southwest corner of Charles street un- der shed and continually looked up and down the street When the two men who were working in the store became frightened and started out of the store this third man cut across the street and went north Williams and myself were in the front of MT. Plosser's house, directly across the street from the store, and we knew if We came out and attempted to stop the third man we would undoubtedly I loose the other two, who were the ex- perts of the trio and the actual yegg- | men. There was absolutely no under standing between this third man and any of the detectives. had never talked to him nor seen him until that night when he was the lookout If MT. Barber is under the impression that the third man led the other two men into this plot to rob and crack the safe of MT. McKelvey, he is wrong. The third man, who is believed by some to be the stool pigeon, did not open the store. The other two men, Phillips and Alexander, did it. The third man did not enter the store, nor did he have anything to do with the soaping and preparing of the safe to crack it.
 "Detective Eubank and myself did have information that the store of w. J. McKelvey was going to be robbed and the safe cracked. We got this in- formation from person whose name we would not mention for all the de- tective jobs and Commissioners Barber in the United States. We pledged our word of honor to this person when we got the information and I had rather Qn fn ftn ooI fbnr x1 hA<,, word of honor and I know Gene Eu- banks feels that way too. As for De- tectives Williams and Smith, I can say that they have never known who our informer was. nor did they know anything about the job to be pulled off at West End until we told them that night that we wanted them to go with us and explained what was going to happen. These men went willingly and risked their lives with us to eff feet the capture of two criminals who are menace to any community and who have said it was their first job.' As for that. I do not know. I know they did do the job they were arrested for. I also know that they fired re- peatedly at the officers tyring to ap- prehend them, and I also know that the battle was on the street in the open, with every man taking a chance with his life.
 CUT OFF TOO SHORT
 When Commissioner Barber called me into his office and began to ques- tion me in regard to the capture of these men, I commenced telling him all the details with tie exception of who our informer was. He cut we short and said: Who told you about this job I answered that I could not reveal the name of the person who told us of the robbery. If you don't tell me I will suspend you right now Barber replied. I repeated that would not tell and could not tell. I attempted to explain why 1t would be impossible for me to go back on my word. He cut me short and announced that I was suspended. Eubanks went through the same process and received the same dose.
 "Eubanks nor myself have had noth- ing to say to MT. Barber since. Prob ably he saw fit to believe all he heard