New Britain herald., 1916-02-23
SEUTH CHUMS WITH HARTFORDA GANG
Poses as Tough Character and Gets Evidence Against CoHey
LEARNS OF HOUSE WRECKING

Clever Work By State Policeman Re- oi's 1n Conviction-Gypsics Fined
 >oo For Telling Tortunes-Charity department Aids Police
 'onH Coffey, Jr., was sent to jail for tnlfty days by Judge James T. Meskill Ill ponce court this mOning when Ihonas A. Mitchell a member of the state pollce, testified that after Hen fy EmnlettS home Cn Elm street ha q been partlally wrecked by gangsters on the morning of June he came to th1s city to work on the case. He se- cured employment in local factories made friends With members of the Hartford avenue gang and finally, aft
 CT he had been accepted as one of the bunch, succeeded in getting a conres-
 sion from Coffey in which the latter
 admitted Wrecking the house. The
 confession was not given knowingly,
 however, and was told by the accused
 to his supposed friend Mitchell in a spirit of bravado
 Henry Emmett testified that short ly after 12 o'clock on the morning of June a stone was hurled through one of the front windows of his house smashing the glass and ripping a hole through the window shade. Benny katz, of S9 Hartford avenue testified that he was passing Paradise uark at the time and saw Coffey throw the stone through the window and make an attempt to throw another, but was prevented by friend. Officer Patrick Howley said he saw Coffey go down Hartford avenue after midnight on the date of the house wrecking
 State Policeman Gets Confession
 Then it was that the state delivered it's coupe d'etat. State Policeman Thomas A. Mitchell! was called to the stand He said he has worked with the state police for seven years. He said that he was assigned to the Elm melt house wrecking case during the latter part of June and by reference to his diary he said he came to this city on June 29. He secured employ ment at the Stanley Works and later went tc work at Traut x Hines. He told the court how he made the ac- of Mickey Ryan, Frank Scott and Pat Dixon and said that Dixon eventually introduced him to Cotey as a supposed friend
 On the night of July 22, state PO- liceman Mitchell said he met Cofey in Heym's saloon on Hartford avenue. He remained in the saloon with COfeE, Dixon, Scott and Ryan until after 10 o'clock During the evening he played pool and cards and had very few drinks. Asked what he termed a "very few drinks" the detective told Lawyer w. r. Mangan, counsel for Coffey, that he had but enc or two. He generally took a cigar when 1t came time to drink again, he said. Finally he managed to get Coffey to talking about the prowess of his gang and about 10 o'clock that night the ac- cused openly confessed that it was he who threw the stone through Elm mett's window. Referring to his note book, the detective said the confes- sion written down within an hour of the time he received it was as fol- lows:
 "John Coffey told me he wrecked old Emm ett's house with a stone last month. Old Emmett put the police and the state bulls on the case but l fooled them bOth.'
 Lawyer Mangan cross examined the sleuth closely. He asked him why, if he was a member of the state po- lice, he did not arrest Coffey at the time of the confession and if the house wrecking was the only thing Coffey talked about. State Police man Mitchell replied that he had no authority to arrest COffey at the time and he reported to Superintendent Egan the following day. He also de- clared that Coffey had talked freely of This gang" and of girl but Judge Meskill refused to admit the conver- sation about the girl.
 Coffey Denies Everything.
 Called to the stand in his own de- fense, Coffey calmly denied every thing that the states witnesses had ! said. "I wasn't even there," he said, 1 in refuting Katz's testimony.
 Did you ever see Mitchell before?'' he was asked.
 I never saw the man before in my l life and l never threw that stone,' 1 he asserted. He also denied know | ing who State Policeman Bridgeman 1 is, but admitted that he had heard l the state police were after him. He l also declared that he knew a warrant | was out for his arrest as, he said, Chief Rawlings had told his father and his father had told him. Later he denied the truth of this statement | and said he simply heard that the po- lice were after him and had been to his house after him but had taken his fathers word that he was not there. He said he has been living at h ome since December 1 and has passed all the policemen on the force but was not arrested. He admitted that he called up Captain Thomas Grace Saturday night and told him he would surrender if he could get a bond Later he was arrested on -In