No Clue to Bandits, But Suspects Spotted
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The Camden police have not the slightest clue as to the identity of the five men who early Saturday morning created a furor on the outskirts of the city by holding up a bridge tender, blowing up a safe and doing other acts that marked them as being desperadoes. The entire police force was at work yesterday, but the description given by Till and the officers who had the encounter with the emulators of the wild and woolly West was so meagre that there was practically nothing to work on.
Chief of Police John Foster said last night to an Inquirer reporter: “We have not learned anything that might lead to the arrest of the desperadoes. In the event of suspects being arrested it would be a difficult matter to connect them with the case, because no one seems to be in position to give a description. I am of the opinion that they are professionals from the manner in which they did their work.
Acquainted With Locality
“Another thing seems evident, and that is the robbers were acquainted with the locality in which they operated. They either were personally acquainted with East Camden or made it a point to get acquainted.
“This William Thallman, who is wanted in Burlington county, where the police believe him to be the head of a gang of thieves, may possibly know something about the Pavonia affair. From what I have learned he appears to be a desperate character, just one who would have the nerve to lead a gang of men to do the work of Saturday morning. Of course this is mere supposition, and it is impossible to say he is one of the men we are looking for. Another thing that might possibly connect him with the case would be his knowledge of East Camden, which is an important factor.”
Early yesterday morning a dispatch was received from Elizabeth in which it was stated that three suspicious characters had been arrested. According to the dispatch the trio were found in a box car that came from Camden. City Detectives John Painter and William Hart were at once sent to Elizabeth to take a look at the suspects. When they arrived they found the prisoners were boys and a brief line of questioning soon disposed of the theory that they had anything to do with the Camden affair. The detectives, who returned last night, said the boys were Philadelphians and had jumped a freight for a ride.
Special Officer Hare, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, noticed a group of men loitering about the Pavonia Station. Their actions were suspicious, and he took one into custody. The police were of the opinion that the prisoner might know something about the bandits, but he convinced them that he was in total ignorance of the thieves. He gave the name of D. Donovan, no home. He is still held by the police, but with no expectation of throwing any light on the identity of the men wanted so badly.
Perhaps no one had a better opportunity of giving a description of the men than Oscar Till, the bridgetender at the State street bridge, who, at the points of pistols held by two men, tied a mask over the face of a third. But even he cannot recall his midnight visitors sufficiently to furnish the police with anything to work on.
“I was too badly scared to know what they looked like,” he said. “When a couple of men are pressing cold steel to your temples, with a command to do a certain thing or die, you generally do the thing asked. I had no time to think about descriptions or anything else. The business I had to attend to was to tie the mask on the bandit, and I attended strictly to that business.”
Ralph Haines, the night operator at the tower, who was shot at repeatedly as he poked his head out of the window inquiring as to the cause of the explosion at the Pavonia station, was commended yesterday for his cool-headedness. After dodging bullets repeatedly, one of which came within an inch of his head, he dropped to the floor, crawled over to the “ticker” and asked the main office for help. Haines could see the men in silhouette but was too distant to recognize any characteristics that might lead to identifying them.
Last night numerous reports were received at Camden police headquarters of suspicious characters being seen in various parts of the city. A trolley car conductor reported at 10 o’clock that several men with dark lanterns were observed loitering about Haddon and Kaighn avenues. Sergeant Hyde, with a squad of officers, was sent to the locality, but the men had disappeared. Another report came from Fairview street near the ship yard at the lower end of the Eighth ward that suspicious-looking persons were hanging about the neighborhood, but no one could be found there when the officers arrived.