CRIME IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81904, 17 December 1906, Page 4

CRIME IN SAN FRANCISCO.

ARREST OF TWO MURDERERS. Sau Francisco, November 10. Investigate., f municipal "graft" in Sin Francisco is procc. ding, or promising to proceed. The grand jury i« nearly complete, and Francis •I Honey, who, as Assistant District Attorney, will prosecute the cases. maintains a determined front. Tin: State elections have clanged tinstatus of allairs very little, beyond ucuioiistrating ithat the people a:*) prepared to stand behind the invest i gators. A notable recent cent is the capture of two thugs who have commit ted several murders, and teuilietl the whole city. The men are John Sieuiscn, a Hawaiian of partly tierman parentage, anil Louis Dahner. a young man of respectable American parentage. These two have confessed to the murder of the manager of the Japanese Rank, and of two merchants who were killed for money in their own shops, and there is evidence corroborating the testimony of the criminals. The men are known as "gaspipc thugs," because of their method of murdering! their victims.. Their capture was the result of continuing their crimes too long. They went into the shop of a jeweller natnedßehrend, made a purchase, and tendered payment which required the opening of the safe for change. But when they attacked Rehrend, the victim, though terribly injured, managed to make a desperate right. The wife of Behrend, living in rooms over the shop, heard the noise, and rushed to the assistance of her husband. Other help soon arrived, and though the thugs escaped for the time, they were soon in the custody of the police. Siemsen, though showing Malay blood, is Well educated and attractive. He expresses no remorse for his crimes, and talks oi them in a matter-of-fact way. Dabner, on the contrary, is at times contrite. The latter's fauiliy, who ore honest farming people, are heart broken overj the of their son and brother.