The Pickings of the Medical Purveyor's Department and clothing Bureau.
--We mentioned yesterday the arrest of
T. H. Bowman, an employee in the
Medical Purveyor's Department, and of
W. T. Spillers and
Alfred Moss, employees in the
Clothing Bureau, on the charge of stealing government goods from their respective departments.
The parties were brought before the
Mayor yesterday morning.
The facts stated were correct in the main, except as to the cause which brought about the discovery of the thieves and the recovery of a quantity of the stolen goods.
This discovery and recovery we attributed to the ingenuity of the detectives, but in point of fact they were entirely due to the conduct of
Mr. R. W. Powers, druggist, as will appear from a sketch of the case as it appeared from the testimony before the
Mayor.
Last Wednesday,
Moss offered for sale to
Mr. Powers eight ounces of morphine in ounce bottles, and seven ounces of quinine in bulk, demanding for the morphine $100 an ounce, for the quinine $50 an ounce.
He said he had bought the drugs at
Wilmington and had them about a month.
Mr. Powers suspecting from the peculiar manner in which the morphine was put up, that the articles had been stolen from the
Medical Purveyor's Department, told
Moss he would buy them and pay him for them at 5 o'clock that evening.
Moss readily acceded to this arrangement and left the store.
Mr. Powers took one of the bottles of morphine to the
Medical Purveyor's office, and there learned from
Mr. T. H. Drew, jr., that it had been stolen from that department.
It was then arranged that
Mr. Drew should come to
Mr. Powers's at 5 o'clock, and see who called to receive the money for the medicine.
Mr. Drew being in attendance when
Moss called at
Mr. Powers's store, and telling
Mr. Powers that he did not know him,
Mr. Powers paid
Moss for the drugs.
Thursday
Mr. Drew saw
Moss on the street, and had him arrested by the detectives, who, on taking him into custody, learned that he and
Spillers roomed together at the boarding-house of
G. W. Bowman, father of
S. H. Bowman, on Franklin street, below 15th street. On searching this room they found a large quantity of government cloth and thread, and some other drugs, pilfered from the
Medical Purveyor's.
Bowman and
Spillers were then arrested.
All the parties being kept separate, each made a confession.
Bowman said he had stolen the drugs from the
Purveyor's department, and given them to
Moss to sell on their joint account, and that
Moss having sold them cheated him in the settlement.
Moss said he sold the drugs stolen by
Bowman, but that he himself stole a large lot of sewing-thread, which had been found in his room.
Spillers said he stole by himself, and on his own account, all the cloth found in his room.
All three united in saying that they were not the only employees of these departments that stole, but that it was a usual practice among the employees.
The
Mayor having heard the above facts, committed the accused to jail, to be tried for grand larceny before the Hustings Court.
Spillers and
Moss are tailors, detailed from the army to work in the clothing bureau.
Bowman is a youth of seventeen or eighteen, whose father lives in this city, but who came originally from somewhere in the
Valley.
