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Show 'FRISCO FIENDS 1 CUSTODY Man and Boy, Who for Forty Days Terrorized the Coast City, Now Safely Behind Bars. AN EXTRAORDINARY SERIES OF CRIMES Younger of the Two Desperadoes Breaks Down and Confesses Three Murders, Many Brutal Holdups, and Demoralization of Police Foroe Is Their Reoord. Baa Francisco. Throe separata smrdera without a shot, a knife thrust or recourse to potion; two brutal ns- , Mults that almost resulted In death; t t a bold midday bank robbery; at least three hold-ups; the demoralization of r metropolitan pollco force and the ab- solute terrorism of a city of nearly 'l 400,000 this stands as the 40 dnya' . ' record of a man and a boy whom the local poMce describe as the most re- saarkable brace of criminals they have over placed under lock and key. The elder is a Kanaka, of a good family and educated In a select school. Blls name Is John Siemsen, and he is a handsomo fellow of muscular aspect as-pect but effeminate manner. Tho younger, Louis Dabner, Is only 18 years old. When Siemsen was (nonchalantly confessing his crimes, be was Interrupted Inter-rupted In his narrativo by tho captain of the detectives. if Didn't any of your victims roslst t. . you, Siemsen? Hadn't you any heal- ' ' Cation In committing thoso assaulter" The murderer puffed at the cigar ho , was smoking and removed It with his nanacled hands. Ho seemed annoyed at something the detective had said, ' ' and thought a moment before ho ro- I piled: ' "Captain, I wish you wouldn't use , ' that world 'assault' It has come to have an extremely vulgar significance II and I object to it. It would be better a.. - o say 'when I overpowered them.' " Dabner Breaks Down. Dabner's confession was different , He broke down a few days afte ho was captured and it he had not ' sobbed out the terrible story nolthcr, perhaps, might havo hanged, for It would have been a difficult matter to have forced an admission of any sort ....,. from Skemsen. It was tho fear of '"" God and the lovo of homo which loosened Dabner's lips. His father and elder brother came down from tho Ilttlo country town where only a few months before the boy had bern a high school pupil. Doth pleaded with him to tell the truth. His rather ' worked on all the religious Impulses of his son, and evoked the picture of his sorrowing mother. All threo wept, and finally the shaken dupo of Jtho elder criminal told the waiting detec tives everything. The first the public heard of tho "gas-pipe men," as 8lemsen and Dabner Dab-ner have been dubbed from the choice v of weapons, was one morning when i the papers reported on unusually brut- "k . Ish and mysterious murder. Johan N i Pfltzner, a shoe merchant on McAllls- Vv ter street, was found In his shop with the side of bis head battered In. Despite De-spite his awful Injuries ho lingered over a day and night, but died bofore he could give tho pollco any clew on which to work. Ho had evidently been fitting a pair of shoes to a customer when he was struck down from above "by some blunt Instrument." In his signed confession Dabner has this to say of his first murder: , "On tho day of tho Pntzner murder Jack Siemsen and I looked In tho showcase of the storo nnd went down v. the street and then came back In the store. Siemsen tried on n pair of V shoes the first time, but complained they were too dear, and wo walked (, out. We walked around tho block i and came back. We went In tho storo !$ n'1 ",en ' tr'ei1 on a Ui,'r' Whei be was trylhg on my shoes SleniBcn hit Pfltzner, who foil to the floor. I then put on my own shoes and held' the door at the same time, whlio Slomsen went through htm. Siemsen got about $100, which wo dhldcd at our house on Union street Wo threw Pfltzner's watch in the water at the foot of Fll-more Fll-more atreot. This statement Is made freely and voluntarily." Many Suspects Arrested. Dut tho police did not know all this. Thoy raked In suspect after suspect, but had to let them all go, as each was ablo to establish an alibi. Then tho fiendish crime was repeated. William Frlcde, a Market street clothing merchant, was slain under almost al-most exactly similar conditions. He hovored on tho border of life for almost al-most two weeks and was able to murmur mur-mur once: "A largo man and a small man," boforo his spirit flickered out. Slomsen related this deed as a particularly par-ticularly good piece of craftraanshlp. It socms that ho and Dabner planned tho attempt carefully, and entered tho storo when there were few people about and tho danger of Interruption appeared at a minimum. Ddbner tried on a coat and vest that ho selected, and Siemsen stood by, ostensibly to offer his approval. As tho merchant stooped to measure his supposed customer cus-tomer for the trousers Siemsen swung the gas pipe, which he carried wrapped In a pfeco of paper, and felled his victim vic-tim with a heavy blow. ' Meanwhile an cx-convlct was on trial for a crime which Siemsen and Dabner had committed tho highway robbery of Dr. T. D. Iceland, former coroner of tho city and county. This man's name was Jamos Dowdall, and tho police arrested him In a refugee camp, apparently for no othor reason than that ho had a bad record. Ho protested his Innocence, but tho detectives detec-tives dragged him through tho preliminary prelim-inary examination, whore Dr. Iceland positively Identified him as one of his assailants. Tragedy at Japanese Bank. Hut while the trial of Dowdall was In progress the two felons for whom ho Buffered, one of them an ox-convlct like himself, were busily planning their boldest out ure. This was tho robbeiy of tho Klmmon (lluko, or Jopaneso bunk. The day beforo the Jobbery Siemsen drovo up In a buggy which he had purchased pur-chased with tho proceeds of his fit her robberies. Ho entered and Interviewed tho manager, M. Munakata, doclarlng that ho Intended to become a depoal-tor. depoal-tor. At first Munakata was suspicious, but by the time Hlnmscn had left, the well dressed, smooth-spoken stranger had allayed all doubts, to say nothing of having obtulned an excellent Idea of the arrangement of tho bank, Tho following day Siemsen and Dabner, Dab-ner, each armed with u paper-covered gas pipe, waited outside until all save one of the clerks, A. Sasaki, had gone to luncheon. Then they wont In. Siemsen nodded to tho clerk at the counter and with Dabner strode back to the manager's offlco. They found Munakata writing, and before ho could greet thein Siemsen struck him a blow over the skull which killed him instantly. in-stantly. Then, according to arrangement, arrange-ment, they called Sasaki to the rear. As soon an the plucky little Japanese saw his employer !lug In a pool jf blood he started to fight, but Sternum beat him to tho floor with his gas pipe. Horribly mangled, he started to -rise when TJabner quieted him with a tull-arm tull-arm swing of his leaden weapon. The two thugs then rifled the tills and tho open safe, taking only the coin and currency. They secured about (2,7M, which they stuffed Into a leather satchel. Deforo thoy had oven washed their hands they drovo away, Siemsen to take- his future wife out for a rid and Dabner to play with tho gVrl'a Ilttlo Ilt-tlo brothers and sisters. Sasaki's Mind Left Blank. Several persons had seen the two robbers come out of the bank and the pollco wero supplied with descriptions on tho strength of which they arrested about a Bcoro of Innocent men. Sasaki Sas-aki fought a winning fight with death, but to tho detectives who sat by his bedside ho babbled only "two Americans." Ameri-cans." When he finally regained consciousness, con-sciousness, after many days, his mind was wiped baro of the whole tragedy he remembered everything up to the moment Siemsen entered the bank, but beyond that his brain could not travel. Siemsen and Dabner proceeded to spond their money, untroubled by remorse, re-morse, doubts or anticipations. They wfaro both living with tho family of a German Jowetcr, to whose daughter Siemsen was making violent and successful suc-cessful love. Hulda von Hofen, stilt a mere child, was won by expensive proscnts of gems, automobile rides and aerythlng that her lover could lnvlsh upon her. Uoth thugs were well received In tho family, whoro they appeared ap-peared only as pleasant young chaps, each with n little mora money than ho quite knew what to do with. Hulda von Hofen al last succumbed to the flattering whispers of Siemsen and thoy made a short nuptial trip to Oakland. Oak-land. About four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon Siemsen took his wife to a hairdresser's parlor to get a shampoo and totd her he would bo back In an hour. Then ho mot Dabner, who had armed himself with a fish plate from the car track which ran past the Von Hofen home. They proceeded to tho Jewelry storo of Henry A. Dedrend On Stelncr street. The Murderer's Downfall. This merchant bad under his counter coun-ter a revolver, a pollco club and a pair of hnndcuffs. When tho two men entered en-tered his suspicions were not aroused, and ho turned away from them to pull their purchase from a shelf. They stnick at htm, but the showcase was so high that tho blow was broken. Uchrend wheeled, snatched his revolver re-volver and smashed the glass case to attract attention. Then he closed In on the robbers. Siemsen seized him In a muscular grasp and held his head. D a,M1WWWWWNMAMWWVMWVWVWWVWWWWMMMVWMSWVVWWVWMVWMMWVVVWAAMMMAMMMMMMMMM'W --- , ii-ltij-ij-li I IW5QZ2T 7V 2WJZOOB' A tl WNL br3 J& Wl .aHHflHl r -- (fKrr JUMfoors comma) asm vJHh. vTn-r -ijfc m HYLr whllo Dabner rained blows upon It with tho llsh-plato. One of these blows, nervously aimed, cut open Slomsen'a finger. Hut the Jeweler fought like a wildcat, and beforo ho could bo disposed dis-posed of his little daughter, Hossle, rushed Into the store from the rear, followed by her mother. Siemsen and Dabner darted from the place. Slomseri.got away, but Dabner was knocked"down and captured by Will Drown, a fireman. A frenzied crowd surrounded captor and captive, a rope was produced, and the boy fiend would surely have been lynched but for the opportune arrival of a squad of police, who were scarcely able to fight their way to tho station with their prisoner. In the meantime Siemsen had called for his wife and taken her home, learning of Dabner's capture, with marvelous effrontery ho decided to visit police headquarters and spread the trail for his own escape. There he told a story of being held up and robbed of $900 In greenbacks. lie showed the detect! vee 7C which he had taken from the Jeweler's cash box, and declared It was all the footpads had missed. He overplayed tho part, however, giving his true address and placing tho scene of tho hold-up Hehrend's store. That night he was arrested at his home. Dabner weeps wildly and bitterly, cursing the day he ever met the cloer. cruel but at present sympatbtt In Kanaka. Siemsen continues to smoke, smile and draw little pictures. The chief of pollco has given orders tha. when either Is shaved bo shall be bound hand and foot In the chair, for fear he may gut possession of thv razor and stash a wuy to liberty. |