by Laurel | December 30th, 2013
30 Dec 1936
Thompsonville (CT) Man Accused of Theft, Three Rivers and Springfield Men Held As Accessories
Holyoke, Dec 23 — Robert O’Brien, 46, of Thompsonville, Connecticut, was brought to police headquarters about 11:45 tonight by Sergts. John J. O’Donnell, Timothy J. Murphy and Joseph J. Kane and locked up, charged with breaking and entering the home of Holbrook Pescott, at Smiths Ferry and the theft of muskrat furs, valued at between $800 and $1000. Ball was held at $1000 and he and Amos Belanger of Main Street, Three Rivers and Frank Roberge, 777 Boston Road, Springfield, will be arraigned in district court tomorrow morning. The two latter will be charged with being accessories before and after the fact, respectively.
Belanger furnished cash bail of $1000 with the assistance of his brother a short time before O’Brien was brought in. He had $200 on his person and a brother got the rest for him.
It was learned tonight that the detective bureau got its first tip from an inquiry made by Belanger of a friend of Mr. Prescott in Springfield. He asked this friend if the firs were still there as he wished to see them again. The friend told him that Mr. Prescott was in new Hampshire and it would be no use to go up there.
Belanger, a dealer in furs, police say, took the skins to Roberge to dispose of. Some 150 of the skins were recovered at Stafford Springs, CT, and 50 at Boston; 200 more are being held by the Consolidated Rendering Company of Boston as a stop sale order issued by Peter E. Manning of the detective bureau and are expected to be recovered within 48 hours, probably by direct dispatch to Holyoke.
It is believed that the theft took place at the Prescott home about 9 Sunday night as the police have been informed that the reached Roberge about 10 Sunday night. He proceeded to arrange for their disposal investigators say. A number were sold to the Worcester Rendering Company, a branch of the Consolidated Rendering Company of Boston. Each of the two men was held under $1000 bond, the papers being made out by Atty. Neil Moriarty in the absence of Court Clerk Eugene A. Lynch.
Assistant Marshal Edward F. Gilday declared that the detective sis a fine bit of work. It seems that the men who located the trio arrested had been at work since noon and traveled over 150 miles in their search. About half of the skins were brought back with them and packed up at police headquarters.
From The Springfield Republican.
