For some months past our citizens have been aggravatingly afflicted with the depredations of petty thieves, who have been visiting smoke-houses, hen roosts, barns, cellars, etc., and carrying off all transportable articles. The police have been diligently at work endeavoring to ferret out the perpetrators of these bold acts of larceny, and have at last arrived at the root of the evil. There has been a motley gang of hard citizens, living in a house on East Washington-st., near the I.C. Depot, run by an old lady named Ennis, and were without any visible means of support, and suspicions naturally pointed to them.
This morning a search warrant was sworn out, at the insistance of a lady who had a clothesline relieved, and suspected thoise parties. The search was conducted by officers Pres. Butler and John Kopp, and was highly interesting and satisfactory. They succeeded in fishing up about a wagon load of assorted plunder, secreted in the house and out-buildings, and a portion of it being buried.
The lot included the results of the clothesline expedition, the hams and shoulder meat stolen from E.C. Hyde's, fine saddle, a box of good harness, several lap robes and blankets, a large quantity of garden seeds in large packages, and other articles too numerous to mention. The stuff was brought down to City Hall, where it awaits identification. The police are searching the barn this afternoon. The crowd captured were Mrs. Ennis and her two daughters, young Douglas Ennis and Geo. Gay, Mary Ann Slavens; two negroes named Riley Scott and Albert McGoodin; and John Weedman. The gang seems to have been co-habitating together without discrimination between sexes and relationships. They are now safely locked in the City Hall, to await their hearing which occurs on Monday morning. They have long borne hard reputations and the police have searched their premises, but were never able before to obtain convicting evidence. Our citizens can breath easier now that these pests have been securely caged.
Bloomington (Illinois) Daily Leader, March 1, 1879.