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mmwm > a * yt * /;^ >'4 ' l>* ^ ..V -" 1B1 MoHKHRY PLAIHDKALHt, THURSDAY, JAHTJAEY », 1928 & 9 -Ew/;iF*m5 t - J*'*Xl J.A1.V, <v- •>'"• <• • H ^iyip«iufi mm. y*V; • ' *.^i*. Nl» A: s;C isr. •.»&. FAMOUS DETECTIVE CASES e¥K; iSr •h4 v •. t-. , -*• - » %,' SRf 4? • By Cleveland Moffett Mystefleiis Murder and Robbety of qn Express Messenger and the Final Solution of a Most Difficult Crime Problem • '.•41 :«• (Copyright by W. O. Chtpmu > HI" through express on the TKoi k Island road left Chicago at 10:40 p. ^m.^on March 12, 1886, witVtWen- _ i y -1 wo thousand dollars in fifty and one-hundred-dolwy|£ lar bills in the keeping of Kollogg Nichols, ap oldlime messenger of theUnlt- W8 cd States Express com- ||/ pnny. This sum had been mmSSSmM sent by a Chicago bank to be delivered at the principal bank In Davenport, Iowa. In addition to the usual passenger coaches, the train drew two express cars: the first, for express only, just behind the engine, and, following this, one for express and baggage. These cars had end doors, which offer the boat opportunity to train robbers, Messenger Nichols was In the first car, and was duly at his work when the train stopped at Joliet, about forty miles southwest of Chicago. But at the next stop, which was made at Morris, Harry Schwartz, a brakeman, came running from Nichols' car, crying, "The messenger is dead." The messenger's lifeless body was found lying on the floor of the car. The head had been crushed by some heavy weapon, and there was a pistol wound in the right shoulder. Apparently he had been overcome only after a hard fight. His face was set with fierce determination. His fists were, clenched, and the hands and fingers cat and scratched in a curious way, while under the nails were found what proved to be bits of human flesh. The pistol wound was from a weapon of 32 caliber; but it was not the cause of the man's death. This, unmistakably, was the blow or bloWs, on the head, probably after the shot was fired. All who knew Messenger Nichols were surprised at the desperate resistance he seemed to have made, for he was • small, liglit man. The express car was immediately detached from the train, and left sA Morris, guarded by all the train crew except Schwartz, who was sent on with the train to Davenport. After the first cursory Inspection no one was allowed to enter the car where Nichols lay; and nothing was known precisely as to the extent of the robbery. The aafe door had been found open and the floor of the car littered with the contents of the safe. An urgent telegram was at once sent to Chicago, and a force of detectives arrived at Morris on a sfcvial train n few hours later. Cearcta parties were at once sept -rat in all directions along the c^atry roads and up and down tfcs' tracks. Hundreds of people Joined in the search, for the news of ftbe murder spread rapidly through the whole region, and not a square yard et territory for miles between Morrts *nd Mlnooka station was left unexplored. It happened that the ground was covered with snow, but the keenest scrutiny failed to reveal any slffootpr returrnn€e8c ai fter many hours, having made only a single discovery. This was a mask found in a cattle.guard near Minooka--e mhsk mad£ ef btatk cloth. With white strings fastened at either •Ide, oae of which had been torn out Of the cloth as if in a straggle. Meantime Mr. Pinkerton himself entared the car and made ft careful in- •eatigatton. Coming to the aafe, Mr. Pinkerton found that the twenty-two thousand dollars were missing, and that other papers had been hastily searched over, tat left behind as valueless. Among these was a bundle of cancried drafts that had been roughly tern •pen and then thrown aside. All the train bands were immedltely questioned, hut none of their stories was in any way significant, except that .of Newton Watt, the man in charge of the second car. He said that while {busy counting over his waj#bllls and receipts he had been startled by the crash of broken glass in the ventilator overhead, and that at the same moment a heavily built man, wearing a black mask, had entered the car and •aid, "If you move, the man up there iprlll bore you." Looking up, Watt said tfarther, he saw a hand thrust through the broken glass and holding a revolver. Thds Intimidated, be made no attempt to give an alarm, and the i masked man presently left him under guard of the pistol overhead, which .covered him until shortly Nbefore the train reached Morris, when It was withdrawn. He was able to locate the place where the crime must have been committed, as he remembered that the , engine was whistling for Mlnooka when the stranger entered the car. (This left about thirty minutes for the Aurder, robbery, and escape. Returning to Chicago, Mr. Pinkerton Investigated the character of tltft man Watt, and found that he had a clean record, was regarded as a trusty and efficient men, and had three brothers "who had been railroad men for years and had always given perfect satisfaction. Watt's good reputation and straightforward manner were strong ^points In his favor, and yet there was ,aomething questionable In his story of ithe mysterious hand. For one thing, •Bo footprints were found in the snow the top of the car. ^ Brakeman Schwartx, the only man on the train who had not yet been questioned, "deadhended" his way. In railway parlance, back from Davenport the following night on Conductor Dnnforth's train.,,and reported to Mr. I'inkefton the next morning. He was a tall, fine-looking young fellow, about twenty-seven, with thin lips and a face that showed determination. He was rather dapper In dress, and kept on his gloves during the conversation. Mr. Pinkerton received him pleasantly, and, after they had been smoking and chatting for an hour or so, he suggested to Schwartz that he would be more comfortable with his gloves off. Schwartx accordingly removed them, and revealed red marks on the backs of his hands, such as might have been made by fingernails digging Into them. "How did you hurt yout hands, Schwartz?" asked Mr. Pinkerton. uOh, I did that handling baggage night before last," explained Schwartz; and then he related incidentally that as he was on his way back to Chicago, the conductor of the train. Conductor Danforth, had discovered a valise left by somebody in one of the toilet rooms. Later in the day Mr. Pinkerton summoned the conductor, who said that the valise was an old one, of no value; and, having no contents, he had thrown it out on an ash pile. The only thing he had found in the valise was a piece of paper that attracted his attention because it was marked with red lines. Examining this piece of paper carefully, Mr. Pinkerton saw that It had been torn from a money draft, and at once thought of the package In the express messenger's safe. * Mr. Pinkerton at once ordered* a search made for the missing valise, and also an inquiry regarding the passengers who had ridden on Conductor Dnnforth's train between Davenport and Chicago on the night following the murder. The valise Was found on the ash heap where^the conductor had thrown it, and in the course of the next few days the detectives had located or accounted for all passengers on Conductor Danforth's train, with the exception of one man who had ridden on a free pass. The conductor could only recall this man's features vaguely; and, while some of the pr sengers remembered him wVenough, there was no clu» his name or identity. *s it appeared that no other of the passengers could have been connected with the crime, efforts were redoubled to discover the bolder of this pass. So great was the public Interest in the crime and the mystenp surrounding it that three separate, well-organized Investigations of It were undertaken. The Ro<fc Island railroad officials, with their detectives, conducted one; a Chicago newspaper, with its detectives, another; and the Plnkertons, in the Interest of the United States Express company, a third. Mr. Pinkerton, as we have seen, concluded that the crime had been committed by railway men. The railway officials were naturally disinclined to believe 111 of their employees, and an incident occurred about this time which turned the Investigation In an entirely new direction and made them the more disposed to discredit i Mr. Plnkerton's theory. This waS tie receipt of a letter from a convict in the Michigan City penitentiary, named Plunkett, who wrote the Rock Island railroad officials, saying that be could furnish them with Important information. Mr. St. John, the general manager of the road, went In person to the penitentiary to take Plunkett's statement, which was in effect that he knew the men who had committed the robbery and killed Nichols, and was willing to sell this information in exchange for a full pardon, which the railroad people could secure by using their Influence. This they promised to do If his story proved true, and Plunkett then told them of a plot that had been worked out a year or so before, when he had been grafting with a mob of pickpockets at county fairs. There were with him at that time "Butch" McCoy, James Connors (known as "Yellowhammer"), and a man named "Jeff," whose surname he did not know. These three men, Plunkett said, had planned an express robbery on the Itock Island road, to be executed in precisely the same way, and at precisely the same point on the road, as In the case in question. The story was plausible, and won Mr. St. John's belief. It won the belief, also, of the Chicago newspaper; and forthwith the railway detectives, working with tAe newspaper detectives, were Instructed to go ahead on new lines, regardless of trouble or expense. Their first endeavor was to capture "Butch" McCoy, the leader of the gang. "Butch" was a pickpocket, burglar, and all-around thief, whose operations kept him traveling all over the United States. The police In various dties having been communicated wfth to no purpose, the editor finally decided to do a thing the like of which no newspaper proprietor, perhaps, ever undertook before-- that Is, start on a personal search for McCoy and his associates. With Frank Murray, one of the best detectives In Chicago, and other detectives, he went to Oaiesburg, where the gang was said to have a sort of headquarters. The party found there none of the men they were after, but they learned that "Thatch" Grady, a notorious criminal with whom'"Butch" McCoy was known to be in relations, was In Omaha. So they hurried to Omaha, but only to find that Grady had gone to St. Louis. Then to St. Louis went the editor and his detectives, hot on the scent, and spent several da^s in that city searching higii and low., The method of locating a criminal in a great city is as Interesting as It Is little understood. The first step Is to secure from the local police Information as to the favorite haunts. of criminals of the class under pursuit, paying special regard in the preliminary inquiries to the possibility of love affairs; for thieves, even more than honest men, are swayed in their lives by the tender passion, and are often brought to justice through the agency of women. With so much of such information in their possession as they could gather, the editor and his detectives spent their time In likely resorts, picking up acquaintances with frequenters, and, whenever possible, turning the talk adroitly upon the man they were looking for. It is a mistake to suppose that in work like this detectives disguise themselves. False beards and mustaches. goggles and lightning changes of clothing, are never heard of except In the pages of badly Informed story writers. In hid experience of over twenty-five years Mr. Murray never wore such a disguise, nor knew of any reputable detective who did. In this expedition the detectives simply assumed the characters and general style of the persons they were thrown with, passing for men of sporting tastes from the East ; and, having satisfied the people they met that they meant no harm, they had no difficulty In obtaining such news of McCoy and the others as there was. Unfortunately this was not much. After going from one city to another on various clues, hearing of one member of the gang here and another there, and In each Instance losing their man, the detectives finally brought up In New Orleans. They had spent five or six weeks of time and a large amount of money, only to find themselves absolutely without a clue as to the whereabouts of the men they were pursuing. They were much discouraged when a telegram from Mr. Pinkerton told them th'at "Butch" McCoy was back In Galesburg, where they had first sought him. Proceeding thither with all dispatch, they traced McCoy into a saloon, and ther* taree of them--John "representing the Rock Istand railroad; John McGinn. ',x the Pinkerton agency, and auk Murray, working for the newspaper-- with drawn revolvers captured him, In spite of a desperate dash he made to escape. McCoy's capture was the occasion of much felicitation among the people interested In the matter. Mr. St. John and the editor were confident that now the whole mystery of the express robbery would be solved and the murdterer convicted. But McCoy showed on trial that he had left New Orleans to come North only the night before the murder and bad spent the whole of that night on the Illinois Cemtral railroad. It alee appeared that McCoy's associate, Connors, was in Jail at the time of the robbery, and that the man "Jeff" was dead. Thus the whole Plankett story was exploded. Some time before this the man who had ridden on the free pass, and given the detectives so much trouble, had been accidentally found by Jack Mul- 11ns, a brakeman on Conductor Danforth's train. Be proved to be an advertising solicitor, employed by no other than that self-same newspaper, which would have given a thousand dollars to knew what Its agent knew; for the advertising man had seen the conductor bring oat the valise containing the all-Important fragment of the draft. But he bad not realized the value of the news In his posseseAgp, and Mr. Ptnkerton took good care to keep him from that knowledge. Not until he had seen the man safely on a train out from Chicago did Mr. Pinkerton breathe easily; and It was not until months later that the editor learned how near he came to getting a splendid "scoop" en the whole city and country. The Identification.of the pass-holder removed the last possibility that the valise had been taken Into the train by any of Conductor Danforth's passengers.*" And yet the valise was there! How came it there? In the course of their examination two of the passengers had testified to having seen Schwartz enter the toilet room during the run. Brakeman Jack Mulllns stated that he had been in the same room twice that night, that the second time he had noticed the valise, but that It was not there when he want in first. Other witnesses In the car were positive that the person whe entered the room last before the time when Mulllns saw the valise was Schwartz. Thus the chnln of proof was tightening, and Mr. Pinkerton sent for Schwartz. After talking with the brakeman In a semi-confidential way for some time, the detective began to question him about Watt, his fellow trainman. Schwartz said he was a good fellow, and. In general, spoke highly of him. Mr. Pinkerton seemed to hesitate a little, and then said: "Can I trust you, Schwartz?" "Yes, sir." "Well, the fact la. I tm a little auspicious of Watt Tou see, his story about that hand overhead does not exactly hang together. I don't want to lo him any wrong, but he must be looked after. Now, my idea la to have ,rou go about with him as much as you can, see if he meets any strangers or spends much money, and let me know whatever happens. Will you do it?" . Schwartz readily consented, on the assurance that the railroad people would give him leave of absence. The next day he reported that Watt had met a man who wore a slouch hat, had unkempt red hair, and in general looked like a border ruffian. He had overheard the two talking together in a saloon on Cottage Grove avenue, where the stranger had discussed the murder of Nichols in great detail, showing a remarkable familiarity with the whole affair. Schwartz had a sort of Jesse James theery (which he seemed anxious to have accepted) that the crime had been committed by a gang of Western desperadoes and that this fellow was connected with them. Mr. Pinkerton listened with Interest to all this, but was less edified than Schwartz imagined, since two of his most trusted shadows, who had been following Schwartz, had given hirn^ reports of the latter's movements, making It plain that the red-haired desperado was a myth, and that no such meeting as Schwartz described had taken place. Nevertheless, professing to be well pleased with Schwartz's efforta, Mr. Pinkerton sent him out to track the fabulous desperado. Schwartz continued to render false reports. Finally, without a word to arouse his suspicion, be was allowed to resume his work on the railroad. The shadows put upon Schwartz after this reported a suspicious intimacy between him and Watt, and a detective of great tact, BYank Jonas, was detailed to get into their confidence, if possible. He was given a "run" as brakeman between Des Moines and Davenport, and it was arranged that he should come in from the west and lay over at Davenport on the same days when Schwartz and Watt laid over there, coming in from the east. Jones played his part cleverly, and was soon on Intimate terms with Schwartz and Watt, taking his meals at their boarding house and sleeping in a room adjoining theirs. They finally came to like him so well that they suggested his trying to get a transfer to their run, between Davenport apd Chicago. This was successfully arranged, and then the three men were together constantly, Jones even got lng to board at Schwartz's house In Chicago. About this time Schwartz began to talk of giving up railroad work and going to live in Kansas or the far West. It was arranged that Jones should Join him and Mrs. Schwartz on a western trip. Meantime Schwartz applied to the cotopany for leave of absence, on the plea that he wished to arrange some family matters In Philadelphia. Mr. Pinkerton being Informed by Jones of Schwartz's application, used his influence to have it granted. When the young man started East he did not travel alone. His every movement was watched and reported, nor was he left unguarded for a moment, day or night, during an absence of several weeks. In New York, Philadelphia, and other eastern cities. - To one unfamiliar with the resources and organisation of a great detective system it is Incomprehensible how continuous shadoWlng day after day and week after week, through thousands pf miles of Journeying, can be accomplished. The matter is made none the simpler when you know that there must be a change of shadows every day. However adroit the detective, Ills continued presence in a locality would soon arouse suspicion. The dally change of shadows is easy when the man under watch remains in one place; for then It is only necessary to send a new shAdow from the central office early each morning to replace the one who "put the man to bed" the night before. But it Is very different when the subject is constantly traveling about on boats or railways, and perhaps sleeping in a different town 6*di night. Without a network of agencies, including large and small bureaus established all over the United States, the shadowing of a man in rapid flight would be Impossible. As It Is, nothing Is easier. Schwartz, for Instance, spent several days In Buffalo, where his actions were reported hour by hour until he bought his ticket for Philadelphia. As he took the train a fresh shadow took it, too, securing a section in the same sleeping car with him, and taki^ his meals, at the same time Schwartz took his, either in the dining car or at stations. No sooner had the train left the station than the Pinkerton representative In Buffalo reported by cipher dispatch to the bureau in Philadelphia; whither Schwartz was going. The exact form of the dispatch, which well Illustrates a system In constant use In the Pinkerton bureaus, was as follows : "R. J.,LINDEN, "441 Chestnut street, "Philadelphia, Pa. "Anxious shoes sucker Brown marbles man other dropping eight arrives put grand fifty marbles articles along or derby coat ship very tan seer wearing these have and Is ribbon ink dust central Tuesday for dust to rice hat and and paper vest yellow Ink get must Jewelry morning depot on. "D. ROBERTSON." In dispatches In this sort important Information regarding criminals is constantly flashing over the wires. With no danger of any leak. Thus, from one city to another, and through every part of the country, any criminal may be shadowed today as Schwarts was shadowed, one set of detectives relieving another every, twenty-four hours, and the man's every word and action be carefully notfed down and reported, without his having the faintest suspicion that he is under observation. The task of shad- Continued on page seyen - "t. r?' -«• " If you are read the automobile in this issue of the Plaindealer now is v.*:?* LOOK! 'r $v. * T^, :• {$& .* "i --' in the classified columns^ You may be able save many dollars for a few minutes time I !• it s»y- \ Today* Chevrolet presents the crowning triumph of ; sixteen years' continuous progress--a great new au mobile so impressive ife appearance, performance staunchness that it msrks the opening*^a luxurious transportation at low cost* Built on a 107-inch inches longer than before--die ^ feer and Better Chevrolet is imprea* shvly large, low and tmcy. 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