Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives
by Allan Pinkerton · English · Gutenberg #35686 · 557,686 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives
Author: Allan Pinkerton
Release date: March 26, 2011 [eBook #35686]
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS AND THE DETECTIVES ***
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MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS
AND THE
DETECTIVES.
ALLAN PINKERTON'S
GREAT DETECTIVE BOOKS.
1.--MOLLIE MAGUIRES AND DETECTIVES.
2.--STRIKERS, COMMUNISTS, AND DETECTIVES.
3.--CRIMINAL REMINISCENCES AND DETECTIVES.
4.--THE MODEL TOWN AND DETECTIVES.
5.--SPIRITUALISTS AND DETECTIVES.
6.--EXPRESSMEN AND DETECTIVES.
7.--THE SOMNAMBULIST AND DETECTIVES.
8.--CLAUDE MELNOTTE AS A DETECTIVE.
9.--MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS AND DETECTIVES.
10.--GYPSIES AND DETECTIVES.
11.--BUCHOLZ AND DETECTIVES.
12.--THE RAILROAD FORGER AND DETECTIVES.
13.--BANK ROBBERS AND DETECTIVES.
14.--BURGLAR'S FATE AND DETECTIVES.
15.--A DOUBLE LIFE AND DETECTIVES.
These wonderful Detective Stories by Allan Pinkerton are
having an unprecedented success. Their sale far
exceeding one hundred thousand copies. "The
interest which the reader feels from the outset
so intense and resistless; he is swept along
by the narrative, held by it, whether
he will or no."
All beautifully illustrated, and published uniform with this
volume. Price $1.50 each. Sold by all booksellers, and
sent _free_ by mail, on receipt of price, by
G. W. CARLETON & CO., Publishers,
New York.
MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS
AND THE
DETECTIVES.
DON PEDRO AND THE DETECTIVES.
POISONER AND THE DETECTIVES.
BY
ALLAN PINKERTON,
AUTHOR OF
"THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE," "THE MODEL TOWN
AND THE DETECTIVES," "THE SPIRITUALISTS AND THE
DETECTIVES," "THE MOLLIE MAGUIRES AND THE
DETECTIVES," "STRIKERS, COMMUNISTS,
TRAMPS AND DETECTIVES,"
ETC., ETC., ETC.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK:
_G. W. Dillingham, Publisher_,
SUCCESSOR TO G. W. CARLETON & CO.
LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO.
MDCCCLXXXVII.
COPYRIGHT
BY
ALLAN PINKERTON,
1879.
SAMUEL STODDER,
STEREOTYPER,
90 ANN STREET, N. Y.
TROW
PRINTING AND BOOK BINDING CO.
N. Y.
CONTENTS.
MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS AND THE DETECTIVES.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
A daring Express Robbery.--Mr. Pinkerton appealed
to.--Cane-brakes and cane-fed People.--Annoying delays
and Amateur Detectives. 9
CHAPTER II.
Difficulties.--Blind Trails and False Scents.--A Series of
Illustrations showing the Number of Officious People
and Confidence Men that often seek Notoriety and
Profit through important Detective Operations. 21
CHAPTER III.
"Old Hicks," a drunken Planter, is entertained by a
Hunting-Party.--Lester's Landing.--Its Grocery-Store
and Mysterious Merchants.--A dangerous Situation.--The
unfortunate Escape of Two of the Robbers. 32
CHAPTER IV.
The Captured Ruffians are desired for Guides, but dare not
join in the Search for the Outlaws.--One of the
Robbers is Taken, but subsequently Escapes from the
Amateur Detectives.--Another Clue suddenly fails. 44
CHAPTER V.
A Rich Lead Struck at Last. 50
CHAPTER VI.
The Mother of the Farringtons, being arrested, boasts that
her Sons "Will never be taken Alive."--Another
Unfortunate Blunder by Amateur Detectives.--An
interesting Fate intended for the Detectives.--William
A. Pinkerton captures the Murderer of a Negro in Union
City, proving "a very good Fellow--for a Yankee." 56
CHAPTER VII.
The Scene of Action transferred to Missouri.--The Chase
becoming Hot. 68
CHAPTER VIII.
A determined Party of Horsemen.--The Outlaws surrounded and
the Birds caged.--A Parley.--The burning Cabin.--Its
Occupants finally surrender. 80
CHAPTER IX.
Barton's Confession.--The Express Robberies, and the
Outlaw's subsequent Experiences fully set forth
therein.--A Clue that had been suddenly dropped taken
up with so much Profit. 91
CHAPTER X.
A terrible Struggle for Life or Death upon the Transfer-boat
"Illinois."--"Overboard!"--One less Desperado.--Fourth
and Last Robber taken. 104
CHAPTER XI.
The last Scene in the Drama approaching.--A new Character
appears.--The Citizens of Union City suddenly seem to
have important business on hand.--The Vigilantes and
their Work.--The End. 114
DON PEDRO AND THE DETECTIVES.
CHAPTER I.
A fraudulent Scheme contemplated.--A dashing Peruvian Don
and Donna.--A regal Forger.--Mr. Pinkerton engaged by
Senator Muirhead to unveil the mystery of his Life. 125
CHAPTER II.
Madame Sevier, Widow, of Chicago, and Monsieur Lesparre, of
Bordeaux, also arrive at Gloster.--Mr. Pinkerton, as a
Laborer, anxious for a Job, inspects the Morita
Mansion. 143
CHAPTER III.
Monsieur Lesparre, having a retentive memory, becomes
serviceable to Don Pedro.--Diamond fields and droll
Americans.--A pompous Judge in an unfortunate
Predicament.--The grand Reception closes with a happy
Arrangement that the gay Senor and Senora shall dine
with Mr. Pinkerton's Detectives on the next evening. 159
CHAPTER IV.
Madame Sevier and Her Work.--Unaccountable Coquettishness
between Man and Wife.--A Startling Scheme,
Illustrating the Rashness of American Business Men and
the Supreme Assurance of Don Pedro. 170
CHAPTER V.
The third Detective is made welcome at Don Pedro's.--The
Senor is paid the first half-million dollars from the
great Diamond Company.--How Don Pedro is "working" his
diamond mines. 189
CHAPTER VI.
An unexpected Meeting and a startling Recognition. An old
friend somewhat disturbs the Equanimity of Don Pedro.
The Detectives fix their Attention upon Pietro
Bernardi. 205
CHAPTER VII.
Pietro Bernardi and the Detective become warm Friends.--A
Tete-a-tete worth one thousand dollars. 219
CHAPTER VIII.
Don Pedro anxious for Pietro Bernardi's absence.--"Coppering
the Jack and playing the Ace and Queen
open."--Bernardi Quieted, and he subsequently departs
richer by five thousand dollars. 232
CHAPTER IX.
Important Information from the Peruvian Government.--Arrival
In Gloster of the Peruvian Minister and Consul.--In
Consultation.--"Robbing Peter to pay Paul."--Mr.
Pinkerton's Card is presented.--Juan Sanchez, I arrest
you, and you are my Prisoner.--Mr. Pinkerton not "For
Sale." 249
CHAPTER X.
The Fete Champetre.--A grand Carnival.--The disappointed
married Lover.--A vain Request.--Unmasked!--An
indignant Deacon.--Don Pedro taken to Peru in a
man-of-war, where he is convicted and sentenced to
fifteen years Imprisonment. 265
THE POISONER AND THE DETECTIVES.
CHAPTER I.
Mr. Pinkerton at a Water-cure becomes interested in a
Couple, one of whom subsequently causes the Detective
Operation from which this Story is written.--A wealthy
ship-owner and his son.--The son "Found dead."--Mr.
Pinkerton secured to solve the Mystery.--Chicago after
the Fire. 283
CHAPTER II.
The Detectives at work.--Mrs. Sanford described.--Charlie,
the Policeman.--Mrs. Sanford develops Interest in
Government Bonds.--Chicago Relief and Aid
Benefits.--Mrs. Sanford's Story of Trafton's Death. 298
CHAPTER III.
The dangerous Side of the Woman's Character.--Robert A.
Pinkerton as Adamson, the drunken, but wealthy
Stranger, has a violent Struggle to escape from Mrs.
Sanford, and is afterwards robbed.--Detective Ingham
arrested, but very shortly liberated. 319
CHAPTER IV.
Connecting Links.--Mrs. Sanford's Ability as an Imitator of
Actors.--One Detective tears himself away from her,
and another takes his Place.--Mrs. Sanford's mind
frequently burdened with the subject of Murder. 340
CHAPTER V.
A moneyed young Texan becomes one of Mrs. Sanford's
Lodgers.--The bonds are seen and their Numbers taken
by the Detectives.--Mrs. Sanford arrested.--She is
found guilty of "Involuntary Manslaughter," and
sentenced to the Illinois Penitentiary for five
years.--Mr. Pinkerton's Theory of the Manner in which
Trafton was murdered 356
PREFACE.
In presenting to the public another volume of my detective stories, I
would call the attention of the reader to the fact, that these stories
are literally written from facts and incidents which have come under my
own observation, or been worked up by officers acting directly under my
instructions.
The Mississippi River has for many years--more especially since the
close of the war--been infested by a class of men who never would try to
get an honest living, but would prey upon their neighbors or attack the
property of southern railroads and express companies; these marauders
could be seen any day prowling along the banks of the Mississippi, in
fact, the shores and immediate neighborhood were peopled by just such a
class, who cared not how they obtained a living; for the crimes they
committed, they often suffered infinitely worse punishment, more so than
any suffering which could have been entailed on them from leading a poor
but honest life.
The story of the "MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS AND THE DETECTIVES" is written to
illustrate incidents which took place in the southern section of the
country at no very remote date.
"DON PEDRO AND THE DETECTIVES" is another story of detective experience,
which came under my own observation and management; it is a truthful
narrative, and shows that some men are worse than known criminals, and
can squander the money they have obtained by false pretenses, in a very
lavish manner.
"THE POISONER AND THE DETECTIVES" is a well-known bit of detective
experience, which, when read, will be recognized by any one who ever
takes an interest in crime, and the bringing to justice its
perpetrators.
The reader must remember that fictitious names are used in all of these
stories, otherwise the facts are plainly and truthfully told as they
occurred.
ALLAN PINKERTON.
_April, 1879._
THE MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS
AND
THE DETECTIVES.
CHAPTER I.
_A daring Express Robbery.--Mr. Pinkerton appealed to.--Cane-brakes
and cane-fed People.--Annoying Delays and Amateur Detectives._
The southern and border states, since the close of the war of the
rebellion, have been the frequent scenes of extensive and audacious
robberies. This has been largely owing to the sparsely-settled condition
of certain districts, to the disorder and lawlessness generated by the
war, and to the temptations offered by the carelessness of many persons
having large sums intrusted to their care in transit through lonely and
desolate localities.
The express companies have always been favorite objects of attack by
thieves of every grade, from the embezzling cashier to the petty
sneak-thief, and some of the operations connected with the detection of
this class of criminals are among the most difficult and dangerous that
have ever been intrusted to me. Probably a no more reckless and
desperate body of men were ever banded together in a civilized community
than those who were brought to my attention in 1871 by the Southern
Express Company's officers in Memphis; and I consider the successful
termination of my efforts in this case as of the greatest value to the
people of the South and West. The whole affair was conducted with such a
limited force, and under such adverse circumstances, that I take pride
in here recording the history of the affair and my connection with it.
Though I maintained a general supervision of the operation, my eldest
son, William A. Pinkerton, was the person having immediate charge of the
matter, and to his energy, perseverance, and sagacity is mainly
attributable our success.
Some time in the latter part of July, 1871, an express messenger on the
Mobile and Ohio Railroad was overpowered by three men at Moscow,
Kentucky, and his safe was robbed of about sixteen hundred dollars. The
manner of effecting the robbery was a very bold one, showing the
presence of men of experience in crime. The loss was not heavy, but the
company made every effort to discover the robbers, in the hope of
bringing them to a severe punishment as a warning to other criminals. In
spite, however, of the efforts of two of my men, who were immediately
sent to the scene of the robbery, the guilty parties escaped into the
almost impenetrable swamps along the Mississippi River, and the chase
was reluctantly abandoned, as it was impossible to tell where they
would come out or cross the river. The amount stolen was not
sufficiently large to warrant the expenditure of much time or money in
the pursuit of the thieves, and my men were soon wholly withdrawn from
the operation. In order, however, to guard against a repetition of such
a raid, an extra man was placed in each express car to act as guard to
the regular messenger. It was considered that two men, well armed, ought
to be surely able to protect the company against further loss, and
everything ran smoothly until October 21, 1871. At this time, the money
shipments by express were very heavy, as a rule, and orders were given
that special care should be exercised by all the employes having money
packages in charge.
The northern-bound train on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad was due at
Union City, Tennessee, about half-past seven o'clock in the evening. At
this point the northern and southern-bound trains usually passed each
other, and stopped long enough for supper, the train arriving first
being the one to take the side track ready to pull out. Saturday
evening, October 21st, the northern-bound train arrived on time, stopped
at the station long enough to let the passengers go to supper, and then
took the side track to await the arrival of the train bound south. As
soon as the side track was reached the conductor, engineer, fireman,
brakeman, and express messenger went to supper, leaving the train
deserted except by the express guard, named George Thompson, and a few
passengers. The local express agent came up at this moment, gave his
packages to Thompson, receiving his receipt therefor, and returned to
the station. This action was directly contrary to the rules of the
company, which forbade the messenger to leave the car during his whole
run, or to go to sleep; also, the guard was forbidden to transact any
business, or to have possession of the safe key. Martin Crowley, the
messenger, had given his key to Thompson, however, to enable him to
attend to the business of the local agent while Crowley was away at
supper. In accordance with Thompson's request, Crowley sent a negro
porter to the express car with Thompson's supper on a tray, and the
porter, after handing the tray to Thompson, turned to walk away. As he
did so, he saw two men spring into the partly open door of the express
car, and, almost immediately, the train began to back. The negro knew
that something was wrong, and he hurried to the station to give the
alarm. By the time he arrived there, however, the train was backing at a
moderate speed, and was well beyond the reach of pursuit on foot.
Meantime, the guard, having received his supper from the negro porter,
turned his back to the door to set the tray down. Before reaching the
desk, he heard a noise at the door, and turning, he was confronted by
two men, one of whom held a revolver at his head, while the other seized
his throat. Thompson was a young man, and, not being accustomed to meet
such hard characters, he was badly frightened. He immediately gave up
the safe key and helped one of the men to unlock the safe. Having taken
all the money out of the safe, one of the robbers took also the contents
of Thompson's pocket-book; but here the other man interfered, insisting
that the guard's money be returned to him, which was done. No
conversation took place, but when the safe had been carefully examined
and all the money it contained taken, one of the men stepped to the door
and swung a lantern once or twice. The train, which had been backing at
a moderate rate of speed, now stopped, and the two men jumped off,
telling Thompson to stay where he was and keep quiet. When the
conductor, engineer, and other persons, whom the porter had alarmed,
reached the train, they found everything in order except the safe, into
which poor Thompson was vainly peering in the hope of discovering that
some portion of the funds might have been overlooked. The men had
disappeared in the thick woods, and no trace of them was found except a
small carpet-bag containing potatoes and bread. The amount missing from
the safe was about six thousand dollars in currency.
Although the robbery was at once reported to Mr. M. J. O'Brien, the
General Superintendent, by telegraph, no action seems to have been taken
until the following Wednesday--four days later--when Mr. O'Brien sent me
a brief telegram announcing the robbery, and requesting me to come to
Union City in person, if possible, and if not, to send my eldest son,
William A. Pinkerton. The telegraph was used freely for the next two
days, and while my son was gathering clues and making his preparations,
we learned most of the facts by letter. William arrived in Union City on
Saturday, just one week after the robbery had been committed, and he
instantly began to gather information from every available source.
Except the statements of the negro porter and Thompson, the guard, as
condensed in the account heretofore given, little information could be
obtained, as so few persons were about the train when it began to move
off. While two or three had seen the men who had entered the car, no one
had seen who had run the locomotive, and there was, therefore, no
certainty as to the number of persons engaged in the job. One passenger
had seen two men walking toward the engine in a suspicious manner, and,
as his description of these two was entirely different from that given
of the men who had entered the car, it was fair to presume that they had
been a part of the gang. Still, no one had seen them get on the engine,
and it was not certain that they had had anything to do with the affair.
At the end of three days, however, William had collected sufficient
information to satisfy himself that either four or five men had been at
work together; and, by collating the various descriptions he received,
he obtained a pretty fair idea of the party.
The first thing which struck him was the similarity of this robbery to
the one which had occurred exactly three months before at Moscow,
Kentucky. The appearance of the men and their actions had been precisely
like those of the Moscow party, and it was evident that they had been
emboldened to a second venture by the ease with which they had carried
through their former scheme. One thing was imperative: the capture of
the whole gang would be necessary to insure the safety of the express
company's property in the future. Indeed, it was a mere piece of good
fortune that the loss in this instance was not irreparable, for the
amount of money carried on the southern-bound train was eighty thousand
dollars, and the robbers would have obtained this large amount if the
southern-bound train had chanced to arrive first. The robbery was
clearly one which no common tramp or sneak-thief would have dared to
attempt, and William saw immediately the difficulties of his work.
Before proceeding with the incidents of the operation, I must give some
idea of the country and the people living there, since no-one would
otherwise comprehend one-half of the obstacles and dangers which were
involved in a search for the criminals in that vicinity.
The southwestern part of Kentucky and the northwestern part of Tennessee
are about as desolate portions of the world as are inhabited by a
civilized people. There seems to have been some convulsion of the earth
at this point, which is sunk so far below the general level of the whole
country as to make it a perpetual swamp. The annual overflow of the Ohio
and Mississippi lays the country under water for a distance of many
miles, while even in the dryest season, the morasses, sunken lakes, and
dense cane-brakes, render it almost impassable, except for people who
have been thoroughly acquainted with the locality for years.
The sunken lakes are natural curiosities in themselves, and, although
they have attracted considerable attention from scientific men, no
satisfactory explanation of their causes and phenomena has been found.
The country is full of game and the water is alive with fish, so that
the necessities of life are easily obtainable. The cane-brakes are
wonderful growths of bamboo cane, and they sometimes cover strips of
country as much as seventy miles long. In the spring-time, the water
rises to such a height that a skiff can navigate freely above and
through the tops of the cane; but in dry weather, the stalks grow so
closely together that the brake becomes impenetrable to man or beast,
except by winding tortuously around the clumps through the comparatively
thin portions of the undergrowth. To search for any one wishing to
remain concealed therein is like the proverbial attempt to look for a
needle in a hay-stack, since a man can pass within ten yards of another
without seeing him or being aware of his presence. The only roads which
traverse these places are mere cattle paths, which begin at no place and
run nowhere; and, unless a man be thoroughly acquainted with the
country, he can never tell where any given path will lead him.
The people around the towns, such as Hickman, Union City, Dyersburg, and
Moscow, are a highly respectable and well-educated class; but in the
low, swampy country, in the cane brake and along the river, they are
not, as a rule, a very agreeable class to live among. Of course, here,
as in all other places, there are many intelligent, reliable, honorable
men, but the great mass of the cane-brake population are ignorant and
brutal. The term which they apply to their stock is also eminently
appropriate to designate the people: they are "cane-fed." It is the
custom to turn the cattle into the cane to feed when it is young and
tender, and, as the amount of nutriment thus obtained is not very large,
the "cane-fed" animals bear about the same relation to grain-fed stock
that the people in that vicinity bear to the residents of healthy,
prosperous, and educated communities. The larger portion of the
population may be classed as "poor whites," and they constitute a
peculiar variety of the human species. The men are tall, loose-jointed,
and dyspeptic; they bear a marked resemblance to the vegetable
productions of the vicinity, being rapid of growth, prolific, and
generally worthless. Their education consists mainly of woodcraft and
rifle-shooting; their proficiency in both of these branches is sometimes
astonishing, and it is frequently said of their most expert hunters that
they seem to have been born shot-gun or rifle in hand. Accomplishments
they have none, except the rare instances where a few tunes upon the
banjo have been learned from the negroes. Their tastes are few and
simple,--whisky, snuff, hog, and hominy being the necessities and
luxuries of life; that is, whisky and snuff are the necessities, all
other things being secondary considerations. In their sober moods, they
are frank, rough, and courageous; yet, even then, there is little about
them to excite other feelings than those of pity and aversion. When full
of bad whisky, however, they are apt to become quarrelsome and brutal,
so that no man can feel sure of his safety in their company. An affront,
real or imaginary, will then be apt to cause bloodshed, even if the
insulted party has to bushwhack his enemy from a secure covert on the
roadside as he is returning to his home. Every man goes armed, and,
though fair fights in broad daylight are rare, cold-blooded murders are
not infrequent. The law is seldom invoked to settle private differences,
and, in fact, the functions of the legal officials are practically very
limited in their influence. If a coroner ever sits upon a corpse, it is
understood that he has done his whole duty by recording a verdict that
"the deceased came to his death at the hands of some person or persons
unknown."
The women, like the men, are tall, thin, and round-shouldered. Up to the
age of sixteen they sometimes are quite pretty, though sallow and
lifeless always; after that period, they become gaunt, emaciated, and
yellow. Whisky hath charms for them, also, but their favorite
dissipation is snuff-dipping. They marry very early and bear children
nearly every year, so that the size of many of these West Tennessee
families is often enormous. The father exercises patriarchal control
over his whole household until the daughters are married and the sons
old enough and strong enough to defy the parental authority as enforced
by a hickory rod. The wife never escapes the application of this potent
instrument of marital discipline; and, indeed, should a husband fail to
make frequent use of it for the correction of his better half, he would
probably soon learn that his dutiful spouse could find a use for it on
his own person.
Throughout this whole district, the people suffer from fever and ague
for nine months of the year, and dyspepsia seems hereditary. Their
physicians, however, usually require no further education than is
requisite to attend fractured limbs and gun-shot wounds, the whole
school of medicine being limited to three specifics: quinine, calomel,
and whisky.
As before stated, it should be understood that the foregoing description
applies to the majority of the inhabitants of the low swamp lands only,
and not to the residents in and about the towns; even in the cane
country itself are to be found occasionally men of education, ability,
and good character, and to several of them William was largely indebted
for assistance and information.
There was one redeeming feature also to the character of the "cane-fed"
population; in the main they were honest, and they would do all in their
power to break up a thieving gang, even if they had to hang a few of
its members as a warning to the rest. I was thus able to trust them to a
certain extent, though the fear which they had of this band of
desperadoes rather kept their naturally honest impulses in check for a
time.
William was thoroughly acquainted with the character of the people, and
he knew what a difficult task had been set before him, especially as he
was allowed no other detectives of my force to assist him, the express
company being desirous of conducting the operation as economically as
possible. Among the large number of men employed directly by the company
were two or three good men, but the majority were even worse than
useless, and the expense of the affair was finally much greater than as
if only my own men had been employed. Besides the fact that William was
thus continually working with strange men, he was harassed by large
numbers of amateur detectives, to whose stories the company's officers
too often lent a ready ear. Indeed, every express agent in Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Missouri seemed impressed with the idea that he was a
naturally gifted detective, and many were the annoying delays which
resulted from their interference.
CHAPTER II.
_Difficulties.--Blind Trails and False Scents.--A Series of
Illustrations showing the Number of Officious People and
Confidence Men that often seek Notoriety and Profit through
important Detective Operations._
The art of detecting crime cannot be learned in a day, nor can the man
of business understand, without previous experience in the habits of
criminals, the expedients which the boldest class of law-breakers adopt;
hence none but skilled detectives can hope to cope with them. Yet often
my clients insist on some certain method of procedure wholly contrary to
my judgment and experience, until the total failure of their plan
convinces them that there can be but one thoroughly successful mode of
detection, namely, to submit the case to a skilled detective of
character and standing, and allow him to act according to his judgment.
The range of investigation in such a case as this robbery will often
extend from New York to San Francisco, and unless one mind gathers up
the clues, classifies the information, and determines the general plan,
there will be continual error and delay. Such a state of affairs
frequently occurred during this operation, and much time and money were
spent upon matters too trifling even for consideration.
The principal of a detective agency, from his long experience with
criminals, learns the earmarks of different classes of men, and he is
often able to determine the name of the guilty party in any given
robbery by the manner in which the job was done. He can readily see
whether a novice in crime was engaged, and also whether any collusion
existed between the parties robbed and the criminals; and so, when he
sees the traces of a bold, skillful, and experienced man, he knows that
it is useless to track down some insignificant sneak-thief, simply
because the latter happens to have been in the vicinity. Yet, neither
will he slight the smallest clue if there is a bare chance that any
valuable fact may be obtained from it. But the _sine qua non_ is that
he, and he alone, shall direct the whole affair. A divided
responsibility simply doubles the criminal's opportunities for escape.
Among the many difficulties of the detective's work, none are more
embarrassing than the early development of false clues. In the stories
heretofore published, the direct steps leading to the detection and
arrest of the criminals have been related, without referring to the
innumerable other investigations, which were progressing simultaneously,
and which, though involving the expenditure of much thought, time, and
money, proved after all to be of no value whatever in developing any
evidence in the case. In this operation, such instances were of frequent
occurrence, and I propose to mention a few of them to show how wide is
the range of the detective's inquiries, and also the annoying delays to
which he is often subjected by the inconsiderate zeal and interference
of outside parties. These latter may be--indeed, they generally
are--well meaning people, anxious to serve the cause of justice; though,
on the other hand, they are sometimes spiteful meddlers, striving to fix
suspicion upon some personal enemy.
The plan of detection which alone can insure success, must be one which
neither forgets nor neglects anything. In investigating any alleged
crime, the first questions to be considered are: 1. Has any crime been
perpetrated, and, if so, what? 2. What was the object sought thereby?
The matter of time, place, and means employed must then be carefully
noted, and finally we come to consider: 1. Who are the criminals? 2.
Where are they now? 3. How can they be taken?
The fact that a crime has been committed is generally apparent, though
there have been cases in which the determination of that point requires
as much skill as the whole remainder of the operation. Such was the case
in the detection of Mrs. Pattmore's murder, related in my story of "The
Murderer and the Fortune Teller." The object of a crime is also
sometimes obscure, and, where such are the circumstances, the detection
of the criminal is apt to be one of the most difficult of all
operations. Having once solved these two difficulties satisfactorily,
however, and having observed the relative bearings of time, place, and
means to the crime itself, the question of individuals is the important
one to be determined. It often happens that there is no concealment of
identity, the problem to be solved being simply the way to catch the
guilty parties; but, on the other hand, the greatest skill, experience,
patience, and perseverance are sometimes required to discover, first of
all, the persons engaged in the crime. Indeed, an operation is often
divisible into two distinct methods of action, the first being to find
out the identity of the criminals, the second to follow up and capture
them.
In the course of a blind trail, such as we were obliged to travel in the
case of this express robbery, it was impossible to know whence the men
had come or whither they had gone; hence, I was forced to take up every
trifling clue and follow it to the end. Even after I was satisfied in my
own mind of the identity of the criminals, the agents and officers of
the express company were continually finding mares' nests which they
wished investigated, and the operation was sometimes greatly hindered on
this account. As an example of the number of discouragements which the
detective must always expect to encounter, I propose to mention some of
the false scents which we were forced to follow during this operation.
Three or four days after William's arrival in Union City, he was
informed by the superintendent of the express company having charge of
the operation, that there was a young man in Moscow who could give
important information relative to the first robbery at that place. This
young man, Thomas Carr by name, was a lawyer who had once had fine
prospects, but he had become very dissipated, and he finally had been
taken seriously ill, so that he had lost his practice. On recovering his
health he had reformed his habits, but he had found great difficulty in
winning back clients, and his income was hardly enough to support him.
On learning that this impecunious lawyer had valuable information,
William strongly suspected that it would amount to little more than a
good lie, invented to obtain money from the express company;
nevertheless, he sent for the young man and heard his story.
According to Carr, a man named John Witherspoon had visited him about
six weeks before, and had asked him whether he would like to get a large
sum of money. Carr replied affirmatively, of course, and wished to know
how it could be obtained. Witherspoon had said that the express company
could be robbed very easily by boarding a train at any water-tank,
overpowering the messenger, and making him open the safe. Witherspoon
also had said that he and several others had robbed a train at Moscow
some weeks before, and that they had got only sixteen hundred dollars,
but that they should do better next time. He had asked Carr to go to
Cairo and find out when there would be a large shipment of money to the
South; then Carr was to take the same train and give a signal to the
rest of the party on arriving at the designated spot.
On hearing Carr's story, William sent him back to Moscow with
instructions to renew his intimacy with Witherspoon, and to report any
news he might learn at once; in case it should prove to be of any value,
the company would pay him well for his services. It is hardly necessary
to add that Mr. Carr, having failed to get, as he had hoped, a roving
commission as detective at the company's expense, was not heard from
again, his bonanza of news having run out very quickly on discovering
that no money was to be paid in advance.
The next case was a more plausible one, and William began its
investigation with the feeling that something might be developed
therefrom. It was learned that a former express messenger named Robert
Trunnion, who had been discharged several months before, had been
hanging around Columbus, Kentucky, ever since. While in conversation
with the clerk of a second-class hotel, Trunnion had spoken of the ease
with which a few determined men could board an express car, throw a
blanket over the messenger's head, and then rob the safe. The clerk said
that Trunnion had made the suggestion to him twice, and the second time
he had given Trunnion a piece of his mind for making such a proposition.
Trunnion had then said he was only fooling, and that he did not mean
anything by it. William learned that Trunnion was then engaged in
selling trees for a nursery at Clinton, Kentucky, and that he was
regarded as a half-cracked, boasting fool, who might be anything bad,
if he were influenced by bold, unscrupulous men. William therefore paid
a visit to Mr. Trunnion, whom he found to be a very high-toned youth,
too fiery-tempered and sensitive to submit to any questioning as to his
words or actions. In a very brief space of time, however, his lordly
tone came down to a very humble acknowledgment that he had used the
language attributed to him; but he protested that he had meant nothing;
in short, his confession was not only complete, but exceedingly candid;
he admitted that he was a gas-bag and a fool, without discretion enough
to keep his tongue from getting him into trouble continually; and,
having clearly shown that he was nowhere in the vicinity of either
robbery, he asked humbly not to be held responsible for being a born
idiot. William was satisfied that the fellow had told the truth, and,
after scaring him out of all his high-toned pride, he let him go, with a
severe lecture on the danger of talking too much.
On the nineteenth of November, when the identity of the robbers had been
fully established, William was called away to Iuka, Mississippi, on
information received from Mr. O'Brien, the general superintendent of the
express company, that a man named Santon had seen the leader of the
party in that place, just a week before. Santon represented that he knew
the man well, having been acquainted with him for years in Cairo, and
that he could not be mistaken, as he had spoken with him on the day
mentioned. William found that the man Santon was a natural liar, who
could not tell the truth even when it was for his interest to do so. The
descriptions of the various robbers had been scattered broadcast
everywhere, and none of them were represented as over thirty-five years
of age; yet Santon said that his man was over fifty years old, and that
he had been a pilot on the Mississippi for years. This was a case--not
an infrequent one, either--where people talk and lie about a crime for
the sole purpose of getting a little temporary notoriety. Owing to
various accidents and railway detentions, William lost three days in
going to hunt up this lying fellow's testimony.
Perhaps the most impudent of all the stories brought to the express
company's officers was that of a man named Swing, living at Columbus,
Kentucky. He sent a friend to Union City to tell them that he could give
them a valuable clue to the identity of the robbers, and William
accompanied this friend back to Columbus. On the way, William drew out
all that Swing's friend knew about the matter, and satisfied himself
that Swing's sole object in sending word to the officers of the company
was to get them to do a piece of detective work for him. It appeared
that his nephew had stolen one of his horses just after the robbery, and
he intended to tell the company's officers that this nephew had been
engaged in the robbery; then if the company captured the nephew, Swing
hoped to get back his horse. A truly brilliant scheme it was, but,
unfortunately for his expectations, William could not be misled by his
plausible story; and, if he ever recovered his horse, he did so without
the assistance of the express company. Nevertheless, he took William
away from his work for nearly a whole day, at a time when his presence
was almost indispensable.
Another peculiar phase of a detective's experience is, that while
following up one set of criminals, he may accidentally unearth the
evidences of some other crime; occasionally it happens that he is able
to arrest the criminals thus unexpectedly discovered, but too often they
take the alarm and escape before the interested parties can be put in
possession of the facts. About two weeks after the Union City robbery,
in the course of my extended inquiries by telegraph, I came across a
pair of suspicious characters in Kansas City, Missouri. I learned that
two fine-looking women had arrived in that city with about eight
thousand dollars in five, ten, and twenty dollar bills, which they were
trying to exchange for bills of a larger denomination. The women were
well dressed, but they were evidently of loose character, and the
possession of so much money by two females of that class excited
suspicion instantly in the minds of the bankers to whom they applied,
and they could not make the desired exchange. One of the women was a
blonde and the other was a brunette. They were about of the same height,
and they dressed in such marked contrast as to set each other off to the
best advantage; indeed, their dresses seemed to have attracted so much
attention that I could gain very little acquaintance with their personal
appearance. I could not connect them in any way with the robbery at
Union City, nor with any other recent crime, though I had little doubt
that the money they had with them was the proceeds of some criminal
transaction; still, having my hands full at that time, it would have
been impossible for me to look after them, even had I thought best to do
so. As it is my practice to undertake investigations only when engaged
for the purpose by some responsible person, I did not waste any time in
endeavoring to discover the source whence these women obtained their
money; though, of course, had I learned enough about them to suspect
them of complicity in any specific crime, I should have reported my
suspicions to the parties interested, to enable them to take such action
as they might have seen fit.
The most important of all the false clues brought out in this
investigation was presented by a noted confidence man and horse-thief
named Charles Lavalle, _alias_ Hildebrand. I call it the most important,
not because I considered it of any value at the time, but because it
illustrates one of the most profitable forms of confidence operation,
and because the express company, by refusing to accept my advice in the
matter, were put to a large expense with no possibility of a return.
Very shortly after the Union City robbery, a letter was received from a
man in Kansas City, calling himself Charles Lavalle. The writer claimed
that he had been with the gang who had robbed the train, but that they
had refused to divide with him, and so, out of revenge, he was anxious
to bring them to punishment. He claimed further that he was then in the
confidence of another party, who were soon going to make another raid
upon the express company somewhere between New Orleans and Mobile.
The plausibility of his story was such that he obtained quite a large
sum from the express company to enable him to follow up and remain with
the gang of thieves with whom he professed to be associated. No news was
received from him, however, and at length I was requested to put a
"shadow" upon his track. My operative followed him to St. Joseph,
Missouri, and thence to Quincy, Illinois, but, during two weeks of close
investigation, no trace of the villains in Lavalle's company could be
found, and he was never seen in the society of any known burglars or
thieves. It was soon evident that he was playing upon the express
company a well-worn confidence game, which has been attempted probably
every time a large robbery has occurred in the last fifteen years. He
became very importunate for more money while in Quincy, as he stated
that the gang to which he belonged were ready to start for New Orleans;
but, finding that his appeals were useless, and that no more money would
be advanced until some of his party were actually discovered and trapped
through his agency, he soon ceased writing.
The foregoing are only a few of the instances in which our attention was
diverted from the real criminals; and, although the efforts of my
operatives were rarely misdirected in any one affair for any length of
time, still these false alarms were always a source of great annoyance
and embarrassment.
CHAPTER III.
_"Old Hicks," a drunken Planter, is entertained by a
Hunting-party.--Lester's Landing.--Its Grocery-store and
Mysterious Merchants.--A dangerous Situation and a desperate
Encounter.--The unfortunate Escape of Two of the Robbers._
One of the most direct sources of information relative to the party was
found in the person of an old planter, named Hicks, who lived some
distance down the track of the railroad. He was in the habit of visiting
Union City very frequently, and he usually rounded off his day's
pleasure by becoming jovially drunk, in which condition he would start
for his home, walking down the railroad track. He had been in Union City
all of Friday before the robbery, and about ten o'clock in the evening
he was in a state of happy inebriety, ready to "hail fellow, well met,"
with any person he might encounter.
On his way home, about three-quarters of a mile west of Union City, he
saw a camp-fire burning a short distance from the track, and around it
were gathered five men. They hailed him, and asked him to take a drink;
and as this was an invitation which Hicks could not refuse, even from
the devil himself, he joined them, drank with them, and danced a
hornpipe for their edification. Hicks acknowledged in his account of
meeting them, that by the time they had made him dance for them, he was
heartily frightened at their looks and talk. He heard one of them say
that they wanted ten thousand at least, but he could not tell what the
remark referred to. He asked them why they were camping out, and one,
who seemed to be the leader of the party, said they were out hunting.
"Yes," continued another one, "I am out hunting for somebody's girl, and
when I find her we are going to run away together."
At this, they all laughed, as if there was some hidden meaning in his
words.
Hicks described all of the men, three of them quite minutely; but the
fourth was evidently the same as the second, and the fifth was lying
down asleep all the time, so that Hicks could not tell much about him.
They were armed with large navy revolvers, which they wore in belts, and
their clothing was quite good. The tall man, who seemed to be the
leader, related an account of a deer-hunt in which he had participated,
in Fayette county, Illinois, on the Kaskaskia river, and when he
mentioned the place, the others scowled and winked at him, as if to stop
him. Hicks said that they seemed to be familiar with Cincinnati,
Louisville, Evansville, and other northern cities, and that they talked
somewhat like Yankees. He remained with them until about midnight, when
a negro came down the track. Hicks and the negro then went on together
to Hicks's house, leaving the five men still camped in the woods.
Other persons reported having seen the same party in the same vicinity
several times before the night of the robbery, though some had seen only
two, others three and four; but no one, except Hicks, had seen five. The
accounts given by the persons near the train when the robbery occurred
did not show the presence of more than three persons, though possibly
there might have been a fourth. The descriptions of the suspected
parties were quite varied in some respects; yet the general tenor of
them was to the same effect, and, as no one knew who these persons were,
it was quite certain that this quartette of strangers had committed the
robbery.
In the case of the Moscow robbery, we had strongly suspected two
notorious thieves, named Jack Nelson and Miles Ogle, so that my first
action, on learning of this second affair in the same vicinity, was to
telegraph to my correspondents and agents throughout the country, to
learn whether either of these men had been seen lately. I could gain no
news whatever, except from St. Louis, whence an answer was returned to
the effect that Nelson was said to be stopping somewhere in the country
back of Hickman, Kentucky. Ogle's wife was in St. Louis, and she had
been seen by a detective walking and talking earnestly with a strange
man a short time previous. The information about Nelson was important,
since, if true, it showed that he was in the immediate neighborhood of
the points where the robberies had occurred. The man seen with Mrs. Ogle
might have been one of the party, sent by her husband to appoint a
future rendezvous. The description of the tall, dark man, mentioned by
Hicks and others, tallied very closely with Ogle's appearance. My son,
William, was well advised of these facts, and, as soon as he had
obtained the statements of every one acquainted with any of the
occurrences at the time of the robbery, he was ready for action.
His first inquiries were directed toward discovering where Nelson was
staying near Hickman, and he learned in a very short time that this
rumor had no truth in it. While making search for Nelson, however, he
heard of a low grocery-store at Lester's Landing, about twelve miles
below Hickman on the Mississippi River. The store was situated four
miles from any other house in a sparsely settled country, where the
amount of legitimate trade would hardly amount to twelve hundred dollars
per year. It was said to be the resort of a very low class of men, and
the proprietors passed for river gamblers.
On William's return to Union City from Hickman, he decided to make a
visit to this grocery-store to learn something about the men who
frequented it. Having none of his own men with him, he chose one of the
express company's detectives, named Patrick Connell, to accompany him,
and, on the last day of October, they started on horseback, with an old
resident named Bledsoe for a guide. On arriving at the house of a
well-to-do planter, named Wilson Merrick, they obtained considerable
information about the men who kept the store and the people who visited
it.
Mr. Merrick said that a man named John Wesley Lester kept a wood-yard on
the Mississippi, and the spot was called Lester's Landing. About three
or four months before, three men arrived there and obtained leave from
Lester to put up a store, which they stocked with groceries and whisky.
The men gave their names as J. H. Clark, Ed. J. Russell, and William
Barton, and they seemed to have some means, as the store did only a
limited business, except in whisky. They were all men of ability and
determination, and, as they were always well armed, the people of the
cane-brake country were rather afraid of them. Nothing positive was
known against them, but it was suspected from their looks and actions
that they were Northern desperadoes lying quiet for a time. They seemed
to be well acquainted in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Memphis,
Vicksburg, and New Orleans, but they were careful never to give any hint
of their previous place of residence in the hearing of strangers. Mr.
Merrick had, however, heard Russell say that he had once run a
stationary engine in Missouri, and from occasional expressions by
Barton it would appear that the latter had once worked on a railroad in
some capacity. They dressed quite well, and treated strangers politely,
though not cordially. Although they were all three rather hard drinkers,
they never became intoxicated, and they seemed to understand each other
well enough not to quarrel among themselves. Clark was the oldest of the
party, but Russell seemed to be the leader, Barton being apparently
quite a young man. They stated that they intended to exchange groceries
for fish and game, and ship the latter articles to St. Louis and
Memphis.
From the description of the men, William began to suspect that they
formed a portion of the party of robbers, and he determined to push on
at once. He induced a young man named Gordon to go with him as guide and
to assist in making the arrest of these men, if he should deem it
advisable. By hard riding they succeeded in reaching Lester's Landing
before nightfall, but the twilight was fast fading as they came out of
the dense underbrush and cane-brake into the clearing around Lester's
log-cabin.
The spot was dreary and forlorn in the extreme. The river was then
nearly at low water, and its muddy current skirted one side of the
clearing at a distance of about thirty yards from the house. The
wood-yard and landing at the water's level were some ten or fifteen feet
below the rising ground upon which the house stood. The store was a
shanty of rough pine boards with one door and one window, and it stood
at the head of the diagonal path leading from the landing to the high
ground. A short distance back was a rail fence surrounding Lester's
house and cornfield, and back of this clearing, about one hundred yards
from the house, was a dense cane-brake. The corn-stalks had never been
cut, and, as they grew very high and thick within twenty feet of the
house, they offered a good cover to any one approaching or retreating
through them. A rough log barn stood a short distance inside the rail
fence, and, like the house, it was raised several feet above the ground,
on account of the annual overflow of the whole tract. The house was a
rather large building built of logs, the chinks being partly filled with
mud, but it was in a dilapidated condition, the roof being leaky and the
sides partly open, where the mud had fallen out from between the
timbers.
On entering the clearing, William's party rode up to the store and tried
to enter, but, finding the door locked, they approached the house. At
the rail fence, William and Connell dismounted, leaving Gordon and
Bledsoe to hold their horses. Up to this time, they had seen no signs of
life about the place, and they began to think that the birds had flown.
The quiet and the absence of men about the clearing did not prevent
William from exercising his usual caution in approaching the house; but
he did consider it unnecessary to take any stronger force into an
apparently unoccupied log-cabin, where at most he had only vague
suspicions of finding the objects of his search; hence, he left Gordon
and Bledsoe behind. Knowing the general construction of this class of
houses to be the same, he sent Connell to the rear, while he entered the
front door. A wide hall divided the house through the center, and the
occupants of the house were in the room on the right. William's door
leading into the room opened from this hall, while Connell's was a
direct entrance from the back porch, and there were no other doors to
the room.
As the two strangers entered simultaneously, five men, a woman, and a
girl started to their feet and demanded what they wanted. The situation
was evidently one of great danger to the detectives; one glance at the
men, coupled with the fierce tones of their inquiries, showed William
that he had entered a den of snakes without adequate force; but it was
too late to retreat, and he replied that they were strangers who, having
lost their way, desired information.
The scene was a striking one, and it remains as vividly in William's
mind to-day, as if it had occurred but yesterday. In the center of the
room, opposite him, was a broad fireplace, in which the smouldering logs
feebly burned and gave forth the only light in the room. In one corner
stood several shot-guns, and in another, four or five heavy axes.
Grouped about near the fire, in different attitudes of surprise,
defiance, and alarm, were the occupants of the cabin, while to the left,
in the half-open door stood Connell. The flickering flame of the rotten
wood gave a most unsatisfactory light, in which they all seemed nearly
as dark as negroes, so that William asked the woman to light a candle.
She replied that they had none, and at the same moment a young fellow
tried to slip by Connell, but he was promptly stopped. Another large,
powerful man, whose name afterward proved to be Burtine, again demanded,
with several oaths, what their business was.
"I've told you once that I want some information," replied William, "and
now I intend to have you stop here until I can take a look at your
faces."
While William was making them stand up in line against the wall, one of
the largest drew a navy revolver quickly and fired straight at William's
stomach, the ball just cutting the flesh on his left side. At the same
instant, the young fellow previously mentioned, darted out the door,
Connell having sprang to William's side, thinking him seriously wounded.
Connell's approach prevented William from returning the fire of the tall
man, who had jumped for the door also the moment he had fired. William
fired two shots at him through the doorway, and Connell followed him
instantly, on seeing that William was unhurt. Once outside, the tall
fellow sprang behind a large cottonwood tree and fired back at Connell
and William, who were in full view on the porch. The second shot struck
Connell in the pit of the stomach, and he fell backward. At this
moment, the powerful ruffian, Burtine, seized William from behind and
tried to drag him down, at the same time calling for a shot-gun "to
finish the Yankee------------." Turning suddenly upon his assailant,
William raised his revolver, a heavy Tranter, and brought it down twice,
with all his force, upon Burtine's head. The man staggered at the first
blow and fell at the second, so that, by leveling his revolver at the
other two, William was able to cow them into submission. The affray had
passed so quickly that it was wholly over before Gordon and Bledsoe
could reach the house, though they had sprung from their horses on
hearing the first shot.
[Illustration: _The fight at Lester's Landing._--_Page_--]
The two men had escaped by this time into the dense cane-brake back of
the house, and it was necessary to attend to those who had been secured,
and to examine the injuries of Connell and Burtine. The latter's head
was in a pretty bad condition, though no serious results were likely to
follow, while Connell had escaped a mortal wound by the merest hair's
breadth. He was dressed in a heavy suit of Kentucky jeans, with large
iron buttons down the front of the coat. The ball had struck one of
these buttons, and, instead of passing straight through his vitals, it
had glanced around his side, cutting a deep flesh furrow nearly to the
small of his back, where it had gone out. The shock of the blow had
stunned him somewhat, the button having been forced edgewise some
distance into the flesh, but his wound was very trifling, and he was
able to go on with the search with very little inconvenience. Having
captured three out of the five inmates of the cabin, William felt as
though he had done as much as could have been expected of two men under
such circumstances, and he then began a search of the premises to see
whether any evidence of their connection with the robbery could be
found. Absolutely no clue whatever was obtained in the cabin and barn,
nor did the store afford any better results so far as the robbery was
concerned, but on this point William was already satisfied, and he was
anxious to get all information possible about these so-called
storekeepers. In the store, he found bills and invoices showing that the
stock of goods had been purchased in Evansville, but there was no other
writing of any character except some scribbling, apparently done in an
idle moment, upon some fragments of paper in a drawer. On one was
written: "Mrs. Kate Graham, Farmington, Ill."; and on another, amid many
repetitions of the name, "Kate Graham," were the words, "My dear
cousin."
Having found very little of value, the party returned to the three
prisoners and closely examined them. To William's intense chagrin, he
found that these men were, undoubtedly, mere wood-choppers living with
Lester and having no connection with the proprietors of the store.
Although desperate, brutal, and reckless, ready for a fight at all
times, as shown in this affray, they were clearly not the train robbers,
while it was equally evident that the two who had escaped were the
guilty parties.
William learned that the young man who had first slipped out was Barton,
and the man who had done the shooting was Russell. Clark, they said, had
taken the steamer for Cape Girardeau, Missouri, two days before,
accompanied by a married woman, named Slaughter. The description of the
train robbers tallied so well with the appearance of Barton and Russell,
that, taking their actions into consideration, there could no longer be
any doubt of their complicity in the affair, and it was highly provoking
that these two should have escaped. Still, it was an accident which
could hardly have been avoided. The fact that the express company would
not consent to the employment of a larger force of detectives was the
principal cause of this misfortune, for it could have been prevented
easily, had William been accompanied by two more good men of my force.
As it was, two detectives, dropping unexpectedly upon a nest of five
villainous-looking men in the dark, could have hardly hoped to do better
than to secure three of them. It could not have been supposed that they
would know which were the important ones to capture, especially as they
could not distinguish one from another in the uncertain light. Indeed,
as afterward appeared, they were fortunate in having escaped alive, for
the close approach to fatal wounds, which they both received, showed how
deadly had been the intentions of the man Russell, while Burtine had
evidently intended that they should never leave the house alive.
It may be supposed that the shooting on both sides was none of the best,
but it must be remembered that it began without warning, and was over in
two minutes. It cannot be expected that snap-shooting, even at close
quarters, should be very accurate; yet it was afterward learned that
Russell's escape had been about as narrow as William's, two balls having
passed through his clothes and grazed his flesh.
CHAPTER IV.
_The Captured Ruffians are desired for Guides, but dare not join in
the Search for the Outlaws.--One of the Robbers is Taken, but
subsequently Escapes from the Amateur Detectives.--Another
Clue suddenly Fails._
Having searched the whole place, and satisfied himself that the men
captured had had no connection with the robbery or the robbers, William
offered them one hundred dollars to act as guides through the cane-brake
to arrest Barton and Russell. They said they could not if they would,
since no man could find his way there in broad daylight, much less at
night. They further admitted that they dare not attempt it, as Russell
would kill them if they learned of their action. It was now pitch dark,
and after a vain attempt to beat through the cane in search of the
fugitives, William decided to return to Mr. Merrick's until next day.
The next morning at daybreak he started back for Lester's, accompanied
by a number of the cane-brake population, all of whom were anxious to
secure the one hundred dollars reward. They had long suspected the men
at the store of being desperadoes, but they had had a wholesome fear of
them on account of their fierce ways and their reckless habit of drawing
their revolvers on slight provocation.
On arriving at Lester's, the party found that Lester had returned from
Hickman during the night. He was a treacherous-looking scoundrel, and
his reputation was bad, although he had never been caught in any crime
in that vicinity. His name, John Wesley Lester, showed that he must have
once belonged to a pious Methodist family, and, indeed, he claimed to
have once been a Methodist preacher himself. He had sunken eyes, milky
white, and his hair was lank and long; his complexion was dark, cheeks
hollow, chin pointed, and forehead low. His manner was fawning and
obsequious to those above him, and he looked and acted like a second
"Uriah Heap." He pretended to know nothing of Russell, Clark, and
Barton, except that they had come to his place in July, built the store
there, and had been around the landing more or less ever since. He said
that he knew nothing against them, except that they were gamblers, and
that they often went off on gambling excursions, during one of which,
according to their own statements, they had killed a man in a quarrel.
William learned from Lester's daughter that Barton had returned during
the night to get a shawl, blanket, and two shot-guns. He had told her
that Russell was hurt pretty badly, but that they intended to take the
first packet down the river. From other parties William learned that the
packet Julia had passed down during the night, and had stopped at a
point about seven miles below, having been hailed from the bank. He did
not place much faith in the theory that the men had taken passage by the
Julia, for the reason that Lester's girl was too anxious to tell the
story of the route Barton proposed taking. He discovered that Barton had
been paying lover-like attentions to the girl, and he believed that
Barton had instructed her to say that he intended taking the next
packet, in order to give them a false scent. Having set the men of the
neighborhood at work searching for Russell and Barton, William returned
to Union City.
From Hickman Connell was sent to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to capture
Clark, who was said to have gone there three days before.
On the arrival of William in Union City, the superintendent telegraphed
to me the result of William's visit to Lester's Landing, and authorized
me to send an operative to Farmington, Illinois, to hunt up Mrs. Kate
Graham, and learn what she could tell about Russell, Clark, and Barton.
A man was sent there the next day, and he had no difficulty in finding
Mrs. Graham, who proved to be the wife of a highly respectable business
man. She was a member of the church, and was held in high esteem by
every one acquainted with her. My agent, therefore, called upon her
without any circumlocution or deception, and asked to see her on
business. She was confined to her room by illness, but she saw him for a
few minutes, and answered his questions so frankly that there was no
doubt she was telling the truth. She stated that she was not acquainted
with any one living at Lester's Landing; that she did not know, nor ever
had known, any persons of the names given (Russell, Clark, and Barton);
and that she knew no one who would answer to their descriptions. This
clue seemed to come to an end very quickly, yet it afterward proved to
be the means by which we captured one of the gang, and it was a striking
instance of the necessity for the most careful and minute inquiry upon
every point of news obtained, especially upon those received directly
from the criminals themselves.
On the 3d of November, Connell went with a constable to the house of
Mrs. Gully, the mother of Clark's companion, Mrs. Slaughter, and there
he found them both. Clark was surprised by the officers, but he made a
bold fight, and was overpowered with difficulty. When finally handcuffed
and searched, a navy revolver and fifty dollars in money were taken
from him; he was then taken nine miles on horseback to Cape Girardeau,
where Connell obtained a light wagon to drive sixteen miles to
Allenville, on the railroad leading to Hickman. On this trip Connell
made the mistake of trusting to handcuffs alone, instead of securely
fastening his prisoner's feet with rope. The idea that one man in
handcuffs could escape from two active, unimpeded men did not, however,
occur to Connell, and so the constable drove the horse, while Clark and
Connell occupied the back seat. In justice to Connell, it should be
stated that he had been constantly in the saddle for several days in raw
and rainy weather, and had had very little sleep for two nights
previous.
About nine o'clock in the evening, when only a mile from Allenville,
Clark suddenly made a leap out of the wagon. The horse was jogging along
at a good trot, and, though Connell sprang after his prisoner instantly,
it was a couple of minutes before the constable could follow. As he ran,
Connell fired at the dim figure disappearing in the thick brush; but the
next instant he pitched headlong into a deep mud-hole, and, by the time
he got out, the cylinder of his revolver was choked with mud, and Clark
was far in advance. The chase was kept up as long as the pursuers were
able to distinguish the direction of his flight, but, in the darkness of
the gloomy woods, it was impossible to follow an athletic fellow like
Clark with any hope of success. Connell returned to Union City very
much crestfallen, and reported his misfortune. My first feeling, on
learning the news, was one of deep regret and anxiety at the loss of one
of the leaders of the gang; my second thought was one of profound
thankfulness that my men were in no way responsible for it. The
situation was an illustration of the disappointments and difficulties
which are so often met in a detective's experience; and, though I felt
somewhat discouraged, I was more than ever determined that none of these
men should eventually escape, even though it should be necessary to
follow them for months.
The desire of the express company to employ as few as possible of my
operatives embarrassed me exceedingly, for William was obliged to depend
upon strangers, and he had little confidence in their ability or
discretion. He was now satisfied of the identity of the parties he was
in search of, and all that he needed was a small force of experienced
and reliable men.
Had I been limited and interfered with in the Maroney case, described in
"The Expressman and the Detective," as I was in this, there is no doubt
that I might have failed to capture the criminal; but the cordial
cooeperation and support of the Adams Express Company gave me a fair
opportunity to work to good advantage, and victory was the result.
CHAPTER V.
_A Rich Lead Struck at Last._
William was quite sure, from the reputation and actions of Russell,
Clark, and Barton, that they had been the leaders in the robbery, and he
believed that Lester could give important information about them; he
therefore caused Lester to be brought to Union City, and, on November 5,
he succeeded in getting a statement of the doings of these men since
Lester had known them. The important points developed were as follows:
They came to Lester's Landing in the middle of July, and built their
store. They were rarely there together, as they would go off for two or
three weeks at a time, leaving Barton or Clark in charge, and sometimes
putting Lester in as storekeeper during the absence of all three. On one
occasion, Russell showed him a pocket-book containing nearly one
thousand dollars, which he thought he had lost, but which he found under
a rail fence where he had hidden it; the other men, also, seemed to have
plenty of money. About the middle of October, the three storekeepers
went away, and were gone until October 24, three days after the robbery,
on which day Lester met Clark and Barton walking toward his house, on
the way from Hickman. They seemed quite excited, and said that they had
been engaged in a difficulty, but they did not state what it was. They
asked him whether he had seen Russell recently, and also whether there
was a skiff at his landing; both questions were answered negatively, and
they passed on toward the store, while Lester continued his walk to
Hickman. On his return at night, he found that Clark and Barton had been
across the river all day, scouting the Missouri shore for Russell, and
that shortly after their return, Russell had come across the river in a
skiff. Russell said that he had been shot, but that he was not much
hurt, and he did not seem to act as if he had been hurt at all. Sunday
morning, October 29, Clark took passage in a steamer for Cape Girardeau,
having Mrs. Slaughter in company, and it was understood that he was
going with Mrs. Slaughter to the house of her mother, nine miles from
the Cape. Tuesday evening, William and Connell arrived at Lester's, the
fight took place, and Barton and Russell escaped. After the detectives
had gone back to Campbell's, Barton returned to the house and obtained a
shawl, blanket, and two shot-guns; he said that they would never be
taken alive, but that Russell had been badly wounded by one of the
detectives. William had left two men at the landing the next day to
capture the men if they returned, but they were afraid to attempt it,
although they had a good opportunity that night. Russell came into the
house alone, showing no signs of having been wounded, and said that he
and Barton had joined four friends, who were outside waiting for him;
that they were all well mounted and armed, and that they intended to
kill any one who should betray them or attempt their capture. He added
that they intended to make their way on horseback to Alabama, and that
they were strong enough to fight their way through, if necessary. Of
course, Russell's object was to frighten the detectives and others who
were searching for him, as he had no one with him except Barton.
Among other points of value in Lester's statement, was some incidental
information relative to the men, which he had learned during the time
they boarded with him. He had heard Clark say that his mother lived
sixty miles back of Nashville, and Russell had once run a stationary
engine in Missouri. Lester was shown the satchel found on the engine
after the robbery, and he recognized it as having been left at his house
once by a wood-chopper named Bill Taylor, who lived in the cane-brake,
some distance below him. He said that the three men each carried a navy
revolver and a derringer, while Russell had also a new, large-sized
Smith & Wesson revolver.
Meantime, the telegraph had been used constantly to learn something
about the three men, Russell, Clark, and Barton, from whatever source
information could be obtained. Barton was well known in Nashville, New
Madrid, and Union City. He was quite young, but he had been involved in
a stabbing affray in Nashville, and was regarded as a desperate
character. He had been respectably brought up by Major Landis, General
Agent of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, and had been given a
place in the employ of that road, with good prospects for promotion.
Having become dissipated and hardened, he had been discharged from his
position, and Major Landis had cast him off; thenceforward, his career
had been rapid in the downward direction.
With regard to the other two men, little could be learned, until a rich
lead was struck on the seventh of November. The corrected descriptions
of the different parties having been sent to all the agents of the
express company, Mr. Charles Pink, agent at Cairo, recognized Russell as
a man who had sent eight hundred dollars in currency from Cairo to Mrs.
M. Farrington, Gillem Station, Tennessee, on the eleventh of September,
and who had then started, according to his own statement, for his home
in Illinois. Mr. Pink also stated that the chief of police in Cairo
claimed to know Russell, and to be able to find him--for a sufficient
consideration. Not having any use for the services of this disinterested
officer, his offer was politely declined.
The superintendent of the express company was strongly impressed with
the belief that Russell and Barton were lurking around Lester's, and so,
while William went to Nashville to see what could be learned about
Barton and his companions, a number of men were hired to scour the
country, hunt through the brake, and guard the Mississippi ferries,
while Connell and Crowley, the express messenger, were placed on the
Missouri bank, to scout that side of the river. I may say here, _en
passant_, that, with the exception of the two named, these men were a
source not only of great unnecessary expense to the company, but of
vexation and hindrance to William. In most cases, their scouting
consisted in riding the high-roads from one tavern to another, and in
order to have something to show for their work, they would bring in
every species of wild and foolish rumor that they could discover or
invent. As the superintendent frequently desired that these reports
should be investigated, much valuable time was thus wasted. These men
were not only employed without my advice, but they were retained long
after I had urgently requested the discharge of the whole party, and I
had great difficulty in obtaining their discharge, even after I was
positively sure that the robbers had crossed the Mississippi and escaped
into Missouri.
William spent one day in Nashville, and then went to Gillem Station,
where he learned that Mrs. Farrington, to whom Russell had sent eight
hundred dollars from Cairo, lived on an old, worn-out farm, and passed
for a rich widow. She had three sons--Hillary, Levi, and Peter, the
latter being quite young. Hillary and Levi Farrington bore a very bad
reputation, having been mixed up in all kinds of fights and quarrels for
a number of years. They were suspected of horse-stealing and
counterfeiting; but most people were afraid of them, and they had never
been arrested in that vicinity. William here learned, also, that Barton
had been a frequent visitor at the Farringtons', and that he was as bad
as the others. While at Gillem Station, William met Pete Farrington, the
youngest of the three brothers, and his resemblance to Russell, whose
face William had seen by the dim firelight and the flash of his pistol
in the cabin at Lester's Landing, caused a sudden possibility to flash
across his mind. He reasoned out the connection of the different facts
about as follows:
"Russell was, undoubtedly, one of the Moscow and Union City robbers, and
he obtained a considerable share of the plunder; two months after the
first robbery, I find that he sent eight hundred dollars to Mrs.
Farrington; this establishes the connection of those two persons. Barton
was one of the actors in both robberies, also, and I find that he was
formerly intimate with Mrs. Farrington and her sons; another link. Pete
Farrington bears a strong resemblance to Russell, their peculiar Roman
noses, with a lump in the middle, being exactly alike, and this creates
a strong presumption that they belong to the same family. Now, Russell
and Clark were so similar in their general appearance, that many people
who have seen them together believe them to have been brothers. Hillary
and Levi Farrington, I am told, also closely resemble each other, and
they have not been seen about here for some months, they being,
according to their mother's account, in Texas. The chain of evidence is
very complete; what if Russell and Clark should prove to be the
Farrington brothers!"
CHAPTER VI.
_The Mother of the Farringtons, being arrested, boasts that her Sons
"Will never be taken Alive."--Another Unfortunate Blunder by
Amateur Detectives.--An interesting Fate intended for the
Detectives.--William A. Pinkerton captures the Murderer of a
Negro in Union City, proving "a very good Fellow--for a
Yankee."--An Unfortunate Publication.--Nigger-Wool Swamp and
its Outlaws._
The more William thought about it, the more convinced he became that his
theory was correct, and he took steps to verify his suspicions by
placing a watch upon Mrs. Farrington's movements. He also made
arrangements to get possession of any letters that might come for her,
and then, being hastily recalled by the superintendent of the express
company, he hurried back to Union City.
He there learned that, during his absence, Clark had talked with both
Lester and his wife. The latter had warned him of his danger, and he had
then disappeared in the cane-brake. The men stationed at Lester's for
the express purpose of arresting any of the robbers who might come
there, had been either unaware of Clark's visit, or else they had been
afraid to attempt his capture, and he had escaped again when almost
within our grasp. William had, therefore, been called back by telegraph
to take charge of the men engaged in beating through the cane-brake, as
it had been clearly demonstrated that, without a determined leader,
these men were no more useful than a flock of sheep. The hunt went on
for several days with no results whatever, while at the same time scouts
patroled the highways, and other men kept watch upon the ferries and
fords for many miles around.
While this was going on, the express agent at Gillem Station was keeping
a close watch upon Mrs. Farrington, when suddenly she announced her
intention of going to join her sons in Texas. Instead of sending word to
William at once, the agent began operations on his own account, and when
Mrs. Farrington arrived at Waverly, Tennessee, he caused her arrest. She
had started with two new wagons and a complete outfit for an overland
journey of some length, so that her progress could not have been very
rapid, and nothing would have been lost by waiting for instructions; but
the insane desire to play detective seemed to overpower all other
considerations in the minds of the company's agents, and she was
arrested by the sheriff and a _posse_ of citizens. Her salutation to the
officer who stopped her settled the question of identity at once, for,
on being told that she would be obliged to let him search her wagons for
certain men, she replied:
"Oh! yes; I know what you want. You would like to find my two sons and
Barton for the express robbery; but you will never catch them, for they
are not now in this country, and they will never be taken alive."
This piece of information led the express agent to take the only
sensible step of his whole proceeding. Mrs. Farrington had two negro
families with her, some of whom had belonged to her before the war; and,
with the personal attachment noticeable in many of the colored people,
they were now desirous of going West with her. It occurred to the agent
that some of them, from their confidential relations to the family,
might be able to give some information as to the whereabouts of the
boys. The negroes were, therefore, taken separately and closely
examined, until one of the men was urgently persuaded to reveal what he
knew. He said that Levi, Hillary, and Barton had committed the robbery,
and that they had since been at Mrs. Farrington's together. According to
an agreement between the mother and her sons, she was to start for
Texas, passing through Nigger-Wool Swamp, on the west side of the
Mississippi, and the two eldest sons were to meet her in the swamp, when
they would determine where to go.
The agent also learned that the men had arrived at their mother's house
Friday evening, November 10, and that a man who had gone there to sell
her a wagon had been met by Hillary Farrington with a shot-gun; on
seeing that it was a neighbor, however, Hillary had lowered his gun and
allowed him to come in. It was also learned that the three desperadoes
had been seen at the house of the Farringtons' uncle, named Douglas, on
Hurricane Creek, about ten miles from Waverly; again, on Monday, they
had been noticed at Hurricane Mills, making their way to Fowler's
Landing, on the Tennessee River between Florence and Johnsonville,
fourteen miles from the last-named place. It was evident that they
intended to strike across the country below Reel's Foot Lake, and cross
the Mississippi at some point between Columbus and Memphis. The men were
all well mounted and armed, and they had changed their personal
appearance somewhat by altering the arrangement of their hair, whiskers,
and beards.
The arrest of Mrs. Farrington was a most unfortunate blunder, since it
disclosed to the criminals how close had been their pursuit, while
little really important information was obtained. It was a good
illustration of the danger of taking any decided step in a criminal
investigation before knowing to a certainty that some good result would
be obtained. The parties thus learned that we were not only aware of
their identity, but also that we were very close upon their track, and
the danger, as well as the difficulty, of the case was largely
increased. These men were desperadoes of the most reckless type, and
they would not have hesitated a moment to lie in ambush and kill their
pursuers, if they had found it possible to do so.
In order to intercept the fugitives before reaching the swampy country
near the Mississippi, the number of scouts and patrolling parties was
increased by the superintendent of the express company, and two men,
named Ball and Bledsoe, were engaged to follow Mrs. Farrington on
horseback until her sons should join her in Nigger-Wool Swamp. This
would have been a sensible and necessary move if the right kind of men
had been employed; but the selection of untrained men for the delicate
and important work of "shadowing" such an experienced gang of villains
was risky in the extreme. Had they ever met Barton and the Farringtons,
the latter would have undoubtedly murdered both of them without scruple;
but there was no danger of such a meeting, since the robbers, and Mrs.
Farrington also, were perfectly aware of the presence of their pursuers
from the start. Indeed, they afterward stated that it had been their
intention to have led the detectives on as far as the wild, unsettled
country of Western Missouri, and to have then hanged them in some
unfrequented spot, placing the inscription "Horse-thief" upon each of
the bodies. Subsequent events prevented them from carrying out this
plan, but there was no doubt that they would have taken that or some
other equally daring means of ridding themselves of pursuit. The manner
in which Ball and Bledsoe exposed their intentions wherever they went
showed the inexperience of both men in such work; for, along the whole
route over which they passed, they were known as officers tracking a
band of thieves; and we afterward learned that, while they were
innocently and unsuspectingly following Mrs. Farrington, two of the men,
Barton and Clark, were almost continually watching them. However, they
had been started on their mission by the superintendent before William
could make any other arrangements, as he was away at Lester's Landing
when the chase began.
From William's reports to me, I saw the uselessness of maintaining such
a body of men in the work of scouting, watching ferries, and beating the
cane-brake, for the reason that no good could come of it. I knew that if
the robbers could escape from Lester's Landing and make their way to
Gillem Station once, they could do it again. Clark (or Hillary
Farrington) had been at Lester's early Thursday morning, while guards
were stationed all about; yet, on Saturday morning he was at his
mother's farm, and no one had even seen him on the way. This convinced
me that they had such a knowledge of the country as to make it
impossible to stop them by any system of guards or patrols, and I
therefore wrote several letters asking that the superintendent discharge
this expensive force at once, and allow me to manage the whole operation
by my own plans and with my own men. While William, therefore, was at
work with indefatigable energy and perseverance, scouting and following
up all the reports brought in by the vast army of volunteer detectives
in the company's employ, we were both satisfied that the method adopted
was useless, and that even the ferry guards would discover nothing.
Knowing the character of the three desperadoes, I had no doubt of their
sagacity in avoiding observation and pursuit; they would never try to
cross without knowing positively whether the ferry was guarded, and if
there should be any real danger, they would undoubtedly steal a skiff
and make their horses swim across the river, a feat of no great risk in
the then low condition of the water.
About this time an incident occurred which added greatly to William's
popularity in Union City, and gained for him the respect and kindly
feeling of the community. On Sunday two roughs, having drank enough bad
whisky to be absolutely fiendish, began to beat an old and inoffensive
negro whom they happened to meet. A merchant, named Blakemore, who was
passing at the time, stopped to remonstrate with the ruffians, when one
of them turned and plunged a knife into his stomach, inflicting a wound
which caused his death next day. The murderer was the terror of the
town, and so great was the fear of him that he would have probably
escaped had not William appeared on the street as he rushed away
flourishing his bloody knife and threatening to kill any one who should
stand in his way. The sight of William's heavy revolver leveled at his
head, backed by the certainty which he saw in William's face that death
or surrender was his only alternative, caused him to choose the latter,
and he was lodged in jail to await his trial for murder. The people of
the town were quite enthusiastic over the way in which William had
brought the fellow to bay, and then compelled his surrender; and they
even went so far as to say that he was "a good fellow, a very good
fellow indeed--for a Yankee."
On the twentieth of November an unfortunate publicity was given to our
operations by the publication in the Union City _Journal_ of a long
history of the Farringtons, showing their whole career of crime, and
terminating with an account of their latest exploit, as developed by our
investigations in and about Union City. It is unnecessary to state the
source whence this information was derived, further than to say that it
was not obtained from any member of my force. It was a very dangerous
piece of news to be published, since it might have wholly overthrown all
our plans, besides involving the death of two or three men engaged in
the operation; fortunately, the robbers were undoubtedly across the
Mississippi by that time, and beyond the reach of newspapers for some
weeks at least.
On the same day that this matter was published, Mrs. Farrington crossed
the Mississippi River at Bird's Point, opposite Cairo, and the fact was
reported to William and to me by telegraph. We had previously learned
that Mrs. Farrington had relatives in Springfield, Missouri, and in Dade
County, in the same State, and the probabilities were that, instead of
going to Texas, she was going to visit in one of these places.
Meanwhile, though my opinion was that her sons intended to rejoin her
somewhere, either in Nigger-Wool Swamp or at her place of destination, I
had no certainty that such was their intention; and, bearing in mind the
warning they had received by her arrest at Waverly (and possibly by
reading the newspaper article previously mentioned), I felt that every
clue must be carefully traced, even though it might lead in an exactly
opposite direction from that in which our previous suspicions had caused
us to look. My correspondents and agents in Louisville, Cincinnati, St.
Louis, and New Orleans were, therefore, kept on the alert to capture the
men if they should venture into those cities, while I held three
determined men ready to go at once in pursuit of Mrs. Farrington, in
case she should take the route through Nigger-Wool Swamp.
It will be remembered that one of the negroes accompanying Mrs.
Farrington had stated that her sons were to join her in that swamp; now,
there were three possibilities about this statement: first, the negro
might have lied; second, he might have been so informed by the old lady
on purpose to give a false scent in case he should be questioned; and,
third, while their intention might have been to meet there, subsequent
events might have altered their plans. Still, thinking the subject over
carefully, I decided that she would not take so difficult a course
unless she really intended to meet her sons there. My reasons for so
thinking were based upon the nature of the place, and, to comprehend my
solicitude about Nigger-Wool Swamp, a description of it will be
necessary.
The swamp is more than seventy miles long by about thirty-five miles
wide, and, as a piece of bottomless ooze, its superior cannot be found
in the United States. There are just two roads crossing it, one running
from Hall's Ferry, at Point Pleasant, Missouri, and the other from
Mitchell's Ferry, thirty-five miles below. These roads are mere
bog-paths in themselves, being heavily overlaid with underbrush and
corduroy logs, yet they afford the only means of crossing this vast
morass. The period of the annual overflow turns it into a turbid,
sluggish lake, the roads being then deeply buried under water; but even
in the dryest seasons the greater portion of the swamp is a bottomless
slime of mud and putrefying vegetation. Large tracts of thickly-wooded
land are contained within the limits of the swamp, and these constitute
a semi-substantial basis for the two roads which run through them; but
even these clumps are impassable at most seasons, except along the
artificially-constructed roads. Sometimes, for miles and miles, nothing
but the rankest of swamp-vegetation is seen, growing in wild profusion
and covering the treacherous ooze with a close network of leaves and
branches, until the surface looks firm enough to be taken for solid
ground; but should any unfortunate traveler venture to cross such a
spot, his limbs would be clogged by these clinging water-plants, his
feet would find no secure resting-place, and, sinking rapidly deeper and
deeper into the mire, his bones would find a sepulcher where nothing but
a general natural convulsion would ever disturb them.
Still, there are occasional islands of firm ground through this section,
and these have become the resort of lawless characters of every
nationality and degree of crime. Over the entrance to Nigger-Wool Swamp
might be placed, with perfect truthfulness, the motto: "Who enters here
leaves hope behind." Each man is a law unto himself, and he must
maintain his rights by the strong arm and the ready shot-gun. In one
thing only are the dwellers of the swamp united, namely: a bitter and
deadly resistance to the law. No officer of justice ventures therein to
perform any of the duties of his office; unless backed by a powerful
body of determined men, he would never return alive, and, if so
accompanied, he would never succeed in catching a glimpse of any
criminal whom he might be seeking.
About the middle of the swamp, the two roads cross each other at a spot
called "The Gates," and every person traveling through either way must
pass this place. Knowing this fact, I felt sure that Mrs. Farrington
would await the arrival of her sons at "The Gates," in case she entered
the swamp, and I determined that, in such an event, I should try to
capture them there. I was fully aware of the danger of such an attempt,
but I knew that to take the bull by the horns is sometimes the safest
means of overpowering him. To send officers to that point with the
avowed purpose of arresting any one, would be equivalent to sending them
to their certain death, and I had no intention of doing anything of the
kind; but I had men of my force who could visit Nigger-Wool Swamp for
the professed purpose of hiding there from pursuit for alleged crimes,
and, when the moment came for action, I did not doubt that they would
bring out their men before the neighboring outlaws could discover their
object.
Everything depended upon the course Mrs. Farrington should take on
leaving the Mississippi River, since by striking north from the point
where she crossed, she could skirt the edge of the swamp, while if she
turned south toward Point Pleasant, I should know that she intended to
carry out her original programme. This question was quickly settled,
however, not only by the reports of the scouts, Ball and Bledsoe, who
were following Mrs. Farrington, but also by an unexpected piece of
intelligence from Gillem Station. Mrs. Farrington moved about twenty or
twenty-five miles each day, and, from the fact that she went north to
Fredericktown, there was no doubt that she had changed her plan of
meeting her sons in Nigger-Wool Swamp.
CHAPTER VII.
_The Scene of Action transferred to Missouri.--The Chase becoming
Hot._
On the twenty-second of November, William learned that a letter had
arrived at Gillem Station, postmarked Verona, Missouri, November 13, and
he immediately took measures to obtain this letter. Three days later he
learned its contents, which were of such an important character as to
give a new direction to our efforts. The letter read as follows:
"VERONA, MO., Nov. 13, 1871.
"MY DEAR COUSIN:
"I seat myself to answer your kind letter, which came to hand last
evening, and was glad to hear from you, and hear you was well and
doing well. I have nothing new to write, only that we are all well
at present, hoping that when these few lines come to hand they may
find you well and doing well as ever, as you say you have been
doing very well. It must be a good thing if it could stay so.
Sometimes it was well and sometimes it wasn't, but I hope it will
stay so, as you say it is a soft thing--as soft as things gets to
be. I would like to see something like that, you bet. You talk like
it can't be beat. That is the thing to take in. I think, and I know
you think it, for I saw your name. I guess I did see you. You know
Mr. Crapmel? He is a great fellow; you bet it is so. I have nothing
more to write at present, as you said you are going to start out
here. You said you was coming by here. Cousin, if you do come by,
we don't live where we did when you were here; we live two miles
nearer Verona. Come the same road. We live now half mile off the
road on John Ellis' place. You can find out where we live anywhere.
Come out the same road you did when you came before. John Timothy
has just come out here; has been out here about three weeks. He is
well satisfied here. So I will close for this time.
"From your cousin,
"J. M. DURHAM.
"M. F. sends her love to all of the family. Excuse my bad writing
and bad spelling."
It was evident that Mrs. Farrington had previously written to her cousin
informing him of her intention to visit him soon, and this letter was
intended to direct her to the new location. The allusions in the letter
to the "good thing" in which she was engaged showed that the writer had
been made aware of the Farringtons' success as express robbers, and that
he quite approved of their operations.
On reading this letter, William sent a copy to me immediately, and
suggested that one or two good men be sent to Verona to get work near
this man Durham, and to get into the confidence of the family, so that,
when Mrs. Farrington should arrive, she would not be likely to suspect
any one who had come before her. I fully approved of William's plan,
and, on the last day of November, Detectives George W. Cottrell and
Arthur C. Marriott started for Verona. I inferred that the people in
that vicinity were rather lawless and desperate characters, from the
fact that Durham spoke of "John Timothy" being well satisfied there. On
the principle that "birds of a feather flock together," I judged the
Farringtons, the Durhams, and this fellow Timothy to belong to the same
type of people; hence, I concluded that, if Durham and Timothy were
satisfied with the country, the people living there must be congenial
spirits, especially since Mrs. Farrington was about to make a place of
refuge in that vicinity.
My two men were detained a day in St. Louis, and they did not arrive in
Verona until the second of December. The first thing they noticed about
the town was the total absence of liquor saloons, and a few minutes'
conversation with one or two of the citizens convinced them that no more
orderly, honest, law-abiding community existed in Missouri than the
population of Lawrence County. This discovery made a marked change in
their plans necessary, as my instructions to them had been based upon
the supposition that they would find a number of robbers, horse-thieves,
and counterfeiters around Verona, and that they would be easily able to
get Durham's confidence by appearing as reckless and desperate as any
one. They had each prepared a choice autobiography for use among the
residents, and, according to their own intended accounts of themselves,
two greater scoundrels never went unhung.
All this was necessarily useless in the changed circumstances
surrounding them. To attempt the _role_ of criminal characters, hiding
from justice, would quickly cause their banishment from the place, or
possibly their arrest, and a new plan was essential. Their instructions
had been that they should not put any confidence in any one, and they
were obliged to invent a plausible reason for their presence there; also
to have some business which would enable them to ride about the country,
making inquiries and scouting for Mrs. Farrington and her sons.
Finding that the railroad company had a land agent in Verona, Cottrell
decided to represent themselves as would-be purchasers of land. This
would give them an excuse for going all over the county, examining
different farms and unimproved tracts. They were introduced to Mr.
Purdy, the land agent, by the hotel clerk, and from him they obtained a
map of the county. It was then agreed that Mr. Purdy should go out with
Cottrell and Marriott on Tuesday, December 5, to look at some pieces of
property which the railroad company wished to sell. During Sunday and
Monday both of the detectives were trying to learn where Durham lived,
but no one seemed to know; neither could any one tell them anything
about John Ellis, upon whose farm Durham had said he was living. The
idea that Mrs. Farrington was rapidly pushing west, toward Durham's
place, made Cottrell very anxious to begin operations as quickly as
possible, since, if she should arrive before the detectives were
established in the vicinity, there would be great difficulty in working
into her confidence, as she would instantly suspect their true
character; whereas, if she should find them already there, she would
have no possible occasion to distrust them. They therefore thought best
to confide the real object of their visit to Mr. Purdy, the land agent,
and to ask his advice and assistance. Mr. Purdy had been an officer in
the Union army during the war of the rebellion, and had settled in
Verona at the close of the war. He was evidently an honorable man, who
would always be found on the side of law and order, and as he was very
popular in Verona, he would be able to give them a great deal of
assistance in capturing the Farrington party. On communicating with me
by telegraph on this point, they stated the facts briefly, and I
authorized them to confer with Mr. Purdy on the subject, at the same
time forwarding full instructions by letter.
On Tuesday, therefore, they told the whole story to Mr. Purdy, and
showed him their credentials. He was quite astonished at their
revelations, but he was very hearty and sincere in his expressions of
good will toward them, and he promised to aid them in every possible
way. He knew John Ellis quite well, having sold him the farm on which
he was living, and he had heard of Durham, who hired a small portion of
the Ellis farm. He said that if force should be necessary to capture the
Farrington party, he could raise fifty determined men in ten minutes to
help the officers. He said that after the war Verona had been a very bad
place for a short time, but that, as Eastern men began to settle there,
the respectable people had tried to drive out the hard cases; this had
been slow work at first, but they eventually had been completely
successful; they not only had driven out the dangerous characters, but
they had closed all the liquor saloons also; and now, having once got
rid of them, they would take care not to let any of that class of people
back again.
Mr. Purdy was called away for a day or two on business, but he promised,
on his return, to go with the detectives to Durham's place, and,
meantime, he said he would speak of them as gentlemen who intended
buying land in that section, and who wished to ride over the country
until they found a place which satisfied them. During the next three
days, therefore, they learned nothing new, their time being occupied in
scouting the road along which they expected Mrs. Farrington to come.
Thus the first week of December passed, and the operation was not
progressing very favorably anywhere. Ball and Bledsoe had reported Mrs.
Farrington's route up to the thirtieth of November, and she had moved
quite rapidly up to that date, but nothing had been learned since, and I
expected to hear of her arrival at Verona every day. She had gone from
Cairo to Frederickstown, Missouri, and thence to Ironton; then, instead
of following a direct road, she had struck up north to Potosi, in
Washington County; again taking a westerly route, she had passed through
Steelville, Crawford County, and on the thirtieth of November, she had
camped at Waynesville, Pulaski County. Beyond this we knew nothing of
her movements, although by the eighth of December she had had ample time
to reach Verona.
William had spent this week in following up a clue received from
Louisville, Kentucky. It will be remembered that about November 9, a
pair of dashing women had been reported as having visited the banks in
Kansas City, trying to get large bills for about eight thousand dollars
in small bills. I had not believed the story at that time, and therefore
had taken no steps to follow them. When William learned from Louisville,
however, that a woman named Annie Martin, whom Levi Farrington had been
in the habit of supporting on the proceeds of his robberies, had been
staying there with another woman named Lillie Baker, who had sustained
the same relations to Barton, it occurred to him that these might have
been the women who were said to have been in Kansas City with so much
money. He started at once for Louisville, at the same time telegraphing
to me his suspicions in the matter, and I began inquiries again in
Kansas City by telegraph. I could learn very little except from the
teller of one bank, who described the women as well as he could remember
their appearance; but the description was not accurate enough to
determine whether these two women had or had not been Annie Martin and
Lillie Baker. In Louisville, however, William learned that these women
had been there recently, and they had appeared to be well supplied with
money. They had not remained very long, but had gone to New Orleans,
where they were then living in good style. As Mr. O'Brien, the general
superintendent of the express company, was in New Orleans, the
information was sent to him, and he agreed to have a sharp watch kept to
discover Farrington and Barton, in case they should follow these women.
On the eighth of December, Cottrell, Marriott, and Mr. Purdy started on
horseback to visit John Ellis's farm, where the Durhams lived. About a
mile before arriving there, they met a farmer named Wisbey, who was a
neighbor of Ellis and the Durhams. Without letting him into their
confidence, they talked with him a long time, and gradually drew out a
number of important facts. The Durham family consisted of two brothers
and a young sister living with their mother, old Mrs. Durham, and they
rented a small house on a part of the Ellis farm. Nothing positive had
ever been discovered against the character of either James or Tilman
Durham, but the neighbors had a poor opinion of them, and kept a pretty
close watch upon their actions. During the previous fall a young man
had visited them for some time, and his description was exactly that of
Levi Farrington; but Wisbey could not tell his name, though he promised
to learn it, and let Mr. Purdy know Mr. Wisbey was a downright honest,
intelligent man, and Mr. Purdy asked him to learn everything possible
about the Durhams and their visitors; in case any wagons should arrive,
it was agreed that he should send word to Mr. Purdy instantly. There was
no occasion for telling him the whole story, as he was quite willing to
undertake the trust on the strength of Mr. Purdy's request, without
asking further particulars; and, as he was a thoroughly discreet man,
there was little danger that he would betray his mission by idle
talking. The detectives and Mr. Purdy then returned to Verona, it being
considered undesirable that they should visit the Durhams, lest they
might possibly excite suspicion.
The day following their visit to Wisbey, he arrived in Verona and told
Cottrell that he had sent his son-in-law, Mr. Stone, to see Jim Durham,
and the latter had said that he was expecting the arrival of some
relatives very soon. He had learned further that the young man who had
visited Durham in the latter part of the previous September had given
his name as Levi Farrington, and had passed as the beau of the young
Durham girl. In speaking of him, Jim Durham had told Mr. Stone that he
did not wish his sister to marry Farrington, as the latter was a
dangerous man, and had recently killed a man in a quarrel, while those
who stood about were too much afraid of him to arrest him. Mr. Wisbey
then returned home, with instructions to alternate with Mr. Stone in
secretly watching Durham's place, so that every occurrence might be at
once reported.
On the tenth of December I received a dispatch from Mr. O'Brien, saying
that the express agent at Springfield, Missouri, had telegraphed to him
on the eighth that the wagons of Mrs. Farrington's party had camped five
miles from Springfield, and that the three men were known to be sixty
miles south of Rolla. Mr. O'Brien therefore requested me to send a good
detective to meet Connell in St. Louis, whence they would go together to
capture the men at Rolla. I at once sent one of my best men, named
Martin Galway, with instructions to join Connell, and, in case the Rolla
report should prove to be a false alarm, they were to go on to Verona to
assist Cottrell and Marriott. I had hardly completed my instructions to
Galway, ere I received a telegram in cipher from Cottrell, as follows:
"Levi Farrington and a man calling himself George Cousins are at
Durham's. They came on Thursday evening. Shall I arrest them? I can get
all the help I need."
I immediately replied, also by a cipher dispatch, as follows:
"Are you sure it is Levi Farrington? His brother and Barton will
probably be at Verona soon. We must get the whole. I think they will
come from Douglas County. Probably Connell and Galway will be with you
by Monday or Tuesday night; they can identify the men. Mrs. Farrington
will be at Durham's by Sunday night or Monday morning. Keep a cool,
clear head, and advise with Purdy. Have written by mail to-night. Keep
me posted. William will arrive by Tuesday."
At the same time I wrote full instructions to Cottrell, ordering him to
keep a close watch upon the men at Durham's, but to take no action until
William should arrive, unless they attempted to go away. I did not alter
Galway's instructions, but I telegraphed to William to start for Verona
at once, to take charge of the operations there. The chase was now
becoming hot, and a few days would decide the question of success or
failure. I had reason to believe that the outlaws would not be taken
without a desperate resistance, and I was anxious to have William
present to direct the attack.
On Sunday, the tenth, Cottrell and Marriott rode out to see Wisbey, who
met them just outside of Verona and informed them that Levi Farrington
had arrived at Jim Durham's late Thursday night, accompanied by a young
man named George Cousins. They did not receive my reply to their
telegram announcing this fact until late that day, and so they could do
nothing toward satisfying themselves as to Levi Farrington's identity
until next morning, when they visited Wisbey at his own house. Mr.
Stone, Wisbey's son-in-law, had met a man named Smothers, who worked
for Jim Durham, and Smothers had told him all about the two men who had
just arrived. According to their own account, they had left Mrs.
Farrington at Ash Grove, in Greene County, where she was going to buy a
farm, Levi having given her five thousand dollars for that purpose; Levi
and Cousins were on their way to Kansas, where they intended to settle
down to raise cattle; Levi's brother was said to be at Lester's Landing
for the purpose of selling off a stock of groceries which they owned
there. Both men were well armed, having three navy revolvers and a
shot-gun.
When this news was transmitted to me by telegraph, I decided that this
man Cousins must be Barton, and that Hillary Farrington might possibly
be at Lester's Landing, as they said. I therefore telegraphed to
William, who I knew would be in St. Louis that day, _en route_ to
Verona, that he had better take Connell and Galway back to Lester's to
capture Hillary, while Cottrell and Marriott undertook the arrest of
Levi and Barton at Durham's. I also sent a dispatch to Cottrell to take
no steps for their arrest until after William should have captured
Hillary.
William, having previously thoroughly examined the contents of the store
at Lester's, knew that they were not worth over two hundred dollars, and
he telegraphed me to that effect, suggesting that it was improbable that
Hillary should run so much risk for so small a sum. On learning this
fact, I coincided with him, and ordered him to go on to Verona, as I had
originally intended. I desired that he should keep the Durham place
carefully watched until the arrival of the other Farrington, who, I
believed, would soon join the rest of the party; then, in case he
arrived, we should get all three together; but, if the other two should
show any signs of moving off, they could be taken at any time.
Mr. O'Brien obtained requisitions from the Governor of Tennessee on the
Governor of Missouri for the three men, and I felt that success was only
delayed a day or two at most.
CHAPTER VIII.
_A determined Party of Horsemen.--The Outlaws surrounded and the
Birds caged.--A Parley.--An affecting Scene.--The burning
Cabin.--Its Occupants finally surrender._
While the telegrams were flying back and forth on Tuesday, the twelfth,
Cottrell and Marriott were busily engaged. Early that morning Mr. Stone
came to Verona, and told them that he had learned that Farrington and
Cousins intended to leave Durham's for the Indian Territory the next
day. The news was doubtless authentic, Stone having heard it from
Smothers, who had said that Farrington had told him so himself. It was
clearly impossible to wait for William's arrival, as, by that time, the
men might be safely hidden in the wild country to the westward. Instant
action was absolutely necessary, and Cottrell so informed Mr. Purdy, who
soon gathered a force of eight men. Very little would have been needed
to obtain even a larger number of recruits, for, had Mr. Purdy and the
detectives publicly told the story of the men whom they wished to
capture, there would have been plenty of eager volunteers, all anxious
to aid in ridding the country of such a band of outlaws. It was not
deemed advisable, however, to summon a large posse, lest the news might
spread so fast as to reach the ears of the criminals before the
detectives could surround them; on this account only a few reliable men
were let into the secret, and they left town singly and in pairs to
avoid observation, having a rendezvous outside.
Just before starting, Mr. Purdy received a dispatch from the general
land agent, ordering him to Pearce City instantly, as several purchasers
of land were awaiting him there; although he tried to have his visit
postponed one day, he was unsuccessful, his orders being imperatively
repeated by telegraph, and so he was unable to accompany the detectives
and citizens on their expedition to Durham's. The party of eight met the
detectives outside the town, and they were joined on their way by three
others, who lived on the road. They were all substantial business men
or farmers, but they were accustomed to a life in the saddle, and they
had all borne arms during the war on one side or the other. In spite of
their present peaceful occupations they were not a body who could be
trifled with, and it was evident that any gang of desperadoes would find
their match in these cool, determined, law-abiding men.
A few miles from Verona they met a young lady riding a large brown mule,
but none of the men in the party knew her. Cottrell felt sure, however,
that she was Durham's sister, and that she was riding Farrington's mule.
The descriptions he had received of the girl from Stone and Wisbey
coincided exactly with her appearance, while the mule could not be
mistaken. He therefore sent a man back to watch her, lest she should
have taken alarm at so large a cavalcade of armed men. She rode on to
Verona, however, without showing any signs of uneasiness, and the scout
soon overtook the party.
On arriving one mile from Wisbey's, Marriott went on to Stone's house
with six men, while Cottrell went to Wisbey's with the other five. Stone
and Wisbey soon gathered a number of the neighbors, among whom was John
Ellis, who owned the house and land where the Durhams were living; he
was a very highly respected citizen, and was not at all displeased at
the idea of getting rid of his semi-disreputable tenants. The management
of the affair was then unanimously voted to Cottrell, and the party
rode rapidly toward the Durham house. It was situated at the edge of a
clearing, with underbrush and woodland close to it on three sides, so
that great caution was necessary, lest the villains should see them
approaching, and escape into the woods. At a reasonable distance from
the house, therefore, the party divided, a part, under Marriott's
direction, dismounting and making their way to the rear of the house on
foot. When sufficient time had elapsed to enable the latter party to
surround the house, Cottrell, with the remainder, dashed up to the front
of the house and spread out, so as to make sure that no one should
escape. As they approached, a man, who proved to be Jim Durham, appeared
on the porch and asked what they wanted; to which Cottrell replied that
he wanted the men in the house.
The words had hardly passed his lips ere Barton sprang into the open
doorway with a navy revolver leveled at Cottrell; but, seeing that the
latter, as well as several others, had him covered, he shut the door
quickly and started for the back of the house. By this time, however,
the cordon of guards had drawn close around, and, as he emerged at the
rear, he found himself confronted by half a dozen determined men, who
ordered him to surrender. He then hastily tried to close the back door
also, and pointed his revolver through the crack; but the discharge of
several shots, which struck close to him, caused him to withdraw his
pistol and tightly close the door. It was evident that the birds were
caged at last, and it was now only a question of time when they would be
taken; as it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, there were still
four hours of daylight to conduct the siege.
Jim Durham, when he saw the rifles and revolvers of so large a force
pointed at him, was thoroughly frightened, and he begged piteously that
they would not shoot him. Cottrell placed his men behind trees, fences,
and other protections, so as to be safe from any attempt to pick them
off by the men in the house, and yet to guard every means of exit from
the place; he then called Jim Durham out and searched him, finding
nothing but a single-barreled pistol. He then sent Jim to the door of
the house to summon the men inside to surrender, telling them that he
was determined to have them--alive if possible, but if not, dead.
They refused to surrender, saying that they would kill any man who
should approach the house. When Durham brought back their answer,
Cottrell sent word that he would give them five minutes in which to
decide whether they would yield peaceably or be burned out and shot to
death. Just then Mrs. Durham, the mother of the Durham boys, begged
Cottrell to allow her to go speak to Farrington and Barton, as she
believed she could induce them to surrender. Accordingly, she went to
the front window and implored them not to have the house burned down, as
all her household goods would be destroyed. They replied that they might
as well die inside as to come out and be shot down. Cottrell sent back
word that they should be treated like all other prisoners if they would
pass out their arms and surrender quietly; but if they tried to fight or
resist, they would surely be killed.
As they still refused, Jim Durham was sent to barricade the doors with
fence rails, so that they should not be able to rush out unexpectedly.
He whined and complained that the men inside would shoot him, but he was
obliged to go, and though they did threaten him, he was able to crawl up
and lay the rails without getting within range. The house was a solid
log cabin, with only two doors and very few windows, so that it was
possible to approach it in one or two directions without exposure to a
fire from within. When the doors had been securely barricaded, Cottrell
ordered him to get on the roof, which was a common shingle roof, and set
fire to the house. Mrs. Durham was carrying on at a great rate, first
begging Farrington to surrender, and then praying to Cottrell not to
burn her property. John Ellis, to whom the house belonged, gave full
permission to burn it, and a fire was built in the open air to make
brands to set it afire.
Mrs. Durham was allowed to make one more appeal to the ruffians inside,
but they would not listen to her entreaties. They asked her, however,
what kind of a looking man Cottrell was, and what he wanted to arrest
them for. Cottrell was standing near enough to hear the question, and
after Mrs. Durham had described his appearance, he told them that he
wanted them for an express robbery; that he would treat them kindly if
they should yield peaceably; but if they should refuse this, his last
offer, he should set fire to the house and shoot them down as they ran
out. He said he had no wish to kill them, but that he was determined
they should not escape; rather than allow them to get away, he would
have them shot on sight; but they would be protected and brought to
trial if they would surrender.
To this they replied that they intended killing some of their besiegers
first, anyhow. Finding further parley useless, therefore, Cottrell gave
the order to burn the building, and Durham was forced to carry the
embers and brands to burn his own premises. Just at this time, the young
girl, whom they had met riding a mule toward Verona, rode up to the
house and asked what was the matter. As Cottrell had surmised, this was
Miss Durham, and she was very much frightened at what she saw.
The afternoon sun was buried in a deep bank of clouds, so that the
twilight was rapidly drawing on, there being just enough light to show
the barricaded doors, the deserted porch, and the determined men
scattered around, with shot-guns and rifles pointed at the low log
cabin, above which a frightened man stood out in bold relief against the
sky, tearing off the shingles and piling them upon a glowing flame at
his feet. Everything was now hushed in deathly silence, and it needed
no explanation for any one to understand that a bloody tragedy was about
to occur if that flame should be allowed to envelop the building. It was
now the prison of its two occupants, but only a short time would elapse
before it would be their tomb.
[Illustration: _Burning out the Outlaws!_]
On seeing the situation, Miss Durham asked to be allowed to speak to the
men, as she said she knew they would listen to her. On Cottrell's
refusal to hold any more parley with them, she burst into tears, threw
her arms around his neck, and implored him to let her speak to Barton
just once, if only for five minutes. Finally, seeing that most of his
party wished to give the girl a chance to speak to her sweetheart,
Cottrell said that she could have three minutes to obtain their arms; if
they surrendered immediately, the fire should be put out; but, if they
should still refuse, their last chance of saving the house and their
lives would be gone. Miss Durham then went to the window, and talked
with the men in the most imploring manner, urging them not to sacrifice
themselves, as they would surely do if they remained in the burning
house. Her entreaties did not seem to affect them at first; and, as the
flames were then beginning to gather strength, Cottrell ordered her to
come away from the house, and leave them to their fate. She made one
more appeal, and Barton handed her a navy revolver; then Farrington did
the same, and she brought them to Cottrell, saying that they would
surrender if they could be sure that their lives would be spared.
Cottrell told her to go back and get the rest of their arms, and assure
them that they should be taken to Tennessee for trial. She soon returned
with another revolver and a shot-gun, and said that the men would come
out. Cottrell therefore removed the rails, opened the front door, and
called them out--Barton coming first, and then Farrington. The latter
proved to be Hillary, not Levi, as he had called himself. It was not
known why he had used his brother's name, but it was supposed that
Hillary had taken his name to enable him to prove an _alibi_ in case he
should be arrested.
Cottrell's party first secured the prisoners with ropes, and then
assisted Jim Durham to extinguish the fire on the roof; the latter was
quite rotten, and it had burned so slowly that very little damage had
been done. The prisoners were thoroughly searched, but nothing of any
consequence was found upon them, the total of their funds being less
than three dollars. A prolonged search through the house revealed
nothing of importance, except the fact that it was quite an arsenal for
arms, there being found six navy revolvers, two double-barreled
shot-guns, and a Spencer repeating rifle. The siege had lasted nearly
three hours, and, another hour having been spent in searching the house
and saddling their animals, it was nearly dark by the time they started
for Verona. Farrington and Barton were carefully tied upon the horse and
mule respectively, and, after thanking the neighboring farmers for their
assistance, Cottrell took the road back, accompanied by the eleven men
who belonged in and about Verona. The greatest care was taken that the
prisoners should have no opportunity for escape, and they were informed
that any attempt to get away would be the signal for riddling them with
bullets.
While riding along, Cottrell learned from Barton that the party had been
very lucky in finding the two men in the house, since their usual custom
had been to spend the days in the woods, coming in only at night to
sleep. On this occasion, however, the weather was so cold that they were
spending the day indoors.
When asked why they had not surrendered before, they both made the same
reply, namely: that they believed the posse of citizens intended either
to shoot them immediately, or to hang them after a trial by lynch law.
On arriving in Verona early in the evening, the prisoners were securely
tied up with ropes, and Cottrell alternated during the night with
Marriott in watching them. A blacksmith was also called up, and shortly
after midnight he completed two pair of leg shackles, with which they
were fastened together. My men were greatly fatigued, having ridden a
large number of miles every day for a week, and the excitement of the
affair added, of course, to their prostration, but they resolutely paced
the floor in alternate four-hour watches, determined that no possible
loophole for escape should again be afforded to such daring villains as
these two.
The result of the expedition was, of course, transmitted to me in
telegraphic cipher at once; but the arrest was kept secret for the time,
in order to prevent a knowledge of it coming to Levi Farrington, who was
still at large. According to Barton, Levi was concealed somewhere in
Tennessee, but this statement was proof positive that he was not in
Tennessee at all, since Barton's object in telling anything about him
was evidently intended to mislead us; hence, no faith was put in his
story, and other steps were taken to capture Levi.
William arrived in Verona on the morning after the fight, and he
prepared to return with the prisoners to St. Louis by the noon train. It
was supposed that Levi Farrington was also on his way to the rendezvous
at Durham's farm, and that he would probably approach by the direct road
through Douglas County. Cottrell and Marriott were left, therefore, to
attend to Levi and the old lady, whose whereabouts were still uncertain.
William saw most of the citizens engaged in the affair, and heartily
thanked them for their aid; being questioned as to whether they should
receive the reward of one thousand dollars offered by the express
company for the capture of the two Farringtons and Barton, he informed
them that he considered them entitled to it, and that he should
recommend its payment, but that the matter would be decided by the
officers of the company. I may here anticipate events somewhat to state
that the company paid the citizens and farmers a liberal amount for
their services in capturing the robbers, and a settlement was made which
was satisfactory to all parties.
William left Verona about noon of the day he arrived, taking Hillary
Farrington and Barton with him, under guard of Galway and Connell. On
arriving in St. Louis, he separated the prisoners in order to induce
Barton to confess; and, after a long conversation, in which he showed
Barton how conclusive was the evidence against all three of the men, he
obtained a very full confession, of which the greater part is here given
exactly as it was taken down from Barton's lips.
CHAPTER IX.
_Barton's Confession.--The Express Robberies and the Outlaws'
subsequent Experiences fully set forth therein.--A Clue that
had been suddenly dropped taken up with so much Profit, that,
after a desperate Struggle, another Desperado is Captured._
"I am twenty-two years of age," said Barton, "and my native place was
Columbus, Mississippi. When quite young, I left home and took to
following the army. About five or six years ago I moved to Normandy,
Tennessee, and lived with the family of Major Landis, and two or three
years later, I went to work on the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad
as a brakeman, remaining as such over two years. About three years since
I formed the acquaintance of Hillary and Levi Farrington, at Waverly,
Tennessee. These are the men otherwise known as J. H. Clark and Edward
J. Russell. Afterward I opened a saloon in Nashville, and Levi
Farrington visited me there several times. Last April or May he was
arrested on suspicion of counterfeiting, but as there was no case
against him, he was discharged. After a short time, I went down to visit
Levi at Mrs. Farrington's; she lived at the head of Tumbling Run Creek,
twelve miles back of Gillem Station. Hillary was in jail at Memphis at
that time, charged with murder and horse-stealing. When he got out of
jail, Levi, Hillary, and myself all made a trip to Little Rock,
Arkansas, gambling by throwing three-card monte, and we won about
thirteen hundred dollars; we then returned to Gillem Station, where we
remained until the twenty-first of July, this year. During this time,
Levi, who frequently rode back and forth on the express trains, spoke of
the feasibility of robbing them.
"On the morning of July 21, Levi, Hillary, and myself left Gillem
Station for the purpose of robbing the express train at some of the
stations either on that road or on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. At
Union City we changed cars, and arrived at Moscow just after dark. The
plan was, that we all three should enter the car and overpower the
messenger; but Levi and Hillary were the only ones who entered. I
remained on the platform of the first passenger coach and kept watch.
When the train was passing the water tank, they slacked up the speed,
and we all jumped off and struck for the woods. The messenger had
nothing whatever to do with this robbery, so far as I was ever informed.
"As I said before, we struck into the woods and reached the river just
above Hickman, where we stole a fisherman's skiff, and all three of us
started down the river. Finding that we were pursued, we left the skiff
on the Tennessee shore, near Island Number Ten. We then took the river
road and walked back as far as Lester's Landing, arriving there about
dinner-time, July 23. Levi divided the money, giving me one-third of one
thousand dollars, which was all, he said, in the safe, although I always
believed there was more.
"So far as I know, neither of the Farringtons had ever met Lester
before, and I am sure that I had never set eyes on him until we went to
his place at this time. On account of the spot being so lonely and
isolated, Hillary proposed that we put up a store there, as it would be
a good cover for our actual business. We started the store, and applied
to the postmaster to establish a post-office, to be known as Lester's
Landing; our object in this move was, of course, to give an added color
of respectability and _bona fide_ business to our transactions. From
this time until the middle of October, I remained at the store nearly
all the time; Hillary was also there most of the time, but Levi very
seldom. During one of the latter's western trips, he said he had been
out to see his Aunt Durham.
"Along in October, Levi proposed that we again strike the express
company when the train stopped for supper at Union City. Hillary had
been in the habit of riding back and forth on the engine, and he
understood how to run a train. Levi suggested that we take a man named
Bill Taylor into the robbery with us; he was then employed chopping wood
for Lester, and when Levi approached him on the subject he agreed to go.
Levi left Lester's a few days before the robbery. Hillary and I did not
leave until the nineteenth, when we went up to Columbus by steamer,
taking along a large quantity of fish. Having sold our fish, we took the
train for Union City, where we arrived the same evening. On getting off
the train, we met Levi and Bill Taylor on the platform, and the only
conversation which took place was when Levi asked why we had not arrived
sooner, to which we replied that we came as soon as we could. The next
morning we met again, having slept in separate places so as not to
attract attention, and went down the road some distance toward Hickman.
While camped in the woods that evening, about ten o'clock, an old man
named Hicks came along with a bottle of whisky and stopped at our
camp-fire quite a time. There were present Hillary, Levi, myself, and
Bill Taylor. We remained in the woods all that night. The next day we
moved further into the woods toward Hickman, and at night, just at dark,
we came back to Union City.
"We had been there only a few minutes when the up train came along; she
stopped and backed down a little ways, when all the train hands left her
and went to supper. Hillary and Taylor then boarded the engine, and Levi
and myself jumped aboard the express car. The messenger was eating his
supper when we went in, and, seeing Levi point a Derringer at him, he
exclaimed: 'Don't shoot me! I will surrender.' Levi compelled him to
unlock the safe, and we took all the money. Levi then swung the
messenger's lantern, and the train stopped, when we all jumped off and
started down the railroad to Hickman. Our intention was to go to the
wood-yard near Union City, and steal a ride on a freight train to
Hickman. We hid under the platform at the wood-yard, and while there
Levi accidentally shot himself in the thigh; but the wound was very
slight, and it hardly interfered with his walking. As the freight train
did not stop, we were obliged to walk to Hickman, where we arrived
Sunday night. We had had some provisions when we first camped out, which
Bill Taylor had carried in a valise; but he had left the valise and all
its contents on the engine, so that we had very little to eat.
"While in the woods we divided the money, but Levi, who carried it,
showed up only twenty three hundred dollars.
"Sunday night we stole a skiff in Hickman and went down the river to
James' Bayou, and while there, on Monday morning, we saw Messenger
Cross, whose car had been robbed, making inquiries about us in a
grocery-store. We then started off on foot, going down the river on the
Missouri shore. About a mile below James' Bayou we found the skiff which
we had previously set adrift, and which had evidently been picked up by
some one. Taking this skiff again, Hillary, Taylor, and I dropped down
to a point about a mile above Lester's, leaving Levi on the Missouri
shore, where we started from. We landed on the Tennessee shore, and
walked down the river road a short distance, when Taylor left us,
remaining in the woods. Hillary and I met Lester on the road soon
afterward, and told him that we had come down on a steamboat which was
then tied up, on account of the heavy fog. Levi arrived next day, having
come across the river with a fisherman.
"The following Sunday, October 29, Hillary left on a steamboat, taking
with him a woman named Slaughter, with whom he said he was going to
Davidson's wood-yard, nine miles above Cape Girardeau. He expected to
return in a few days.
"The next thing of any importance which occurred was on the Tuesday
night following, when Messrs. Pinkerton and Connell rode up to Lester's
house. At the first glance, I thought they were officers, and Levi told
me that he thought the same. I saw him pull his pistol out of his
pocket before getting out of his chair."
[The moment Connell opened the door, Levi knew that he was a detective,
having seen him acting in that capacity in Memphis, when Hillary was
arrested for horse-stealing the previous spring.]
"When I made my escape from Lester's house," continued Barton, "I ran
right back through the cornfield; I heard all the shooting, but did not
see it. In a short time Levi joined me in the cane-brake back of the
cornfield. Levi told me that he had had a shooting match with the two
officers, but he did not know whether he had hit either of them or not;
they had not hit him, but he had had a very narrow escape.
"After awhile we slipped up to the house, and saw that the officers were
gone; so we went in, got our supper, and took our pistols, besides a
shawl and blanket. We then got an old skiff, crossed the river, and
slept in the woods on the Missouri shore. The next day we remained under
cover until nightfall, when we recrossed the river, and went through the
woods to Union City, spending Wednesday night and Thursday in the woods
on the way. On Thursday night we took the train from Union City to
Gillem Station. The conductor of the train was Conductor Roberts, on
whose run I had formerly been brakeman; and, being afraid he might
recognize me, I laid down in my seat and covered up my face, while Levi
paid both fares. We arrived at Gillem Station about three o'clock in
the morning, and reached Mrs. Farrington's house about daylight.
"I gave Mrs. Farrington five hundred and fifty dollars in money to keep
for me, this amount being the proceeds of both express robberies, and
she still has it in her possession. Before leaving Lester's, Hillary had
given most of his money to Levi to take to their mother to keep for him,
and Levi left with her nearly the whole of his share of the plunder
also.
"We had been at Mrs. Farrington's a week when Hillary arrived. Before
this, we all thought that the officers had captured him, and we were
quite surprised to see him safe. He said that Detective Connell had
arrested him at Mrs. Gully's, and that he had made his escape by jumping
out of Connell's wagon into a thicket near Allenville; he had then gone
right back to the house where he had left Mrs. Slaughter, where he got a
pistol and some money, and had his irons removed.
"At the time Hillary arrived at Mrs. Farrington's, the old lady had been
gone a day and a night on her way to Texas or Missouri. It was
understood that Levi and I were to meet her somewhere on the road, or at
Holton's farm, near the line between Lawrence and Dade Counties,
Missouri. The day after Hillary arrived, we started for Missouri; I was
riding a sorrel horse; Hillary, a chestnut-sorrel horse; and Levi, a
large brown mule. We spent two days at the house of Mr. Douglas, near
Mrs. Farrington's, and then crossed the Tennessee River at Cuba. We
crossed the Mississippi River by the last ferryboat on Friday evening,
November 10, at Hall's Ferry, opposite Point Pleasant, Missouri. We saw
no men on guard at the ferries. We struck right out through Nigger-Wool
Swamp to Bloomfield, where Levi left us. He said he was going to
Farmington, Illinois, as that was a good place to keep under cover.
After he left us, nothing important occurred until our arrest. We knew
where Mrs. Farrington was every night, and also knew all about the two
men who were following her; we did not mind letting them follow her, as
they could not have captured us, and we could have shaken them off at
any time if we had wanted to do so.
"Levi and Hillary frequently spoke of making other raids upon the
express company, and said what a soft thing it was. It was my intention
to separate from them as soon as I could get my money from the old lady,
as I wished to return to my friends below Columbus, Mississippi.
"The foregoing is all I know of the Farringtons or the express
robberies.
(Signed), "WILLIAM BARTON."
It will be observed how completely this confession corroborated our
investigations, there being few new points learned. The information that
Mrs. Farrington had possession of nearly all the stolen money was
valuable, and I sent instructions to Cottrell, at once, to attach all of
her property in the name of the Southern Express Company, if it could
be done. But the most important feature brought out was the hiding-place
of Levi Farrington, which was given as Farmington, Illinois. It will be
remembered that William found, at the store at Lester's Landing, some
pieces of paper, upon which was scribbled, "Kate Graham, Farmington,
Illinois;" that I sent a detective to that place to see Mrs. Graham;
that the latter answered, with every evidence of truthfulness, that she
did not know Russell, Clark, or Barton; and that the clue was dropped
immediately. From Barton, however, William learned that Mrs. Kate Graham
was a cousin of the Farringtons, and that, being a highly respectable
and conscientious woman, she knew nothing of their _aliases_, nor of
their crimes. It was there that Levi Farrington had gone to hide.
Barton's confession was made on the fourteenth, and William instantly
sent me a cipher dispatch containing the important features of it. By
the evening train of that day, my other son, Robert A. Pinkerton, took
passage for Farmington, accompanied by Detective W. T. Brown, of my
force. They arrived there about noon the next day, and soon learned that
Levi Farrington was staying with his relatives. Having presented letters
of introduction to one or two influential men, Robert obtained an
introduction to the city marshal, who promised to give all the aid in
his power to arrest Farrington.
About two o'clock they saw the latter coming down the street, and, by
previous arrangement, Robert allowed Levi to pass him, both walking
toward Brown and the marshal. Levi Farrington was a very powerful man,
standing six feet in his stockings, with a frame and muscles in
proportion to his size. Remembering the desperate character of the man,
Robert did not deem it advisable to give him any chance to draw a weapon
or show fight; he therefore followed Farrington closely until he was
about ten feet from the marshal, and then, springing at him, he pinioned
the desperado's arms by clasping him tightly around the body just at the
elbows. Farrington did not stop to question the cause of this
proceeding--he knew the reason of his seizure well enough--but,
gathering his whole strength, he made one jump away from the two
officers who were approaching in front, and landed nearly in the middle
of the street, taking Robert along with him. Robert clung to him like a
vise, however, and before he could make another such an effort, the
other two were upon him. A terrible struggle now ensued in the street,
during which both Robert and Brown were badly bruised by being rolled
upon and kicked by their powerful prisoner. Robert knew that Farrington
was desperate enough to fight to the bitter end, and that he would kill
as many as he could before being killed himself; to release his arms,
therefore, would enable him to draw a weapon, as he was undoubtedly well
armed, hence Robert never relaxed his hold. Having a professional pride
in securing his prisoner alive, moreover, he did not wish to resort to
extreme measures except to save the lives of other persons, and, as a
large crowd had gathered around the moment the struggle began, there
would have been evident danger in allowing him an instant's freedom.
Over and over they rolled together, therefore, Farrington striving with
all his strength to break Robert's clasp upon his arms, while the other
two officers were doing their best to pinion his legs. After a ten
minutes' struggle, they succeeded at length in holding him down and
sitting upon his legs until he could be tied with ropes. By this time,
the whole party were pretty thoroughly exhausted, but, after resting a
few minutes to recover their breath, the officers got handcuffs on their
prisoner's wrists, and took him to the railroad station, where he was
searched. Little money was found on his person, but he had a large
revolver, two Derringer pistols, and a large dirk concealed about him.
He was then placed in the freight office, while Brown and Mr. Graham,
Mrs. Kate Graham's husband, went to the latter's house to get Levi's
baggage. On their return, the whole party took passage for Chicago,
where they did not arrive until next day, owing to the failure to make
connections. In Levi's valise were found two revolvers, some jewelry,
and a very large sum of money.
They arrived so late on Saturday that there was no train for Cairo
before the following evening, and meantime the prisoner required the
most careful watching, as none of our handcuffs were large enough to
fit his wrists without cutting into the flesh. Robert and Brown were
completely prostrated by the strain upon their muscles and the injuries
they had received, so that they felt the effects of the struggle for
several days.
The moment that Robert arrived in Chicago with his prisoner, the latter
was taken to the First Precinct police station, where he was placed in a
cell for safe keeping. During the afternoon it was learned that he had
sent for a lawyer to obtain a writ of _habeas corpus_. The arrest had
been made without any warrant, and no requisition had been obtained for
use in Illinois, as I had expected to capture all three of the men in
Missouri. Should Farrington succeed in getting the desired writ, I
should be forced to give up my hold upon him, and, before the
requisition of the Governor of Tennessee upon the Governor of Illinois
could be received, he would be probably beyond the reach of pursuit.
I therefore procured a closed vehicle and took the prisoner out for a
drive, carefully bound, with two reliable men as guards. The afternoon
was thus spent, and, after dark, there being no longer any object in
driving around the suburbs of the city, Farrington was taken to my
office and kept all night. He behaved very well, and did not seem
anxious to get away by force. He tried, however, to induce Robert to let
him go, telling him that it would be worth a very large amount of money
to him to do so. Finding his offers disregarded, he appeared to take his
arrest very coolly, saying that he guessed he had money enough to see
him through.
On Sunday evening, Robert and Brown took him to the railroad station,
and the party embarked for Cairo.
CHAPTER X.
_A terrible Struggle for Life or Death upon the Transfer-boat
"Illinois."--"Overboard!"--One less Desperado.--The Fourth and
Last Robber taken._
After Barton had made his confession to William in St. Louis, the
prisoners, Hillary Farrington and Barton, were kept separate, as the
latter was afraid that Hillary would find some means of killing him.
About midnight of Thursday, December fourteenth, they all took passage
by railroad for Cairo, and there they immediately went on board the
large transfer-boat to Columbus, Kentucky. All the detectives were
thoroughly worn out from excitement and loss of sleep, but they did not
for an instant relax their vigilant watch upon their prisoners. William
had been talking for some time with Hillary, trying to obtain a
confession and to learn what had been done with the money secured at the
two robberies. From the questions that William asked, Hillary soon
learned, or surmised, that Barton had confessed. He was terribly
enraged at this, and without doubt he would have killed Barton if he
could have got at him; but being unable to do so, his fury was all
turned upon his captors.
My son hoped by threatening to have Mrs. Farrington arrested and
imprisoned, to induce Hillary to give up his share of the plunder rather
than have his mother punished. This threat seemed to infuriate him
beyond anything, and he swore that he would have his revenge on William
if he had to wait twenty years for it. After sitting sullenly thinking
on the subject for a time, he said he was cold, and wanted to get a
drink. William therefore offered to go with him into the bar-room, and
they walked toward the forward end of the saloon, leaving Galway and
Barton seated together. Connell had gone into the water-closet a few
moments before, but, as there was a detective with each of the
prisoners, no attempt at escape was anticipated.
The steamer was the powerfully-built transfer-boat "Illinois," and she
was running with great speed, her ponderous wheels revolving at an
unusually rapid rate. The bar-room was situated just forward of the
saloon, after passing through the barber shop, and it could be entered
from the saloon or through a door leading upon the guards, just forward
of the paddle-box.
As they were about to enter the barber shop from the saloon, Hillary
drew back, saying that he did not want to go that way, as there were
some men in that room whom he knew. They therefore went out upon the
guards to walk along to the outer door of the bar-room. The space was
narrow, and the rail quite low, so that it would not have been at all
difficult for a man to spring overboard, even though he were in irons.
This idea occurred to William, but he did not trouble himself about it,
since he knew that the heavy strokes of the paddle-wheel would instantly
kill any one who might attempt such a thing. William wore a
loose-fitting sack coat with large pockets, in one of which he carried a
heavy army revolver, which he had taken from Hillary, his own revolver
being in his belt. In walking it was his habit to put his hand on the
butt of this army revolver, which protruded somewhat from the pocket. On
reaching the door, however, he took his right hand from the pistol to
turn the knob. This was a careless action, of which he never would have
been guilty, had he been less fatigued, mentally and physically, but,
being so used up as to act almost mechanically, his habitual
thoughtfulness was momentarily absent, and he was caught off his guard
for an instant in a manner which nearly cost him his life. It should be
understood that the scene which ensued occurred so rapidly as to occupy
less time in its passage than is required to read about it, and that
during those few seconds a struggle of life and death was going on.
Hardly had William's hand touched the doorknob ere he felt the pistol
drawn out of his coat pocket. He knew there was but one person who
could have done it, and that person was a perfect devil thirsting for
his blood. Turning like a flash, he seized Farrington by both wrists,
just as the latter was trying to cock the pistol; then there was a
terrible contest. The pistol was in Farrington's hands, which were held
so close together by the irons as to make it impossible to wrench one
away from the other; it was pointed directly at William's head, and
should Farrington succeed in cocking it, William's death would be
instantaneous. All his energies, therefore, were directed toward keeping
Farrington's hands far enough apart to prevent him from drawing back the
hammer. The space was too narrow to permit of such a struggle without
one party or the other being forced back upon the rail, and, in a
moment, William had lifted his lighter antagonist from the deck,
pressing him against the railing, and at the same time shouting for
assistance. In response to his call, Connell came running out in
_dishabille_, with his pistol in one hand and his pantaloons in the
other. At this moment the cold muzzle of the pistol was pressed against
William's temple, and he heard the click of the hammer as his desperate
prisoner succeeded in drawing it back. He made a violent plunge forward,
ducking his head as he did so, and simultaneously the pistol exploded
close to his ear, the ball ploughing a little furrow in the scalp, while
the powder scorched his neck and hair. Staggering back stunned and dizzy
for a moment, he was caught by Connell, who asked whether he was much
hurt. He soon gathered his senses, and, finding his wound to be only
trifling, he asked what had become of Farrington. Connell pointed
overboard, and no further answer was necessary; no man dropping in front
of those wheels could have lived for an instant, and, even had he not
been struck, he could not have kept himself up in the rapid current then
running filled with fine ice.
By this time the bar-room, barber shop, and saloon had been emptied of
their occupants, and the boat had been stopped to see whether the man
could be picked up; but, as this was clearly hopeless, the trip was soon
resumed. Connell's arrival had been most opportune for William, since he
had caught the weapon the moment it was discharged, and succeeded in
changing the course of the bullet sufficiently to save William's life.
Thinking, however, that William had been killed, Connell had struck
Farrington on the head with his pistol almost simultaneously with the
explosion, and the blow, aided by the plunge which William made forward
in endeavoring to dodge the pistol-shot, had sent Farrington over the
rail into the water, where he was undoubtedly killed the next instant by
the paddle-wheels.
The fact of the man's death was so absolutely certain that no person
could doubt it, if acquainted with the circumstances; yet there were not
wanting people who insinuated that he had been allowed to escape by
jumping overboard and swimming ashore. The absurdity of such a story is
manifest, for, even supposing that his irons had been removed, and that
he had escaped injury from the paddle-wheels, he never could have swam
ashore at the spot where the affair occurred. The nearest point of the
river bank was more than three hundred yards away, and the current at
that place was running off the shore; besides, the night was very cold,
and the water was covered with a film of ice, so that after five
minutes' immersion in it, a man would have become wholly numbed and
insensible.
Barton was not at all surprised when he heard of Hillary Farrington's
death, for he said that he knew Hillary so well that he had expected
nothing else from the time he was taken; he was so desperate that his
intention undoubtedly had been to have seized William and dragged him
overboard; but, seeing the pistol, another idea had probably occurred to
him. Barton said that had Hillary succeeded in killing William, he would
have gone up to the pilot-house with the revolver, and forced the pilot
to land him immediately; once on shore, his knowledge of the country
would have enabled him to escape again. Whatever had been his plans,
however, he had failed in his attempt at murder, and had paid the
penalty of his rashness with his life.
The rest of the party went on to Columbus, where they took passage for
Union City, arriving there Friday morning.
About this time, Mr. Ball, who had been sent to follow the wagon train
of Mrs. Farrington, reported, after a silence of several days, that he
had traced her into the Indian Territory. In point of fact, she was
settled at Ash Grove, near Mount Vernon, in Greene County, Missouri, and
had been there ever since Hillary and Barton had left her before their
arrest at Durham's. It will thus be seen how fortunate it was that I had
not trusted to Ball and Bledsoe to keep track of Mrs. Farrington, since
they had utterly lost the trail, and had followed another set of wagons
for several days as far as the Indian Territory; when, probably
suspecting that he had made a mistake, Ball telegraphed to the express
company's officers for instructions. He was then ordered to return at
once with Bledsoe, the whole party having been captured by that time.
While speaking of Mrs. Farrington, I may as well give an account of all
our dealings with her, irrespective of the chronological order of the
story:
Having received Barton's order upon her for all of the wagons and stock,
and for five hundred and fifty dollars in money, Cottrell endeavored to
attach her property in a civil suit. She insisted that she had none of
Barton's money--indeed, that she had no money at all--and she refused to
give up anything. At last, finding that he could not legally attach her
property, Cottrell took the bold step of arresting her for receiving
stolen goods. She was taken to Mount Vernon, where she engaged a lawyer
to defend her, and then, of course, Cottrell was also obliged to employ
a legal adviser. At length, a compromise was effected, by which Mrs.
Farrington was allowed to retain a small portion of the property;
Cottrell then took possession of the remainder as agent of the express
company, and Mrs. Farrington was discharged from custody. After selling
some of the animals, Cottrell shipped all the remaining chattels to St.
Louis, where the agent of the express company took charge of them. The
two detectives then returned to Chicago, and no further attention was
paid to Mrs. Farrington.
On Saturday, after the arrival of William's party, with Barton, in Union
City, Detectives Galway and Connell started out to arrest Bill Taylor,
the fourth one of the party of robbers.
This man was a long, lank, round-shouldered fellow, with putty face,
long, straggling hair and beard, and a vacant expression of countenance,
who lived by hunting and chopping wood, below Lester's Landing, in the
vicinity of Reel's Foot Lake. William had been satisfied of his
complicity in the robbery for some time previous to the arrest of the
others, but he had not arrested him for the reason that he was sure of
picking him up whenever he wished to do so; and, knowing Taylor to have
been merely a weak accomplice, he was anxious to secure the leaders in
the crime first. Barton's confession made the suspicion of Taylor's
guilt a certainty, and so Galway and Connell were sent to arrest him.
At Mr. Merrick's they obtained a good guide, and four other citizens
joined them, so that they had quite a formidable party. After visiting
several houses in the cane-brake, they learned where Taylor was
staying, and, on going there, they saw him looking at them from a front
window. Galway asked Taylor to come down a few minutes to give them some
information, and Taylor unsuspectingly complied. He had been allowed to
go free so long, and had so often talked with William and others about
the robbery, that he did not imagine their object on this occasion. On
coming into the yard, therefore, he greeted the men cordially, supposing
them to be a party scouting for the other robbers, of whose arrest he
had not heard. When he saw a couple of navy revolvers close to his head,
and heard an order to throw up his hands, he surrendered without a word.
He was evidently badly frightened, but he would not confess having had
any part in the robbery, and he refused to tell where his share of the
money was concealed. He was placed on Connell's horse and taken to
Merrick's, where another horse was obtained, and the party went on to
Hickman; thence he was taken by wagon to Union City, arriving there
about midnight of Saturday. Both Barton and Taylor were placed in rooms
in the hotel, where they were carefully watched night and day by my
detectives, the county jail being almost useless as a place for keeping
prisoners.
On learning that the whole party had been arrested, Taylor made a very
full confession of all the circumstances connected with the robbery, and
the movements of the robbers after it had occurred. He confirmed
Barton's account in every particular, but revealed nothing new of any
importance. His share of the stolen money had been only about one
hundred and fifty dollars, as Levi had made him believe that they had
obtained only six hundred dollars in all. About fifty dollars were found
on Taylor's person; the rest he had spent. He said that Levi Farrington
had hidden all the checks, drafts, and unnegotiable paper underneath an
old log in the woods, but that he could not tell where the log was, nor
find it, since it was not marked in any way, nor had they taken any
bearings by which to remember it. He gave an account of the evening when
Hicks, the tipsy planter, came to their camp-fire, which agreed exactly
with the previous statements of Hicks and Barton; but one slight remark
in his confession seemed to account for the fifth man mentioned by
Hicks. Taylor said that during most of the time Hicks was at their camp,
one or two of the party were lying on the ground with their feet toward
the fire, and that there was a log of wood lying beside them. Now, it is
probable that Hicks was just drunk enough to be unable to tell the
difference between a man and a log, especially as, in his description of
the men, he gave the appearance of Hillary Farrington twice as belonging
to different persons. Hicks's vision was somewhat uncertain that night,
evidently.
CHAPTER XI.
_The last Scene in the Drama approaching.--A new Character
appears.--The Citizens of Union City suddenly seem to have
important business on hand.--The Vigilantes and their
Work.--Their Bullets and Judge Lynch administer a quietus to
Levi Farrington and David Towler.--The End._
The last scene in this drama seemed about to end in the complete defeat
of the whole gang of villains and the triumph of law and justice, when a
new character came upon the stage, and the curtain fell upon a bloody
tragedy. That substantial justice was done cannot be denied, though the
manner of its execution was beyond and outside all forms of law. It was
a striking instance of the manner in which an outraged community,
particularly in the West and South, will arrive at a satisfactory
settlement of important questions without the intervention of courts,
juries, or lawyers. The court of Judge Lynch makes mistakes
occasionally, but it rarely admits of an appeal from its decision.
Robert arrived in Union City with Levi Farrington on Monday, December
eighteenth, and he took his prisoner to the hotel for safe keeping, with
the others. They were kept in separate rooms, and a detective remained
with each of them constantly. William spent several hours with Levi
Farrington, trying to induce him to tell where he had hidden the stolen
papers, and also what he had done with his share of the money, of which
he had undoubtedly retained the greater part. Finally he agreed to
return all the papers, and about twenty-five hundred dollars besides, on
condition that he should receive a sentence of only five years in the
penitentiary on entering a plea of guilty. Having agreed to this
arrangement, William went to his room, which was a large one, with
several beds, occupied by Robert, Brown, and Connell. As the men of my
force were all pretty well used up, Taylor and Barton were placed in the
same room, with Galway guarding them, while Farrington, being such a
desperate fellow, was put in another room, with three of the Union City
policemen as guards.
Soon after the arrival of Robert with Levi Farrington, a man, named
David Towler, tried to get admission to Farrington's room. On being
denied, he was very insolent, and he insisted on seeing Farrington
alone. Finding that this would not be permitted, he went away cursing
the officers and swearing to be revenged. His actions naturally
attracted the attention of the police, and caused him to be regarded
with a great deal of suspicion, as a probable member of the Farrington
party of robbers. About eleven o'clock that night, a policeman, named
Benjamin Kline, discovered this man Towler with a drawn revolver,
skulking behind a car standing on the side track near the depot. He
immediately called for the railroad company's night watchman, and the
two approached the thief to arrest him. The man instantly shot Kline
through the lungs, and then shot Moran, the watchman. Kline's wound was
mortal, and he died in a few minutes, while Moran was supposed to be
fatally hurt also. The pistol-shots quickly drew a crowd, and a few
determined men gave chase to the murderer. After quite a long pursuit he
was captured, and brought back to the station where Kline had just died.
A justice of the peace held a preliminary examination at once, and the
prisoner, David Towler, was held for murder, without bail. He was known
to be a low, desperate fellow, who had been imprisoned for
horse-stealing and other kindred crimes, until he was regarded almost as
an outlaw. He had long lived near Reel's Foot Lake, and while there he
had become acquainted with the Farringtons. That their friendship was
more than that of two casual acquaintances was shown by an important
circumstance discovered by William. It will be remembered that when Levi
Farrington stopped in Cairo to send eight hundred dollars to his mother,
he purchased two of the largest-sized Smith & Wesson revolvers. They
were exact fac-similes of each other, and were numbered 1,278 and 1,279
respectively. At the time of Levi's arrest, only one of these revolvers
was found, and he said that he had given away the other to a friend,
retaining number 1,279 himself. When Towler was captured, William
happened to notice that his revolver was similar to the one Levi had
carried. This would have been nothing to be remarked under ordinary
circumstances, since there were, undoubtedly, many of these revolvers in
use, all exactly alike except in number; but William connected this man
Towler's appearance in Union City with the arrival of the express
robbers, and the new revolver caught his eye at once. On closely
examining it, his suspicions were fully confirmed: _it was numbered_
1,278, and was, without question, the mate to Levi's, bought by him in
Cairo and given to Towler.
When this news became known to the throng of citizens whom the shooting
of Kline and Moran had drawn together, the feeling against all the
prisoners became intense, and when Towler was committed by the justice
to the guard of the men who were watching Levi, the citizens began to
depart very suddenly, as if they either had important business
elsewhere, or were in a hurry to get home. By midnight the town was
quiet, and after a visit to the guards, to caution them to be extra
vigilant, William and Robert retired to their room, together with Brown
and Connell.
Young Kline, whom Towler had murdered, was very highly esteemed in Union
City, and his death at the hands of an outlaw would have aroused deep
indignation at any time; but just now there were additional reasons why
the affair should excite a desire for summary vengeance upon his
assassin. It had been shown that Towler must have formerly been on
intimate terms with the Farringtons, and these latter were well known
as desperadoes, whose hand was turned against every man; hence, the
crimes of the whole party were considered as a sort of partnership
affair, for which each member of the firm was individually liable. But,
besides the natural indignation of the law-abiding citizens for the
crimes committed by these men, there was a widespread sense of
insecurity so long as they were in that vicinity. Towler had remarked,
when captured, that he would soon be out again, and all the prisoners
bore themselves with an air of bravado, as if they had no fear nor
expectation of punishment. It was believed that a number of friends of
the gang among the desperadoes living in Nigger-Wool Swamp and near
Reel's Foot Lake intended to attempt the rescue of the whole party of
express robbers, before they could be consigned to a secure place of
confinement. The citizens who had risked their lives to capture Towler
and the others, who had turned out in time to see poor Kline die in
agony, were determined that nothing should occur to prevent justice from
reaching the criminals, and exacting the fullest penalty for their
numerous crimes; hence the sudden departure of the throng who had
attended Towler's preliminary examination before the justice. They did
not go to their homes, but gathered in a secluded place, and formed a
Committee of Safety. The question as to what course would best protect
the lives and property of the community was then discussed, and a
conclusion was soon reached, without a dissenting voice.
Throughout the town all was hushed in the usual stillness of a winter's
night; no lights were burning anywhere, save in an occasional
sick-chamber, and sleep seemed to have fallen alike upon the just and
unjust. In one room of the hotel were Barton and Taylor, guarded by
Galway and an employe of the express company, while near by was the room
where Levi Farrington and David Towler were watched by three of the city
policemen. A dim light burned in each room, and, while the guards paced
the floor in their stocking feet, the prisoners lay on their beds in
deep slumber. Not a memory of the past, full as it was of scenes of
crime and blood, came to break their repose; not a thought of the
future, with its possibilities of punishment, caused them to lose one
moment of their customary rest. Fear they had never known; remorse was
long since forgotten; unconscious or careless of their impending doom,
they slept the night away.
About two o'clock there was a stealthy gathering of masked men at the
door of the hotel, and, at a given signal from the leader, a certain
number slipped upstairs with little noise, and filled the corridor from
which the prisoners' rooms opened. So sudden was their appearance and so
quiet their approach that even the wakeful guards scarce heard them
until the doors were forced open. Then the policy of silence was
dropped, and a rush upon the guards was made. A battery of pistols
suddenly confronted them, and, as resistance was clearly impossible, an
unconditional surrender was at once made. The bursting in of the doors
awakened William and Robert, who hastily sprang up, and, without
stopping to put on any clothing, opened their door, pistol in hand. This
move, however, had been anticipated by the vigilantes, and a dozen or
more pistols were thrust in their faces as they appeared in the doorway.
"Go back, Pinkerton, we don't want to hurt you," said one of the men
outside, and they were pushed back into the room, while the door was
hastily closed in their faces.
To resist such a body with the few men at his command, William knew,
would be suicidal, and he did not especially care to sacrifice himself
in the interest of such a villainous band as those whom the vigilantes
were seeking. The four detectives, therefore, dressed themselves and
remained in their room awaiting further developments.
Having overpowered the guards, the leader of the vigilantes ordered the
removal of Towler, and, as the latter was hustled out of the door, Levi
Farrington knew that his hour had come. Standing up and facing the
remainder of the crowd, who had withdrawn to the further side of the
room, he defied them all, and told them to fire away. A volley of
pistol-shots was the reply to his words, and a rattling fire continued
for two or three minutes; when it ceased, Levi Farrington was no more,
his body having been struck by more than thirty balls, almost any one of
which would have been instantaneously fatal. His body was left where
it fell, and the room was soon deserted as the party hastened after the
detachment which had Towler in charge. The whole affair was over in ten
minutes, and when the detectives again left their room none of the
masked party were to be seen. Levi Farrington's body was found in his
room, but no trace of Towler could be discovered. Finding that the
excitement was over, the detectives returned to bed, leaving Barton and
Taylor still carefully guarded. The former had slept through the
confusion and noise without even a start or restless movement, but
Taylor was terribly frightened, and he fully expected to be lynched
also.
[Illustration: "_The work of the Vigilante's._"--_Page_--]
The next morning at breakfast, William was informed that the body of
Towler had been found hanging to a tree near the graveyard, and, on
going to the spot, they found him as represented. At the coroner's
inquest little testimony could be obtained further than that one man had
been shot to death and the other hung by parties unknown, and the
verdict was rendered accordingly. There was naturally considerable
excitement over the affair for two or three days, but the general
verdict was, "Served 'em right." However violent had been their taking
off, there were few who did not feel that society demanded their death,
not only as a punishment for their past crimes, but as a means of
security in the future. Believing that a sentence to the penitentiary
was wholly inadequate, and that their escape therefrom was not only
possible, but probable, the citizens preferred to take no risks of
future robberies and murders by these desperadoes, and they therefore
took the most effectual method of preventing their occurrence. Their
action was illegal, it is true, but then it was just--which is a more
important consideration sometimes.
On the following Friday, Barton and Taylor had their preliminary hearing
before a justice, when they waived examination, and were committed for
trial in default of bail in the sum of ten thousand dollars each. Upon
the representation to the justice that the county jail was an unsafe
place to confine the prisoners, permission was obtained to remove them
to the jail in Memphis; the proper papers were made out, and the
transfer was made under William's management.
The death of Levi Farrington made the recovery of the missing checks,
papers, and money an impossibility, since neither Barton nor Taylor were
able to conduct the officers to the place where they were hidden. Barton
gave the company a bill of sale of the goods in the store at Lester's
Landing, however, and an assignment of all debts due the firm, from
which about five or six hundred dollars were eventually realized. Robert
and Brown attended to this matter and returned to Chicago. William was
on duty until the two remaining prisoners were safely lodged in jail in
Memphis, and then, having settled up all the business of which he had
had charge, he also returned home.
At the next term of court in Obion County, Tennessee, Barton and Taylor
pleaded guilty of grand larceny, and were each sentenced to five years'
confinement at hard labor in the penitentiary. Thus, out of a party of
four engaged in this robbery, two were finally brought to trial and
appropriately punished, while the other two would have been so punished
also, had not a higher penalty been demanded by the circumstances of
their cases, aggravated by their own brutal and revengeful dispositions.
No reminiscence in my experience shows a more striking illustration of
the certainty of retribution for crime than does the career and fate of
these outlaws of the Southwest.
THE END.
DON PEDRO AND THE DETECTIVES.
CHAPTER I.
_A Fraudulent Scheme contemplated.--A Dashing Peruvian Don and
Donna.--A Regal Forger.--Mr. Pinkerton engaged by Senator
Muirhead to unveil the Mystery of his Life.--The Don and Donna
Morito arrive at Gloster.--"Personnel" of Gloster's "First
Families."_
The history of crimes against prosperity is of vital interest to the
public. The ingenuity of thieves, burglars, forgers, and confidence men
is active and incessant, so that their plans are often successful even
against the experience and precautions of men of the most wary and
cautious character. This seems to be especially true when the amounts at
stake are large, for petty attempts to defraud are so frequent, that
when a criminal plays for a large sum, the suspicion of the capitalist
is wholly allayed by the improbability that a mere swindler should
undertake an operation of such magnitude. Indeed, in many cases the
cupidity of the victim is so great that the sharper hardly offers the
bait ere it is swallowed by some confiding simpleton. Hence, as a
warning for the future, the lessons of past frauds possess no small
degree of interest and value to the world; and as there is no portion
of society free from the depredations of these schemers, their various
wiles and snares cannot be exposed too often.
More than twenty years ago, the city of Gloster was one of the most
thriving cities of the West. Controlling the interior trade to a large
extent, its interests were of the most varied character, and its
inhabitants were already distinguished as being more cosmopolitan than
those of any other city in the Union, except New York. They had imbibed,
perhaps, some of the genius of the prairies, and their scorn of petty
methods of doing business, their breadth of charity and hearty
hospitality, were as boundless as the great plains of which the city was
the business center at that time. Among such a people, a plausible
adventurer had a fine field of operation, and I was not surprised when I
was asked to go to Gloster in the latter part of the winter to
investigate the character of some persons who were living there.
The application came from Senator Muirhead, a man whom I had long known,
both in his public and private life. His suspicions were of the vaguest
possible character, and a hasty examination of the case failed to
convince me that they were well founded; yet he was convinced in his own
mind that there was a fraudulent scheme in contemplation, and his
positive conviction had great weight with me. The Senator's interest in
the case had led him to make extensive inquiries into the antecedents of
these parties, but he was unable to trace them further back than their
arrival in New York, several months before. There they had suddenly
appeared in society with a great display of wealth, stating that they
had been traveling in Europe for some time, and were gradually making
their way back to Peru, where they lived. Don Pedro P. L. de Morito and
his wife, having enjoyed life in New York for several months, now
proposed to spend at least a year in Gloster, and it was this couple
whose character was suspected by the Senator. Indeed, he felt sure that,
at least, they were traveling under assumed names, and certain
coincidences led him to believe that they were adroit swindlers of the
most capable, dangerous type. He had discovered a chain of
circumstantial evidence which needed only one link to make a clear
connection between certain crimes and these fascinating Peruvians, and
it was for the purpose of discovering this link that he had requested my
aid. In brief, his suspicions were, that after innumerable frauds in
other countries, this plausible pair had settled in Gloster to add to
their ill-gotten wealth by some new scheme of villainy. His theoretic
history of the man, derived from various sources, mainly newspapers in
which crimes had been described bearing the same style of workmanship,
was as follows.
Jose Gomez, a cadet of the ancient Brazilian family of that name, began
life with a fine physique, ample mental endowments, and a high social
position. He was the heir-expectant of a valuable estate, and no pains
were spared upon his education. As he grew to manhood, however, his
habits became such as to excite the gravest apprehensions as to his
future, and by the time he was thirty years of age he was a reckless
libertine, gambler, and spendthrift. Finding that his source of supplies
was about to be cut off by his family, he obtained large sums of money
by means of forged paper, with which he fled from Rio Janeiro to Lima,
Peru. His whereabouts were not discovered for a long time, but when the
information was received, the Brazilian Government made an effort to
obtain his extradition. He was living in fine style in Lima, under the
assumed name of Juan Sanchez, and, in some way, he was warned of his
danger. Before any steps had been taken to expose or arrest him, he
perpetrated another series of forgeries, by which he obtained a large
amount of money, and then wholly disappeared. The aggregate of his
forgeries was so great that a considerable notoriety attached to the
case, and the facts were published in full in the leading newspapers of
this country.
About the time of the great rush to California, after the gold
discoveries there, a gentleman known as Don Jose Michel appeared in San
Francisco, where he lived in regal splendor; indeed, his extravagance
was so great as to make him conspicuous even among the reckless throng
who filled the Golden City. After wasting a fortune with a prodigal
hand, however, he suddenly vanished, and, although little was known
positively on the subject, it was commonly understood that he had
swindled a number of bankers and capitalists by worthless notes, drafts,
and checks, many of which were wholly or partly forged. The men thus
defrauded kept the matter quiet, both because they were ashamed to
acknowledge how easily they had been imposed upon, and because they
hoped to facilitate the capture of the criminal by working in secret.
The incidents were related to Senator Muirhead in a casual conversation
with a friend who had recently returned from the Pacific coast, and the
description given of Don Jose Michel tallied exactly with that of Juan
Sanchez and Jose Gomez.
By an odd coincidence, the month after the departure of Don Jose Michel
from San Francisco, a brilliant gentleman of nearly the same name
appeared in Quito, Ecuador, where he pursued a course so exactly similar
in character to that of Gomez, Sanchez, and Michel, that it was not
difficult to imagine that that ubiquitous person was identical with the
elegant Don Pedro Michel who created such a brief excitement in Quito,
terminating with forgery and a hasty flight.
About two years previous to the time of which I write, a wealthy
Brazilian arrived in London, and became a great favorite in society. His
wife was a beautiful Spaniard, and her exquisite taste, courtesy, and
knowledge of the world were highly appreciated by the select circle of
aristocracy into which she and her husband were soon admitted. Don Jose
Arias was the name of this gentleman, and he was soon known in nearly
every drawing-room in Belgravia. He was introduced by the Brazilian
_charge d'affaires_, in the absence of the Minister Resident, and this
semi-official guarantee of his position in Brazil gave him a passport
everywhere. It was not strange, therefore, that such a handsome,
refined, and agreeable couple should be cordially and hospitably
received, especially as their wealth was undoubtedly enormous, while
their manners showed that they had been born in the purple of
aristocracy. It was a sad shock to society when it was learned that Don
Jose and Donna Maria had absconded suddenly, taking with them about
fifty thousand pounds sterling, obtained by forgery. It was then learned
that the Brazilian legation had been the victim of forged documents
also, though the intimate acquaintance of Don Jose with the policy and
statecraft of Brazil in many important affairs had contributed largely
to his success in deceiving the young diplomat who was temporarily in
charge of the legation.
It was not until more than a year after this occurrence that Don Pedro
P. L. de Morito arrived in New York, with his beautiful wife, Donna
Lucia. They did not stop long in New York after their arrival, but spent
the latter part of the summer in the White Mountains in a very retired
manner, although they lived in the best style that the place afforded.
In August, they made a hasty trip to Washington and back to New York
again, where they began a more pretentious mode of life than they had
chosen theretofore. Don Pedro kept a yacht elegantly fitted up, and his
horses were the best that money could obtain. His bachelor suppers were
models of epicurean perfection, and when his wife gave a reception,
everything was in the best taste and style. While visiting Washington,
Don Pedro had met Senator Muirhead, who had gone there for a few days on
public business, and the acquaintance was renewed in New York, where the
Senator had some private interests demanding his attention. Something
had led the Senator to connect Don Pedro with Gomez, Sanchez, Michel,
and Arias, and though the idea was a vague one in his mind, it was
sufficiently fixed to cause him to institute inquiries into Senor
Morito's antecedents. As previously stated, nothing could be learned of
him previous to his arrival in New York, and the only circumstance which
could possibly be regarded as suspicious was, that both in Washington
and New York he had avoided meeting the Peruvian Minister and other
fellow-countrymen.
The peculiarity of the case interested me, and, after a long
conversation with the Senator, I agreed to unravel the slight mystery
surrounding the parties, and to make a complete review of their past
history so far as it might be possible to obtain it. No harm could
result from such a course, whether they were honest or the reverse; and
so, having decided upon a simple plan, I returned to Chicago to select
the persons to represent me in Gloster.
My preliminary survey of the field had brought me into contact with many
of the most fashionable people in Gloster; and, as I foresaw that my
operatives would be called upon to move in the best society while
engaged in this investigation, I obtained as extended information about
the members of the _creme de la creme_ as possible. Since many of them
will figure conspicuously in the incidents of this story, a brief
description of the leaders will be necessary.
One of the wealthiest men of Gloster was a bachelor, named Henry O.
Mather. He was about fifty years old, but he still retained much of the
fire of youth, and he was one of the most popular members of society. At
an early day in the history of the Great West he had settled at Gloster,
where he had invested largely in unimproved lands; and, by forethought
and good judgment in his speculations, he had rapidly increased his
property in extent and value, until, at this time, he was one of the few
millionaires west of the Alleghanies. About three years previous to the
time of which I write, he had invested largely in the new railroad
schemes then organized, and his importance as a railway magnate
was recognized throughout the whole country. His reputation as a
shrewd business man made him a species of authority among his
fellow-townspeople, and few persons would have ventured to distrust the
safety of any enterprise in which he was actively interested. Indeed,
so complete was the confidence of most men in him, that it was not
considered necessary in buying real estate to trace the title further
back than to Henry O. Mather, a deed from him being considered as secure
as a patent from the government. Personally he was a very agreeable man,
being gallant without affectation, and brilliant without priggishness.
His figure was of medium height, compactly built, and he carried himself
with an erect bearing and springy gait, which greatly aided in deceiving
strangers as to his age. His hair was brown, turning gradually to gray,
and he wore full gray side-whiskers. His features were quite pleasing
except the mouth, which was rather large and sensual. On the whole, he
was a man with uncommon ability to please when he felt disposed to exert
himself, and his great wealth was an additional charm which society was
not slow to recognize. He owned a large house, occupying the whole of a
square in the most fashionable part of the city, and his sister-in-law
was installed as its mistress.
Richard Perkins was an Englishman who had long lived in Gloster, where
he owned the largest brewery in the West. He was of middle height, but
being quite fleshy, his gait was a kind of waddle--the reverse of
elegant or dignified. His smooth, round, jovial face was strongly
expressive of an appreciation of the good things of this world, and he
rarely denied himself any indulgence that passion craved and that money
could procure.
It was while Mather and Perkins were on their annual visit to New York
that they met Senor Morito and his beautiful wife, Donna Lucia. The
distinguished foreigners soon made a complete conquest of both the
western gentlemen, who invited them in the most cordial manner to visit
Gloster at their earliest convenience.
The delights of New York society were enjoyed for several months by
these wealthy and aristocratic foreigners before they were able to keep
the promise made to Mather and Perkins; for they were entertained by the
old Knickerbocker families of Manhattan in a princely style. They were
the guests of the most exclusive circles of the city, and everywhere
they displayed such perfect courtesy, good breeding, and _savoir faire_,
that it was evident they were accustomed to wealth and high social
position. They had elegant apartments in the leading hotel of the city,
and their cash expenditures showed the possession of an unlimited
fortune. They finally tore themselves away from New York, arriving in
Gloster during the comparatively dull season of Lent. Here their fame
had become known in society through the incessant praises of Mather and
Perkins, and their reception into the highest circles was coincident
with their arrival. The unanimous verdict of those who made their
acquaintance was, that Gloster had never entertained two more thoroughly
pleasing guests than the Don and Donna Morito.
Don Pedro was about forty years of age, but he had all the brilliancy
and ease of a man of thirty. His figure was very fine, being slightly
above the medium height, erect, compact, and muscular. His hands and
feet were small and elegantly shaped, but were not effeminate. His rich
olive complexion was in admirable harmony with his soft black eyes and
deep red lips. His face was a good oval, without being unmanly, and his
black, glossy hair was beautifully curly and wavy. He wore side-whiskers
and a long moustache, beneath which his smile, the ladies said, was
faultless. Like most South Americans, he seemed too lazy to be
unamiable, and his general style was that of a man who, having possessed
wealth always, would be perfectly lost without it.
Donna Lucia was a fine specimen of Spanish beauty, education, and
refinement. It was easy to see that she possessed more force of
character than her husband, and that her passionate nature was like a
volcano, which might burst forth at any time, driving her to the most
dangerous courses if it took possession of her. A detailed description
of such a woman is an impossibility. In general, she was a beauty of the
Andalusian type, as nearly perfect in form and feature as can be
conceived; but her expression was of an infinite variety of characters,
each one giving the precise shade of meaning most applicable to the
time, place, person, and sentiment. In short, she was so near perfection
that nearly all the men she met were in love with her, and nine-tenths
of them more than half believed that she regretted her marriage for
their sake. Nevertheless, she kept all admirers at a certain distance,
which only bewitched them the more.
At the time of which I write, Don Pedro was so much pleased with
Gloster, that he had rented a large residence in a very fashionable
locality, and was making preparations to spend a year there. The
charming manner in which they had entertained their friends at the hotel
was ample guarantee that when the Don and Donna were established in
their new home, they would surpass anything in the way of festivities
ever seen in Gloster; hence, all the best society of the place rejoiced
greatly at the arrival of this new constellation in the social
firmament.
Among the bachelors most noted in _salons_ and parlors of the city were
Daniel McCarthy and Charles Sylvanus, the former a lawyer, and the
latter a journalist. McCarthy was an Irishman, of brilliant talents and
ready wit. Although still comparatively a young man, he was the county
prosecuting attorney, and was considered one of the foremost lawyers of
the city. He was very good-looking and good-hearted, and his natural
drollery made him a most entertaining companion. While speaking in
court, and often in society, he had a habit of running his fingers
through his long, thick hair, which he would also, at times, throw back
with a peculiar jerk of his head. This habit was especially frequent
when he became deeply interested in his subject, and the spectators
could always tell whether Dan was doing his best, even when they could
not hear his words.
Sylvanus was editor and part proprietor of an evening newspaper. As a
journalist he was not above mediocrity, but he was well received in
society, where even a moderate allowance of brains will suffice for
success.
A conspicuous member of society and a pillar of the Swedenborgian church
was Mr. John Preston, a banker and capitalist. With a book of
Swedenborgian revelations in one hand and a bundle of tax titles in the
other, he would frequently orate to a crowd of unbelievers, from a text
drawn from his book, in a manner calculated to quite convert them, were
it not that they knew he was only working up a fresh head of steam to
enable him to grind the faces of the poor upon whose property he held
tax titles. In fact, many people were of the opinion that this man was a
dangerous character, in spite of his pretense of piety, his ostentatious
charity, and his assumption of the _role_ of a professional
philanthropist. They insinuated that a man could afford to give largely
to an astronomical society, a college, an academy of sciences, and other
objects of education, when he had appropriated many thousands of dollars
belonging to the school fund to his own use; that he could easily
contribute freely to his church, when he used the church property in his
own interests and managed the society to suit himself; and that there
was no great amount of philanthropy in giving a few hundred dollars to
miscellaneous charities, when he made ten times the amount in shaving
notes at usurious interest and acquiring land by means only one remove
from actual theft; these things were becoming so notorious that a man of
less indomitable brass than John Preston would h
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