Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-08-02
From the New Orleans Picayune.
An American VidOcQ.


One Nathan Marony has been convicted
at Montgomery, Ala, of robberies commit
ted upon the Adams Express Company, of
which be was agent, to the amount of s 49,
900. He planned his rogueries so adroitly,
and secured his spoil SO successfully, that,
although suspected and discharged, it took
ten months of constant surveillance by
skilful detective, and most ingeniously
contrived series of plots to get proof against
him, and to recover the money. The ex-
posure was so perfect that be finally plead
ed guilty, and received the sentence Of ten
years Imprisonment IN the Alabama Pen
itentiary.
The police agent, to whom the affair was
entrusted, was one Allen Pinkerton, de-
tective policeman of celebrity in Chicago.
He was sent for to Montgomery, and had
the full confidence of the company, wbe,
having paid The money, was extremely anx-
ious to punish the faithless agent, and, if
possible, to recover the $4,000, which
they felt convinced had not been parted
with.
The detective accomplished this with
skill and perseverance, a fertility of re-
sources, facility of disguise and immovable
tenacity of purpose which excite wonder as
we read. The rogue and his accomplice
were hunted backward and forward, through
a circuit of thousands of miles of travel;
every movement from day to day, and ev
cry night, was watched and noted. Spies
were set about them in their most confiden-
tial hours; their intimates were pressed in
to service against them; and finally de-
tective brought into contact with the rogue,
under circumstances TO gain his confidence,
be accepted as a counsellor, and obtain
actual possession of the money in trust.
If we had read such story in the men,
oirs of Vidocq, we should have thought it
a romantic exaggeration. 1t is, however,
reality, and exhibits the degree of acute
ness to which the intellect may be sharp
ened by incessant devotion to the pursuit.
The Chicago detective has so thoroughly
mastered the theory and practice of rogue
dom that it must be blessing to the com
munity that he never turned rogue him
self. He who knows So well the weak
points where the rascals open themselves
10 detection would be the most dangerous
of men, if nature had not made him hon
est. As it is, this story will make him ia
nous, and a special terror to thieves.
Marony stole the money from the pri-
vate pouch of the Express Company-ten
thousand dollars at one time, forty thou
sand dollars at another, and We believe
three thousand at another. The ten thou
sand dollars were employed in the purchase
of Cotton in South Carolina. The forty
thousand dollar package was put in a box,
and sent by express to Galveston, in Tex
as, under fictitious name. 1t remained
there until April, when it was ordered 10
Naches. He went to Naches for it, and
secreted it in Montgomery.
Marony had wife or rather lived with
a woman whom he made his wife during
these affairs, who was his confederate
She went North, and took up her residence
at Jenkintown in Pennsylvania, with a
brother-in-law. She came South, and got
the money, and had it buried in her broth
er-in-law's cellar. All her movements, day
by day, from Montgomery to New York,
to Jenkintown, and while there, and back
again to Montgomery, and to New York,
were supervised hour by hour. Women
with whom she became acquainted, were
engaged to watch, and to direct her move
ments as the police agent desired.
When the evidence was strong enough
Marony was arrested and put in the Eldred
street Jail. A fictitious arrest was made,
and one of Pinkerton's agents was placed
in prison with him, and long history is
made of the process by which Marony was
made to confde in this Mr.. -, confess
ing the robbery, and where the moneywas,
and engaged his aid to get up defence,
and 10 dispose of the money. The various
articles by which Marony was led to these
disclosures, the DISCUSSES and tricks by
which the wife was induced to deliver up
the money to the police agent, the contri-
vance by which, for several months after,
and until the trial of Marony, the Mr..
Diauh W U6 lD0 COuluCuG vi tuC
deceived rogue, form long chapter in the
history. Marony was made to believe that
the money was safely put away for him.
Every thing he did was under the advice
of his prison friend, until on the arrival at
Montgomery, whittier he was sent under
an Executive requisition, to be tried on the
indictment, he was confronted in Court by
his bosom counsellor as police detective.
He Immediately caved in and pleaded gull
ty.
1t is one of the most remarkable cases
in the history Of the American detective
police.
The Mail states that the number of per-
sons employed by Mr.. Pinkerton averaged
about eight for ten months, and the dis
tance travelled by them during that time
was not less than fifty thousand miles.