The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1864-1911, 1866-08-08


the stolen a1i les was faunl about me, m,
house, or my office; and that further if
had desired to rob the mail | might have
waited until it had arrived at the Office. anC
thus saved myself the crime of murder
Against tie third statement | told the reg
son of my remaining in the Office so late
and brought forth witnesses to prove thai
often did so on Wednesday evenings, j,
order that the mail might be deaye Sc
little As possible. Further. that the rea on
of my remaining so long in tie office wa,
that could not open the door, and brnu hi
iorwar' The fact that the keys were miss. ne,
to sustain my dec aratinn.
Although these argument were Lv nc
near fully satisfactory to those who took
the ground that was guilty, still they were
81 far so that was released on bail of five
| thousand dollars, which | readily obtained.
BY consent of The Post Ofic Department, ]
| turned the affairs of the office over to my
assistant. l was thus left free 10 pur. ue
every mems to prove my innocence, which
felt could only be done by discovering the
guilty party.
| acco dinghy placed the best of detec-
tlves as work, with orders to communicate
to me- the first suSnicinn that they enre.
tain d, fr found that it was anything but
comfortable tn be looked upon as a mur-
| derer, although | knew that | was nno
| cent.
Thus three weeks passed without any
thing Of interest occ r ing, and at the end
nt that tlnlel could endure the suspense no
longer therefore, | wrote to an oil friend
OF mine, who was then on the detective
force of P, at Land together we sci
about to search
A week as ell, viii ou' biining mo-e to
light, and using us IL dr-pond, Tor W.
fear d that the murderer Ind so covered
his tracks that it would be- impo sible to
discover him. We had been to work ty1
days in the city Of g.. and b,ing about
to leave, entered the hotel Office to settle.
Having no small bills, there was consid"ra-
Bile change handed back, and among it a
ten dollar bill. which had been torn in two
AS turned it caressly over / found that
the parts had been fastened together with
the margin of couple Of post stamps,
which had printed upon it No l5--Plate,
but the No. and Plate had been crossed
out, and substituted in their place, was
Mar. and 1854, making it read Mar
l5-lS64, which was the day before the
robbery and murder. This may all seem
common enough bnt to he it was ray of
light and hope; for the change was in my
own hand writing. | also remembered
perfectly well, making therehanee also, that
| had placed my initials on the underside,
and the bill must have been in the safe at
the time of the robbery. Calling my friend
we went into side room, and there care
fully removed the paper. On the under
side discovered, as had expected, the let
ters, j. b. much blurred from wcttng,
but still leghle My friend agreed with me,
that it was very important discov' ~. and
in order to press it forw.rd. we called in the
landlord and questioned him.
He remembered having received the bill
that morning, and had rather question:
taking it ON account of the tear. On being
asked to d, scribe the man. he aid:
AS near az | reccollect, he was ahont five
feet ten inches in height. anl quite stout in
proportion. He was dressed entirely in
black. The only peculiar mark that |
noticed, was deep scar running across his
face, and his left eye was gonc-the place
hcing supplied by piece of black silk,
which he showed very plainly when he
winked.
think must have started very perccp
title when heard this description, ior |
recognized the man Immediately as a run.
ner for the firm of .Bagley a. Mason. of
Boston, who had been in our town for
about week previous to the murder and
had left the same morning, His own name
was James Burnham.
As We could learn nothing more from the
landlord, save that he ordered the hackman
to drive to the Boston depot we dismissed
him, and held d consultation. We both
agreed that ii was best to go Immediately
to Boston, see Baeley & Nas,n. and if pos
sihle, learn of Burnham's whereabouts -
Carrying out this plan, we learned from
the firm the following facts:
james Burnham was good. reliable bu-
siness man. He had been in their employ
ment for about fifteen years, and they were
willing to trust him with any amount of
their funds. He was now in Vermont,
where he had been since leaving L., and
had not, to their certain knowledge been at
G.
This rather perplexed us, but at least we
determined that he must have deceived his
employers; and although we did not think
we had sufficient cause to arrest him, still
we determined to track him. For this pur-
pose we went TO Vermont and fell in with
him in Montpelier. For week we observ-
ed bis every motion, but at the end Of the
time had discovered nothing, save that he
would stay in the town about one week
longer. Feeling that my friend was fully
capable of watching him alone, de ermin-
ed to go to Boston to see if I could learn
anything new; and accordingly on the
morning ofthe 2lst of April, left, having
first arranged system of cypher, by which
we could communicate with each other if
occasion required it.
Early on the morning of the 22d | was
standing on the steps of the--Hotel, when
paper dropped at my feet, apparently from
ono of the upper windows. Shopping down
/ picked it up, but discovered that it was
but an empty envelope. and was about to
drop it again. when the name upon it caught
nav ,r, t. ,y,o tL.t of . Ia, -, ,,,o,oLnr.