The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-01-30
A Western Claude Duval-Remarka-
BILE Career OF Young Thief.

<. From tGe Kansas Clty Bulletin, dail' "a
There arrived at the Union depot yester-
day morning, from Cheyenne, securely
ironed, and under care of United States
detective named T. s. Gledden, OF Cincin-
natl, one of the most daring boy impostors
lever caught by the authorities. His name
is said to be Dennis Harrison, and he Is the
youngest son of a machlnist living IN Co
| lumbus, Ohio. At an early age the boy de-
veloped vicious disposition, and was de.
tected in an attempt to rob the United
States mail-car on the Panhandle road.
For this offence he was sent to the House
Of Refuge.
Finding the accommodations Of this es-
tablishment unsuitable to his fastidious
| taste, he made such earnest protestations
| of piety and repentance that he was allowed
to return to his parents at Columbus. Here
he again developed his vicious instincts by
beating his mother, setting fire to the house,
| and running away. The next heard of him
he is enlisted as q bugler in cavalry regl-
| ment. en- route to the Rocky Mountains.
| Here he proved himself such an incorrigi-
| BILE young thief that after one years service
in the guard-house he was drummed out of
| the army at Fort Laramie. He was soon
after taken, disguised rs an Indian, in an
| attack upon a supply train, together with
another white renegade, who was forthwith
hung to tree. Harrison was spared OIL
account of his youth, and taken to Fort
ualleck, whence lie soon afterward escaped.
| He became acquainted in Denver with q
desperate gang of stage robbers, and took
part in their attacks upon the overland
mails in 1S64-'5. He. soon after left the
West and returned home to Ohio, and join
] ed the Methodist Church. He became ac-
quainted with a young country girl and
married her, but deserted her soon after.
He became brakeman on the Central Ohio
railroad, but was discharged for laZiness.
He was married again in GAINESVILLE, and
was arrested in Newark for seduction, but
managed to escape the deluded victim, with
| some 5000 in money. He came to Kansas
! City in the winter of 1867, and, assuming
the character of q wayward son of a wealthy
| banker East, made his way into good socie-
| ty, both here and at Wyandotte. Being
good-Iooking and free with money, he '.took
| WELL" and became engaged to two of Kan
here a brief period, and left the city
and respectable family in Wyandotte
cursing him and his deception. His next
scene of rascality was at counterfeiter's
den in Houston street, New York. Here
| he became acquainted with the thieves,
gamblers, and counterfeiters, and being
naturally smart and intelligent, soon be-
came leader of his fellow-criminals. He
established q saloon, which became the
| headquarters of all the counterfeitcrs and
" showers of the queer" in the country,
and in due time became IN expert in the
business. When the counterfeit $50 Trea-
suIy notes first made their appearance, he
"shoved" seventeen of them in one
day, purchasing sufficient amount OF
clothing to supply himself and mistress
for over two years. Shortly after this
he became one of the leaders of one
Of the worst gangs of counterfeiters
in the United States, and was con-
nected with the stealing of certain
plates from the United States Treas
rlry Office. In 1865 the gang to which he
belonged went into the fractional currency
business, and to them the country Is in-
debted for the innumerahle fifty and twen-
| ty-tive cent notes with which every conmu-
nifty, both East and West, were flooded, and
it was while in this business that he was
| detected. In November, 1869, his gang had
agents in all parts OF the country, to whom
| they sent their worthless currency for cir
culation. His boltlness getting the better
of his discretion. he was detected and al
| rested by Col. Wood, Chief Detective Oft the
Treasury Department, escaped from train
| from the New York and Albany railroad,
and made the best Of his time and started
West. He has made some successful hauls,
and scattered "the queer" in Omaha and
st. Joseph, and was traced up and arrested
few days ago upon train between Chey-
enne and Denver.