The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-11-27
The Cincinnati Express Robbery.


criminal acts.
The American Express Company had
previously allowed discharged en-
ploye, named Abe Monroe, to loaf
around its office in Cincinnati. He fire.
quently slept there, and was we'll ac-
quainted with the people employed in
the Office. This man planned the
robbery, and had two accomplices,
Hackney and Black.
On the afternoon of Sunday, the 18th
of November, two men (Hackney and
Black with an old horse and rickety
express wagon stopped in front of the
express Office, and, with some lifting
and Juggling, unloaded trunk, which
they wished sent to some destination.
They then departed. One man, only,
was on duty at the time. Monroe was
also in the Office, and, after the going
of the men, suggested that the porter
should "mark" (play at game of
chance) with him for the cigars. The
porter assehted, andwas beaten. Mon
roe then offered to watch the Office
while the porter went after the cigars,
to which the porter also agreed. The
moment he had gone, Monroe selected
a messengers safe from the pile ready
to go out in the evening, and dumped
it into the trunk which Hackney and
Black had left. The safe was for
the Chicago messenger, and contained
over SAG, 200. The porter came back
with the cigars, and tine two men pro-
ceeeded to smoke them. Next returned
the two men, Hackney and Black, stat
ing that mistake had been made, and
that the trunk which they left but few
minutes before should have been taken
to the Adams Express office instead of
the American. The porter told them
their trunk was still where they had
left it, and, in taking it back to the
wagon they had some real not imag-
mary, Juggling and lifting to do. They,
however, got it into the wagon, and
drove away.
When the Chicago messenger arrived
at the office to get his safes, he found
but one instead of the two he had ex-
pected to take away, and further in
quiry discovered the fact of the rob-
berry. The porter Immediately told the
story of the trunk, and the additional
and very important particular of hav-
ing noticed a safe in the trunk as the
men carried it away. The safe had
been so large that the trunk would not
close tightly. This porter does not
seem to have displayed even the most
ordinary discretion in the affair, but is
thought, nevertheless, to have been an
innocent party.
The most intense excitement imme-
diately prevailed in express and police
circles, and detectives all over the Union
were Immediately put hard at work.
Monroe was arrested the next day in In
dianapolis, and the other two in Gin
cinnati. in a drunken condition on Tues
day. Hackney and Black confessed the
deed. After the robbery, with the trunk
in the wagon, they had driven across
the river to quarry, half mile from
the town of Ludlow. Here they had
broken open the safe and got the money.
Hackney was to take and keep it for a
few days. They had then buried the
safe, and separated. Monroe had gone
out of the city. Hackney had got a
basket, taken the money home, and set
it under his bed. Himself and Black,
with few dollars in their pockets, had
then gone off on lager-beer spree.
Upon their relation, as above, of their
disposition of the money, the officers
made rush for Hackney's living place,
in q tenement-house. Seeing the Off
GERS coming, Mrs. Hackney grabbed
most of the money out of the basket,
ran into the room of negro, named
Briggs, and threw it under his bed. Re-
turning she found some money still in
the basket, (about $4,000 and had had
barely time to throw it into her cook
ing-stove when the police came in.
They found the basket under the bed,
as Hackney had directed, but it was
empty. The negro, waking mp the
next morning, found profusion
of wealth scattered over his floor and
under his bed. He went out, bought
new tin pail, and crammed the pail full
of money. As it would hold but about
$40, 900, he put the rest in sock, and
started for farm in the environs of the
city, where he hid it in hollow
stun.
1t took couple of days more for the
detectives to find out about the negro,
to arrest him, and to elicit confession
from him. They then went to the
stump and got the part of money. This
was all the negro would own up to for
another day. Further work on him,
however, led to the retrieval of the
sockful from another hole in the same
stump. He had not used dollar of
the stolen money.
The night of the recovery of the
money, at the st. Nicholas Hotel, the
American Express Company banqueted
all concerned in the work of detection,
as far as they could be gathered in. The
banquet was served in courses, with
the choicest wines and happy speeches
by the representatives of the three Elk.
press Companies-the American, the
Adams, and the United States.
The contrast between the ingenious
and successful contamination
IF the deed, and the conduct of the
thieves afterward, is perhaps as strong
y marked as any on record in criminal
history.
A Plucky Woman.
This morning woman, aged be-