Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-03-05

r. A man named Johnston was III
g one who worked the robbery. H
rs plan WAS to rent an Office next doc
l. or very near the bank. He woui
n then have package ofsmoney sen
/, to himself by express from som
e town Fear the place at which h
v would be located. The Expres
i messenger ws-uld be apt to tax
r JohESion's package into his offie
II for delivery before going into tn
e bank. and he would more thar
t likely have large amount of mon
: eyWith him. Johnston would hayl
two or three robbers in his place
!, and the scheme was to all attacl
5 the messenger, beat him senseiess
, rObb him, and leave him to be fOunC
[ whenever he might. This was I'll,
j plan carried out in the Memphis
: robbery. Mr.. Pinkerton had beer
in and around Memphis all thai
winter, and had never seen John.
ston loahng in the city He knew
, just how Johnston worked, and as
soon as the robbery was reported to
him he felt certain that it was John
ston's job. When Johnston was
captured he refused to "produce. ?
He was very game fellow, and in
order to bring him to time he was
threatened with hanging. This did
not have the desired effect, and he
was actually strung up, but of course
not with the intention of killing
| him. He was soon lowered, but he
still refused to reveal the wherea-
/ bouts OF the stolen money. Once
more he was pulled up and again
! lowered, but not word would he
say. The third time he was hanged
| he was thought to be dead, and it
was concluded that he had died
with the secret his own. Pat Con-
mel kicked him TO see if he would
respond, but it had no effect. Pin
kerton, however, called for bucket
of water, and after working with
| the man awhile he came back to
consciousness. As he did, he said:
"Gentiemen, I've got all l want
of this. / see you mean business.
I'll tell you all you Want to know"
And he did fell. Johnston got 2I
/ years.
For some time previous to.1873,
the Adams and Southern Express
companies were suffering terribly
/ from the bands of organized gangs,
who stopped trains, captured the
money packages and had things
their own way generally. They
would set lighted lamp under the
body Of the express messenger and
torture him to death if he refused
to tell where the money was. The
Pinkertons have done the detective
work for these companies for twen-
ty years, and the companies have
not been touched for eight years in
the section where the old Earring
ton gang worked so successfully be-
fore being broken up. This is be-
cause the companies have rigidiy
refused to compound a felony or
enter into d compromise with rob-
bers when captured.
LIVELY sKIRMIsH.
The last robbery the Harrington
gang did was at Union City. Pink
erton and his men had always sue
ceeded in tracing the robbers to
certain locality with few miles of
Lester's Landing, near the Tennes-
see and kentucky line. There it
seemed that the robbers disappeared
in the bowels of the earth, or some
where else, without leaving a trace
of any kind. One day Pinkerton
and Connell were at a place called
Hickman, in Kentucky, and while
there PinkeFton got into conver-
sation with gentleman named
Campbell, who resided near Testers
Landing. Campbell stated to Mr..
Pinkerton that he thought there
was a gang of counterfeiters located |
in his neighborhood, and it might |
be worth while to visit them. He |
went on to say that some time be- |
fore that two men had come along |
on the tramp and had stopped at |
John Wesley Lester's house. Les |
ter was a preacher, horse-thief, and |
man-of, ,all-wOrk. The tramp had |
built store at Testers, and every
few weeks they would go away and
be gone ten or fifteen days. There
was nobody there TO buy any thing
from the store, but the party always
had plenty of money and were very
suspicious of strangers. Pinkerton
Immediately concluded thatthe two
men referred to as tramps were Hill
Harrington and his brother Levi,
who were in the Union City Express
He thereupon proposed
to Connel to set out for LeSter's
Landing TO capture the robbers. He
thought that, as they knew him,
they would not make any resist
ance, and looked upon the proposed
capture as very simple matter.
1t was about dark at the time of
Testers house, which was
in spot back from the
river. Behind the house was an i'm
canebrake, and the place
was desolate itself. Connel went 70
one door and Pinkerton the other.
Both entered when PinkertOn
Their CONSERVATION may
be imagined when they saw. in
stead OF two men, FIVE armed ras-
Gals, woman and a girl, sitting in
front of a sni0ldering fire. Pinker-
ton recognized the fact that he had
made mistake, and saw that he
would have to use considerable
to get out of the scrape
his rashness had led him into. Bid
ling the party good evening, he
stated that he and his companion
we're travelling and had lost their ,,
way. They had called for the pur- !
pose of obtaining information as to
heir whereabouts and the route TO !
take to reach a place he mentioned.
"Who are you?" asked one of the !
men as he raised light to look at
The detectives.
"Weare gentlemen, replied Pink
9rton.
"You are travellers, are you?"
asked the robber with the light, at !
he same time siding over toward
Jonnel, and recognizing him as a {
detective he had seen while he, the i
'obber, was in Jail for horse-steal- Is
ng sometime before. The man Fl
cached for his revolver, and Pink {
erton, seeing that they were in for !
t, told Connel to hold his door. c
Turning to the men, Pinkerton said: l
you might as well give up. We s
nave twelve armed men outside"
At this a pistol was let go at &C
and the ball cut the skin /
If his left side about the hip, but, s
although the pain was great, it did f
lot bring him down. Then COM a
nenced a general firing between c
both Of the parties. A robber
lamed Burteen was shot in the i
tomach and killed. Pinkert0n got s
ball in the shoulder, as did also r
JOnnel. and another of the rob 8