The Mineral argus., 1884-08-21
DIVE or PINKERroN,s rEATs.
The Accusin~ Blood That Lea a Murder
70 Commit Suicide.

70 Commit Suicide.
Il was just thinking" said Captain
r. J. Linden, superintendent of Pinker-
tons Detective Agency, on his return
from Chicago where he had been attend
ing the funeral of Pinkerton, "of the
wonderful will power, and untiring per-
severance of the man whose body was
laid to rest last Thursday. Very few
persons, unless they were intimately as
ISOLATED with him, would believe that
any person could possess such a patient
persistence, which ~surmounted obstacles
that to ordinary men would appear like
impossible mountains. Major Pinker-
ton was a man with a big heart. Idont
think he knew how to do mean thing.
He was one of those honorable, fair
minded men, who, while giving every
body their due, exacted the same for
himself. In matters of business he in
sisted on getting every penny that be-
longed to him, and once he made a
promise it was lived up to if it cost him
every penny he owned in the world,
His likes and dislikes were intense. If
he became your friend no amount of
calumny on the part of your enemy
could change his opinion; but he dis
likes you, neither argument nor en-
treaties could shake him an iota.
Major Pinkerton's perseverance and
ingenuity were the secrets of his sue
cess in all his undertakings. If he
could not accomplish his purpose by
one plan he Immediately resorted to an
other. His mind was wonderfully fer
tile in expedients, and it wa O rare
thing for him to fail when he had once
set his mind upon success. You can
form some idea of his ready tact and
capacity for planning In the case of the
colored murderer johnson of South
Carolina, who killed an enemy under the
most brutal circumstances. Major
Pinkerton was pretty positive as to the
mans guilt, but it was impossible to OBJ
tain a complete chain of evidence.
With the natural secretiveness of his
race, johnson refused to fall into anyo of
tie mantraps laid for him and make a
confession, which was Pinkerton's OBJ
ject. After weeks of patient but abor-
tive work, a novel plan was hit upon.
The murderer was surprised one morn
ing when he went to take a pillow into
the field to find it spattered with blood.
In the open field where he was to work
the murderer found little pools of
blood along the urs he was to pillow.
When he went back to the stable he
was startled by seeing the bloody I'M
print of a human hand on the stable
1nnr EuoY.u hoo ~ rcI<n ~ Ofhor forV,
implement that the man picked up had
blood on it. When nightfall came the
murderer was so paralyzed with fear
that his teeth were chattering and he
was afraid to go to ped. He believed
that the spirit of his victim was haunt
ing him. The detective and his assist
ant noted these symptoms, and were
confident that the right plan had been
struck at last. 1t had been after a fash
Ion, and there was a horrible proof Civ
en- the next day. Johnson was found in
the barn with his throat cut from ear to
ear. He had killed himself rather than
endure the fortunes of q guilty con-
science. 1 need not explain that the
blood marks which frightened the muir
derer's guilty soul were the works of
the detectives and not of spirits.
at was in that kind of detective work
that Major Pinkerton excelled. He
could change his tactics so that the man
or men he was seeking would be led
into a trap when they really thought
they were getting out of one. There
are scores and scores of such instances,
but they have all been published from
time to time as they occurred, and 1 do
not suppose would interest you. 1t
was one of Major Pink erton's rules to
conceal nothing from the public of
public interest, after the work was
done, and it was another infexible
rule to tell the public nothing before
the job was finished or while it was in
progress. From this he never depart
ed, and his sons William and Robert,
who are their fathers successors, will
adhere to it as rigidly as the founder of