The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1884-11-06
ONE oFPINKERToN's FEATs
Tho Accusing Blood that Led q Muir
dercr to Commit Suicide.

aefcr 10 COmmlC SulCluc.
"I was just thinking" said Captain
r. j. Linden, superintendent of Pink
erton's Detective Agency, "of tho
wonderful will power and untiring per-
severance of Allen Pinkerton. Very
few persons. unless they were inti-
mately associated with him, would be-
lievc that any person could possess
such patient persistence, which sur
mounted obstacles that to ordinary
mon would appear like impossible
mountains. Major Pinkerton was q
man with n big heart. don't think
he knew how to do o mean thing. Ho
was one of those honorable, fair-mind-
cd men, who, while giving everybody
their due, exacted the same for himself
In matters of business he insisted on
getting every penny that belonged to
him, and once he made promise it
was lived up to if it cost him overy
penny ho owned in the world. His
likes and dislikcs were intense. If ho
became your friend
NO AMOUNT OF CALUMNY
on the part of your enemy could
change his opinion; but if he disliked
you, neither arguments nor cntreatics
could shake him an iota.
Maj jor Pinkerton's perseverance and
ingenuity were tho secrets of his sue
cess in all his undertakings. If ho
could not accomplish his purpose by
one plan he Immediately resorted to
another. His mind was wonderfully
fertile in GXpcdients, and it was q 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 tho case of the
colored murderer johnson, of South
Carolina, who killed an enemy under
the most brutal circumstances. Major
Pinkerton was pretty positive rs to the
mans guilt but it was impossible to
obtain complete chain of evidence.
With the natural secrctiveness of his
race. johnson refused to full into any
of the man-trnps laid for him and
ma kc 4 confession, which was Pinkcr-
tons object. After weeks of patient
but abortive work. novel plan was
hit upon. Tho murderer was surprised
one morning when he went to take q
plow into field to find it spattcred
with blood. In tho open field where
he was to work the murderer found
LITTLE POOLS OF BLOOD
along the course he was to plow. When
startled by scoing the bloody imprint of
n human hand on the stable door.
Every hoe, or rake, or other farm i'm
plcment that the man picked up had
blood on it. When nightfall came tho
murderer was so paralyzed with fear
that his teeth wero chatterino and he
was afraid TO 60 to bed. NHc believed
that tho spirit of his victim was haunt
ing him. The detective and his assist
ant noted these symptoms, and we're
confident that the right plan had been
struck at last. 1t had been after a
fashion, and there was horrible proof
given tho next day. johnson WAS
found in the barn with his throat cut
from ear to ear. He had killed himself
rather than endure the torturcs of a
guilty conscience. / need not explain
that the blood marks which frightened
tho murdcrer's guilty soul were tho
work of the detectives and not of
spirits.
1T was in that kind of detective
work that Major Pinkcrton excellcd.
lie could change his tactics so that tho
man or men he was seeking would be
led into trap when they really
thought they were getting out of one.
There arc scores and scores of such in
stances, but they have all been pub
lished from time to time rs they oc-
Cured, and do not suppose would
interest you. 1t WAS ono of Major
Pinkerton's rules to conceal nothing
from tho public of public interest, after
the work was done, and it was another
1ntleXiblc rule to tell tho public nothing
before the job was finished or while It
was in PROGRESS From this bo poyo,
departed, and his sons, William and
Robert, who arc thcir fathers success
ors, will adhere to it rs rigidly as the
founder of tho agency did .'-PHiadeL
phta Press.