The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-11-16
DETECTIVE EXPERIENCE.
The Element Of Chance unin ,orable to the
Criminal Glasses,

'''"iH'' 'I"NN'N'
"A great deal Of what passo, ior fine
detective work is nothing more or lie
han sheer mck' said poicc-Captain
Nashburn of til Twentieth Precinct to
1 TribWRc reporter, Il have had II
rood deal OF experience in that line
myself. | remember particularly the
,ase of Kansonsky who murdered
Lena Miller in New Jersey. From
package of tob eco found at the scene
If the murder it was thought that the
parties lived in my precinct, and Cor
)ner Virgins, who had charge Of the
Ease, asked my assistance, which, Of
course, was cheerfully given, although
he work did not properly belong to
ne. | worked hard on it, but was UNI
able to gain any clew, and other work
coming up, which unfortunately de
handed my attention, let the matter
partly drop.
Zone day German butcher, Philip
Emden, came to the station and said
hat man named Kankonsky had been
receiving letters addressed under the
name of Kettler, and he though he was
he man who committed the murder |
1t once put men to watch the house.
shortly after our men got there two
men. who turned out to be Il Jersey
City policeman and reporter from "A
Jersey City paper, arrived, They had
rackcd the baggage to the house, and
hey acted in such suspicious manner
hat they were arrested. II was solely
iuc 20 the fact of that German butcher
noticing at KankonSky was receiving
cttcrs under false name and having
he good SENSE to report it to me that
cd to the murders arrest,
"When | was a keeper in Sing Sing
4 prisoner named Dunn escaped. The
papers said there had been bribery and
Ill that sort of stuff Mr.. Lockwood
vas Warden then. and he told me that
he wanted me to find the man. came
20 the city and put in about a month of
the ha de kind OF work. found
plenty Of traces, but never could lay
any hands on him, At last | gave up
the chase in disgust, went back to the
prison and reported for duty. When
the Warden saw me he asked me what
meant by coming back without the
prisoner | told him that | couldn't do
anything more, He said; Go to New
York, and don't dare to come back
without the prisoner | asked him
for money, and he gave me an orderon
Leggett Il Co., the provision merchants
who furnished the prison with supplies,
and ! came back to the city. drew
$50 and made up my mind if the State
of New York could stand paying my
expenses | could stand it too. hadu
idea of worrying myself about Dunn.
| went up to Tom Hyer's place and
had a rafting good breakfast and a
bottle of Wine, Then spent 80 cents
for three cigars, and lighting one of
them started out ra stroll ! went
down the Bowery a, far as Bayard
street, when a man whom ! recognized
a. an eX-conyict came up TO me and
said; Hello, Washburn, Have you
found Dunn yct?' No., | answered,
and don't care much whether ! do or
not, I'm sorry for that, he said,
because he and | have been doing some
work together and the blank thief won t
divide, and if you'll put up enough
III give him away | clnchcd a bar
gain with the fellow, and the mcknight
he took me to Dunn's place and
| got him. Whenl took him back to
the prison the Warden compimented
me on my perseverance, 'Persovcr-
ance be hanged" said, and then told
him the whole story. He enjoyed it
immensely, and made me tell it to the
prison Inspectors,
Another case that could call to
mind was when | was a patrolman in
Beekman street My day post was in
Maiden Lane. One morning a man
came to me and said he had lost iirkin
of butter; could get it for him? |
told him of course | could. | thought
then and still think the man must have
been a fool to think could find tub
of butter that had been stolen for two
hours. He gave me the marks on the
tub, which ] immediately forgot My
night post was at Fulton Market, and
] had hardly gone on post when saw
u man with tub OF butter on his shout
der. saw that the marks were SINH
lar to those given to me, and stopped
him. lie gave lame explanation Of
how he got the butter, and | took him
and the butter to the station, 1t turned
out that it was the very butter that had
been stolen. The owner took the re-
covcry as a matter of course, and I'll
bet if he ever lost another tub and it
wasn't recovered at once that he ac-
cuscd the police Of incapacity, could
give numerous other instances, but this
is enough to show that great deal of
the so-callcd fine detective work is the
result Of luck, pure and simple. |
don't deny, though, that a great many,
in fact, large percentage of the work
is the result of sheer downright hard
work and keen detective ability, ~
NeW Yorh Tr3JuRc
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