The morning news., 1889-03-18
JUSTICES WATCHFUL EYE
HOW GOTHAM CROOKS ARE SHAD-
OWED BY DETECTIVES.

(Copyright 1897
NEW YORK, March 16.-The most i'm
portant element, perhaps, in all executive
business is system. In detective work while
complete success cannot bs attained with
out cleverness, shrewdness and keen ability
to put one and another thing together and
arrive at a correct result, but poor returns
/ would come from these qualities however
faithfully applied without the advantage Of
proceeding along certain definite lines that
have been previously arranged in system
attic order. 1t ls herein that the efforts Of
private detectives seldom can compare with
| those of a thoroughly organized public
force. The individual worker may stir
about with all the caution, energy and
shrewdness in the world, and sometimes
may accomplish surprising results; but as a
rule he will find himself defeated from lack
of general knowledge about criminals that
is not in his way to learn, that no one can
| learn unless he acts as the head of a large
| force every member of which reports to
him frequently what he has discovered.
The individual is hampered because he can
not draw ON the information of many
Others like himself The public detective
besides his own Knowledge may avail him
self Of a vast deal that others have acquired,
and best of all lie works under a system de-
veioped from the observations or long ex-
perience.
The success of the New York detective
bureau is very largely due to unceasing ad-
herence to plan of surveillance 1t keeps
the force busy all the time. for we do not
propose if we can help it, to let any crook
get the start of us by committing a crime.
1t is our purpose to prevent crime. Now,
oil No NpIr
more men and women with evil propensi-
ties and tendencies to criminal life than for
ty men can keep constantly in view. The
situation is further complicated and rem
dered difficult by the constant influx of
criminals from other cities and countries.
Very few crimes are committed in these
days by the professional crooks of ten years
ago. They have learned their lesson and
either keep themselves straight. or go to
Europe. II is the new men, fresh arrivals
and youngsters that keep the criminal cal
endar full and bother the detectives; never
theless the new corners are discovered with
a promptness that would probably surprise
the public, unacqualnted as 1t is, with
the most approved methods of detective
work.
The importance of getting acquainted
with incoming criminals is too great and
too evident to need any exposition at this
time. The way it is accomplished may be
interesting 1t results from an acceptance
| of the truth conveyed in the old proverb:
| Birds of a feather flock together" Every
| body knows how the rich people OF a city
make their homes in one locality, the poor
III another; how in the business section Of a
town there is the dry-goods district, the
| shopping district, the leather district, the
| wooden district, the street where jewelers.
have their shops, another whore brokers are
| to be found, and so on through the whole
list of trades aud vocationS The rule ap-
| applies to thieves They have their resorts
| and it is our business to fad out where they
| are and TO watch them. Granted time and
| persevera ce and all the places where
| crooks congregate can be located. 1t Is
morally certain that new arrivals will 60 to
| these places, and when detective sees new
| face there, he makes it his business to find
out all possible concerning him. The act
| ual working Of this system and its results
cannot be better illustrated than by brief
reference to the Ernst murder case of
| about a year ago. 1t would be entirely
| possible for a writer skilled in fiction
| to make sensational novel out of this C ase
| of the regula Gaboriau type by beginning
| with a statement OF the murder and leading
| the reader through all tue maze of myste-
| ries that always surrounds Sucl an event il
Stories and in this case did ually. The
novel would begin something like this:
Mrs. Magaret Ernst, an aged German
| woman, supposed to have great wealth con-
cealed in her modest Nav Haven home,
| talked with a nelghbor at her back door
early one Monday evening. TIE next
morning her dead body was found in her
| kitchen horribly mutilated. The back
door was not locked, and there was not the
| slightest evidence On the premises to lead
to reasonable suspicion of the guilty
| party"
| After that the story would detail the
work Of local policemen, their arrests Of
| innocent persons, their ut er bewilderment,
aud so on, until the operations of the New
| York police brought the affair to a success
| full termination. 1t is not my purpose to
romance on this subject intend rather
| to show how the system of surveillance en-
| ployed by this bureau effected the capture
| of TIE right parties within three days after
| the murder was committed. Let me say
| first that one of the two guilty mon had
| never committed crime before so far as
eau be ascertained from the records of the
| department. The other was almost equally
unknown to the police.
1t was but few weeks before the murder
| OF Mrs. Ernst that one of my men reported
to me that a stranger had been noticed asso-
ciating with people whom we knew to be
professional criminals. According to the
usual plan orders were given that this
stranger should De watched and everything
possible learned about his past. 1t was
readily discovered aud reported tuat he was
Henry B. Chamberlain, alias, Frank Clark,
New Haven crook. Among the men
whose acquaintance he cultivated was
James B. Taylor, a young saloon keeper of
this city. Both men were constantly
watched, but no reports Of their movements
of great consequence were made until one
Monday evening one Of my men shadowed
them to the Grand Central depot. He saw
them buy tickets for New Haven and board
the train. There our surveillance had to
stop. II they had contemplated crime
within the city they would never have ac-
compliShed it, for our man would have been
with them at every stage of the game and
would have checked them at the proper
moment Under the circumstances, how
ever, all he could do was to report to head
quarters that they had left town for New
Haven. memorandum to that effect was
filed for future reference
Tuesday evenings paper contained ac-
counts Of the finding of Mrs. Ernst's body
and of the total lack OF any discriminating
clew. Our suspicious we're directed at once
to Chamberlain and Taylor. Men were
sent out to learn when they came home. 1t
was found that they were in the city at 2:30
Tuesday morning. Chamberlain spent
money freely the rest of that night and
during Tuesday.
To make the story brief and straightfor-
ward, will say that they went to Mrs.
Ernst's house in New Haven, where Cham
berlain was well acquainted, saw the neigh