Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-06
OLDSLEUTH WORK
How Detectives Actually Perform
Their Difficult Labors.
A BOY OPERATORS EXPERIENCE.
Erroneous Notions Created by Dime Novels
and the Stage.
UNEAETHING A GREAT CONSPIRACY


NO., is but a sample of the numerous in
quiries in the same line which are constant
ly received by professional detectives. II
is, indeed, not to be wondered at that there
is widespread notion that detectives con-
stantly resort to methods of disguise in their
work.
A DISPATCH reporter had an interesting
talk with Superintendent John F. Allen on
this subject yesterday. Mr.. Allen is but q
boy in appearance, yet he has been working
as professional detective for five years. He
began when he was only Is years old. He
is an Allegheny boy by birth, and was as
sisted to his present position by such men as
D. B. Oliver. Gamble Weir, John Gripp
and A. A. Heiner. Mr.. Allen is known
among his professional associates as the
Boy Detective, both because of his youthful
appearance and his diminutive form. To
the reporter he said:
Detectives scarcely ever use disguises.
There is really no need OF them, because it
is almost always possible to put man into
piece of work where he is not known by
the people among whom he must labor.
don't wonder much that young men who
imagine, like that Missouri man, that they
will make detectives, think that they must
wear false whlskers, goggles, plumpers in
their cheeks and all that sort of nonsense.
CHEAP NOVELS RESPONSIBLE.
"The detective stories published in the
New York fiction papers and in cheap
novel form, all represent detectives as going
about their work under the most outlandish
disguises. A little reflection, it seems to
me, ought to satisfy any person that those
disguises would be instantly apparent in
real life. In plays, also, detectives wear
disguises, but if you sit in the farthest cor
ner of the gallery you can discern pair of
false whiskers. It would be ridiculous to
attempt such thing in actual practice.
Novels and dramas are responsible for the
idea. There is scarcely week that some
person does not come to us and ask our ad-
vice on the best forms of disguises."
During the years that Mr.. Allen has been
in the business he has not resorted to dis
guise, although he has been engaged in some
OF the most important and difficult cases in
this city. The same experience is given by
Gilbert B. Perkins and Albert A. Heiner,
who conduct detective bureaus in this city.
They laugh at the novelists' tales of deep
disguise.
THE FAMOUS PANHANDLE CASE.
There has rarely been a more complicated
case for detective exploration in this city
than tine celebrated Panhandle train rob-
berries in 1886. On the court records of this
county it stands as sthe Commonwealth
against Lavelle and Others" In that case
the Pennsylvania Company engaged Mr..
Aliens Services, and although the most
astute and dangerous work was required,
which in the story book would require
room full of disgusting paraphernalia. moth
ing of the kind was resorted to. 1t is true,
as Mr.. Allen says, that men in his business
must resort to many subterfuges and be mas
ters of many lines of work. Their expert
ences are, in actual life, often as interesting
as the romancer can devise, even without
the disguises. Mr.. Aliens experiences in
that case will illustrate the true manner in
which detectives do their work.
SOME FACTS RECALLED.
The case will be remembered by many
people in this community. In 1886 there
were innumerable robberies from freight
cars on the Panhandle Railway. Goods
shipped from the East to Western points
were transferred here from the Pennsyl-
vania to the Panhandle Railroad. When
they reached their Western destination and
the packages were opened, it was discovered
by the consignees that part of the contents
had been removed en- route, and the pack
age or barrel carefully reclosed and re-
sealed. Claims for shortage were continu-
ally coming to the general Office, and the
mysterious robberies were finally put into
the hands of Detective Allen, then a mere
lad. He was at first given position as a
clerk in the freight yard, near the Union
There hQ ic h,,o.
make the acquaintance of employees of the
freight department OF the two roads. His
youthful appearance diverted all suspicion
as to his real business. After few months
in that work he was made what is called, in
railroad parlance, crew caller. It was his
business to go to the sleeping rooms of the
brakemen and other employees and call them
for their trains. This was the position he
desired. It gave him access to the apart
ments of the men. He discovered in that
way stolen goods. which, in nearly every
case, tailed with the goods specified in the
shortage claims. He did not meddIe with
the goods, but noted the men who had them,
and these men he specially cultivated. In
every instance they were trainmen ON the
Panhandle.
HIS LITTLE CIGAR GAME.
Having secured the confidence of the
men, he took another step. He opened a
cigar store at No. 81 Webster avenue. He
had peculiar card printed. On one side
was plain business announcement for
tobacco and cigars. The reverse repre-
sented a fne-toothed comb, and in
the middle were printed these words: 'sThis
side catches great many; the other
side catches them ALL" The store was To-
Gated in section where many ofthe railroad
men boarded. By careful feeling, the de-
tective secured the confidence of the railway
pllferers, and finally induced them to sell to
him goods which they had stolen from the
railway cars Thus he secured the best evil
dence against them. 1t appeared that the
property was stolen from the cars after the
trains left Pittsburg for the West.
When all necessary evidence was obtained
by the beardless boy who had worked the
matter so shrewdly, the case was put into
the hands of the police, and they arrested
over 200 employees of the Panhandle Rail-
road. Eighty-three freight crews were i'm
plicated. 1t was one of the widest couspira-
cies ever unearthed in this country. LayelIe
received three years in the penitentiary.
Four or five others, shown to be the leaders
in the work, received various terms. The
great body of the defendants were let off
with the costs, as the railroad company
simply desired to put a stop to the plunder-
ing. ALI, of course, were discharged from
the company's service.
THE BOOK AGENT DODGE.
In other cases the detective resorts to the
scheme of representing himself as book
agent. This is frequently employed. It
was in this manner that Mr.. Allen worked
up some of the best evidence against Mrs.
Hettie NJ. Garfield, DR.. A. T. Campbell and
Chris Martin, who were arrested last spring
for attempting to defraud the Peoples
Mutual Accident Insurance Company.
Decoy letters are employed not infrequent-