The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-07-11
CAUGHT BY A HABIT.
Some Queer Cases in the Work
of a Detective.

During tho years that l was sin the
profession" had some queer cases.
had tho reputation of being lucky"
and l am ready to admit that luck has a
great deal to do with successful detec-
tive work. | have known officers who
were honest, conscientious, and pains
taking, but who always just missed it.
If they had been on q case for six
months, and had finally run man
down until he was within arms length,
some one else was sure to step in and
bag tho game at the last moment. 1t is
an old saying that luck brings luck. !"
1t was certainly true in my case. My
first capture was that of the famous
Dick Morton, the Tennessee outlaw of
thirty years ago. | was in Nashville
when he shot and robbed two men on a
highway forty miles distant l was
then on the Cincinnati force, and was
interested in getting a close description
of the man. Any description you may
give Of particular man will apply to
dozens in a general way. Dick was
about six feet high, brown hair, blue
Gyes, sandy whiskers, etc. The only
real point was in his manner of speech.
1t was said that he always rolled his
eyes upward when beginning a sem
tence. He did this on the advice of an
old woman to break himself of the
habit of suffering, and it was a success.
just week after l left Nashville
was in Evansville, Ind. AS sat in the
office of hotel man came in and reg
ic+o nd ,,ho hn +bo -.
quiry of the landlord up went his eyes.
When had seen him do this three or
four times | began to compare him
point for point with my description of
Dick Morton, and in five minutes | was
satisfied that had my man. He had
been shaved, had his hair cut, and wore
a suit of black, but there were some
things he could not hide. The little
finger on his left hand was off to the
first joint; he held his head cooked to
one sido when listening to you, and his
right foot toed in as he walked.
made no move until after dinner. Then.
as he came out of the dining-room
held him up with the muzzle of a revolt
yer right against his breast and
the landlord put the handouts on him.
Then ! called The local officers and
turned him over. He had two pistols
and knife on him, and his wallet
PANIED out over So At this time
moro than one hundred men were
looking for him in Tennessee
and kentucky, there being a re-
ward of $1,000 offered for him dead
or alive. 1t was luck, SO far as our
meeting in Evansville, but had l not
caught him as / did, and in the way l
did, the affair would have had differ
emit ending. lie was going to settle his
bill and take boat down the river, and
once outside the hotel he would have
killed any man who dared approach
him.
In the second year of the war young
man named Cassius Phillips, cashier in
a State bank in Chicago, skipped out
one night with about 5000. 1t so
happened that | was off service then,
doing bit of work for Uncle Sam, and
was asked to take up tho embezzlcr's
trail had seen him in court about a
month before, where he was witness
in case. His popularity was his voice.
While he was big, bowhiskered fell
low, his voice was as light and thin as
woman's. He had thirty hours tho
start of me and had loft no trace of his
trail. Having learned that he was al
ways talking about life in Paris,
set out for New York in hopes to hear
something of him at the steamer Office.
lie had not been seen, nor had he been
among tho passengers sailing for any
foreign country the day before. 1
argued that he had fingered on the
way somewhere, and would yet turn up
in New York. had been there three
days, and was going up Broadway ono
afternoon in stage when there was a
jam. A stage coming down locked
wheels with us, horse was thrown
down, and amid the excitement heard
a thin, piping voice crying out:
'Why don't you do something? We
shall all be killed before we get out of
this tangled"
The voice belonged to a good-sized
man on the outside of tho other stage,
and / spotted him in an instant for
Phillips. followed him to his hotel,
and from thence to the Office of the
French line of steamers, and after he
had purchased ticket stated the case