Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-07-05
CAUGHT BY ACCIDENT.
A DETECTIVES STORIES.

A DETECTIVES STORIES.
During the years that was Gin the
profession" had some queer cases.
l had the reputation of being ''lucky,"
and am ready to admit that luck has
a great deal TO do with successful de-
tectivc work. | have known officers
who were honest, conscientious, and
painstaking, but who always just
missed it. If they had been on a case
for six months. and had finally run a
man down until he was within arms
length, some one else was sure to step
in and bag the game at the last mo-
mcnt. Il 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 Tennes-
see outlaw of thirty years ago. was
i'll Nashville when he shot and robbed
two men on highway forty miles dis
tant. | was then on the Cincinnati
force, and was interested in getting
close description of the man. Any
description you may give of a particu-
lar man will apply to dozens in gea-
eral way. Dick was about six feet
high, brown hair, blue eyes, sandy
whiskers, ETC. The only real point
was in his manner of speech 1t was
said that he always rolled his eyes up
ward when beginning a sentence. lie
did this on the advice of an old woman
TO break himself of the habit of slut
tcring. and it was a success.
just a week after left Nashville l
was in Evansville, Ind. As | sat in the
office of hotel a man came in and reg
istcrcd, and when he answered the in
quiry of the landlord up went his eyes.
When | had seen him to do this three
or four times | began to compare him
point for point with my description of
Dick Morton, and in five minutes |
was Statistic that | had my man. lie
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 side when listening to you, and
his right foot toed in as he walked. l
made no move until after dinner.
Then, as lie came out of the dining
room l held him up with q muzzle of u
revolver 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 $4,000. At this time
more than 100 men were looking for
him in Tennessee and Kentucky, there
being a reward of s. 900 offered for
him dead or alive. 1t was luck, so
far as our meeting in Evansville, but
had not caught him as | did, and in
the way | did, the affair would have
had different ending. lie was going
to settle his bill and take a 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 a
young man named Cassius Phillips,
cashier in State bank in Chicago.
skipped out one night with about
S25, 900. 1t so happened that was off
service then, doing a bit of work for
Uncle Sam, and | was asked to take
up the cmbezzler's trail. | had seen
him in court about month before,
where he was witness in case.
His popularity was his voice. While
he was big, bewhiskered fellow, his
voice was as light and thin as
womans. He had thirty hours the
start of me, aud lad left no trace of
his trail. Having learned that he was
always talking about lfe in Paris,
set out for New York in hopes to hear
something of him at the steamer Office.
He had not been seen, nor had he been
among the passengers sailing for any
foreign country the day before. | ar
gued 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 one
afternoon in stage when there was
jam. y stage coming down locked
wheels with us, horse was thrown
down, and amid the excitement heard
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 the other stage,
and | spotted him in an instant for
Phillips. l followed him to his hotel,
and from thence to tie office of the
French line of steamers, and after he
had purchased a ticket | stated The case
10 the Superintendent of Police, and
had him arrested and held until the
necessary papers could be had. 1t was
Phillips, sure enough, but how chang
ed He had sacrificed whiskers and
moustache. lie had died his eyebrows
and had his hair shipped short. He
had changed his fine clothes for an or
binary suit, and his beaver for a soft