The morning call., 1891-08-20
A BAG OF DIAMONDS
Buried Somewhere Near Eldredse
Court i'm Chicago.
twenty-five Thousand Dollars Worth Of Gems
Thrown From a Window by Pris-
oner in Charge of W. A. Pinkerton.

Somewhere near the foot Of Eldredgt
court, under the tracks of the Ilinoi:
Central Railroad. a buckskin bag containing
SIS, 900 worth of diamonds lies buried. Some
day another Schliemann, digging for ancient
Chicago, will run across the gems, and il
diamonds are worth as much then as they
are to-day lie will be repaid for his labor
The story of the diamonds was told by
William A. Pinkerton, chief of the big de-
tectlve agency, the other day. Mr.. Pinker-
ton was on the Illinois Central train coming
in from the races and under the influence of
the blue rings OF smoke curling up from a
big black cigar he became reminiscent. Mr..
Pinkerton'S "reminiscences are always inter-
esting, for locked in his memory are tales OF
the queer people whom we don't meet al
church of Sunday. the gentlemen OF the
road, the vendors of the gold brick, the con-
hdence men and the citizens who creep
forth at night TO work dangers to the COM
monwealth. He knows them all, from the
shallow shell-man, whose cheerful mission
in life is to drive Reuben home broke from
the county fair, to the Bismarck of conf
dence men, who can send bank presidents
for their money and sell 'overissues of cur
rency' to the heads of Sabbath schools. So
when MIR. Pinkerton began TO talk on the
Illinois Central train the crowd of horsemen
gathered closely about him and listened.
Boys" he said, there's $4,000 worth of
diamonds buried along here somewhere.
They have been here for over twenty years
and ! saw them thrown in and didn't know
1t. The story goes back to one of the big
geSt diamond rObberes ever committed in
America. In 1870 burglars broke into a
safe in the wholesale jewelry store of
SchoOler & Co., the largest in New Orleans,
and took 100000 worth Of precious gems.
The store was situated on Canal street, near
the corner of st. Charles, and the safe was
in plain view of the street, from which it
could be
SEEN BY THE WATERMAN
Every time he passed. One Monday MORN
ing in the spring Of the year the book
keeper found the safe in the back room.
The door had been forced and the fortune in
diamonds carried away. How was 1t done?
The burglars had constructed dummy
sale in close imitation of the original
After the watchman had passed the window
In one OF his rounds, they had pushed the
dummy safe to the front of the store,
dragged the firms safe to the back room
and there easily cracked ii.
I'VE were not put on the case and we
paid little attention TO it. The New Or
leans police hunted high and low for the
burglars, but could get no trace of them.
About this time a daring band of robbers
were pluuderng the Mobile and Ohio and
Nashville and Northwestern railroads, and
the railroad companies called on the Pinker-
t0n agency TO run them down. A man
named jim Hickey was suspected. He was
known to be q desperate fellow, and he
answered the description of one of the rob-
bers. He was tremendous chap for size,
as big and strong as you.find men, and
devil in fight. We could get nothing on
him, however, for he was suspicious of every
stranger. So we abandoned the watch.
The managers of the Southern Express Com
pany kept it up on their own account. The
company had suffered from the robberies.
One day in the summer a dispa tch came to
the agency from the south to watch the
Illinois Central trains and arrest Hickey,
who was supposed to be loaded with plumber.
According 10 the dispatch the police of
Columbus, KY, and Cairo. ILL.,. had been too
much frightened by the mans tremendous
size and extensive reputation as a hard
tighter TO stop him, but he was ticketed
through to Chicago and we were told to land
him ut any cost. Ny father was alive then
ana he sent John Curtin and me down to the
train to take Hickey. was young fellow
aud | entered into projects of that sort with
more enthusiasm possibly than the nature of
the errand called for. Curtin ana l went
down to Hyde Park and got aboard the
train at $3.50 in the morning. We didn't find
Hickey.
IN THE sLEEPING-CAR,
Where we expected to find him, and went
forward to the smoker. There in a corner
lay a man who answered Hiekey's descrip-
ton. He was stretched over two seats be-
side an open window snoring peac efully.
beckoned to Curtin and pointed to the
sleeper. He indicated by sign that the
man was Hickey, and | slipped into the seat
beside the desperate. l got my hand be-
hind him and drew his gun from his pocket.
1t was big 43-callber, capable of making q
hole in sheet iron. l showed it up against
his body and told him to throw D his hand 5.
He opened his eyes, recognized Curtin, and
laughed. What do you want?' he asked.
Keep quiet said Curtin; come along and
everything will be explained AN right
he said, with laugh.
The train was then near the foot of Ed
DIRE dge court.s At that time the Illinois Gen.
trail trains ran into town on piling, the wa
ter on either side of the track being about
fourteen feet deep. As we came to the
place, which just pointed out as the grave
Of the diamonds, the big fellow drew from
his breast pocket a buckskin bag about
eight inches long and flung it through the
window. 1t struck the water near the track
and sank in an instant.
What did you throw out, HickeyP I
asked. oh, nothing much. he SAID with an
unconcerned laugh. 1 supposed he had
tossed out skeleton keys or burglars tools
and said nothing more. Hickey was taken
to the office and searched. He had no
Rlunder, and when we sent him back to
Tennessee he was set free. Months after
that met him in Memphis and fell to talk
Ing about his capture. Mr.. Pinkerton.' he
said, do you know what that bag con-
taineds' No. l said. Well said he,
there was S25, 900 worth of diamods in that
bag, and then lie told me his story, part of
which had known before.
The Sch0oler u Co. robbery was the work
of the notorious Billy Forester, an escaped
convict from Joliet; Frank Dean. also
known as Frank Denman and Dago Frank,
and little Dave Cummings. an accomplished
frin Of I'm A Flor fba
Orleans they went to Memphis with the
plumber and stayed at that town for some
time under the protection of a rich receiver
of stolen property. Then Forester took
his share of the property to New York
Dean and Cummings came TO Chicago. leay-
ing
$4,000 WORTH OF THE PLUMBER
With the receiver From this town they
notified him to send the diamonds to Chicago
by Jim Hickey, and it was while on this
journey that the big fellow was caught. He
acted under instructions from Dean and
Cummings when hetthrew the gems away.
Hickey is dead now. He was killed at
Cotfeyyille, small station near Memphis
while forcing railroad company's safe
Forester was caught by our agency and
sent TO Joliet, where he served his term
He promised to reform, but he found the
cares that wait upon life of toll too Sc
we're for his intentions. The Pennsylvania
authorities convicted him twice, and he is
now in prison at Richmond, Va. 'Dago
Frank served a long term in New York
for bank burglary. After his release he
concluded that the American sphere was
too limited for person of his extensive
ambition. He went abroad with Eddie
Guerin, well-known Chicago citizen. He
and Guerin were convicted of bank robbery
at Lyons, France, and were sent to prison
for ten years each. Dave Cummings was
convicted of iewelry robbery by the Pink
ertonS, served terms in Wisconsin and Ken
lucky, escaped from the latter prison and
went TO England. He flourished there I'M
til he WAS caught robbiug hotel, for which
lie got five years. When he returned to his
native country few months ago he brought
back fine SCI of burglars tools. Inspector
Byrnes caught him and he is now serving q
five years sentence at Sing Sing"
Suppose you had known that bag con-
tanned diamonds ?" asked one of the party
Mr.. Pinkerton looked reflective and said
nothing. That night an Illinois Central
watchman discovered a man in white plug