Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-09-11
TOLD BY A DETECTIVE
PERlLS IN BRINGING A GANG OF GRIM
INALS TO JUSTICE.
Az HOstler for the Leader of u MOTTO.
rious Band of Horse Thieves and Rob
bers This Man TfHd Exceptional Facili.
ties for Securing Evidence.

was a medium sized, pleasant looking
man, we'll dressed and resembling in many
respects a drummer. He was one of Major
Carter's most trusted detectives, the man
who captured the Orange county counter
letters. II suppose when old Sam Rivers,
who is in Jail for counterfeiting, is sent
over this time" he remarked to a reporter,
cit will. end him. Well, Sam has had his
day, and a right lively one it was too. Do
you know hat Sam is the last of a band of
robbers who infested this state for years?
The most complete gang ever organized. /
was a member of it,"
"A member of a band of horse thievesl"
exclaimed the reporter.
"Yes," answered the secret service officer,
with a smile. II belonged to it until l got
most of them behind stone walls"
The reporter pressed the detective for a
history of the criminals, and this remark
able romance in crime was related:
John Il. Riley was born and raised in
Hartford, of rich parents. He was a wild,
reckless fellow, and shortly after becom-
ing At aga he forged his fathers name for
5000 and fled to Philadelphia. Here he
assumed the name of Thomas w. Foster,
and engaged in the horse business, con-
Meeting himself with a lot of sharpers,
whose business it was to fleece country
men. He made considerable money and
few rather high.
"One night at a theater he formed the &C
q~uaintance of q woman named Mcbride,
whose husband was an alderman and quite
wealthy. The Irritation was so marked
between the two that the husband was in
formed and hired me to watch his wife.
This l did, and the information l secured
of her life in Philadelphia society would
make a startling book. AS l was about to
trap the guilty pair they eloped, and took
with them several thousand dollars be-
longing to the alderman. I started after
them; got trace of them at Cincinnati,
where they bought tickets for St. Louis,
and l went there.
II looked for them for months through
the west, and finally gave up the chase.
1t seems instead of going to St. Louis they
stopped off at Osgood, Ind, where Foster,
with the money stolen by the woman,
went into business, and while I was search
ing for them all over the west they were
living very secluded lives at the little Indi-
ana town.
FOSTERS LIFE IN sGoOD
"Foster had not been in Osgood a great
while until he became acquainted with the
notorious Missouri Rittenhouse and Isaac
Levy and his family, all of whom were
counterfeiters and crooks. The whole lot
became quite intimate, and when Foster
bought a livery stable and ostensibly did a
legitimate business, his barn was only a
fence for stolen horses. He and Levy
bought horses and passed counterfeit
money, and, attending all the fairs and
races, soon became acquainted with all the
thieves and crooks of the country.
"a great many horses were stolen, men
robbed on the highway, stores plundered
and men beaten nearly to death. Crime
was rampant. The people raised a fund
and l was employed to ferret out the ma
RAIDERS. When I got to Osgood l recog-
nized my old friend Foster and the alder
mans wife, and made up my mind he was
the man l must cultivate. l could not get
in with him, however, and he sold out and
moved to Columbus, o.
"There he and his wife moved in the best
society, gave grand parties and were the
associates Of the most prominent people Of
the city. Two years of rapid living drained
Fosters resources, and becoming heavily
in debt he returned to Osgood. His wife
deserted him and went to Washington,
where she lives under an assumed name.
"Foster handled crooked money and dealt
in stolen horses, and on July 9, 1884, I be-
came a hostler in his stable. 1 did not get
a good pointer until in the fall, when Sam
Rivers hired a buggy at the stable and was
driven to the country by young Sam Rit-
tenhouse. That night a horse was stolen,
and when young Sam was arrested my evil
dence cleared him, and l was looked upon
as a safe man. 1 became Fosters right
hand man. He introduced me to Henry
Underwood, Sam Rivers, Walter Ham
mon, John Kelly, Hiram Kelly, William
Wainscott, Frank Elder, Skinny Douglass,
John Holloway and a number of others
whose names l cannot recall just now The
thieves would average a horse each week,
and in warm weather the animals were
kept in a thick woods until a shipment was
made.
JUMPED HIS BoND
"All this time l was in communication
with the authorities, and turned up a good
deal of the stolen property. l knew the
stealing was going on, but l didn't have
the evidence to commit the gang, and that
was what my employers wanted. Henry
Underwood stole a fine roam horse in In
dianapolis, and two days after Foster got
the animal. He sold it to a prominent
whisky dealer of Aurora, Ind. The In
~dianapolis parties traced their horse to Au-
rora, and Foster paid the money back,
claiming he bought the horse from a man
named Howard, living in Ripley county.
But the Marion county people were not
satisfied. Foster was arrested, tried and
sentenced to three years in state prison.
"The supreme court reversed the finding,
and he came back for another trial. As
soon as he returned he was arrested on two
indictments from Boone county, two from
Dearborn county and three from Ripley
county. He was put under $1,000 bonds,
his father-in-law Che having, after the al
derman's wife deserted him, married the
daughter Of a Versailles druggist) becom-
ing his surety. He jumped his bond and
fled to Canada. He is now living in Ham
ilton.
"Foster being out of the way, Missouri
Rittenhouse became the leader of the gang.
STANCE to say, I was still unsupported, and
boarded with Mrs. Rittenhouse, sharing
the fullest confidence of the thieves and
crooks that made her house their head
quarters.
"My life there. was one continuous ad-
venture, and many times did I warn men
who were to be robbed or their stores
broken into. Night after night / would