St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-29
A DETECTIVE TALKS.
Chief ThieI Tells of How Cattle
Thieves Were Rounded Up
in Texas.
Story of a Country Banker Who
Tried to Beat an Express
Company.

George II. Thiel. proprietor OF the
1hiel Detective Service, was in the city
Saturday, en- route to Dulsth from st.
LOUIS, where tine main offices OF the
service are located. MIR. Thlel was
found in the lobby of tbs Ryan hotel
by a reporter for the GLOBE. but he
was rather reticent when requested for
all interview.
II am in st. Paul for visit of a few
hours" he said to the GLOBE man, "and
there is really no news in my trip here.
am going to Duluth this evening, and
from there will go to Chicago tomor'
row. BY the way, while l cannot tell
YOU about any news, [ will tell you how
we caught some Texas cattle thieves
few days ago. The Cattle Droyers' As
ISOLATION of Texas mplained OF thieves
taking away its stock, and the service
was requested to catch those who were
committing the depredations. A couple
of men were set to work, and the cattle
stealing went on. We sent one of our
men in among the cowboys, and, after
working with them as regular cowboy,
he found that none of the men IN the
vicinity where he was employed was
| connected with the thieves. All OF the
| stockyards in large cities were watched.
and one day carload OF cattle
| arrived in st. Louis accompanied
| by two men who were strangers to the
cattle buyers. They started selling their
| cattle, and one of our men discovered
| that the cattle were branded differently.
| Some of them were marked III one way,
| and others with various brands OF dit
| ferent ranches. One OF the men dis
appeared, and his companion acted Id
such suspicious manner after portion
| of the cattle had been sold that he was
| arrested. He was one of the thieves
who had been terrorizing the people OF
the state of Texas. His companion was
captured within day or two after by an
operative had tracked him out OF the
state, and a confession was made by
| them. They are now locked up in the
Bellville Jail. and will be tried In a
short time. They have stalen thousands
of dollars worth of CATTLE"
'.Do you work personally CD any cases
| now?" asked the reporter.
II have not worked on case i'll per-
] son for years." was the reply. "The
last case l worked on was a queer one,
and | had the good fortune to get my
! man in one of the strangeSt cases ever
handled or heard OF.
''Down in Missouri lived man who
was the owner Of small bank. lie
transacted considerable business with a
St. Louis bank. and at one time his bal
ance there reached about "a, 600. Ihere
was little over this sum, and he wrote
/ them to send him the $4,000. A few
DAYS afterwards he called at the express
| office with the Wrappings which had
been placed around the package OF
money, and inside was piece OF news
paper. He declared that the money
had been taken out before it reached
him, and he desired the express COM
pany, which had carried the money, tC
| make the amount good to him. An ex
| pert declared that the package had not
been opened while in the hands of the
express company, and they sent for me
and asked my opinion. After careful
examination | decided that the package
had not been opened while the company
had it in charge, AS the st. Louis bank
declined to make the alleged loss goOC
and the express company declined to re
store the missing amount, the country
banker commenced suit. L worked or
the case for some time, and was aston
ished at what | discovered. The eyi
dence kept piling up until one day
secured portion of newspaper which
had evidently been carefully hidden
This piece of paper fitted the torn piece
which had been found in the package
and had found it in the house of the
country banker.
1.-The attorney who was handling thu
case for the banker was given the evi
dence which I had discovered, and hi
advised the banker to withdraw the
silt. This was done promptly. Tha
man had robbed himself, and tried tt
make the express company responsible
for the money. He had read in paper
of man who did the trick successfully
and he tried to initiate him. alst
found the paper in which he had reaC
the story. We meet with some queel
experiences at times"