The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-10

peddler dead. Well. McSherTy was arrest
ed. but the gang saw to 1t that the ped
dler's brother-in-law was kept out OF the
way First Jimmy McSherry takes the
money which the gang gives him, meets
the man, gets him some good clothes. and,
with SIS in his pocket. starts him for Cieve-
land. Under some law they have there
case must be tried within three terms of
court, and when the third term had passed
McSherry was released but was rearrested
before he left the courthouse and indicted
again
Then the prosecution determined to
make trial of it the best they could. The
prosecuting witness had, in the meantime,
returned to Chicago and it looked bad for
Mike. The trial was begun but when the
peddier's brother-in-law called he
could not be found. With money furnished
by the fellows McSherry Is now making
such a good time that when he woke up
he found himself locked in a room. He
was drugged and kept for three days. Dur
ing that time the trial had been finished
and McSherry was acquitted.
His wife is Lilly Vail, one of the clev-
years for roDbing a man about two years
ago. and Mike never did thing to help her
get out of It, and would not even send her
a dollar while she was in prison. She used
to get out and steal for him. and every S.
she would get it would go toward raising
the 200 which was used in getting him
In prison she wrote him letter asking
him to send her monay TO buy thread and
n aterial for fancy work which she wanted
two spoools of thread The woman is now
cut on bond pending a new trial, but she
refuses to live with Mike.
How did he happen to get on the Pinker-
ton force? Partly through the influence of
the old gang Every body has some influ-
ence. and it was ali brought to bear He
has been with Pinkerton about year. Be
fore that he was employed as a. detective
by the Illinois Central railroad. T!ey sent
him down TO Nation one day during some
public demonstration there, and he got
drunk and made a gun play in the depot
That lost him his job. The only legitimate
business he was ever in before was one
winter when he bought six bushels of coal
and kept it in a Lake-street room all win
ter for a STALL He would not sell 1t to
anybody. but was using it as a blind for
his other work. But he did not fool John
r. Shea and he was arrested and his little
coal business broken up.
There are a number of ex-thieves on
Pinkerton's force, but have yet to see one
who has made a success. The best men on
the force are the men who are strictly hon.
est, who would not take a cent from any
thief and yet who would rather warn a
thief not to do a job than to lay for him
and catch him after it was done. These
men can stand on a street corner and
watch fifty thousand people pass, and if
there are forty thieves in the lot they will
pick out thirty of them They are born
detectives and gentlemen as well. But this
McSherry and men of his stripe, they are
about as contemplate a lot as ever lived.
They are failures as thieves, but after as
sociating with good thieves all their lives
they seek to make an honest living by
arresting their best friends.
The other three men were interested lis
teners to all that Geohegan said and fire.
quently interrupted him to add something
on their own account. They corroborated
all he said
HE did not arrest me-" said Howard.
Detective Kinney arrested me before he
reached the city. 1t is not that l am sore
on him for any personal reason, but he is
Just the sort of a man Geohegan says he
is. and there is plenty of proof of it in the
rogues' galleries and police records OF the
COuntrY.'