The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-06
GOOD DETECTIVE STORY
SUPERINTENDENT COLBERT TELLS
OF THE TRACING OF BURTON.
Slight CIews That Led to the Arrest
of Harvey and PhiIIips-SOIv-
ing "A Murder Mystery.

| ION, dHaS JenHeSSeys allaS Emmett, VINO
is charged with murder. Job Eldridge will
be important witness in the Burton trial.
1t was Eldridge's store that three men en-
tered for the purpose of burglary on the
night of Jan. %, wien Fireman Frank Red
mond lost his life in pursuit OF one of these
thieves. Eldridge went to the jail to see if
he could identify Burton, who, by his own
confession, was one of the three highway
ment who visited Eldridge's store and who
fired the shot that killed Redmond. Burton
vas brought out and marched up and
down the corridor in front of the second
hand dealer. Eldridge thought he recog-
nized Burtons wak-a peculiar slouching
| gait-but he could not recall the prisoners
face.
The public is pretty generally familiar
| with the crime for which Burton, Harvey
and Phillips are being held. While the two
| latter are not directly charged with the
murder they are under indictment as access
series to the crime and for attempted high
way robbery. On the night of Jan. % last
about o'clock in the evening. three men
| entered the store of Job Eldridge, on Mas
sachusetts avenue, and tried to hold up the
proprietor. The latter made great cutlery
| and got into a struggle with one of the
| men. The other two ran as a crowd began
| to gather They got nothing in the store,
as the proprietor had shown a disposition to
/ thwart them. Neither of the three was
caught The fellow that grappled with the
| proprietor succeeded in getting away and
ran diagonally across Massachusetts ave-
nue. in the direction of the frehouse. The
fremen heard the cries of '"Thieves!' from
the frantic secondhand dealer and started
after the fleeing highwayman. Frank Red
md r0lr he OF hn Of
an alley a few yards west of the engine
house. and was there shot down. Redmond
| died almost instantly.
According to his own confession, James
Burton, the man who was brought here
| from the Nashville prison Saturday night,
| was the slayer Of Redmond. Burton impli-
| Gates Carl Harvey and Ed Phillips, and
| says they were with him in Job Eldridges
| store. Burton has told how he met Harvey
| and Phillips at the Park Theater an hour
| after the murder by appointment, and how
| they drove to Greenwood that night and
there separated Burton going to Louisville.
| and from there to Nashville, where he tried
| to commit daylight robbery and got
| into the state penitentiary./ Thus far his
| only confession has been made to the chief
| of police He has never made a statement
| to a new spaper directly Carl Harvey is a
prisoner at the jail, but Ed Phillips, whose
| father has considerable property, is out on
| bond. Harvey is about twenty-five years
| of age. Most of his life has been spent in
| Indianapolis. Since his incarceration at the
| Jail his conduct has been exemplary and
| he is now known as a 'trusty' about the
kitchen. Yesterday afternoon at the Jail
| he sat down in the office with the turnkey
| and several visitors. He has not the face
of criminal He has frank, open coun-
neat and tidy in appearance. His shoes
were carefully polished yesterday and his
| trousers as carefully creased His shirt front
was immaculate, and from its surface
| sparkled large brilliant. Harvey has not
even the appearance of a sport" How
ever. the police do not share his opinion
| the best, and the whole department is
agreed that he is SHARP as a steel trap"
THE DETECTIVE WORK.
did you ever hear of the story of how
we run these fellows DOWN." asked Super
intendent Colbert. ut is a real detective
story but not one of the kind where dark
lanterns figure. It's not an old slueth'
story, but plain bare statement Of facts.
To start with it was largely bluff game.
And there was a lot of bluffing on both
sides. There are some things about this
case that cannot be told, because there are
too many people involved-some things
there are that never will be told. When
this murder was committed there was lit
tie to work upon in the way of informa-
ton. We knew that the man who killed
we found the weapon and have 1t here
now. We also knew that man had gone
into 9aT9eT shop on M ma iins d aye I'VE
hurriedly had his mustache cut off. He did
not ask to be shaved This in itself was
suspicious, of course. We got the mus
tache and have it yet, but we didn't have
the man that had worn it, and hadn't a
ghost of an idea who the man was The
case went on for a week and the depart
ment was working night and day, leaving
nothing undone that could be done. But
"Finaiiy / sent Detectives McGuff and
Wilson into the district where the at
tempted robbery and murder occurred,
with instructions to camp out there. They
Were instructed to keep close watch on
everybody that was not above suspicion
and telephone headquarters the moment
they laid eyes on q man who had ever
been crooked They finally found a man.
Next door to the Eldrfdge secondhand
Phillips, a very estimable man. He had
son. Ed Phillips young fellow in his
twenties. In the employ of Phillips was
this young fellow Carl Harvey. We knew
he had been in prison and the detectives
located him in the Phillips feed store.
Harvey was brought to the station house
with him. The young man was game
You'll be very sorry you ever brought me
had him under lock and key. Well, it was
a bluff game all around. 1 realized that
we had done bold thing In taking charge
of Harvey in this manner. but L felt in
my heart there was something wrong with
him. He did not satisfy me in his replies.
l think l kept Harvey in the office under
lock and key almost constantly for two or
three days but could get nothing out of
him. When he failed to give me a salts
factory answer when / asked where he
was the night of the Redmond muir
der, felt more than ever that he ought 10
be held.
while I had Harvey cooped up we got
some information from Greenwood that set
us to thinking. We heard that on the night
Redmond was killed three men drove into
livery stable at Greenwood and Put UP a
rig there. They were all strangers and the
livery man who furnished us this informa-
ton seemed to attach some Importance to
the matter When this information came l
decided on another move. l had been unable
to get anything out of Harvey, but natur-
ally wondered if it could be that he was
one of the three men who Were seen in
Greenwood that night. / called for volun-
teers one cold, bitter night, three days after
Harvey was taken into custody. / called
the detective force in and asked who would
undertake a trip to Greenwood across the
country that night. The boys knew it would
We decided that McGuff and Tom Stout
should go. They left the city after dark in
q hack with Carl Harvey. The plan was to
see if the liveryman at Greenwood could
identify Harvey. In the event that he did
the detectives were to wire me, and then it
was the plan to arrest Ed Phillips, the
chum of Harvey and the son of Harveys
EMPLOYER. At / o'clock a message came
from Greenwood that Harvey had been
identified by the livery-stable proprietor
PHILLIPS GATHERED IN.
1.-THE net step in the case was a bold
one. out it was plain. I came down at 2
o'clock that night and half hour later
Detective Splann came down. He went TO
a