Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1902-12-06
IA VICARIOUS SUICIDE
ny JOHN H. RArrEnY.

! Mccarthy, who was never a Sherlock
! Holmes, and secuted all SUCH impossible
| character told this one:
| II is true that great many criminals
| cheat the law after their crimes are known /;
\ it is also true that great many horrible
| crimes are committed that are never heard
| Of by the authorities We had a little
| fellow down in Boston one time that did
a nice bit Of detective work that never came
/ to anything II was case Of forgery and
/ the complainant man named Mark Gil
lespie, aas pretty rich man. IL seems
lgthat bis bookkeeper, fellow named Porter
| had forged and eashed enough checks be.
| fore he vas discovered to pretty near bank
rrpt Gillespie
| The young detective, | think bis name
| was Moran, did the outside trimming.
such as looking for the missing bpokkeeper
| ia outof-the-Way places. | found out tha
| he had been very cAummy with Porter
and by delinquent inquiry / discovered that
| the employers habits were no better than
those of the embezzier and forger In fact.
/ Tor man who ATTENDED to business 20 well
| during the day, / couldn't quite understand
| how he kept up the ail-night pare, too. Ii
| the course Of my Investigations found out
| that tie handwrltngs Of Gillespie and his
| bookkeeper were almost identical, so much
! so, that it was a hard matter to tell BY the
| set II books which they kept where the
| employers writing left off and the book.
| keeper commenced. When / commented Oh
| this, Gillespie told me that this similarity
| OF handwriting was simply a coincidence
that he and Porter had often commented
| upon it. and that the latter had never made
| any secret Of his ability to write exactly
like Gillespie.
| OF course | discussed the different
| phases Of the case with young Moran and
! he began to take az almost feyerish in
terest in it that | couldn't quite explain
| Well, the whole thing seemed to come
| to an end when some aborers away out
| on Putnam street found in a lime kiln neaI
| a new building the dead body OF the miss
| ing bookkeeper. There was no doubt abost
| the identity in spite Of the fact that the
| lime had eaten away most Of the flesh for
| the usual good-by letter Of suicides was
| found in leather poeketbook inside OF the
clothing. 1t was duly signed Porter"
| and included q full confession OF the forger-
les with an itemized statement Of the
| amounts taken. Gillespie, OF course, drop
| ped the case then and the police passed it
| up as soon as the coroner's verdict was
| announced. But | didn't know for nearly
| a week later that young Moran hadn't
! dropped it. / found out that he had quit
| the force, but | saw him on the street one
| day and traced him to Gllespie's own Of
| iice. | "laid for him" that night, and he
/ admitted that he had hired himself out as
| P0rter's successor. He was now keeping
| Gillespie's books. When | swore that Id
| keep mum and help him all | could with
out betraying our acquaintance he told
me that be was quite sure that the body
in the kiln was not Porter's at all. Letters
J had been coming almost every day to Gil.
/ lespie marked personal" but in that same
/ peculiar handwriting that we both knew
as characteristic Of both Gillespie and the
missing forger. II wasn't likely that three
different men could always write thus in
exact tripIicate, and | had to admit that
it looked queer
The next odd discovery OF young Moran
was that Gillespie himself had abandoned
/ his old style Of handwriting and now USED
a square, labored kind Of back-hand That
/ he had transferred all his money, or what
! was left Of it, from bis old bank and opened
/ a new deposit against whica he checked ia
a wholly different handwriting, | was SO
puzzled by this that ! dropped in casually
! at Gillespie's otiice'to make sure taat my
/ friend Moran wasn't mistaken m his em-
pi0yer's identity. He WASH 1t was Gil.
/ cspie, all right. l was sure because ! had
come to- know him well. ! passed Moran
without noticing him. of course, but that
might he told me that Gillespie didn't seem
/ To be very good business man, kept bad
hours, left everything 10 his clerk and
acted like a raw hand II the simplest busi-