Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-03-12
NO TIME FOR HIM TO TALK.
An Accused Person Must Keep Hi
Mouth Shut or He In Lost.

An Accused Person Must Keep HIS
Mouth Shut or He Is Lost.
"If we can get q a-eriminal to talking
we are all right" said Detective Gerber
the other day, "for If he is not telling
the truth he will contradict himself the
next half hour after he first told the
story. It seems funny, but neverthe-
less it is true, that the most experienced
criminal will contradict himself If he
Is not telling the truth, If you just keep
asking him the same question, chang
ing the language little. 1t seems as
if they simply can't remember the first
story that they told. But when they
absolutely refuse to talk then we are,
as the saying Is, up against It, A
criminal who will not say word Is the
hardest man on earth to handle. We
often get men who will not talk and
then we have to hunt up evidence from
the outside to convict them.
Very often the evidence we send
men up on is very slim, yet 1t Is enough
to condemn them. know not long ago
we sent a man up on cuff button. He
was a known thief and had 1t on him
when searched; there was an initial
on the button which corresponded with
the one which had been stolen, and the
fellow finally confessed to doing the
work. Another odd case was that to
which we saw a man who had done
time in the penitentiary going around
town apparently doing nothing, and yet
he was we'll dressed. One day l held
him up and as he could give no satis-
factory answers about himself, I
searched>hina-and- found two pieces of
money on him. One was a Scand4na-
Wan piece, while the other was pc
culiar looking penny. Well, at the time
1 searched this man we were looking
for a burglar who had entered house
in the extreme southern part of the
city, but there had been nothing said
about any money such as I had found
in the description of the stolen goods
given US. I went to the man whose
house had been entered for a more ac-
curate description, and during the talk
he described the penny and Scandina-
Wan piece I had found, and when the
ex-convict was confronted with these
facts he confessed"
us the detective we read about in
books anything like the real one?" the
captain was asked.
well, should say not" he said.
Those stories are only written to
amuse and entertain, and there is moth
does not have to be able to deduce from
circumstances to solve case. And so
far as reading human nature is con-
cerned in finding criminals, it Is all
stuff. About the only way detective
solves a case is by working hard and
never letting up on a lead when he finds
one. I know men who have the making
of fine detectives in them, but they
never succeed because they do not
know how to follow a clue when they
get one. They give up too quick and
haven't the perseverance that is re-
quired. One of the principal things in
being a detective is experience with
criminals. And then man has to have
a good memory for faces, so if he ever
sees a crook once he will know him the
next time he sees him.
IF there is any one who thinks a
detective does not earn his money I
wish he would come down here and go
with us awhile. and he will then fiend
that we have no bed -of-roses position
by any means. When working on a
case we are out hours at time and
in all kinds of weather. and when we |