The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-05-15

II HERE is no longer any money in
the defense of criminals ia New
York which is the reason why the
drm of Howe g. Hummel has prac-
tically abandoned that special line Of
legal practice. Before Inspector
Thomas Byrues became chief of the
detective bureau the criminals were
organized. and when one OF them got
INTO trouble there was money 20 en-
gage lawyers to defend him. ByTnas
broke up their organizations bv making
IL Impossible for his men TO stand i'm
with them, and drove crime as a sci
ence or regular business with its
organized members. from this metropO-
lis
Before his time the police and the
members Of the more prosperous
branches of crime, such as pocket
picking and burglary were iU IL to-
gether- and divided the profits, In
those days the men who did the actual
work the fence who disposed of the
goods and the police were the three
parties I'M almost every case of burg
larry or sneak-JhieVing. Then, when It,
came to the arrest of q thief or burg
lar Do was generally the fence who put
up the money 20 pay the laWyeTs-the
amount being placed on the debit side
of his account in the books to be Iq-
Undated from the proceeds of subse-
QueHt labOrs.
Tt was one of these fences who paid
my partner, the late William Il. Howe.
his fee for the defense OF Billy POT-
ter. the bank burglar, who was ac-
cuSed OF The murder Of John Walsh.
another bank burglar in a triangular
encounter with pistols, iu which John
irving, bank burglar likewise, lost his
life also. The late Judge Noah Davis,
before whom 5he case was tried, said
that IL involved the most Interesting
question of circumstantial evidence
that had ever come under his notice.
Irving was killed by Walsh, but who
slew Walsh Is a question that has not
been legally answered, though Porter
was tried for the murder
The tragedy which occupied only
few seconds. occurreC-JusJ a little
more than twenty years ago, on Tues
day Oct. rs, 1888, at 1;45 O'Clock i'm the
morning, TO be eXacL-iu Shang ORA
pers saloon I'm Sixth avenue At that
hour the front door TO the saloon WIS
closed, but there were four or I'VE
men drinking at the bar. side door
being unlocked that led into a hall
way opening onto Sixth avenue. a
peculiar circumstance. as Judge Davis
pointed out ct POrter's trial, was that
every person connected with the affair
was a criminal.
The proprietor Of the saloon, Shang
Draper, was then, as now, a man of
note At the time the murders were
committed he had just gone into
kaue'S oyster house. next door, with
Red Leary, another leading burglar.
Harry Hope whose father, James
Hope, was then serving a sentence for
burglary, and whose brother John was
also a member of the same craft, was
the bartender. Standing before the
bar were Bill N0ShurEh, known to the
police as "the father of criminals, an
eN-ConYicts Michael Fay who gave his
occupation as a pool seller, and Pat
rick LeaTy, who claimed 10 be a ticket
speculatOr, but both OF whom had pO-
lice records and Walsh, who ceased
10 be a bank burglar a moment later.
These four useful citizens were I'm
the act of taking a drink-in fact,
Walsh had his right arm elevated with
q glass iu his hsnd-wheu Irving sud
denly sprsng in at the side door, and,
without O. word OF warning, fred at
Walsh, The bullet cutting along the
sleeve Of his upiifted arm and grazing
his elbow
THAT same instant the other three
men at the bar and the bartender made
a rush Tor the door by which Irving
had entered while Walsh lodged be-
hind "a Refrigerator at the end of the
bar drawing his own revolver as he
did SO, for he was game, though taken
completely by surprise Irving, who
mad come to Kill. ran into the billiard
room by door just opposite the one
by which Walsh had entered a frac-
ton or a second before, and the artist
put three bullets into him-One through
his heaTt-before he could again FIRE
his own weapon.
Three more shots followed almost
Instantly however. and Walsh also
fell dead with q bullet In his brain.
The reports followed each other SO
rapidly Lhat O man who was i'm the
oyster house next door at the time Of
the occurrence told me afJerward that
the seven SHOTS sounded 10 llns
through the WALL like seven blows
with ii hammer. as If some one were
driving tacks.
A man who was more familiar with
the sound of pistol shots was also i'm
the oyster house Detective Sergeant
Hickey of police headquarters Hickey
ran out into Sixth avenue just as VOs-
buTgh, Fay, LesEy and Hope burst
into the street from the hallway lead
ing out OF the saloon followed, as soon
as the door could again open, by Billy
Porter who had pistol I'm his hand
which was afJerWard found % have
three of the i've cartridges discharged.
Leary shouted 10 Hickey TO arrest
Porter, and that officer at once took
him into custody, though he protested
that he had only gone into the hall
way and had not yet opened the door
into the saloon when the others rushed
through it, and he followed them into
the street.
on entering the saloon the police
fouad Irving and Walsh, both dead, ly-
ing opposite one another in the billiard
room, and it was taken for granted
that Irving had killed Walsh, until an
inspection OF has pistol showed that
only one chamber lad been discharged
D.. aH.a
bullets as well as traces of one shot
Irving had fired when ne entered the
barTOOm. A post m0rJem inVesuga-
ton later demonstrated that the other
three bullets in NFaIsh's body had been
fired from q 32-calibre pistol while