The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-09

1873. recently enough to make the Of
Tense punishable at that time.
Of course, / secured from Mitchell
all the Information ] could. and among
1t was this fact: While serving pre-
Vious term in the Joliet penitentiary
Mitchell had formed the acquaintance
OF a lowsconvict named Thomas, who
was doing time for the theft of har-
ness. Thomas had told Mitchell that
he combined preaching with larceny
and mixed the duties of singing re-
Nivalist with those of "koniacker."
Subsequently Mitchell had, carried writ
ten communications from Biebush to
Thomas. and the latter. Mitchell said.
was then In St Louis following his in
congruous occupation of saving souls
and passing bad money.
But little time was required to locate
Thomas. A man answering our de-
scription of him was found to be
preaching at the Methodist church at
Morgan and Twenty-fourth streets. To
all appearances Rev. Andrew Jackson
Thomas (sometimes known as Austin
J. Thomas) was sincere preacher
and was doing good work in the vine
YARD. 1t was found that he was liv-
ing with his wife in Fin1ey avenue,
west OF Grand avenue. The couple had
no children. and, so far as / could
learn. they lived much to themselves.
so far as their neighborhOod was con-
cerned. shadow was placed on the
beat on which the Thomas residence
was located was patroled by officer
Weigman of the st. Louis force a most
competent officer From him il was
learned that some time before a ped
der had complained to him that the
minister's wife had given him coun-
terfeit coins for vegetables This had
happened often enough to convince
even the thick-witted peddler it was
not coincidence. and he told his
~
The shadow" carried on his inVes-
LEGATION i'm the stores in which Mrs
Thomas traded and several instances
OF the passage of bogus silver pieces
We're found / therefore decided some
one should be selected to gain the min
listers confidence and almost as quick
" decided that the one should be
Woods. Before long the two were
doing business together. Sullivan haV-
ing been the intermediary Woods and
sullivan planned to go to his house
on one occasion for counterfeit money.
but the preacher objected to the place
OF transfer. He also objected to the
plan of meeting Woods in Bosses Sa-
loon, because the church Of which he
was pastor was so close to the saloon
that members of his congregation
might see him entering or leaving the
drinking place II was arranged.
therefore. that Woods should attend
the night services at the Morgan street
church whenever he wished to make
an engagement with the minister. and
they could select a meeting place while
the preacher OStenSibly was exhOrting
the sinner Woods to repent of his evil
ways and become a Christian. It was
one OF these occasions l described i'm
beginning this narrative.
Woods reported to me that he was
on such terms with Thomas he could
secure "cOney" from him without de-
lay at any place appointed. It was
sun necessary for US TO place ourselves
In position to cOrTOborate the state
ments of Woods, and in order to do
this there must be a witness to one
of these transactions. Woods was in
structed TO deliver to him a package
or counterfeit money al the customary
meeting place near the Rock" church.
and a few nights after the meeting l
have described i'm Grand avenue be-
tween the preacher and Harry l be-
came witness to one of these deliver
les, being stationed so that their every
move might be observed.
The operations of the secret service
related UP to this point had covered
months. 1 was determined to do the
work so thoroughly there would be no
cnance or its coming to naught. as so
many efforts to settle Old Fred Bic
bush" had done Thielen Sullivan,
Hargate, Evans. Mrs. WEIGH and the
others were Swallowed or ''piped' in
the veruaCular of the department. with
was kept on Bosses place. This sur
Vigilance, for one thing, resulted in our
catching Evans and the WEIGH woman
passing counterfeit money in small
amounts L was thoroughly satisfied
this money came from dies made by
Hargate, and, for the purpose of prov
Ing IL, caused the arrest of Evans and
Mrs. WEIGH and tried hard to get
them to tell where they got their sup
ply of money. Although they were the
10 in Ia flHa 10,
they stubbornly refused to give any in
formation whatever as to where their
supplies came from. The system of
piping also revealed the fact that
Hargate was handling % and 5O-cent
pieces only.
So far as the minor members of the
ring We're concerned the net was be
ing drawn around them in a satisfac-
tory way. but Biebush was still we'll
outside of IL. The solution of this great
difficulty st last came through WhaIen
who. after being enlisted on our side
one day met in Bosses saloon "A strau-
ger from southeast Missouri. The two
became well acquainted, the stranger
confiding his criminal history and de-
sire to handle "cOney." 1t is unneces-
sary here. to relate the details of the
deal which was cOnSummated between
Whalen and the stranger, whereby the
latter was to rope" Biebush Suffice
II to say that this deal was carried to
at last being drawn into the net he had
seduously avoided for so long.
The facts as here related. with many
ciTCumstantial and -cOrrobOratfve de-
tails. l believed justified the making of
arrests Fred Biebush had moved from
his StOddard street residence 10 a .Dlacp
acquired by him through foreclosure
OF q $500 mortgage five and one-haIf
miles west on the Olive street road Ii
was we'll known tavern called the
Seven-Mile House. Deputy United
States Marshals Wheeler and Soest and
I left the LindeN hotel in a carriage
about o'clock Sne afternoon il Oc-
tOber. 1879. and gave the driver direc-
lions to go 10 the SeVen-Mile House
where we arrived at dusk There was
a water trough in front of the house
and as L stepped out Of the carriage to
uncheck the horses so they could drink
BiebUsh stepped out of the house bare
headed
In the dim light he did not recognize
me- and l am doubtful II he would
have known me had the light been
good. as he had never seen me except
in the disguise of river man at the
BOsse saloon. Wheeler and SOest re-
manned in the carriage. Riebush made
a pleasant. casual remark about the