The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1905-03-13
HotO I Entered the
Field
lOrfginal-1

"a II anu redu lndl JOHN AlulnO1IaEO,
a farmer living on the Arlington road,
had been found lea with a bullet in
his heart. There was no clew to the
murderer. / was out of a job at the
time and made up my mind that I
would test my natural bent for detec-
tive work by trying to unravel what
appeared to be an insoluble problem.
/ went to the rus and found the doc
tors engaged in extracting the bullet
FROM the dead mans heart. / asked to
see it and was permitted to do so. My
reason for wishing to examine it was
hat l had always heard that every
minut in detective cases was impor-
tant. The truth is 1 was green and
didn't know how els to begin
The bullet was of the usual conical
shape. / looked it all over and noticed
places where it had been rubbed or
scratched. There were three of these
marks, two near together, a third on
the opposite side. 1t struck me hat
there had been some projection in the
barrel of the pistol hat had caused
these scratches. If l could find the pis-
toll that would make similar scratches
on other bullets fired from it l could
identify 1t as the weapon with which
Mulholland had e killed. But 10
weapon n been found near the body.
Stories about murderers leaving knives
sticking in their victims or dropping
pistols in their haste to get away are
inventions. Murderers do a lot of
things to incriminate themselves, but
they're not so stupid as that.
/ secured an interview with the MUIR
dered mans wife and asked Ler to tell
ono fl,f had hod INV
connection with her husband during a
year or so past. He had had trouble
with the owner of an adjoining farm
about the boundary. A tramp i
been turned out of the barn a few days
before the murder and had gone off
muttering curses. A farm a had
been discharged. but an interval of
three months had elapsed since the
discharge; besides. the man had made
no demonstration at the time.
OF the three my suspicious were for
the tramp. 1 hadn't the means of
securing the country for him, so l
went to the police and recommended
them to do so. The tramp was hunted
down and arrested. He had no pistol
on him, but he had a pawn ticket. The
pawnbroker where it was issued pro-
duced a silver watch that it stood for
of little value. After the police had
dropped III scent l went to the pawn
broker. hoping to elicit some clew.
While we were chatting l stood lean
ing on a glass cast containing pawned
articles. Among them l noticed a pis-
toll. 1t was u cheap, old fashioned arti-
Gle worth a few dollars. Something
moved me to ask the broker who had
pawned it. He said that the mar was
a negro. | asked the broker to let me
look at the weapon and he handed it
to me. Taking it to a window where
the sun was shining in, l looked into
the barrel. Near the muzZle l noticed
some spots of rust. There were two
near together and one opposite.
Noting the caliber, l went out and
got some cartridges to fit the pistol
and, going into the back yard with it,
fred a bullet into a barrel of water.
When / examined the a l found
scratches on it exactly like those on
the bullet that killed Mulholland I
fired several more bullets, and every
one was marked exactly like the first.
Without saying a word to any one, 1
went to Mrs. Mulholland and asked
her if her husband had ever had any.
trouble with q negro. At first she an
swered mo-" but presently remem-
bered hat three years before a negro
had stolen some clothing and Mulhol-
land had been instrumental in sending
him to the p~enitentiary. The negro was
an ugly fellow, with a bad record l
hunted ND his case and found hat his
time had expired and he had been re-
leased a few days before the murder.
AT his point l made a grave mis-
AXE l was o willing to give b POI
lice the benefit of my discovery, 10 l
traced the negro myself and found him
in a low negro dive. 1 swore out a
warrant. had him arrested and in his
pocket found a pawn ticket for the pis-
toll / had discovered.
/ then made out h papers accusing
the prisoner of the murder of John
Mulholland. Tie police, who had in
the first place esented my interior
ence, treated me with whitening con-
tempt
"Young feller,' said the chief, when
you've been mixed up with criminals
as long as 1 have you'll learn that it's
one thing to suspect a man or even to
know he's the one you want and an
other to prove it. It's just such men
as you that cost the state money spent
uselessly."
/ made no reply, hiding my time.
When the trial came off the prosecut-
ing attorney was well posted by me on
the case and demonstrated before the
Jury what / had discovered in the
pawnbroker's back yard He showed
them the bullet hat had killed Null
holland. then took a cartridge and fired