Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-25
ATRUE DETECTIVE STORIES

was little chance of identification through
the handwriting:
Dear Sirs: When you are satisfied with
detective skill you can make a proposition
to US, the holders, and If you are liberal we
may be able to do business with you. If
You entertain any such ideas. please insert
a personal in the New York Herald. Ad-
dress to xxx, and sign Rufus, to which
due attention will be paid. To satisfy you
that we hold papers, we send you couple
OF pieces" (No signature.)
&
No attention had been paid to this let
ter, although two certificates OF stock ac-
companied it which had undoubtedly been
in the banks vault. Three other letters
OF similar nature had been received later.
To one of these the bank people had sent
guarded reply, which had called forth the
following response, dated New York, Octo-
Der 20, 1875:
Gentlemen: Since you have seen fit to
recognize the receipt of our letter, we VIII
now send you our price for the return of
the goods. The United States coupon bonds
and money taken cannot be returned; but
everything else-bonds. letters and papers.
to the smallest document--will be returned
for $4,000. II these figures suit you, we
viii make arrangements, according to our
promise. and You may have the goods as
soon as preliminaries can be arranged for
the safe conduct of the business If you
|.agree to this price insert in the New York
Herald personal column the simple word
Agatha Respectfully, etc. RUFUS
The special value of these letters was in
helping the detectives to decide which one
of several gangs of bank robbers then
operating in the country was most likely
to have committed the crime Being IA
miliar with the methods of each gang. Rob-
ert Pinkerton was able to draw useful in
From q r.
wise have been insignificant. He knew, for
instance, that the notorious gang headed
by James Dunlap would be more apt than
any other to thus negotiate for the return
of all the securities in a lump since ii
was Dunlap's invariable rule to insist upon
personally controlling the proceeds of his
robberies until final disposition was made
OF them. On the other hand, the gangs
headed respectively by the notorious Jim
my" Hope, Worcester Sam" and George
Bliss might have divided the securities
among the members, and then tried to ne
gotiate a compromise on the individual por-
tions.
| A fact of much significance to the Pinker-
tons was the rather remarkable interest in
the case, and apparent familiarity with 1t,
shown by one ]. G. Evans, an expert il
safes and vaults and the representative of
one of the largest safe manufactures in
the country.
The day after the robbery Evans had
been at Bristol Conn, in the interest of his
| firm. who. on receipt of the news, had i'm
n1ediately wired him to proceed to North
anpton. His presence in Northampton was
regarded as nothing strange, for he had
been there several times during the months
| just preceding the robbery, and once had
inspected the lock and dfals of the
vault of the robbed bank. What did seem
| little strange. however, was Evans evil
tv,fo fafi
promise. On a dozen different occasions he
| talked with the president and other Off
GERS of the bank regarding the robbery,
and insinuated quite plainly that he might
| be in position to assist them in recoy-
ering their lost securities. few months
after the robbery he even went so far as
| to tell one of the directors that he could
name the members of the gang.
This disposition of Evans to put himself
| forward in the negotiations had all the
| more significance to Robert Pinkerton from
| the fact that it had been rumored that
| series of daring bank robberies lately COM
| mitted In various parts of the country
| owed their success to the participation OF
| an expert in safes and locks, who had been
| able, through his position of trust, to re-
veal to the robbers many secrets Of weak
bank locks, safes and vaults. Up to this
| time these rumors had remained indefinite.
| and no one ventured to name the man. 1t
| was known, however. that the false ex-
| pert was man OF high standing In his
SUSPICION. 1t was also known that there
was great jealousy in other gangs of bank
| robbers because of the amazing success or
| the gang with whom this man was WORK
| ing and that overtures even had been made
| by the leaders OF some other gangs to win
| over to their own gangs this desirable &C
complete. Rotert Pinkerton had airead,
| concluded that the gang so ably assisted
| was the Dunlap gang; and he was now
pretty well persuaded, ALSO that the North
| ampton robbery had been committed by
| the Dunlap gang. There was every rea-
son. therefore. for keeping sharp eye on
| the safe-expert Evans.
As he studied the case, Mr.. Pinkerton re-
called a circumstance that had happened In
| the fall of 1875. On the night of Novem-
Der 4, 1875, the First National Bank of
Pittsten Pa, had been robbed of 10000,
and Mr. Pinkerton had gone there to in
vestigate the case. He met number Of
slfa men, 1t be'nE business custom with
safe men to aock to the scene of an impor-
tanl bark rctbery in order to supply new
safes for the ones that have been wrecked.
While they were all examining the vault,
still Uttered with debris of the explosion,
the representative of one of the safe COM
panies picked up small air pump used
by the robbers and, looking at 1t criti-
| caIly, remarked that he would have sworn
1t belonged to his company did he not
Know tudt WAS iItpuSSfpic. lie daE pump
was, he declared. OF precisely his COM
paiiy's model, one that had been recently
devised for special purpose. At the
time Mr.. Pinkerton regarded this as mere
ly a coincidence, but now the memory
| came to him as a flash Of inspiration that
the man who had remarked the similarity
in the air pump represented the same COM
pany that employed Evans.
In view of all the circumstances 1t was
decided to put Evans under the closest
questioning. He did not deny that he had
made unusual efforts to effect the return
Of the securities, but protested that It was
because he was sincerely sorry for the
many people who had been ruined through
the robbery And he protested to believe
also that he had been unJustly treated in
| the affair, though just how. and by whom,
he would not say. To the detectives
trained observation 1t was apparent that
he was worried and apprehensive and not
at all sure OF himself.
In November, 1876. George II. Bangs,
superintendent OF the Ptnkerton agency q
man possessed Of very remarkable skill
In eitcfting confessions from suspected per-
sons, had an Interview with Evans. He
professed to Evans that the detectives had
secured evidence that practically cleared
I'm the whole mystery: that they knew