Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-09-06

ordinarily displayed by man OF
business anxious to close deal in
which there was big profit Van Hise
was just as eager and unsuSpecting in
his efforts to unload $4,000 acres on
James Hail." sawmill operator. The
plan was working smoothly and prom
iesd great results.
The amount of detailed work, which
at this late date would be of no in
terest to my readers, was enormous.
l spent six weeks alone in the Wash
ington land office withdrawing papers
for examination and comparison. FIRE.
quent trips were made to southern Mis-
souri,, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the net
work of evidence being filled in with
patch here and patch there
] believe / neglected to say in be-
ginning this story that the communi-
cation to Secretary Schurz, which he
had turned over to Chief Brooks, and
which was the real starting point of
this historic criminal case, had been
written by one Leo Whybark, of st.
Louis, former colleague of Robert
Lindsay To all detectives it is well
known that many of the most impor-
tant cases have their origin in the
falling out of thieves among them
selves. Lindsay and Whybark had
| split over division of the spoils, the
latter claiming that he had been worst
ed by Lindsay, who had grown domi-
neering in his treatment of subordi-
| mates. Whybark's revenge took the
| form of his letter to the secretary of
| the interior. During the investigation
| Whybark was Of considerable service
to the government, but later was ar
rested as one Of the leaguers His
sentence, however, was never enforced,
this being his reward for his services
to Uncle Sam.
In Cleveland George Linn, after
whom was named a suburb, Linndale,
was found to be almost as important
] Lacquer as Van Hise. John K
! Corwin, the notary used by Van Hise
and Linn. was a member of one of the
most prominent families in Ohio. but,
| through his overindulgence in whisky,
was pliable tool in the hands of
others. John F. Gardiner was a bank
! er and man Of high business stand
! ing. In the work Of producing false
! titles the notarial work was not the
least item. as all the papers had to
be sworn to, and it was necessary to
| find notaries who not only would
consent to take acknowledgements they
knew to be false. but who could be
trusted to maintain the utmost Sc
crecy. Two more of these notariess
were Herman E. Schuster and John ].
Brady, Jr., of st. Louis In all, %
men had been dragged into our net
for completely in one form or another
in this great conspiracy.
At last the time came to strike.
| believed that the evidence in all
the cases was strong enough to convict.
Warrants were sworn out and placed
in the hands of deputy United States
marshals in the various cities where
the arrests were to be made. The
| greatest secrecy was observed in get
! ting out the papers and arranging 9TH
er preliminaries. With Lindsay and
Van Hise, Stedman and l arranged to
| have all the papers in our deals with
| them in their respective offices on the
! day the arrests were planned. 1t was
the 18th day of March in the year after
the investigation was begun that
entered the private Office of Robert L.
Lindsay in st. Louis with Deputy
Marshal Soest.
L
desk | quietly told him he was I'M
| der arrest.
who are you, and what am l un-
der arrest for?" he demanded.