The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-03
4 True Defective Story.

any SUCH AQEcLss DlGcet aAtoEAl per
sonal 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 attention had been paid to this
letter. although two certificates of
stock accompanied il which had un-
doubleday been in the banks vault.
Three other letters of a similar ma
ture had been received later. To one
of these the bank people had sent a
guarded reply, which had called forth
the Following response, dated New
York, October 20, 1876:
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 $3.50, 900 If 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 Y ork Herald per
sonal column the simple word Aga
ina 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, Be
ing familiar with the methods of each
gang, Robert Pinkerton was able to
draw useful differences from evidence
/ that would otherwise have been insig-
nificant. 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 it
was Duniap'S invariable rule to insist
of his robberies until final disposition
was made of them. On the other hand
the gangs headed respectively by the
I notorious Jimmy" Hope Worcester
/ Sam" and George Bliss might have di-
Nlded the securities among the mem
( bers, and then tried to negotiate a COM
promise on the individual portions.
fact of much significance to the
Pinkertons was the rather remarkable
/ interest in the case, and apparent famil-
iarity with it, shown by one 7. G. Evans,
an expert in 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 Immediately wired him to proceed
to Northampton His presence in North
ampton 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 dials of the vault of the rob
| bed bank. What did seem a little
strange, however, was Evans evident
interest in the negotiations for a COM
promise. On a dozen different occasions
he talked with the president and other
officers of the bank regarding the rob
berry and inSinuated quite plainly that
1 he might be in d position to assist them
in recovering their lost securities. A
few months after the robbery he even
went so far as to tell one Of the di-
| rectOrs that he could name the mem
bers of the gang.
This disposition of Evans to put him
4 self forward in the negotiations had all
( the more significance to Robert Pinker-
ton from the fact that it had been ru-
mOred that a series of daring bank
/ rObberies lately committed in various
! parts Of the country had owed their
success to the participation of an ex-
1 pert in safes and locks who had been
] able, through his position of trust, to
/ reveal to the robbers many secrets of
/ weak bank locks, safes and vaults. Up
\ to this time these rumOrs had remain
/ ed indefinite, and no one ventuEed to
! name the man. 1t was known, how
4 ever. that the false expert was q man
of high standing in his calling and
/ generally regarded as above suspicion.
I Tt was also known that there was great
/ jealousy in other gangs of bank rob-
! bers because of the amazing success OF
! the gang with whom this man was
! working, and that Overtures even had
7 been made by the leaders of some 9TH
I er gangs to win over to their own
/ gangs this desira BILE accCmplice. Robert
/ Pinkerton had already concluded that
the gang so ably assisted was the Dun
! lap gang: and he was now pretty well
persuaded, also, that the Northampton
/ robbery had been committed by the
! Dunlap gang. There was every reason,
/ therefore. for keeping a sharp eye OF
! the safe expert Evans.
/ As he studied the case Mr. Pinkertor
] recalled circumstance that had hap
4 pened in the fail of 1875 On the night
/ of November 4. 1875, the First National
bank of Pittston, Pa, had been robbed
| of $50, 000, and Mr.. PinkertOn had gone
there to Investigate the case. He met
I a number of safe-men, it being a bust
ness custom with safe-men to flock to
the scene of an important bank robbery
/ 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
4 representative of one of the safe com
panies picked up a small air-pump used
bye the robbers and, looking at it critical
ly, remarked that he would have sWOrr
it belonged to his company did he moi
i know that was impossible. The air
pump was, he declared. Of precisely hi:
company's model. one that had been re-
Gently devised for a special purpose. A
the time Mr. PinkertOn regarded this a:
merely a coincidence, but now the mem
Dry came to him as a flash of inspira
ton that the man who had remarked
the similarity in the air-pump repre-
scented the same company that employed
Evans.
In view of all the circumstances.
was decided to put Evans under tn
closest questioning. He did not den
that he had made unusual efforts t
effect the return of the securities, bu
prOfessed that it was because he wa
sincerely sorry for the many peOpI
c berry And he professed to beIiev
: also, that he had been unjustly treate
in the affair though just how an
by whom, he would not say. To tn
detectives trained observation it wa
apparent that he was worried and ap
! prehensive and not at all sure of him
self