The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-03-10

I
men were held in a state OF abject ter
ror by one slender lad, who, at the last
was practically unarmed.
At California Junction the wounded
the train, and the same night taken
back to Omaha. Mr.. Pollock, being
member Of the jewelers. Protective
union, a rich and powerful orgaatza-
! ton, established some years ago for
/ the protection OF 1eWelry statesmen
against thieves, was entitled to It's aid.
When the detectives reached the
scene Of the robbery, the robber had
! vanished as completely as If he had
, been whisked off to another planet.
1 To be sure. farmers in the neighbor-
hood brought rumOrs of the stealing
I Of horses, of a strange man sleeping
4 in the woods and of a desperate-look-
! ing character seen limping along the
road. But all this came to nothing, ex-
] cept to establish, what seemed prob
able, that the diamond thief had fed
+ back to Omaha. A patient and ex-
/ haustive search in Omaha resulted in
nothing. The man was gone, and the
4 diamonds were gone; that was all any
/ body knew.
What made the case more dihcult
was the uncertainty as to the robbers
personal appearance; for some of the
passengers testified to one thing, and
some to another. The black beard
/ was cause of confusion: only one wit
I ness besides Mr.. Pollock remem bered
/ that the man wore such a beard. Mr..
Pollock, however was positive as to
this particular, and It seemed as If he
I ought to know. 1t was also impossible
/ to decide, from conflicting statements.
I whether the the rObber had a mus
I tache or not. and whether it was dark
/ or light in color. The fact is, the pas
/ sengers had been so thoroughly fright
ened at the time of the assault that the
( credibility of their testimony was much
/ to be questioned.
-Ty 7
weeks previous to the robbery he had
/ suspected that he was being followed
I He also reported that on the day of the
I robbery he had been in the shop Of the
! largest pawnbrOker in Omaha, and
I that While he was there two noted
I western gamblers had entered the shop
and been presented to him as possible
/ customers. He had made a trade of
some diamonds with one of the men,
and. in the course of the negotiations.
/ had shown his entire stock While
T the trade was in progress. a negro on
/ the premises had noticed, lounging
about the front of the shop, a man in
/ a slouch-haE who suggested the rob
I Der. From these circumstances it was
/ decided that the robbery might be the
work of an organized gang. who had
/ been waiting their opportunity for
/ many days, and had selected one of
their number to do the actual deed.
All his life it had been Mr.. Pinker-
/ tons business to study criminals and
! understand their natures. He knew
that q crime like this one was much
/ beyond the power Of an ordinary crimi-
nal Let q rObbeF be ever so greedy
( of gold, reckless of human life and in
/ different to consequences, he would
/ still think many times before declar-
/ ing war to the death upon twelve men
/ in a narrow car, on a swiftly moving
train. This was surely no novice in
/ crime, reasoned Mr.. PfnkertOn. but a
I man whose record would already show
I deeds of the greatest daring. a brave
/ fellow, though a bad one And even
among the well-known experienced
/ criminals there must be very few who
were capable of this deed.
Mr.. PinkertOn, therefore, set him
self to studying the bureaus records
and rogues gallery to hrst PICK OUT
these few. Page after page of photo
era phs was turned over, drawer after
drawer of records was searched
through, and at last dozen or more
men were decided upon as sufficiently
pre-eninent to merit consideration IN
connection with the present case.
Photographs OF these dozen or so
were speedily struck off, and submitted
by the detectives to all the men who
had been in the smoking car at the
time of the robbery, to the conductor
of the train and the trainmen. to other
passengers to farmers and others who
might have seen the robber while max
ing his escape, and to various people in
ductor D. NJ. Ashmore. without hesita-
ton. selected from the dozen or more
portraits one as that Of the robber- Mr.
Shaw the Omaha Well-digger, who had
sat just behind the robber, selected
the same photograph and was positive
1T pictured the man he had tried to talk
to. Other passengers also picked out
this photograph, as did various per-
sons who had caught sight of the man
as he escaped
oh on
accord was that Of Frank Bruce, one
of the most desperate burglars of the
younger generation in the country, and
1t seemed only necessary now to ind
Bruce, to have the problem solved.
Many days were spent and hundreds
of dollars, in searching for him. Doz-
ems of cities were visited. and every
conceivable effort made to get on his
track; but it was not until ms pur-
suers were almost weary of the chase
that he was finally discovered living
quietly in Chicago, on Cottage Grove
avenue, near Thirty-sixth street, where
he was operating with another nigh
class burglar, Billy" Boyce.
Requisition papers were at once pro-
cured from the governor of Iowa on
the governor of Illinois, and men were
sent to take Bruce into custody, when
the shadows" reported that he and
Boyce had left for Milwaukee. where,
of course, the requisitiOn papers were
valueless. Fortunately, that same
night they attempted a burglary in Mill
waukee. for which they were arrested
and held for 90 days. This gave the
Chicago detectives abundant time to
identify Bruce as the missing robber-
Mr.. Pinkerton himself went at once
to Milwaukee, saw Bruce in the Jail
heard his story, verified its essentia
facts. and within two days, to his own
complete Disappointment. and in spite
of himself had proved a complete abb
for Bruce. To satisfy himself in this
connection, Mr.. Pinkerton brought
Conductor Ashmore and Mr.. Shaw tC
Milwaukee. and pointed Bruce out tC
them: and. after looking carefully al
him. both men declared they had made
a mistake in choosing his portrait, anG
that Bruce was not the robber.
With Bruce clear, the detectives
were again without a suspect. and al