The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1906-01-04

! ing evfaeaes agaiast hin va What
We sAdly nssasd.
And ~ - 1ay nsw t1At mnst e0ec-
tive detective work consists In being
abb % 1nA the right kind of fnfoFmers.
know full veil that Detectives gen-
orally are prose to throw veil a 0ys-
terry over thslr work, leaving tie i'm
preston that some sort OF Supernatural
vision has been brought to bear On the
anraveii1g Of the case in point, where
as, when the full truth IL known, the
solutionjof the mysterious case b made
possible by the most commonplace in
formation secured from voluntary or
involuntary finformers. That eminent
creature Of action, Sherlock Holmes %
never lid to make his case good In q
United SUITES court, and IL he had he
would lave needed q great deal Of
corrob0Vt ative evidence that only could
have cohe from ordinary, unromantic
informeiF.
In this(predicament fixed on VIVA
len and Woods as the two men who
most easily could be forced into tight
corner and who, once cornered, would
be the most likely to sacrifice their SUI
periors in crime to save themselves So
all my energies were bent in this di-
rection. The men were communicative
to those they trusted, fond of drink and
Of not overmuch Intelligence. Woods
was known as the husband of woman
who ran boarding house of question:
able character in Venice, ILL.,, just
across the river from st. Louis. Wha-
len was engaged to be married to
young st. Louis woman whom he after
ward married. l mention these details
merely to show that these men were
approachable at more points than the
other members of the band
1t required some time to accomplish
my purpose, but the time came when
l felt safe in revealing my true identity
to these men and in showing them the
trap into which they had walked. They
found themselves face to face with inn
prisonment on one hand and turning
against Biebush on the other. They
chose the latter alternative. These ne
gotiations were conducted, of course,
with the utmost secrecy and it was
stipulated that they in no wise were
to change front toward any member of
the Biebush crowd. Mrs. Woods,
through her alleged husband, was also
enlisted on the government side and
produced one bit of Information which
later proved of much 'value-that in
the Chester, ILL.,, penitentiary was one
John Mitchell, alias Jacobs, a former
intimate of Biebush, who probably
would be able to give the authorities
desired information.
Mitchell, it seemed, was in Chester
for the cure Of the same habit that had
brought "Hoosier Bill'' to Joliet-tnat
of getting his own horse confused with
those of other people. He had boarded
with Mrs. Woods and had revealed to
her his association with Fred Biebush
in handling counterfeit money. l con-
sidered the lead q promising one and ]
went to Chester. I was amply repaid.
have told how Biebush escaped from
the court when confronted by William
Shelley, the counterfeit engraver, in
1870. found it had been Mitchell who
had met him at the foot of Perry street
with skiff, in which the Great South
west Koniacker" made his escape to
Cabaret island, and that Mitchell had
been arrested for stealing the horse
and buggy with which to further aid
his chief to escape the law. He had
passed counterfeit money for Biebush
in 1877 and 1873, recently enough to
make the offense punishable at that
time.
OF course, secured from Mitchell. all
the information I could, and among it
was this fact: While serving a pre-
vious term in the Joliet penitentiary