The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-10
HOLDUP MAN A"DOPE."
POLICE THINK TILLSBURY HAD
NO ACCOMPLICE.
Had Been Trying to Reach New Amsterdam
Hank President since MOnday-Ram-
bling Statement TO PoIIce-HOtel Aston
His Third Choice-Recalls Old Murder.


According to the police, Harry Tillsbury,
who tried to lure President Robert "a. Moore
of the New Amsterdam National Bank
to a room at the Hotel Aston by a note
signed with the name of the manager of
the Pinkerton Detective Agency. is dope
They are inclined to believe that his plot
was evolved by a drug muddled brain and
was not a deep laid scheme of several minds
to entrap the banker and do him harm if
he did not accede to their demands.
Tillsbury made a statement at the de-
tective bureau yesterday which was the
rambling tale one might expect from one
using some kind Of narcotic drug. A
stenographer was called in to take what
he said. Before the stenographer got
through he had used up q pad. 1t wasn't
thought of sufficient importance to tran
scribe.
Tillsbury's story was in effect that he was
a ~frequenter of the ace tracks and that
some weeks ago he had met a man at the
New Orleans track who said he was John
Cornish, head of the Pinkertons. IL was
this man, he said, who had put up the game.
He told Tillsbury, the latter said, that he
had something on Moore in connection
with a relative of the banker.
Subsequently they met in New York,
and~the man, Tillsbury said, got him to
write the letter asking the banker to go to
a hotel and meet him. The note was writ
ten in his hall bedroom at 268 West Forty
third street. He said that he was surprised
when Moore reached the hotel and this
man wasn't there.
The police do not believe that TillsbuTy
had any accomplice. They think the whole
scheme was his own. Mr.. Moore Is inclined
to agree with them. They have an idea
that illsbury some time In the past possibly
ran into some one who may have said that
he was a relative of Mr.. Moore, and that
Tillsbury then conceived the idea OF getting
the banker to a room and trying to extort
money out Of him on the threat that he
would make public something about this
relative.
Mr.. Moore says hat he knows of nothing
that Tillsbury or any one else could use,
either about himself or about any relative,
to get money out of him.
1t came out yesterday that Tillsbury
had been calling at the bankers house
as we'll as the bank. 1t 50 happened that
Mr.. Moore was not in on these occasions.
The first time he called was early last
Monday morning. That was just after
Tillsbury had hired a room at the Hotel
st. Andrew, where he registered as G.. II.
Cowles. He told the clerk at that hotel
that he wanted a room with a telephone
and that his baggage was at a steamboat
pier and would be brought up later. He
the telephone and then showed up at the
house, where lie vas informed that MIR.
Moore was not at home. That same day
he went to the bank and again found Mr..
Moore absent.
Tillsbury didn't turn up at the st. Andrew
price OF the room On Tuesday morning
he turned up at the Belleclaire, registered
as c. r. Barty Of La Centre, La. and re-
peated the performance Of the previous
day. He missed Mr.. Moon that morning
at his house, He spent half an hour at
the room at the Belleclaire, visited the bar
several times and fitted away, to be seen
there no more.
1t is apparent to the detectives that his
game was to lure Moore to either Of these
hotels had he found him on Monday or
Tuesday. 1t was on Wednesday that he
rented the room at the Aston and finally
got Mr.. Moore at the bank and presented
the letter.
Mr.. Moore had become rather suspicious
OF the mans visits at his house so early in
the morning and his subsequent visits at
the bank, and he was more on his guard
than he would have been possibly had
Tillsbury caught him the first time. The
letter confirmed his suspicious and he lost
no time in calling up the Pinkertons and
getting a detective to go to the Aston with
him.
Mr.. Moore was naturally q little nervous
of strange visitors, as it was such a visitor
who murdered his predecessor, George H.
Wyckof, at the bank in 1895. The man in
hat case presented a letter on Hotel MARI
borough paper demanding $4,000, and shot
the president when he didn't give up. He
blew out his wi brains Immediately after.
According to Inspector Mclaughlin,
Tillsbury comes from Norfolk, Neb. He
was once employed in the Lincoln National
Bank in Chicago. Lately, he has been
drifting around the race tracks and occa-
sionally in busy seasons getting a job help
ing some Of the ticket Spectators. He
got to know the names OF some Of the
Pinkerton men at the race tracks, and this,
It ia believed, accounts for his using the
name. Of Cornish. He is to be examined
in the Jefferson Market Court to-day, a
charge Of forgery in the third degree hav-
ing been made against him. Cornish has
agreed TO be the complainant.
Detective Arthur Carey visited Tils-
bury's hall bedroom yesterday and found
HE only poRaaRaion thara q small dog tad