The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-05-04

lWO-uUUT Cdiluic, anu ab wv WV"
In the morning the house would burn
down with a complete loss. In this
way they had got hundreds of thou.
sands of dollars out of the insurance
companies.
When ! was called into the case
it had been pretty thoroughly gone
over by Pinkerton men, who had 10.
Gated the suspects. The difficulty was
to get legal evidence. Jim French,
who later fed to Honduras. after hav-
ing served his first sentence, which |
got against him, was the leader OF the
gang.
The difficulty in all such cases Is
to uncover the tracks of the crimi-
nails while avoiding direct methods.
Instead of going out to induce some
of the marked men to come TO the
front With confession, ] went to
them under the name of Williams
aud told them that | had been sent
by the insurance companies to inves-
tigate the detectives that had been
working on the case who were &C.
cused of misappropriating their ex'
pepse money. While carrying on this
special investigation ! was able to
gather around me all the gang. From
them selected the one man who, |
thought, could give me the evidence.
This fellow. John Rudd by name,
never knew until the day that he was
called into the grand jury room tina,
he had been aiding in the apprehen'
sion of the incendiaries.
Suspected informer Killed.
When all was ready went before
the grand jury and explained the case
The insurance agents told their losses
and then we called in Rudd and ex
planned to him his part in the case
After indictments had been brought
In there was terrible uproar. Some
member of the grand jury told the
gang that man by the name o
Burns had come before them and TOLD
the whole story. No one knew Burns
had been going under the name o.
Williams, but the following night on,
of the gang was suspected by his
fellows OF being Burns and was sho
dead in a saloon. They never knew
until the first day Of the trial whit
was.
Marshal Mcdonald was trying thu
case. was sitting beside him. Whel
Rudd was on the stand he was asked
on cross-examination, to whom he ha,
first told the story.
Ito man who called himself vii
liams, he replied.
"'Do you know his true name?'
81 understand now that 1t 4
BurnsS
"'Oh, this mysterious Mr.. Burns
How long is 1t since you saw hin
last?'
Just now
Is he here now?'
Yes
I'm this room?'
He is sitting beside you, was tn
answer.
"This was the first that Jim Frencl
and the rest of the gang knew O
the part ! had taken in the invest
CATION"
AS Burns sat al his desk tellin
dhe story, he had the appearance o
n banker explaining a deal in stocks
He is as far from the dime novel dc
tective as he is from the wonderful
| Mr., Sherlock Holmes of Conal
Doyle's novels.
"Chlef Wilkie or the secret servic
once remarked to me- said Heney
that Burns was a man with sixtI
sense. who could tell as II by instinc
when a man was telling the trutl
and when he had told all he knew
| My experience with Burns bears thi
out. Once in the Oregon land frau
cases | thought witness was hole
ing something back. Burns said h
had told all he knew. and Burns wa
right. At another time I thought
witness had made complete confe,
sion Burns said Keep at him.
sure enough the most incriminstin
part of his story came out afterward
One thing that has surprised m
In Burns" added Langdon, "is thi
He never wastes any time In bl.,fin,
Every one here In town knows HI
automobile. But, do you think II
wanted you tonight he would sto
block away and send his machin
back? No. sir. He would go straigl
to your door. Toot. toot, and rim
the bell"
Never Wore Disguise.
Burns himself has this to say abol
his work as detective:
People seem to think that there
something uncanny about detcctis
work. They Imagine we g ar>ut