The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1907-05-03

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 To-
Gated the suspects. The difficulty was
to get legal evidence. Jim French,
who later fed to Honduras, after hay-
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 crlml'
mails while avoiding direct methods.
Instead of going out TO induce some
of the marked men TO come 10 the
front with a confession. | went to
them under the name of Williams
and told them that | had been sent
by the insurance companies to inves'
tigate the detectives that had been
working en- the case who were &C
cused OF misappropriating their eX
pense 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 thai:
he had been aiding In the apprehen-
sion OF the incendlaries.
Suspected lnformer 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 n terrible uproar. Some
member of the grand jury told the
gang that n man by the name of
Burns had come before them and told
the whole story. No one knew Burns.
had been going under the name Of
Williams, but the following night one
OF the gang was suspected b. his
fellows OF being Burns and was shot
dead in a saloon. They never knew
until the first day of the trial who
! was
Marshal Mcdonald was trying the
case. was sitting beside him. When
Rudd was on the stand he was asked
on cross.examination to whom he had
first told the story.
ITO man who called himself VII
liams, he replied.
"'Do you know his true name?'
90 understand now that 1t il
Burns
"'Oh, this mysterious Mr.. Burns.
How long is 1t since you saw hin
last?'
Just now
els he here now
yes
I'm this room?
He is sitting beside you, WIS the
answer
This was the first that Jim French
and the rest of the gang knew o
the part | had taken In the investi
| cation
AS Burns sat at his desk telling
the story, he had the appearance o
banker explaining a deal In stocks
He is as far from the dime novel de
tective as he is from the wonderful
Mr.. Sherlock Holmes OF Conal
Doyle's novels.
Chief Wilkie or the secret servic,
once remarked to me-" said Heney
that Burns was a man with sixth
sense. who could tell as II by instinc
when a man was telling the truth
and when he had told all he knew
My experience with Burns bears thi
out. Once in the Oregon land frau
cases | thought a witness was hold
ing something back. Burns said h
had told all he knew, and Burns wa
right. At another time | thought
witness had made complete confes
sion. Burns said: Keep at himl
| sure eHouSn the mOSl lnCrlmlnatln
part of his story came out afterward.
One thing that has surprised III
in Burns" added Langdon, rs THU
He never wastes any time in blunlnl
Every one here in town knows hi
automobile. But, do you think II h
wanted you tonight he would sto
a block away and send his machin
back? No, sir. He would go straigi
to your door. loot, foot, and rim
the bell"
Never Wore a Disguise.
Burns himself has this to say abol
his work as a detective:
People seem to think that there
something uncanny about detect,
! wnrE They IMAGINE vp on aro.,,,