The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-12-26
The Pine Street Case.

Inspector Jackson had charge Of the
Pine street case At II Pine street, on
the third floor, was the Office Of Sam
uel Goldstein, the money lender. One
afternoon at 8 o'clock customer called
at the offices to find the money lender
dead in his chair. He had been shot
through the head. The Office boy had
been given half holiday. and the Jew
was alone In his office. The case was
given to Inspector Jackson, and it be-
gan to unfold from the very first. 1t
was not case Of suicide. No pistol
was found in the room. A fellow ten
ant had seen a young man leave the
office ten minutes before the murder
was discovered and was able to give
q good description of him.
He went among the clubs with the
description he had secured, and within
three days he had his man. John Har-
burger, son of a wealthy widow, but
who had become estranged from his
mother on account Of his extrava-
gances, was the party arrested. He
was known to be hard up and to have
borrowed money Of the Jew.
When arrested he admitted that he
had visited No. II. While the murder
had been committed in the heart Of
London, Hamburger was found and ar
rested in a town hundred miles away.
The first steps were easy for the
Inspector. The second bothered him
some. Hamburger admitted that he had
called. He admitted that he was
armed. He had paid a portion Of his
Indebtedness, and the money lender
had taken his note without indorse-
ment for the balance. He had the old
note with him as proof. After leav-
ing Pine street he had received letter
from man in business in the town
where he was arrested and had &C
tepted the offer of a place. He had
had to sell his revolver to raise the
money to pay his fare down. He had
not seen London paper for three or
four days, and knew nothing of the
murder He had left the office in the
best of spirits, and the Shylock had
even wished him we'll.
The new note was not found among
Goldstein's papers, but, as an offset
to that, many other notes were missing.
The man to whom the revolver was
sold was found. All the chambers of
the weapon were loaded. 1t was
claimed that the prisoner had cleaned
the one he discharged before selling
the weapon. The letter was produced,
and the writer swore that he wrote it,
but the inspector got over this by call
ing it coincidence" He had what he
called solid case against Hamburger
when the day Of trial came on, and
only one thing saved the prisoner from
the gallows. 1t was proved that he
had had epileptic fits, and that there
were occasions when he was not re-
Sponsible for his actions. Taking this
into consideration the judge mercifully
sentenced him to prison for life. The
statement was made by Goldstein's
son that score of notes We're missing
from his fathers strong box. AS Har-
burgers new note was among them, it
was believed that he had grabbed the
package after shooting the money
lender. 1t was asked why he should
kill and rob the man after things had
been fixed to his satisfaction, but the
answer was that he lied. No new note
had been given. No pity had been
shown.
When two years had passed Inspect
or Jackson resigned from the Yard and
set up Il private agency at IL Pine
street, directly opposite the scene Of
the murder. He could look right across
the street and see the very spot where
Goldstein vas sitting when shot. He
had occupied his rooms six weeks be-
fore he saw a bullet hole in one of the
front windows. When he had inspect
ed it and wondered over it he looked
across the street with a glass, and saw
q corresponding hole in a window in
Goldstein's former Offices. 1t was exact
ly on line with the hole in his own.
When he had climbed to the other
let him sit in certain place. He
found the bullet holes on a line with
his head, and he looked still more trou-
bled as he went downstairs.
The first thing was to hunt up the
former occupants of the inspectors Of
fees. They We're found to be couple
of stage machinists. On certain day
a revolver had been accidentally fred
from front window and the bullet
had penetrated the pane, but its fur
Their fight had not worried them. The
Inspector was still thinking matters
over when there came to him from a
paper mill in distant town, as the
man who had had charge of the Har-
K burger case, a package of promissory
notes twenty-three in all. Among
them was Harburger's. 1t was the
new note he said he had given and
had told the truth about. The others
had belonged to young men who had
been very careful not to notify the po-
lice that they We're indebted to the
money lender.
With the information at hand, the
inspector did the manly thing. 1t was
plain that Hamburger had called and
adjusted his affair. He had been seen