The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-04

l'fe. He spent nearly two years as spe-
cial agent for the government, and
was then persuaded to go to Erie, Pa,
where. during his early days on the
lakes he had made many friends. Mr..
Thomas Crawley was chief of the Erie
police force at that time and at his
invitation Murray became a detective
under him.
Shortly after his arrival there "a wave
Of sneak-thieving swept over the town
and assumed very serious proportions.
Even the furniture of private houses
disappeared as if by magic. Clothing
took 10 itself wings anil vanished into
the great unknown. PlOWs made queer
and unacCOuntable exits from the farm
ers fields, leaving no trace behind.
I-orses Cantered away unseen by their
owners and their stables knew no more
of them. Whole contents of stores were
carried off. and from Gne of them
twenty dozen pairs Of shoes appeared
ia have walked into Oblivion in the full
glare Of noon It was all so mystic
riOus as to be almost amusing-eXcept
90 the unhappy losers and the outraged
members of the police force who were
totally unable to appreciate the hu-
NOR of the situation.
Crawley and his aides put upon their
mettle by the cool and successful per
NiSlttltt OF klt lttltktS. I0TDiuldIeQ q
score Of brilliant theories as to the
identity of the defiers of the law, and
spared no pains to discover them. but
their we'll meant eXertions were all IN
vain, and the thefts continued to in
crease in number and daring. Al last
James Tolwarthy. a grocer. appeared
IN Crawleys headquarters fairly boil
ing over with Indignation and poured
forth bitter tale of woe a new
democrat wagon for which he had
paid $40 had disappeared from ian front
Of his store on the day after he had
purchased IL. In place of the missing
vehicle he found an old craCkey wag-
on. standing i'm the hotel shed near
his store, where he had been wont
TO store his recent purchase. To say
That James TOlwarthy was angry would
not give a correct line on the state
Of his feelings. He mourned aloud fin
wildly excited tones and went away
only half paCified by Chief CraWley' s
promise to set all the resources Of his
department at work Immediately 10
find the missing property and thief
Murray and a couple Of other detec-
tives instituted a vigorous search at
once, but several days passed before a
single clew of any value turned up.
Then Murray came across a boy who
stated that he thought he had seen
l-fe man WHO ItLI Eile 0lu wagon I'D
lien Of the new one, in Tolwarthv's
she'd. The youngsters description of
the supposed thief was meager one
but Murray had always held the the
1ry that q poor description by an eye
witness was better than many photo
graphs when il came to Identifying a
suspect whom he had never seen So.
acting on the lads description. he
started out 10 visit every farm house
ON every road leading out Of Erie lie
searched carefully but found no trace
Of either plumber or man.
Finally he met a farmer who had
seen q fellow drive by his house in q
rev democrat" about the time that
Tolwarthy's wagon disappeared. and
the description Of both wagon and dr.v-
or convinced him that he was at last
upon the right track Accompanied by
-rawley and an officer named Sny-
der Murray hired team and drove
along the road the stranger had fol-
lowed with the missing wagon. For
fully fifteen miles they Travelled. stop