Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-06-20
INSURE THEIR cAPTiVEs.
Some Detectives Protected If Prison.
ers Escape.

1T is the belief Of many persons, +"
said the headquarters detective who
is known as the international sleuth
because of his travels in many lands to
bring back fugitive criminals, that
the job of chasing all over the world
lightful experience a detective can
have. Take it from me, it is not.
Sometimes it is so nerve firing and ex-
asperating that a detective who goes
away with black hair comes home
gray. Often it is a case Of worry from
the time you start after your man un-
til you land him in prison here.
1T is not generally known, or per-
haps it is better to say that the public
has forgotten, that two detectives in
this town who had good regulations
lost their jobs because they lost their
prisoners. 1t Is not a pleasant thing
for a detective who has served years
and has the prospect of a pension with
few years more of service to find
that he Is without a job because a
tricky prisoner gave him the slip. The
prisoner may be caught again, but that
Is likely to make little difference to the
detective.
What has been the result? Some
detectives have become so careful that
they insure their prisoners. Can it be
done? Can you insure a monkey or
the color Of your hair? Of course,
Lloyd's Of London will do that. They
will also let you have insurance on the
safe delivery of a prisoner.
Unless am mistaken, the first de-
tective to do this sort of thing was
Barney Flood, who has been attached
to the district attorneys office for years
and who has had experience in bring
ing back prisoners from all over the
world. Flood knew what had happen
ed to the two detectives who had let
their prisoners get away from them
and he also knew the difficulties often
encountered in landing a prisoner in
a cell here. So he decided that in the
first difficult case that came his way
he would take extraordinary precau-
tions.
Not long ago he was sent over to
London to bring back Eleanor Lorraine
Beattie, a vivacious young woman who
was accused of swindling. She had
been identified abroad by a caricature
which had been made of her by one of
the clerks in a store. Before leaving
Flood was told that he would have to
be very careful, as his prisoner was a
woman Of resource and apt to discover
some way to get away from him.
Flood pondered over this, and going
over to the boat the idea of insuring
his prisoner was suggested by a con-
versation with couple Of Englishmen,
who were telling him how Lloyd's
would take bet on how long the king
or President Taft would live.
They'll go you even better than
that said one of the Englishmen to
Flood: they'll give you insurance that
you will safely return to America or
that you won't
Instantly Flood got the notion that
if they would insure him they would
insure his prisoner. After he landed
he went to the London Jail where she
was being held for extradition and had
a talk with her. Then he went to the
Lloyd's office.
He told them what he wanted. He
thought there would be a lot Of fuss
over such a proposition, but there was
none at all. They took it as matter of
course, all in the days business. They
asked him how much insurance he
wanted to carry on his prisoner and
he told them $4,000. The premium they
named was so small that Flood was
surprised.
The insurance covered the safe de-
livery Of the prisoner from the London
Jail to the Tombs. Naturally there was
a clause making the insurance void
should the prisoner escape as the re-
suit of collusion with Flood. The
Lloyd's people were pretty safe on
of his job when he took the insurance
and it was a certainty that he was go
ing to make every effort to keep that
prisoner from getting away.
You may be certain that on the
trip back Floods mind was at ease,
although that doesn't mean that he
did not take every precautfon. His
prisoner was known as Miss Beattie on
the ship, and she took part in most of
the ships amusements, as she was q
clever entertainer and a good singer.
None of the passengers knew that she
was accompanied by a detective, at
least nobody did until the boat was al
most at these shores, and Of course
none of them was aware that the de-
tective was carrying $4,000 insurance
on her. As'I understand it, Flood
paid the premium on that insurance
out of his own pocket"
Il know" continued the usually reti-
cent international sleuth, that the
persons who think that trips after
prisoners are sinecures given only to
favorites may feel that Flood was eX-
tremely careful. Well, he was, and it
just shows what the modern detective
us up to. From my own experience !
KNOW lIldl IL Is Ollcl ucSl hlilu
Of job to get a prisoner back to the
town where he was indicted. Very Of
ten a prisoner comes back without a
fight, but the obstacles that detective
has to overcome are not always sup
piled by the prisoner.
Take the case of the detective who
was chased out to California after a
prisoner. After a lot of trouble in
getting the eXtradition warrant passed
upon by the governor following a live
ly fight by the prisoner the detective
got his man on the train. He wasn't
taking any chances at all. He not only
had the prisoner shackled to the seat
but he also had him handcuffed.
Several passengers, including a cOu-
pie of women, thought that this was
an unnecessary piece of brutality and
they protested. The detective refused
to listen to them. The men took up
the cause of the women and with the
freedom of the west they told the de-
tective what they thought of him. All
the while the prisoner was playing the
role of the martyr and asserting, to the
women principally, that he was inno-
cent, and anyway in civilized coun-
tries a man was considered innocent
until convicted.
1T was beginning to look pretty bad
for the detective, as the men had be-