Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-05-05
NEVER FAIL" BURNS.
Noted Sleuth Has Done Much Clever
Work for Secret Service.

Work for Secret Service.
William J. Burns, the detective who
is responsible for the arrests in the
labor union dynamiting outrages, fig
urcd in a famous counterfciting case
in Washington in 1894, when he was
attached to the United States secret
service here, says the Washington
Post
Burns was appointed To the secret
service in 1890, and was located in
the west, WORKING in Indian territory,
Texas, Arkansas and the south. He
was soon placed in charge of that
district, and in 1894 was transferred
To Washington, he being promoted for
good work. He had a rowing COMMITS
sion and. one Of the biggest fcats in
those days was running down the
principals in the Brockway- Bradford
Courtney case in New York and
near by
Brockway was a celebrated counter
feiter and in his early days he had
forged Erie railroad bonds. His
specially was a counterfeit note Of a
large denomination, one favorite being
thousand dollar compound interest
note. He got hold of a girl in the
bureau of engraving and printing
here and had her run a sheet of tin
foil through the press and get an
impression Of the genuine plates. Then
he had an electrotype made from the
tinfOil impression, printed the notes
and circulated them with such sue
cess that the government actually
accepted $4,000 worth of them be-
fore it suspected that anything was
wrong. Later on they had To send for
Charles Ulrich, an old-time counter
feiter. TO pick the good from the bad.
Ulrich agreed to work with Burns,
and the latter sent him To join the
gang, and through his assistance they
arrested them all in a building at 542
Ann street, West Hoboken. There
the secret service men found more
than $4,000 900 in gold certificates and
a lot of Canadian hundred dollar
notes. This was the first time that
the authorities had been able to con-
vict Brockway He went to Trenton
Jail for a ten-year sentence. with Or.
Bradford. who died in prison. and
Courtney, who had been in counter
Burns nickname among the police
of every big city in the United States
is Never Fail Burns"
1t was more than twenty-five years
ago that Burns began his detective
career, and he attracted attention by
his methods and his success from his
first case. For that matter, though,
he came naturally by his talent, for
his father was a policeman before
him-chief Of police of Columbus. o.,
and Burns, Jr., was brought up in
touch with police work, one might
say. The gift of detecting crime
seemed to be born in him.
His first real detective work was
done in 1885. in what was known as
the tally sheet forgery" when in the
Ohio state elections in Columbus and
Cincinnati the tally sheets were al
tered. in one case a candidate getting
9S5 instead Of 2S5 Burns ran the
guilty person down and got a confess
sion. His speciality has always been
the obtaining of full admissions Of
guilt that go far to do away with
the delay Of protracted trials. His
plan of campaign is never to strike
before he is sure of his ground.
One Of Burns last big pieces of
work for the treasury department was
the apprehension of Dimmick, who
robbed the San Francisco mint of
$50 900 Dimmick was assistant SUI
perintendent of the mint, and he had
succeeded in familiariZing himself
with the locks Of the vault SO that
he could stand at the lock with the
works exposed and determine what
combination another person was set
ting. Here Burns again did some
and deducing. but it took
time to get evidence.
Burns left San Francisco and came
east, and was preparing to take an
European trip for the government
when he got a wire from Chief Wilkie
TO report i'm Washington. Wilkie had
been sent for by Secretary of the In
terror Hitchcock, who informed him
that extensive land frauds involving
millions of dollars had been uncov-
cred.
So they started Burns out on May