The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-27
Reported Blackmail Case Is Dismissed by Chief of
 Police B0deker
COLEMAN MURDER
 CASE WAS INVOLVED
Curtiss Told Mir. Lesser Orally of Alleged Scheme to Blackmail. Pinkerton Agency Dis
 owns Curtiss

Instead of attempting to biaekmail Emil Lesser. a prominent German American citizen of Birmingham. for S5o00. as was reported from testimony brought to bear before chief of Pc lice George IL Bodeker yesterday morn ing. W E. Cnrliss. a man who claim d to be in Ihe employ of the Matt W. Pinkerfon United States Detective agency. was trying to warn Mr. Lessor of scheme which he thought would le perpetrated upon him shortly.
 on Monday morning of this week MT Lesser reported 10 Chief Bodeker that an attempt had been made to black mail him for 5000. The incidents con- neeted with the alleged attempt. as re- ported by Mr. Lesser. are these
 Last week at four or i've different times a man, who gave his name as ". F. CurIIss. called him up on the tel eph0ne, asking Mir. Lesser To meet nm. g s he had q matter of grave importance to impart Nfr. Lesser told the man that he knew of no matter of grave importance to himself which called for such a clandestine meeting $ was sug- Eested and refused To comply with the mans requests.
 On sunday morning about II o'clock the man Curtiss called at the Turn Nerein, Of which Mir. Lesser Is pro- prietor. and told him again that he would like to talk with him privately. Mir Lesser then asked him to have seat, that he could tell all he had to tell right there in the cafe. So the two men seated themselves and Cur tiss began his story.
 He stated that he was in the em- ploy of the Pink Detective agency of Chicago and that other members of the agency had been working on the mysterious Guy E. Coleman murder case which created such sensation in Alabama the latter part of 1910, and had sufficient evidence to seriously i'm plicate him CLesser) in the murder. Rising. Mir. Lesser stated that if that was all he had to say he could go.
 Wait minute, though" the man is alleged to have said. Don't get mad about it. l think it can be settled and nothing will come out for S5000. Mr Lesser then told the man to go ahead and bring out what he had. stating that be would not give , cents for all the evidence he could rake and scrape.
 The case was explained by MT. Les ser to Chief Bodeker and Detectives Murphy and Williams were dispatched on the case to find the man who was said 10 have attempted 10 blackmail MT. Lesser. They succeeded in locat- ing him and had him meet MT. Les ser in presence of the officers at the police station.
 At this meeting the man stated that he had no idea of blackmailing Mir. Lesser, but was merely telling him of a scheme that was on foot, and saving that he thought the matter could be settled for $5000.
 Paul Israel, one of the mana gers or the Pinl1erton & Co United States De- tective Agency for the south, said last night that the man was not in their employ. He said that the man had worked for them a few days in Sep tember, but had not been in any way connected with the agency since Sep tember 27.
 In the whole occurrence there was no mention made of i letter in the case. MT. Lesser stated emphatically last night to an Age-Herald reporter that he had received no letter from Curtiss nor anyone else in regard to this case.
 Chief Bodeker stated that he ex- amined the evidence in possession of the detectives of the police department at the time of the murder and states that there is not one scintilla of evil dence duplicating MT. Lesser in the famous tragedy.
 As for the detective agency" stated Chief Bodeker, the one in this case is the new Pinkerton agency and not the old Pin<erton agency, which was organized in 1850 and is under the direction in the south of Paul Israel and George J. Loeffel, and the two have no relation to one another ir business. This should be clearly es- tablished to avoid all misunderstand- ing The police department can take no steps in this matter as there are no warrants out.
 investigation by the city detectives shows that the mans name is not .r- tiss He has relatives in Bessemer and is well known in Birmingham"