Omaha daily bee., 1911-04-28

The mystery surrounding the source of
anonymous black hand" letters which
have almost Frustrated two Omaha fam
lilies, harassed the police authorities and
agitated the city. would not be considered
much of a mystery by william j. Burns,
the chief detective in the dynamite sensa-
tion. In his story OF Tracking Anony
nous Letter Writer'S in McClures maya
zine, he illustrates his method by detailing
case in which Lord Pauncefote. British
ambassador was involved During the
progress Of the Boer war an unsigned let
ter, mailed at Detroit, reached the am
bassador in Washington. II was written
evidently by an intelligent person, who
knew all the facts leading up to the war
The letter concluded with the statement
that if Lord Pauncefote did not stop the
war within six months the writer would go
TO Washington and kill him.
The ambassador turned the letter over to
the then Secretary of state, Hon. John
Hay, and by him to the Chief Wilxie of
the secret service. Detective Burns was
intrusted with the case 'It seems to be
popular belief" says the detective in
telling his methods, that a successful de-
tectlve must possess some mysterious
power not given to the ordinary man.
Ny contention has always been that we
do not possess any such mysterious power,
and that 1t is not needed for solving any
of the problems that come to the detective
Of investigation. In order to succeed the
detective has only to exercise common
sense and judgment.
ITO one who is accustomed to tracing
the authorship OF anonymous letters, II is
a familiar fact that when a person under
takes to write an anonymous letter he
starts out with the intention of Disgusting
his handwriting, but that as he proceeds
with his composition he unconsciously re-
turns to his normal manner of writing.
He may catch himself at this, and resume
his disguised hand; but he is sure to in
corporate some Of his peculiar character
istics in the letter, through which it is
possible to identify him. 1t was so In this
case. We were able to determine, from
an occasional Joining of the words which
is peculiar to telegraph operators. that the
writer was probably an operator.
when reached Detroit, 1 called upon
one of the telegraph companies; and at
this point it may be noted how necessary
1t is to appear confident in order to sue
coed In securing the information one is
after. When l presented a portion of the
letter to the chief operator Of the tele-
graph company, instead Of asking him
whether or not he could tell who the
writer was from an examination OF the
handwriting, 1 made the bold statement
that the writer of the letter was at that
time in his employ. This at once had the
effect Of stimulating the chief operator In
his endeavor to find out who the writer
was. After making a careful examination
OF the letter, he admitted that there was
certain familiarity about the writing,
but said he was sure the writer was not
then employed by the company. l assured
him, however that he was mistaken, and
stated that l would return later. L then
visited the other telegraph company. Here
went through the same procedure, and
noted that the chief operator of this COM
pany, after he had carefully examined the
handwriting showed considerable surprise
and amusement was satisfied in my
mind that he recognized the writing and
was very much chagined, therefore to
have him turn to me and declare that
while the man might be in their employ,
he did not recognize the writing. All this
took place in the presence of the man
ager Of the company. thanked the chief
operator for his kindness In going over
the matter, and we both left the presence
of the manager, who expressed his regret
that he was not able to locate the writer
Outside the managers office 1 turned to
the chief operator and assured him that l
had not been deceived by his statement
that he did not know the identity of the
writer. 1 told hiIa that he did know. and
that knew he did At this positive state
ment the chief operator appeared very
much abashed, and promptly admitted
that he did know the writer, but that he
did not care to involve ths man IN SO
serious a matter,