The Springfield herald., 1912-08-02

nothing that would do me any good.
A friend of mine who kept liquor
store In Greenwich street told me of
a watch which he had bought from a
fellow who looked like a tramp about
week before. and it had all the
marks OF one of the watches which
had been stolen. took the watch to
Mr. Baldwin. and he said that 1t was
his property.
Il made up my mind that the tramp
did not have any hand in the rob-
berry, and had got possession of the
watch in some other way, hunted
high and low for this fellow, in the
cheap dives. and finally landed fel-
low answering to his description.
took him to the liquor dealer. and he
was fully identified. locked him up
and squeezed him very hard for In
formation. He persisted that he had
found the watch In the street, but
after he was put through the mill,
and charged with killing man to
get the time piece. he admitted that
he stole 1t from a man Who was ly-
ing drunk in a hallway In Greenwich
street.
From the description that he gave
me and the knowledge OF crooks
which had. concluded that 1t was
probably Danny Mcbride. dropped
downtown, and. after hanging around
for few days, felt satisfied that
Danny was In hiding for something. l
could not find him In any OF his
haunts, and I knew from his friends
telling me that they had not seen him
that he was keeping out Of sight for
something. had never known that
Danny was in the house-cracking busi-
ness. as he had always figured as a
river pirate. and q bad one at that.
lone evening. while going through
Bleecker street. | met Frank Carroll,
and he told me an amusing story
about a voodoo woman. who sold
charms to the superstitious negroes
She was from Cuba. spoke Spanish
and had wonderful powers. She could
destroy witches who followed ne
groes, and could cure diseases by the
laying on of her hands. Carroll said
that there was report going around
among the negroes that she had
healed the wounds and destroyed the
gro at single sitting. for which SER
vice she had received fabulous sum.
Ordinarily. l wouldn't have listened
to this story. but by some strange
influence associated this negro with
the one who had been bitten by the
dog at Baldwin's house.
"A good detective always run down
every idea. no matter how foolish 1t
may seem, and decided to have .
chat with the voodoo doctress. She
lived In a rear building in Wooster
street. on the top floor. and received
me with great show OF suspicion.
told her that believed in her pow
er to kill my enemies. and l offered
to pay her literally for one of her
enemy-destroying charms. Money
would not tempt her to do anything
for me. and she said that she could
not treat white people. 1t is against
the rules of these doctors to talk
about a patient, but told her about
the story had heard about her get
ting a large sum of money for heal
ing one of her patients wounds.
"In a few moments she limbered
seesss
fairly caused me to jump for Joy. She
man in his power had bitten him all
over the body, and his flesh was filed
with deep indentations from the
teeth. That was all she would say
then, and she would not tell who he
was or anything about him except
that he had gone to Cuba. got a
detective from the Mercer street sta
tion to watch the house and in the
evening got AL Fender, a colored
man who could be depended on to
play a part.
He called upon the voodoo woman.
and the first thing he did was to pull
out big knife and sharpen 1t. He
said nothing while doing this and the
woman became very uneasy. When
he got through the pantomime he
told her in very solemn tones that
the object OF his visit was to kill her.
He gave her one alternative. II she
would tell him who the man was
who called on her with the teeth
marks in his body. her life would be
spared and she would get $1,000 in
gold Pender shook a bag full OF
| metal and gave her three minutes to
answer. She whispered the name OF
Spanish Forbes. Pender knew that
| he had the woman in his power. and
pressed the question. under the same
conditions, as to where Forbes was.
She told him he was in certain eel
lar in Wooster street.
II had heard all she said from the
hall, and at this point opened the
door. ordered her to take me to
Forbes, but 1t took a prod from Pend
er's knife to make her move. She
had told the truth. Forbes was in the
cellar in a semi-delirious state from
morphine. He talked all the time,
| and made the woman sit on his bed.
He seemed to be frightened when he
saw her. asked him who was with
him at the Englewood robbery, and
when / told him that the woman had
told me everything. he gave the
names of Jeff Reynolds, Danny Nc
Bride, Sam Wiley and Ben Harper.
and told where they could be found.
THAT was enough for me, and
sent Forbes to hospital under
guard. The same night I captured
Mcbride, Wiley and Reynolds. They
were tried. convicted and put away