The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-11-30

ance Of the clothing was such as was
usually found in cases where the gang
had done up a victim.
There were, however, two pulling
features in the case. In Lawrences
inside waistcoat pocket, In a large
wallet. were $4,000 in cash and the
records of several bets which had
been made the day that he was in
jured. The theory which was adopted
as the most plausible one was that
some of the gang had been at the
track and seen the roll Of bills Law
renee carried, and given him the razoo
the first chance they got at him when
he was alone.
Il went to see Denny Brady, as
knew him very well, to have talk
with him about the crime. The thief
who is accused falsely will always
talk freely as general thing about
any particular crime, and wished to
see how Brady would act about this
case. found him in liquor store in
First avenue with the gang, and he
greeted me very kindly. went out
with him alone after he had a chin
with several of the gang, and gave
him a ghost story about the Lawrence
robbery. I volunteered the informa-
ton that some OF the gang were sus-
pected. I had expected to hear Brady
deny that he had ever heard of the
robbery, but instead of this he opened
up and gave me his idea of the crime.
He said that none of the gang were in
it, as they were ali at the wake Of
Andy Owens, who had been killed in
rough-and-tumble fight in Williams
burgh.
eff yer want ter find de bloke
what did de trick said Brady, take
a pipe on some of de friends of dis
Lawrence, and yer will come near hit
ting bottom
81 investigated the story told by
Brady as to the whereabouts of the
gang on the night of the robbery, and
found that he had told the truth.
which satisfied me that I would have
to look elsewhere for the assailant of
Lawrence. It was possible, Of course,
that some other gang might have done
Lawrence up, butEthe more thought of
the case the less confidence did have
in the gang and robbery theory. It
was the belief of all the detectives
who had taken part in the investiga-
ton that Lawrence had been robbed.
Il went alone to look for a clue in
some other direction. Down at the
| hospital looked over all the property
which had been found in Lawrence's
pockets. Among several letters I
found one signed Gil Bender, who kept
saloon at Second avenue and Thirty
sixth street. asking Lawrence to meet
him at o'clock5on the night of the
robbery. also picked up another fact
which set my thinking-box going. On
Lawrence's right arm were the letters
! "A. b. in India ink. What these meant
| I did not know; but they were not the
initial letters Of Lawrence's name, and
I started out to find what they stood
for.
4 dropped into Gil Bender's place,
and he said that he had not made an
| appointment to meet Lawrence by let
ter or in any other way. He willingly
agreed to write certain words for me
which were in the letter and to sign
his name. I compared these with the
letter and saw that there was no point
of similarity in the two handWritings.
/ I showed him the letter and he said
| that he had never seen it before ard
had no idea who could have written
| it. Bender was an ex-convict and had
been useful to the police in many
ways. I accepted his denials as truth
/ and then I mentioned to him about
| the "A. B. marks on LaWrence's arEa.
"He appeared bit surprised when
I mentioned this, and felt that I had
struck something good He denied
that he had any idea what the letters
meant, but when I gave him my word
that I would never tell what ] had
learned from him, he said that Law.
renee was the name selected ky Abe
Baker to use in living on tbs. level
"The mystery was deepening with
every new fact that I discovered in
the case, and T tell you I had many a
wild-goose chase Baker had survived
the operation and was improving
physically every day, but his mind
was in very confused state and he
made many contradictory statements
about the way he received his in
juries. The woman who lived with
Baker did not, or pretended not te
know anything Of his history.
with the motive of robbery out o
the way, except incidentally, became
convinced that the assailant Of Baker
was some one who had a grievance
against him. I carefully went ove1
, his career as thief. While making
this investigation learned that Bake
lad turned states evidence in th<
Empire bank robbery in Troy, ant
given information which led to thu
conviction of Cliff Dempsey and Lins
DAILY, who got the full sentence, while