The Springfield herald., 1912-11-15

talk freely as general thing about
any particular crime. and l wished tn
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 chin
with several of the gang, and gave
him ghost story about the Lawrence
robbery. l volunteered the informa-
tion that some of the gang were sus-
pected. l had expected to hear Brady
deny that he had ever heard of .he
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 all at the wake of
Andy Owens, who had been killed In
n rough-and-tumblef fight in Williams
burgh.
"If yer want ter find de bloke
what did de trick said Brady, take
pipe on some of de friends OF dis
Lawrence. and yer will come near hit
ting bottom
Il 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 l would have
to look elsewhere for the assailant Of
Lawrence. 1t was possible, OF course,
that some other gang might have done
Lawrence up, but the more thought OF
the case the less confidence did ! have
in the gang and robbery theory. 1t
was the belief of all the detectives
who had taken part in the investiga-
tion 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
found one signed Gil Bender, who kept
saloon at Second avenue and Thirty
sixth street, asking Lawrence to meet
him at s O'Clock on 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
l did not know; but they were not the
initial letters of Lawrence's name. and
started out to find what they stood
for.
II 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. / compared these with the
letter and saw that there was no point
Of similarity In the two handwritings.
showed him the letter and he said
that he had never seen 1t before and
had no idea who could have written
1t. Bender was an ex-convict and had
been useful to the police In many
ways. l accepted his denials as truth
and then I mentioned to him about
the "A. b. marks on Lawrence's arm.
He appeared bit surprised when
I mentioned this. and felt that ! had
struck something good. He denied
that he had any idea what the letters
meant, but when l gave him my word
that l would never tell what had
learned from him. he said that Law
| renee was the name selected by Abe
Baker to use in living on the level
] had seen Baker many times. but aft
er getting out of jail the last time he
had grown full and very heavy
beard. and put on eyeglasses. which
so altered his appearance that. taken
| in connection with the respectable
people he travelled with. made a COM
plete transformation in his appear
ance.
The mystery was deepening with
the case, and / tell you had many a
| Il hao Job hoJ ,oI
the operation and was improving
physically every day. but his mind
was in a 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 to
know anything of his history.
with the motive of robbery out OF
the way, except incidentally, I became
convinced that the assailant of Baker
was some one who had a grievance
against him. / carefully went over
his career as thief. While making
this investigation / learned that Baker
had turned states evidence in the
Emr'-e bank robbery In Troy. and
given information which led to the
conviction of Cliff Dempsey and Ling
Daily. who got the full sentence, while
Baker got off with nominal punish
ment Baker did not have to testify
in court, and when l heard that Clin
Dempsey had made a threat to take
his life for his treachery. saw my
way clear. Dempsey was man who
kept his word, and the records show
ed that he had just finished his term
of sentence and that Daily had died in
prison.
1T took me a week to plant Demp-
sey in this city. as he had been keep
ing verY quiet In the meantime had
picked up evidence to show that he
was at the Fashion race track and had
been noticed dogging Lawrence there.
| also found several persons who had
seen a man answering Dempsey's ap
pearance in the neighborhood OF Bak-
er's home shortly before he was hurt.
I got a sample of Dempsey's hand
writing, which was Identical with the
letter making the appointement
signed by Bender. These facts made
it string prima facie case against
Dempsey and / arrested him.
He pleaded not guilty, but when