Rocky Ford enterprise., 1912-08-02

negro before in Englewood, and
thought that she had seen him on q
wagon loaded with garden truck 60
ing toward New York about two
weeks before. Upon this Information
l made a tour all through the country
to get trace of a missing negro and
wasted lot of time in following the
wanderings of a colored man who had
worked for several days with a farm
er near Lodi. found him, but there
were no wounds on his body, and this
left him out of the game.
When I returned to New York, I
had a complete list Of all the stolen
goods. and made a tour of all the
fences which were likely to give up
Information to the police. but learned
nothing that would do me any good.
A friend of mine who kept liquor
store in Greenwich street told me OF
watch which he had bought from
fellow who looked like tramp about
week before. and 1t had all the
marks of one of the watches which
had been stolen. 1 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. I concluded that 1t was
probably Danny Mcbride. I dropped
downtown. and. after hanging around
for few days. felt satisfied that
Danny was in hiding for something. I
could not find him in any of his
haunts. and 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 q
river pirate. and a bad one at that.
"One evening, while going through
Bleecker street. l met Frank Carroll,
and he told me an amusing story
| about a voodoo woman, who sold
charms to tho 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 a report going around
among the negroes that she had
healed the wounds and destroyed the
| evil spirit which was bothering a No
gro at a single sitting. for which SER
| vice she had received a fabulous sum.
| Ordinarily. 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 ct Baldwin's house.
"a good detective always run down
every idea. no matter how foolish 1t
may seem, and | decided to have a
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.
''In a few moments she limbered
up little and made statement that
fairly caused me to jump for joy. She
said that the voodoo which had this
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
detective from the Mercer street sta
tion to watch the house and in the
evening got AL Pender, 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 It. 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. If 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 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