The Washington times., 1912-05-06

n name is John Remmers was
Nu appointed a patrolman in 1891,
flH and under Chief Devery I was
attached to the detective bu-
Feau. During the first reform admins
rratisn was made a detective-ser-
geant.
I have been asked to write down
M1at l Know or the man known as
tMarcus Bellair. OF course, 1t is against
Ehe rules and regulations to give away
rhe inside OF the departments business
"a ,detectve-sergeant was put back in
unlform the other day for that same
Icinct.
But IL It is story you are looking
tor, 1 could tell you some things
nave. |navs seen and done and never got
cont give cent whether they give
credit TO the right man or not SO long
AS It makes story. There was that
Ehomas murder case, where an amateur
named Little1ohn, or some little name,
got all the kudos, and he knows as
done 1t.
There's only one man ever got me
guessing land it was this same Marcus
lBellair: He done things that beat any
thing 1 ever heard. Ana the trouble
was he wouldn't tell you how he work ed
tt-just done 1t and said, There's your
At first We wouldn't take his word
for 1t. because he never come to 300
Mulberry street with even the ghost of
a case. Once, for fun, I looked into
one of his representations, and whether
IL was chance, l don't know, but he
had hit on the right man at the word
lgo.
thought it queer, but put it down
to sheer luck. until the same thing hap
pened again. Then l began to sit up
and take notice. OF course, the only
way the police can work is to get a
case before you lay hands on your
man, and as I said before, this Bellair
said: That's your man." and walked
of in his stuck-up way. If we had ever
taken the man of the reel without get
ting case we would have been heaved
Iout or court by the magistrate and got
1t IN the neck from the newspapers.
" was mighty queer thing that this
Bellair never made mistake. and there
was no harm in, listening to what he
had to say when case seemed a dead
wall. 1t would be mighty handy II you
could know who was who in a murder
case, or swindle, and then sail in and
work up the case to the right party,
you knowing beforehand that there
wasn't any doubt about it.
He wasn't a Sherlock Holmes or any
OF that punk, for I tried him on theories
once or twice, and he was never yer,
Itel us who killed man before the
body was dead cold, and he didn't make
any howl over 1t, either. The most l
lever saw him do in the way OF work
Twas that he would take suspect in a
cab to his house. up in Forty-sixth
street, and talk to him for about five
minutes, after which he would say right
of the reel who done the thing, men,
fioning. maybe. the name of a man that
Swas never heard of In the whole seance,
land even describing the color Of his
whiskers and where he lived.
Funniest thing ever saw him do,
though, was once when we had what
we thought was a second-story man.
| We couldn't make head or tail of the
prisoner. but we were pretty sure he
was cahoots, all right. So We called up
Mr.. Bellair on the telephone and told
him we had a queer man that maybe
he would like to have a shy at You
see. this Bellair was always moseying
around after Queers. All the doctors at
Bellevue knew him by sight; so did
Jimmy at the morgue, and O'Gallagher
OF the Elizabeth street house said he
often seen him along the Bowery.
! Well. this Mr.. Bellair told us to put
| the man on the telephone and he began
to talk to him. He asked him. judging
by the answers, what he thought about
the weather and what he thought about
the prospects of the cotton crop, and a
lot Of fool questions like that. I don't
think three questions in the lot had to
do with the matter in hand. The man
had been caught between floors of an
| When Mr. Bellair was through with
the man he rang off. A title while
later maybe ten minutes he called up
the chief of the bureau on the phone
and says to him:
THAT young fellow isn't a sneak
thief, nor anything like that. He's a
| harmless lunatic who ought to be in the
dippy-house. But this may interest you.
He voted seven times at the last cleo
tion. His wife ran away with another
man, and, II you make inquiries. you'll
| find that it was Congressman Richter
heimer who engineered the Chesterfield
trolley grab"
Now what are you going to do with
q man like that? We had to let the
suspect go later on. He landed in the
! psycopathic ward about a month later,
| and about three months after that there
was a big scandal in the newspapers
about Congressman Richterheimer hav-
| ing been bribed by a corporation to