The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-10-30
BEUTLER knew
$4,000 CROOKS
He Was Long IdGntIflGr For the
PilkertOnS.
WORKED IN MANY BIG CASES,

Could Nab a Thief From Description
and Seldom Made a Mistake-Arrest-
ed Sophie Lyons, a Notorious and
Clever Piekpooket.
Seymour Beutler, for years the iden.
tfier for the Pinkerton detective aRen.
cy, died recently In New York. It was
said Of Beutler that he had knowledge
of 1900 crooks of various sorts and
that those whom he knew would have
to put on very effective DISCUSSES to
keep him from recognizing them again.
For years he went to state and ma.
tional conventions to look over the
crowd that entered the halls for IA.
miliar faces. In the race track days
his post was outside the track to see
that no pickpockets got past the gate
keeper
Most OF the crooks whom he knew
well enough 10 pick out of a crowd he
had never seen, but his memory for de-
scripdons was so good that he seldom
made mistake. Besides descriptions,
he made 1t part of his work to mem.
orize the records Of those he needed to
know.
For the past thirty years he had been
in demand for the entrance to impor-
tant meetings Of all sorts. He had
Travelled from one end OF the country
TO the other identifying criminals who
had never seen him. The ears, Beutler
said, were his principal means Of iden.
tifcation. They never change and can
not be disguised.
Mr.. Beutler was slender, gray hair.
ed, gray mustached man, but he had
great powers Of endurance He was
at work on a forgery case one time,
where a firm Of pork packers had lost
$4,000 He traced an employee Of the
firm to Canada and then decided to put
him under surveillance.
Beutler hired an adjoining room and
went two days without food or sleep,
keeping constant watch on his man.
He wanted to see if his man had cer-
tain papers necessary for the case, and
Beutler didn't leave the door until he
made certain that the man had these.
An arrest followed, and the forger
settled with the firm by giving back
$4,000.
Arrested Sophie Lyons.
One of Beutler's famous cases was
the arrest Of Sophie Lyons, the most
notorious and clever woman thief in
the United States. He had caught her
In, fNL
pocket and tried to arrest her. The
outcry she raised brought a crowd
down on Beutler, and he was badly
beaten.
His Identification of Billy Coleman,
who stole $4,000 from the Coopers-
town On. " office of Ambrose Clark,
stepson Of Bishop Potter, was consid-
cred remarkable. Coleman was taken
in New York with some of the jewels,
but the headquarters detectives could
not say who he was. Beutler, who had
never seen him, but had seen photo
graph Of the crook once, accosted Cole
man as IL he had known him well and
the prisoner admitted his identity.
To Pat Sheedy has generally been
given credit for recovering the Gains
borough portrait Of the Duchess of
Devonshire. but the story has been
told that 1t was Beutler who first learn
ed where the picture was. A convict
sentenced to Dannemora, to whom
Adam Worth had confided the hiding
place Of the picture, told Beutler, and
after Sheedy had conducted the nego-
tiatiOn for the return of the picture
Robert Pinkerton delivered it to the
Agnews In London, the original owners.
He had a wide acquaintance with
racing men through his own connec-
ton with the track and was very pop
ular. Barney Schneider once named a
horse after Beutler. Beutler had
charge Of the Plnkerton work at the
Polo grounds. New York.