Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-24
SCRAP OF BURNED PAPER.
How Porsistency of Reporter Led .c
the Capture OF Two Murderers Who
Had Baffled Detectives.


Many 4 detective has been give
| credit for work that was really don
by a newspaper man. / remcmbe
a case of that kind in which a de
tectiVe got Il good deal of praise 70
| finding the clew that led to the cap
| ture of Bin Rudolph and Georg
| Collins. They had robbed bank i!
Union, Mo-, and had killed Charles j
! Schuma cher, a Pinkerton detective
and escaped They simply dropped
out of sight, and the best detectiv,
talent in this country could not fin,
even a hint of what had become o
| them
| When it seemed that they were los
! and might never be found | went Il
| the little log cabin i'll the woods neal
| Spring Creek, where they had beer
| hiding wnen Schumacher found then
| and was killed. That cabin, from
which the two bandits had lied after
| the murder, had been searched time
and again by detectives alone and IN
squads, but | drove out there any way
To make a search of my own, and ii
took me Il whole half day to do il.
| turned over every scrap in the cabin
even examined the chinks in the wal
and the grass and weeds and brush
within radius of 80 feet of the house
and then. having found nothing oi
value as a elew, | went into the house
once more and stood in The middle Oh
the room. locking around to see il
there might he any possible nook that
| had overlooked.
In one corner was little monkey
stove. and had Fitted its lid early in
tine search and looked into it, There
was nothing in there but some ashes
Looking at this stove now at the end
of the search I-ftealy | wanted to
Keep that big out IF it, because in
writing stories of it at the time J gave
the credit To Il detective. and as lie
modestly accepted what glory there
was in it | had no intention of taking
it from him at this late day My OBJ
jeet in speaking OF it now is simply To
point out how, III trying to work out
a puzzle Of this kind, a man can't af-
ford To overlook the little things.
It's always the little things that
bring big results. I've found it SO all
my life. The seemingly unimportant
thing is the one that generally puts
you on the right track, and you nearly
always pick up the right end of the
thread where you least expect To find
it. Persistence in following out every
clew is what wins. 1t was just that
way in the case of the John Collins
murder mystery.
But 20 get back. Looking at that
81. i
the ashes and | lifted the lid again
and looked in. Nothing there but .
smooth bed of ashes with 4 covering
of White flaky ashes on top as if pa
per had been burned there. | reached
in and stirred them around with my
fingers, Eut there seemed to be moth
ing there but ashes, completely
burned.
Now, If | do say il myself, the av-
erage investigator would have been
satisfied with that examination. There
couldn't possibly be a clew in that
two quarts or SO of ashes, he would
have said to himself
But | had been sent out there to try
and find something. | had been nos
ing around the country there for the
DtlttI part Oh Il week With TIE utttC-
tives and had found no more than
they, and that was nothing. / want.
ed to make good and that gave me
persistence, and | yanked down the
rusty old stovepipe and upset the
monkey stove and turned the ashes
out on the board floor. | got down
and began spreading the ashes out
with my fingers. 1t was mostly wood
ashes, but, as ! said before. there was
a layer of white ashes as If paper had
been burned. and in that / found a
little scrap of paper not wholly burn =
ed. 1t was the bottom corner of a
sheet of letter pape: about two inches
long one way and an inch the other
and it had been charred by the fire
until it was almost black. but, looking
at it closely, | saw writing on it.
1t was eharred so that when / pick
ed it up to carry it to the light of the
window it broke in two pieces, and
later, when l tried TO put it in an en-
vclope it fell all to pieces and crum-
bled up. But before that happened ]
had spread it out ON the window ledge
and | made out these words. PLANT
Hartford"
That's all there was to it. and there
was not another scrap of unburned
paper in the stove or anywhere else in
the house.
To understand the value of thoss
two words, Plant, Hartford, | must
give you an outline of who those fell
lows Collins and Rudolph We're, what
they had done and why they Were
wanted. | can do that in "A few words
They We're both young men. Ru.
dolph was a product of the wild noun
tain country around the town of Tn
ion. Collins WAS kin to Rudolph anC
he had lived in the mountains sever
al years, but where he came from NJ
one seemed to know.
The night of February ~ 1902, the
bank of Union was robbed of $l5. 900 In
cash and $100,000 in securities by two
men. One of them, working alone in.
side the bank, blew open u vault ant
Il burglar proof safe in nine min
utes and got the money, while the
| other. with his back against the door
of the County Jail on the town square
| shot at every man who tried to raise
a window or open Il door. When The