New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-12
Convict Who Asked $4,000
Blackmail Caught by
Eighteen Sleuths.
DROP DECOY MONEY
PACKAGE FROM TRAIN
Police Say He Wrote Threat to
Put Dynamite in Bunkers
of Liner.

Two posses Of sleuths aboard West
Shore trains, armed with revolvers,
rifles and shotguns, dropped off in the
marshes neat Bogota. N. j., last night,
and put an end to a moving picture
plot in real life by rounding up an
Elmira convict who for days has had
the officials of the Cunard Steamship
Company trembling in their boots.
The man, Joseph Burton, a Spanish
Jew, readily confessed. the police say,
that he was the author Of series OF
letters to the Cunard company de-
manding $1,000 and threatening to
blow up a Cunard steamship if he did
not get the money.
Eighteen detectives took part in the
capture in the marshes. Ten Of them
pulled out Of weehawken last evening
and took up a position on the rear
platform Of the Buffalonian Express.
Eight others, aboard special train
chartered by the Cunard company, fol-
lowed, just keeping the tail lights Of
the express In view.
Red Light Signal.
AS the Buffalonian neared Bogota,
about twelve miles from Weehaw-
ken, three sharp blasts on a police
whistle sounded above the roar of the
train. At the signal Captain Jones, Of
the local central office squad, stepped
to the edge Of the platform and heaved
package, supposed to contain the
$4,000. into the middle of the tracks.
At the same moment Lieutenant Gill
light. which could be distinguished
from the cab of the special behind.
Passengers on the Buffalo..ian, igno.
rant that they were to witness a Wild
their seats as the train came to a stop.
In the rear the sparks were flying from
the brakes of the special. Between the
trains. however, a figure crept out Of
the bushes near the track and started
for the decoy money package.
The two posses Of sleuths leaped from
the trains at almost the same moment
AND ran toward the figure. Burton
saw the squad from the Buffalonan
and started running back toward the
special, zigzagging toward the side of
the track as he ran. The detectives in
the rear, however, covered him with
their weapons and he suddenly stopped,
raised his arms above his head and
waited to be captured.
The whole episode consumed scarcely
two minutes. Burton was put in the
centre Of a hollow square Of police and
taken TO Bogota. From there he was
taken to the county Jail in Hacken-
sack
The capture followed one OF the most
picturesque blackmail attempts in the
local police records. For more than six
days Headquarters detectives and spe-
cial men from the Cunard company
have been working toward the coup OF
last night although IT was three weeks
ago that the Cunard Office received the
first notice of the hoid-up plan.
$4,000 or Destruction.
A letter was sent the steamship COM
pany demanding $4,000. 1t informed
the officials that unless the money was
Forthcoming the writer. who gave no
name, would blow up a Cunard liner.
The instructions were that If the COM
pany thought it worth while to obey
the command Of the writer, they should
insert in a New York newspaper an
advertisement indicating their inten-
tions I'm the matter.
Bizarre as the threat was, there was
Continued on page 8. column 9