The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-05
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 onymous letter writer. The case was more serious than that however, for the property of a number of men, valued at several hundred thousand dollars, and the lives of an entire city as well, were imperiled
 One cold winter morning in the month of February I received visit from a gentleman named Sam Ackert. MT. Ack- ert was well known in the district, be- ing the owner of a large oil lease, on the Towles farm, as it was called, sit uated upon the Hummer road, to the northeast of Oil City, and in Venango county.
 MT. Ackert was considered to be at that time one of the largest oil operators in the district. He was operating from 12 to b oil wells, all of which were producing large quantities of oil Some of it was being pumped while others were flowing wells. One of the latter kind was pro- ducing as much as 400 barrels day, and at that time crude oil was selling at the well for about $S a barrel.
 Ackert employed large number of men to attend to the wells and to look after his general interests. Some of these men were employed as engineers, beine generally known in the oil regions as bumpers. To operate each well two of work was divided into watches, and men working for 12 hours at a stretch. Their work was divided into watches and men who were so employed usually lived in houses or shanties adjacent to the wells at which they were employed.
 The cause of MT. Ackert's visit to me was that some months previously he had received 8 threatening letter in his mail. It stated that unless he would discharge his superintendent, a man named Joseph Sullivan, and thoroughly competent and trustworthy, the property would be de- stroyed by fire or by other methods Nil Ackert paid no attention to this letter, which was followed in the course of time by three others of the same threatening character, each one being anonymous. and each demanding the discharge of tne superintendent, Sullivan. The three let ters followe deach other at intervals of four or five days. As Sullivan was not only competent man but thoroughly reliable and of good character as well, MT. Ackert paid no attention to these let ters, but laid them aside in his desk.
 short time after the receipt of the last anonymous letter one of Mir. Ack- ert's oil tanks. containing at the time from 400 to 300 barrels of crude oil, was emptied one night. at a time between midnight and daylight, by some person who had gone to the tank and opened what was known as the lower faucet. This faucet, which was two inches in di-
 
 six inches above the bottom. It was placed there for the purpose of drawing off the salt water at the bottom of the oil All oil wells in that locality which did not flow bu twere operated by pump ing produced certain percentage of salt water, which came up with the oil out of the ground. Salt water being heavier than oil, it immediately settled to the bottom of the tank. and for this reason. when the tank had become nearly filled with the mixture, it was the duty of the men employed as bumpers to open the salt water faucet at the bottom of the tan1z and let the salt water escape through if. the oil thus setting down and making. room for a fresh influx above
 On the night when this tank was emptied in the manner described. there was about three feet of snow on the ground. The weather was cold, and the snow had been heaped up around the tank by the wind. so that it was count of the large quantities of salt water faucet at the bottom. The con stant drawing off of the salt water ' had thoroughly saturated the ground for space of two or three square feet under the faucet, and the ground was soft and muddy. since the satu- rated earth would not freeze on ac- count of the larfe quantities of salt which had intermingled with the dirt Salt and snow form muddy slush which does not harden.
 When the faucet was opened the salt water ran out followed by the total contents of oil within the tank, amounting, as has been stated, to four '- or five hundred barrels. This oil. which was highly inflamable, even in its crude state, ran down into a. ravine, which was thickly dotted with oil wells. partly belonging to MT. Ackert and partly to other producers, for the dis tance of more than mile. Had this stream, in the course of it's journey, !, reached any of the fires that were under the boilers of the pumping sta- tions, it would instantly have been con verted into a frey river. carrying de- struction all along the mile of its course. destroying hundreds of thou sands of dollars worth of property, and probably sacrificing many lives.
 MT. Ackert called upon me on the morning after the occurrence.
 T have not the slightest idea who was dastardly enough to commit this malicious act" he said. q am not aware that have an enemy on earth"
 He begged me to use all possible eff forts to discover who the person was and to bring him to~ justice. He then told of having received the anonymous letters. which he laid before me. l at once perceived that they were all writ ten upon the same brand of paper. in legible and penmanlike manner, and evidently by the same hand and pen.
 By the end of the third day of my investigations. I had hit upon a clue. Joseph Sullivan, the superintendent. had employed two engineers whose names were George and Henry Book. George was a young man, married. property, near the we'll Henry, his ;, brother. was single, and lived with George and his wife. They were both employed on the same well as pump CTS. George who was employed on the day watch, was considered a very good engineer and reliable man, while his younger brother, Henry. though known to be competent and en- ergetic. was not nearly so reliable. He had been found asleep while on duty by Superintendent Sullivan on various occasions, for which he was several times reprimanded. and finally dis