Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1919-07-25

ooseIVatlon from hole in n window
shade. The clerk was confronted one
evening in the cellar of the house by
quiet-mannered, resolute man.
Dig it out again." said Jacobs,
! pointing to the coal bin, "and then
come with me-"
The clerk, who spent most of his
evenings at home, had been seen
moving about in the house and sew
, eral times he had passed window
which was only partly curtained.
Jacobs had calculated to nicetv
that the man was on his way to the
cellar 1t proved that the whole
amount was cached i'll box under
the coal and that the culprit had
been going to it. taking a small
allowance for spending money and
restoring the rest to its hiding place.
A good example of Jacobs tena-
city was shown III his capture of a
man who had taken $4,000 from a
mail pouch IN this city. He suspected
clerk in the Grand Central Station
by the name of Connolly who had
disappeared. The Inspector traced
the manic Chicago through various
letters an clues, but OH going there
lost the scent. For months after
ward he kept working on the case
while looking after Il few other de-
tails for the department, and then
the word came which took him to
San Francisco and his quarry. The
almost inevitable way which Grim
mails of that class have of writing
to women was the cause of this
thicf's downfall.
Early last year mail wagon
standing on ferryboat bound for
Weehawlian was robbed of $35O,000
i'll bonds. Jacobs worked for several
months on the case, captured the
robbers, had them convicted and re-
covered all tho bonds. From de-
tcctive point of view, this feat was
not spectacular, but the way in
which jacobs went about il WIS
fine example of inductive reasoning,
through which he. gained first the
confession of an employe who WAS
implicated and then traced the man
who was the brains of the plot.
Jacobs caught desperate criminals
and brought to Justice yegmon who
were the terror of the country. His
Goat Ilinch, who had killed the
Waterman of the bank at Coblcsliill,
n. y, and who were both sent to
the electric chair, was one of the
most courageous exploits in his long
career.
He arrested Mott Haven Red and
Pawtuckct Johnny, who had looted
the Post O;cc ut Highland N. Y,
and had taken large quantity of
stamps and $4,000 in currency. The
burglars were sent to prison for
long terms.
Although Jacobs went armed, he
never shot man. He had Il manner
which was so convincing and firm
that criminals just went along with
out resistance. His reputation as a
man OF iron nerve was such thai not
even hardened offenders who saw
certain death in front of them
thought it worth while to fight him.
Probably no Inspector in the ser
vice ever took longer chances that
did he, and yet he was so wary and
cautious at times that he surprised
his associates. When they saw they
outcome of the case, however, they
understood how far-seeing he had
been. lie was once on the quest of an
employee Of the Post Office who had
stolen thousands of ollars worth of
stamps by an ingenious method. The
guilt of the man seemed so evident
that any other detective might have
invaded the house where he was
stopping and placed him under ar
rest without warrant jacobs, how
ever, was unwilling, and on the fol-
lowing morning the man came out
from the boarding house which ia
cobs had been watching all through
Winter night. Unmolested he went
to the Federal curt House and sur
rendered himself This he had done
on the advice of n relative who was
high in the councils of the political
party then in control of the national
administration. Jacobs did not know
of the relationship, but he had n
sixth sense of some kind which told
him to keep his hands off.
AT times there was something nj
most phychic in his penetration. He
seemed TO have an outreach into the
future which awed his intimatcs,
even though they chaffed him about
it,
On the bulletin board of the quar-
tiers of the Post Office Inspectors
for this division in the New York
General Post Office there is a slip