Show PINKERTON His Late in the Cummings Cum-mings Capture SOHEADBOIT DETECTIVE WORK Desperate Men on Strike on the Cable Hands In San Frnii oUco Jlurdor Kc Detective Work ST Louis Mo 26Since the capture in Chicago on Friday of three of the supposed perpetrators of the St Louis and San Francisco Express robbery the history ot Pinkertons work in the case from a source which renders correctness correct-ness unquestionable has been made public Fothenngham was the tir3t person suspected his story containing inaccuracies Tnt first really useful clue was Jim Cummings letter to the GljbeUemvcrat dated October 31 and telling of a package being found ct tne Union Depot Among the contents of the package was a bit of paper giving the number of a house on Chestnut Street Detectives visited the house and learned I that two men roomed there a short time before The room was examined ex-amined and a bottle of medicine was found Upon examination the clothing found near the track after the robbery was discovered beingevidence of a contagious con-tagious disease for which the medicine found was prescribed oy the doctor Finally a man was found who said ne bad mailed one of Cummiu s letters and being told by him that iothenng ham was in the scheme to rob the car he had committed himself in hu testimony testi-mony These and other clues enabled the detectives to trace the other two men to various places and finally to Kansas City vhere arrangements were made to arrest them The plan miscarried but when the news came from Chicago of their arrest there < < the detectives at once captured Oscar Cook who is believed to b = implicated in the case CHICAGO December ° William A Pinkerton this afternoon made his first public statement respecting the arrest of parties for participating in the Adams Express robbery on the St Louis it i San Francisco Railroad He began by declaring that the stories printed as to the affair were wild and mainly misrepresentations He de dared that the agency had arrested three men last Friday afternoon One i of the trio was the man who wrote the I letters signed Jim Cummings to St Louis papers and the other two were i i his confederates Theywere positively I Identified by five witnesses brought here from St Louis yesterday The I three men together with Oscar Cook I arrested in Kansas City and Bill 1 Haight arrested in Nashville Pinkerton Pinker-ton said the men are known in Missouri which carries the presump lion that those arrested here were taken therefast The detective states that two of the men were considered as business men and that none are of the desperado type Complete details of the chase after the Adams Express robber who rifled the safe on the St Louis it San Francisco i I road on the night of October 25th of 1 55000 or 00000 were relate for the I first time by officials of the Pinkerton I National Detective Agency tonight to la representative of the Associated Press The agency has succeeded in arresting five men namely Frederick Witrock who is the author of the Jim Cummings Cum-mings letters and who is claimed to be the man who perpetrated the robbery W W Haight an employe of the express ex-press company who is supposed to nave aided in planning the robbery from his knowledge of the railroad urun Thomas Weaver a Chicago lanndrymau who was with Witrock before and after the robbery Edward j Kinney a brother inlaw of Witrock upon whose person was found a considerable con-siderable portion of the express money and Oscar Cook who had the Vitroclq letters The detectives have turned up about J15000 and estimate that from 910000 to 15000 tie still unaccounted for L I i rnon O FTHE CHASE has a dash of romance about it and certain features of it would je regarded as improbable In fiction The express car on the St Louis tit San Francisco road was rifled on the night of October 25tht and the express messenger David S Fotberingham when discovered I by the train hands was found bound and gagged in the car He explained i that he had admitted a man into the II car who presented letter from john I B Barrett route agent of the express company the letter explaining that the man was to be employed by the company I com-pany and was to be given an opportunity oppor-tunity to learn the business Fother ingbam related thatwhile on the run the stranger presented a revolver bound and gagged him and then care ried off all the money in the safe The robbery occurred at Pacific Junction Junc-tion about thirtysix miles from St Louis The Pinkerton agency sent operatives in all directions and the I wagon roads runningfrom Pacific Junction Junc-tion toward the Missouri River were traversed but only a meagre trace was I found by the officials who when they returned to St Louis were completely I at sea In the meantime a letter was addressed by Jim Cummings to the QlobcDemocrat of St Louis based on I which the Pinkertons claim to have compassed the arrest and axed the I crime of all the participants in the crime In the meantime however the detectives have obtained the names of all persons who had been discharged or who had voluntarily left the employ of the express company during the year preceding the robbery and found among the former V V W Haight who had been discharged nine months preceding for the suspected theft of packages This man had been a messenger on the Frisco Road from St Louis to Yinita Indian Territory covering the same run which was made by Fotberingham The detectives found that he and Fotherinsham had known each other in Kansas City but that there had been no intimacy Haight was traced to Kansas City and j t from there to Leavenworth where his father was an inmate of the home for disabled soldiers From Leavenworth it was found that Haight had come to Chicago where he had been employed em-ployed at times as an express driver and also as driver of a laundry wagon for Tom Weaver already al-ready mentioned as one of the prisoners and also worked for Fred Witrock the mysterious Jim Cummings who was operating a coal yard at the corner of Lincoln and West Lake Streets in this city Hai ht left the City on October 27th two days after robberystating that he was going to Florida and his wife followed him some days later They had been very poor but showed evidences ol sudden affluence immediately im-mediately after the robbery Investiga tton fay thcdetectivesin Chicago I that Yitrock had also come from Leavenworlh and as he was absent from the city he could not be questioned concerning sight When inquiry win pursued concerning WtfrocK it was found that he corresponded very closely to the description given of the mysterious mys-terious Jim Cummiugs Partner cautious cau-tious inquiries showed that Vliitrock bad left the city on October 12th in company w th Tom Weaver the laundryman laun-dryman wnose place of business is at No 733 Westlake Street and within few doors of Witrocks coal yard It was also learned that the men had taken with them two valises a iiouble barrelled shotgun and an army uiukf t and explained that they were pomg to Arkansas to hunt and J ok upland up-land Weaver it was oscertainea eaver eau I returned to Chicago on the night of October 25th Some handwriting ot I Witrocks was obtained and this was submitted to the men who was passing I dgment on the letter addressed to the Globe Democrat The detectives stole this letter which was written to exculpate excul-pate Frotherirgham and professed to tell all the bets leading up to the robbery and wnat had occurred after the robbery rob-bery In this Jim CumrainespxplaineJ that he had left a package at the Union depot atSr Louis which would show that he had a number of the letter heads of the expr company similar to the one on which the forged letter was written to Fotheringbam In this letter the writer said he had gone to the Missouri River to a point opposite oppo-site Slabadie and took a skiff below St Charles and floated down the river Detectives were sent to St Charles and found that two men answering the description of Witrock and Weave had bought a skiff and provisions there and had gone up the Missouri River on October 14th instead of down the river The skiff Was afterward found in a jfnllepartially covered with sand lathe la-the bundle Jim Cummings spoke of aa having been left at 4 the Union depot in St Louis in addition to other articles were some printed ballads and on one of these was found the address 2103 Chestnut street but which was only discernable under a microscope At this number was found a woman named Mrs Berty wh6 related re-lated that she bad two roomers who corresponded to Wittok and Weaver I They had come to her house on October Octo-ber 18th and Weaver departed on the night of October 22d raying he was I going to Kansai City Witrocd left on the evening of October 2jtb explaining that be intended to co to Kansas City also Mrs Berry TFiS able to give avery a-very close description of both men wished to escape arrest He was afterwards after-wards released when he had explained to the satisfaction of the detectives that he bad no knowledge of or connection with the robbery WI en Kenney reappeared re-appeared he was searched and 1000 was found on his person in loose money while in the belt around his waist was found 1000 additional These men were ironed and takento the Pinkerton agency in a close carnage The search of the Witrock house resulted in the finding of a skirt on Ms Witrock into which 1SOO was sewn in 50 notes a bunch of money 5u in all was also found on her person together with four large diamonds Weaver was arrested in the coal yard about the sam ttmeand itrj the basement of his house was found 3000 in some fruit jars The arrest of Cook tand Haight was then ordered bv telegraph The detectives state that Cook distributed itlie money after the jobbery and wasa gobetween They charge Haight with duthning the robbery rob-bery and also the forgery of the letter presented to hotheria ham Witrock appears to have been the only man on the train concerned Lrv the robbery unless un-less FotheringHinf was hi accoiaphce The Pinkertons will not give any expression ex-pression to their views as to the guilt or innocence of Fotbenn bam |