OCR Text |
Show America. When his earlier experiments in the exercise of control over weak-minded men were made has not been ascertained, but that he is able to gain supremacy over many subjects is established beyond doubt rbvthe authenticated story of his criminal life. He U a ; fourth-term man, aud that means hels an out and out enemy of mankind, man-kind, who look for an upraised hand against him at every turn, ana is always ready to proceed to any length, either to get a little money or gratify a spite. When Banker Cummings was murdered in Nevada City a few years ago, Dorsey was one of those suspected to be guilty, He had recently been discharged from San Quentin after a third term in that jail, and together with a man named Patterson had gone northward. Curnmings was killed with a shotgun and Dorsey was arrested, together with Patterson, for the murder. There was uo positive evidence. The witnesses put ou the stand for the prosecution had no sooner come within reach of Dorsey's malign influence influ-ence than they began to faiter and mix their stories. The jury disagreed aud the murderers mur-derers escaped for a time, but not forever. for-ever. One of the men near Nevada City, in whom Dorsey had reposed confidence, was prompted by that arch criminal to bein cattle stealing. ' His name was Frazee, and after many successful suc-cessful raids he was caught and sent to San Quentin. Dorsey was then free, and uo sooner heard of Frazec's conviction than lie laid siege to the affections of Frazee' s wife and won her regard. The precise details as to how the knowledge of Dorsey's pertidy was conveyed to Frazee need not bo told that is a whole story but injfact Frazee learned that Dorsey had doue tha cruelest thing on earth to one who had befriended him. Then Fraze e became bitter and was willing to talk. lie told how Dorsey and Patterson had come to him and urged his connivance in crime. Then he related the visit from the pair, during which Dorsey had borrowed a "sawed-ofl" shotgun. Then camo the murder of Cummings and the missing link of evidence, the shotgun. Frazee Fra-zee told how Dorsey had brought the gun homo and had spoken of the murder. He also told precisely where the gun had been hidden by Dorsey and the officers found it there. . The prosecution that followed resulted re-sulted in sending Patterson to the gallows and putting Dorsey in San Quentin for life. In Dorsey's case the jury stood eleven for conviction and one for acquittel. A night was passed in the jury room without changing chang-ing the obstinate man, and a compromise verdict of imprisonment for life wasihi?s agreed upon. It was afterward learuea that the juryman who held out and saved' Dorsey's Dor-sey's ueck had been a companion of his ia QuantreU's baud of guerillas during the civil war. Dorsey was no sooner in San Quentin than he began to exercise his hypnotic power, aud soon picked out a good-natured but silly convict named George H. Shinn as a tit suiiject. Shinn was near the end of his term, aud had been so good a convict that he was made a trusty and given the removal of garbage as his daily work. A horse and cart were furnished, and Shinn drove where he liked, within or outside of the prison reserve. re-serve. Dorsey sooa had him under influence, influ-ence, and on Dec. 1, live years ago, induced Shinn to permit him to hide in the swill cart and be carried beyond the ttuard-line. When the wily Dorsey was once outside he ordered Shinn to follow, and from that time for two years the wretched Shinn was always al-ways under hypnotism, and at all times ready to commit any crime to which the master spirit inclined. The wanderings of the fugitive pair would make a book. I HYPNOTISM AND CRIME. The Latest Advance In tho Art of Dishonesty. Dis-honesty. Convict Dorsey at San Quentin, 6ays the San Francisco JCxaminer, is always closely watched by the guards and officers of the prison. Ho is never allowed to etroll about at will, aud when he desires to communicate with the captain of the inner prison is required re-quired to stand some feet away from the door of the captain's office and annouuee his wishes without a closer approach. It is all because he has learned to hypnotize, and has been caught using his power for evil ends. Convict C. II. Thorn, alias Charley Dorsey, Dor-sey, alias Charles Moore, la now serving a life sentence at Ban Quentin for killing Banker Cummings in Nevada City a few years ago. Dorsey (by that name ho is better bet-ter known than by any other) has never disdained the ordinary implements of crime. He can "blow a safe" or "crack a crib" or "roll a drunk" or "hold np" a stage justlike the thoroughbred felon he is, but he can do so much more than mere handiwork as to make him in some respects the most dan-t dan-t gerous convict now doing time in the civilized civil-ized world. Dorsey was a handsome fellow ia bis earlier days, and even now, after the best part of a life spent within prison walls, there is about him a suggestion of jauntiness an air of smartness that make credible tho stories of his power over women and easy conquests of men when ho was free and in funds. Dorsey is a murderer, mur-derer, a burglar, a sneak-thief, a footpad, a stage-robber and potentially everything else that is bad, but he is also a soft-voiced, mild-mannered convict, with an apologetic manner and bearing the external impress of honest distress. To an observant student of the criminal classes, Dorsey is a remarkable man. Special Officer James R. Hume, a long time in the hire of the Wells, Fargo A Co.'s police department, has known bad men to no end, and it his opinion that Dorsey is the equal of any criminal now in ; Eastern prisons, if not the superior. liis personal appearance is most remarkable, remark-able, and no one can adequately describe him without seeing him: Dorsey has a peculiar, pe-culiar, murderous expression in his eyes, and if in the least aggravated the eyes light up with a britrht light that helps very much to show tho character of the man. The conv'ct, Dorsey, was the first man to introduce hypnotism as an aid to crime in - |