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Show 1 PARALLEL II criminal Teiis I How He Planned the g STORIES Deed and Sought to Close c TC" A fnrTf? Every Avenue of Knowl- I ST lAMUUS edge Leading to His Guilt. 1 CT? T ftJJ T CI The Detective Shows How 1 i 1 11 SU C Futile These Efforts Were and 1 How the Old Adage, Murder 1 By HENRY C. TERRY Will Out, "Always Holds Good." g (Copyright by F. L. Nelson THE LOOT OF THE KINGSTON NATIONAL. fHAVE ofter wondered what Mr. Sherlock Holmes or Monsieur Lecocq would j have done . If confronted ( i T with the problem of the rob-Yk rob-Yk bery of the Kingston Na-yvV Na-yvV tional. The detective of fic-tlon, fic-tlon, you say, is never realized real-ized In real life. Here is a story that proves the opposite. op-posite. I doubt if either of the famous fa-mous sleuths of Doctor Doyle's or Qaboriau's Imagination would have proceeded more ingeniously or more successfully to the final unraveling of the tangle than did Detective Price. If you don't believe that the old adage ad-age about fact being stranger than fiction fic-tion applies to the detection of crime, follow the mystery of the Kingston robbery with me as it came from the lips of the principal actors. WILY MITCHELL'S YARN. "A crook who is up to snuff," said Wily Mitchell, who is noted among other things for having been tried and acquitted three times for murder, "and wants to get along in the business without working too much for the state, must be like a good general. He must always arrange his plans so as to cover his retreat. Some thieves are so constituted that they do not mind going to jail for a five or so. Punishment of that sort has no terrors for them, and, while liberty is sweet to every man, they take their medioine, and rather enjoy prison life. I always had a horror of going to prison, but it was never quite strong enough to lead me to become honest. When the big door closed behind be-hind me every time that I entered jail It gave me a chill, and I never got over it Until I was out in the sunshine again. "So it naturally happened that when I was in active business, it was my apeclal desire to do everything in my power to keep out of jail. I always paid a great deal more attention to laying plans for a get-away after a robbery than to the work Itself. For that reason I used to get into quarrels quar-rels with the men I worked with. They did not like my caution, and I have pulled many times out of what looked easy jobs just because I could not see my way clear to escape, it was my notion that any bit of work would not pay, no matter how much money there w-as in it, if It were followed fol-lowed by a ten-years' contract with the state in the stone-breaking line. "It was this trait of mind which led me Into the Kingston National bank robbery. At the time when I ran against this trick I was a fugitive from ' Justice, with the charge of killing Ned Wallace banging over me, so, naturally, natural-ly, I had to go a bit slow. "My attention was attracted to the bank by a story in one of the papers about a large sum of money which f had been deposited In Its vaults by some company that was going o build a railroad and a water works. I knew that this money was going to remain in the bank for several weeks, so I sent for Bill Noble, who was at that time running a gambling house in East Houston street, near Broadway. Bill was always ready to take a hand with me because he understood my ways and I did his, and we never had had any trouble.. It was just what Bill vented, for his bank roil had been hit rery hard. I had not been out of the louse in the daytime because the murder mur-der of Wallace was very hot, and I knew that the coppers were making a lively chase for me. I arranged with Bill for him to do all the preliminary work. He turned a book agent on short notice, which gave him a chance i to visit the bank without exciting suspicion. sus-picion. "While Bill was talking books he sized up the vault, and saw that the iloor was an old-fashioned affair, with a new and Intricate lock, which had Just come out, and was believed to be burglar-proof. "The next step was to find out who closed up the vault. This was a very delicate thing to pick up without being be-ing inquisitive. The fact that Bill had to deliver some more books at the bank opened the way to get this information. infor-mation. He kept tab on the bank for several days, and found out the time that each man left, but he could not ee from the street who had charge of the vault. When the books came Bill waited until banking hours were over before going to deliver them. He found Beveral of the clerks busy closing clos-ing up the books, and he showed that tin was a genuine book agent by starting in to talk against time. Bill knew what he was after, and he got it, after waiting an hour. Bill saw that the cashier, whose name was Bell, locked up the vault. He used two sets of keys, one for the Inner door to the small safe and the other for the big iron outside door. He put the keys in different pockets. Bill' was close enough to the keys to remember them if he saw them again. Bill followed the cashier to his home, which was in the suburbs,, in a neat two-story cottage, cot-tage, and the preliminary work was over. "It would have been easy to take the next step, which would be to get the keys and open the safe. That Is what some thieves would have done, but I had a better trick up my sleeve, which came out of my caution, and would aid us in making escape easy. It was developed In this way: The same night Bill found out about the keys, we made a callat Cashier Bell's house after the family had retired. We did not care to disturb their slumbers, slum-bers, so we entered the house through a parlor window. Bill had located the room in which the cashier slept, and I went there noiselessly. Either the cashier or his wife had a beautiful snore, and I need not have been so careful in my operations. I found the cashier's trousers, removed the keys and returned to the street, where Bill w-as waiting. "We went to a Becluded spot where it was safe to flash a lantern. There I took a careful impression of the vault keys and the key of the front door of the bank in wax, and all the measures necessary. I then returned to the cashier's house and replaced the keys in his pockets just as I had found them. We closed up the house and went home. "The night after we had called on Cashier Bell, Bill and I paid a visit to the bank about two o'clock in the morning, when we knew the policeman police-man on the beat was taking a snooze in a bakery. "The keys worked like a charm. Five minutes after we entered the bank I was Inside the vault packing up the green stuff. I took all the money and such bonds as appeared to be negotiable. I worked lively, and In twenty minutes closed the doors of the vault and walked out with $340,000 in my grip. We were In time to connect with a freight train. After riding about ten miles we left the train, crossed the Hudson to Rhinebeck, and took th first train to New York." DETECTIVE PRICE'S STORY. "Mistakes are something that cannot be avoided," said Detective Price, "no matter how careful you may be. In probably no other business are mistakes mis-takes made so often as in police work, and we are frequently unjustly criticized crit-icized and condemned. "I speak in this way because of my recollection of the pounding I received re-ceived when Investigating the robbery of the Kingston National bank. I know that I did not deserve all that I got, but a great many people thought I was not abused half enough. "I was put to work upon the case the day the robbery was discovered, which was on a Monday morning. A very singular state of things was found at the bank when Cashier Bell threw open the doors of the vaults to begin the day's business. All the clerks were present at their desks, as the books were kept In another safe, which was In charge of the head bookkeeper. book-keeper. The cashier entered the vault to take out some bills to put in the drawers in his desk. A moment later he staggered out and fell into a chair. He was not able to speak for a moment. mo-ment. The clerks gathered .around him, thinking he had an attack of heart failure, to which he was subject. sub-ject. He announced, when he got control con-trol of himself, that there was no money In the vault, but he did not say that there had been a robbery. "After a short consultation, the bank was closed for the day, and everything was just as it had been found when I got there. I made a careful examination of all the windows and doors. There was no sign that thieves had forced an entrance. "I had a private consultation with the president and directors, and got from them the history of every man who -worked In the bank, so far as they knew it. Every omploye had a gilt-edged gilt-edged reputation, was prominent in social and church affairs in the town, and had been with the bank for many years. "I inquired very minutely into the method of opening the safe. I learned that It required two men the caphlr i and" a clerk who each had a key to different doors. Without both of them being present the safe could not be opened. This looked like a promising lead, so I pushed my inquiries in that direction. I learned when the cashier had opened the safe on Monday morning morn-ing that the other clerk was not present. pres-ent. It was evident then that the cashier had both keys. The president would not believe me when I told him of the state of affairs. "I then centered my attention on Cashier Bell and began to weave the net closer and closer about him. I learned that Bell had requested the clerk to give him the keys about a week before the robbery. The clerk was going to attend a ball, and the cashier had told him to let him have the keys, so he need not report as early as usual at the bank. The clerk gave up the keys. The cashier did not return them, although the clerk asked for them. Then I learned that Bell had been speculating through a bro ker in Wall street, and, as near as I could get at it, had lost about $8,000 In a year, which was news to the bank officials. "I found out that the cashier had held several interviews with strangers, and another startling fact that on the night of the robbery Mrs. Bell had awakened and found that her husband was not in bed. She did not Know where be was, and had not thought of asking him. There were several othei suspicious circumstances against BelL "There were also many facts U Bell's favor; but the bank directors direc-tors became convinced, after carefully weighing all the evidence, that he was guilty, and he was arrested. I never saw a man who took his arrest so hard, and justly so, as it afterward turned out. He had a hearing, and so strong a case was made out against him that he was held for trial. "Shortly after this there was a Are in the house of a Mrs. Llbby Larsen. Being a bit of a fire fiend, I went to see the country boys work. They did such good work that they saved the house. I went into the place, and in a closet on the second floor I picked up a piece of wax. It would not have been noticerl:y any one not familiar with the methods of thieves, but I saw at a glance that it had been used to make an inrpression of two keys. I slipped it into my pocket and made a careful examination of it in my room. The Impression showed that the keys were of Intricate construction, and the thought flashed across my mind that they were very similar to the keys of the vault in the bank. I obtained the keys without telling any one my business, busi-ness, and found hat they fitted perfectly. per-fectly. This was new light on the mystery. It seemed to be convincing proof that Bell had accomplices probably prob-ably the strangers he had met. "I took a peep at Mrs. Larsen without with-out her knowing it. I tell you I gave a jump when I recognized her as Annie An-nie Skidmore, the wife of Bill Skid-more, Skid-more, a well known bank sneak. At last I began to see daylight. Annie was stopping at the bouse of a neighbor, neigh-bor, after being burned out, and 1 learned that she had received $100 by telegraph from New York the day of the fire. The wording of the telegram did not throw any light on the case. "To my surprise and delight, Annie, the following day after I recognized her, left Kingston, and went to Albany. Al-bany. She showed her cunning in doing do-ing this, as the same night she took the train for New York. I knew from this secretive movement that Annie had something important that she was trying to hide. I could tell hy her easy movements that she thought she was safe. I telegraphed for a couple of detectives to meet me at the depot, as I could not tell what would turn up. "It was lucky that I did so, for In the depot, waiting for Annie, were Wily Mitchell and Bill Noble, two of the brightest crooks in the land. They, spoke with her a moment. I knew that they were making an appointment from the movement of her head. I sent the two men after Wily and Bill, and I went after Annie. She went to a private house In Fourteenth street, remained there two hours, and then went out with a gray wig as a disguise. dis-guise. "She was well known in this city. I surmised that she was going to meet her partners, and was convinced of it when she reached the corner of Greene street and Clinton place. I saw my partners taking a pipe on a house In Clinton place, and I quietly arrested Annie, I locked her up in the Mercer street station, went back to my partners, and arrested Bill and Wily when they ppeared on the street. They gave us the laugh, but that night I gave Annie the third degree. de-gree. She finally brwke down and told all about the robbery and the part Wily and Bill had played in it, "They still pretended their Innocence Inno-cence until I produced the wax ln presslon of the keys. Then they were ready to confess, end gave up the stolen property to lighten their sentence. sen-tence. I recovered all the money except ex-cept $30,000, and sent my humble apology apol-ogy to Cashier Bell. |