OCR Text |
Show I "How we Caught the Gunrunner- Chief Fhmn I ' pi "With the torpedo well astern he sallied forth to intercept a Chinese junk, on which its pirate crew had loaded the cargo m of a British merchant vessel. The junk caught the hawser and the torpedo caught the junk . . . rj boat and cargo vanished into thin air. Sometimes the captain was a bit too vigorous." ! 1 By WILLIAM J, FLYNN, Former Chief of the Secret Service. if CASE IV. --HERE can be little doubt that old Capt. Boynton George B. Boynton " - staged the dramatic production that made Sefior Xopistoles a national figure fig-ure in Santo Domingo, it was the Captain who furnished the arms and ammunition used in that private battle refereed by the Senor As battles go it fell short of word importance, but it had its distinctive Jfc- We know to begin with that Capt. Boyn- I ton was smuggling arms to both sides of the political quarrel that was wrenching Santo Domingo at that time. I am unable to recall the names of the leaders of the two factions engaging in the revolution. It really doesn't matter. There was another revolution revolu-tion next day and thero had been solutions solu-tions during the whole week preceding the one over which Sefior Noplstolcs maintained main-tained supervision Staging a Revolution By Aid of Referee I This particular revolution, which, unless my memory falls me, took place between 3 3 o'clock one balmy afternoon and dinner time, differed from the rest only In that n It had the distinction of having a referee. iM Therefore inasmuch as this tale has to do with Capt. George Boynton wi .shall review J that particular revolution by way of estab- I llshing the proper background for the Cap- Si taln rJ, The fighting took place near Monte S Christl on the north coast of Santo Do- oM mlugo. The administration had drawn up its army in the public square and the in-surrectos in-surrectos were girding themselves to do battle with the loyalists right there iu front of the palace. 1 There were numbers of Europeans and SE Americans in Monte Chrlsti at the timo m and they looked upon the coming conflict without enthusiasm. The darned things rJH Interfered with business. Concessions JH meant nothing whatever except trouble. Somebody ought to take over the Govern.-t Govern.-t ii. cut and administer It ou a permaueut basis. Committees from the foreign colony waited upon the President and upon the chief of the rebels, beseeching them to listen to reason and go on home. "Look here," they complained, "we've just i had a revolution and business is poor, i Can't you chaps get together like good I fellows and arrange some sort of a com' H promise? At least can't we have these ILaeS scenes on certain stated days say Thursday afternoon so that we can bavc jH bt least five days a week to attend to our ".Moreover,' the business men continued, Jl "sooner or later you will injure some ono H ot us and no matter who wins you'll have fl America or Great Britain or Germany down here raising the devil about it " H But the two patriots were adamant. They felt like a revolution and there was going to be a fight right there A fight H was something like children, the warriors ,PH contended, liable to happen anywhere. H There was au American cruiser In the flH harbor and to the commander of this ves- jEel the business men appealed. "Come up and argue a little with these two Napoleons." cried the Americans and Europeans. "Sec if you can't do something to make these fellows keep the peace. There's not a whole pane of glass in town since the latest revolution 'You'd better come up and give us a hand " By the time the American naval officer reached the public square in front of the palace the battle was about to begin. The revolutionists had taken their proper places, had loaded their cannon and double shotted their muskot9. The Government troops, clad In their dress uniforms, were parked In menacing attitude ou the palace bteps. Between the two defiant lines strodo tho American naval officer. He blew his nose harshly and called upon the two generals to come forth and talk. The civilian population, popu-lation, having taken to the roofs and well sheltered windows, where one might behold the battle In reasonable security, emitted & mighty rhcer as the American called the two principal warriors into the centre of the ring for instructions. "See, see," they shouted, and the opposing oppos-ing armies saw and joined the applause. "The brave American Officer comes unarmed. un-armed. He carries no weapons. He comes alone. He is magnificent. No pistols at his side No sword In his hand." Before the shouting and the tumult had died away the American officer had won his name. "No pistoles. No pistoles," cried the admiring ad-miring populace. "He has no pistoles. Senor Nopistoles, Scflor Nopistoles'" The cheering was so tremendous and the enthusiasm so Infectious that the two armies became somewhat disorganized. They got together and cheered in mighty unison for Senor Nopistoles because he was brave man. There is no question in my mind that our old friend Capt. Boynton Boyn-ton was among the enthusiastic spectators. You see. It didn't matter to the Captain whether there was a fight or not. He knew that there would be more revolutions and that one can t stagcan effective revolution revolu-tion without firearms. And Captain George was one ot the best of all the purveyors of firearms. Ordered Them Out of Town To Settle Their Quarrel To dispose of the revolution in hand, permit me to tell you that Senor Nopistoles failed to induce the two warriors to call off hostilities. " Very well," waB his ultimatum, "go ahead and fight, but you'll have to do your lighting outside of town. I'm not going to have all these folks disturbed by this brawl of yours. I understand that the ladies are getting all fed up with these impromptu affairs. "There's a nice big lot across the mountain moun-tain there, big enough to hold the both ot you and your armies. Get over there and go to it if you must fight. It is now 2 o'clock. You can all be over on that lot by 3. so get going. Nobody's going to say a word against your revolution no long as you stay on that lot. but understand this thoroughly, the first one of you patriots shooting toward the town or leaving that lot before this revolution s finished goes to jail for a year. "I don't want to bo hard ou you nor seem unreasonable, but the Governments of tho Adventurous Career of Captain George B. Boynton I As Impartial Filibuster in Many I Lands and Seas Offers Thrilling I Chapter of International Complications H His Towed Torpedo a Success in j 1 China Sea but a Failure at Rio I '" '6 ' JtUi 1 JKjflCJrTfilj -..' United States, Great Britain aud Germany are getting tired of all these family quarrels, quar-rels, aud I don't know but what it will be a good thing to take over the island an way, Now off with you, and don't let mo hear of any of you breaking the rules " So the two armies wont over the mountain moun-tain and arrayed themselves on the plateau. The cheering populace scrambled for good sats on the mountainside and. led no doubt by such adventurers as Capt. Boynton, howled themselves hoarso until it got too dark to fight any longer, I don't remember remem-ber who won that war. The point Is that such affairs were to the Captain as vegetables are to the green goods grocer. Trouble was the Captain's bedfellow and waking companion. Either he was in trouble with the United States Government or ho was stirring up trouble for some other Government He had scouts and read every word of the Central American aud South American news dispatches. dis-patches. Tiik Nkw Yopk Hi.Kun was his favorite newspaper, because it had more complete intelligence from Central and South America and the West Indies. The exploit that won for the Captain his greatest amount of newspaper notoriety was his financing of the enemies of Clprl ano Castro, then President of Venezuela. The Captain began fomenting a revolution against Castro and even went to the extent ex-tent of preparing to coin money for the insurgents. in-surgents. Senor Don Pulido, Charge d'Af-faires d'Af-faires for the Venezuelan Legation In Washington, raised such a row about it that tho Captain was indicted by the Fed eral Graud Jury here In New York and later convicted. He spent six months on Blackwell s Island for that. Who Was This Wild Captain With Several Aliases? At least one book has been written about the Captain and there is room for several more When I first met him he was about 60 years old. He participated iu the civil war on the side of the North, and it Is my honest opinion that his commanding officer of-ficer was as much worried about the Captain Cap-tain as he was about the enemy. The Captain Cap-tain was like that. I do not think his name was Boynton; I'm not sure that it was. He was known variously James Stuart Henderson, Capt. John Klnnear and George McFarlaud. In May, 1906, tho Captain appeared in New York as the local agent for the Orinoco Ori-noco Company in Venezuela. To boot be was the headquarters for anti-Castro propaganda. prop-aganda. It was quite apparent that the Captain and Clprlano were ou the outs It was hard to believe that the Dictator of Venezuela was as bad as the Captain would have us believe The Captain had allied himself with two of Castro's predecessors Crespo and An-drada. An-drada. He possessed and exhibited rather fearlessly a warrant engraved iu Spanish which ho declared to be the permission of the anti-Castro outfit to him to coin their revolutionary money. He desired $10,000, which sum, he explained to those who would listen, would purchase the dies and the necessary machinery to turn out bolivars boli-vars of the same weight and value as tho Castro money. Then he was to procure $10,000 in silver bullion, with which ho could turn out J20.00C in Venezuelan coin. The rest would be simple. With the $20,-000 $20,-000 thus obtained he would make $10,000 Copyright, 1022, by The ? f p5jp HI531I and with that $40,000 ho would evolve $80,-000. $80,-000. In a remarkably short space of time, you understand, he would have minted sufficient suf-ficient ash to finance the revolution that would place au antl-Cistro man In the pal-Bi pal-Bi a and invaluable concessions in the hauds of the Captain. Incidentally with his percentage of the output of his coin mill he would buy in the stock of the Orinoco Company. The plan was comprehensive and magnificent. The one great trouble with It was that the enemies of Castro visualized themselves victorious but empty handed. In other words they beheld themselves holding ST.o entirely empty bag while the genius, tho Captain, would possess everything worth having. The Captain prevailed upon a bookseller. book-seller. B. N. iMonson, to seek the necessary nec-essary capitalist. Dovnton consumed his time seeking die makers. He went to the Klemm Brothers, a firm of excellent repute, which had mado mint supplies for foreign Governments He told them he wanted eight sets of dies, and gave them Venezuelan Vene-zuelan coins as models. He agreed to pay $2.ii00 for the work Monson was less successful. suc-cessful. He visited capitalist after capitalist. capi-talist. They were not enthusiastic. Pres ently one of them telephoned the United States Secret Service, and 1 was detailed to give the matter my attention. It is. of course, a violation of United Staes laws to counterfeit the currency of another Government AU that I needed was to learn that the Captain had actually made the stuff, One of my associates, posing pos-ing as a wealthy ranchman from Montana or some such place, managed to attract the attention of the Captain, and the Captain was warm in his praises of his schemes. He held back nothing. Ho told us all he had in his mind. There was no trouble about it. Candor was one ot the Captain's many charms We arrested Monson, the Captain and the Klemms. The latter gentlemen proved that the were entirely guiltless. They had been deceived bv the Captain's forged papers The United States Commissioner declared that he had no jurisdiction in tho cases of Monson and the Captain, and we took the matter to the Federal Grand Jury and l rearrested Monson. The Captain was not available. He was in Trinidad. Monson's attorney cabled the old chap, saying that It would go hard with his client unless the Captain was present. "Am coming back at onco," was the Captain's Cap-tain's reply by cable. "Never deserted a friend In my life." Boynton Boasts Fidelity And Makes Good His Boast And the Captain did return by next boat. "Take me to court beside my friend," he cried as ho reached the pier. He- was a grandiose codger fond of the dramatic, "Take mo to court, where I may plead guilty and share his cell." He oc-cupled the cell all alone. Monson was let-off with a fine The Captain got six months on Blackwells Island It hurt his feelings being sent to the island. "To the common penitentiary," ho moaned, "along with the pussyfoot riffraff. riff-raff. Bah! And I have occupied the stink-ingest stink-ingest dungeons in some of the worlds most horrible prisons I am Insulted, not punished." In 1874, to go back a trifle ot years, tho fw York Herald. 4 a HONG modern detectives trie outstanding figure for many years lias r been V lliiam J. Flynn-. Few men In the world have had as much to do with crime and criminal4;, plot Mid counterplot, as has this i big, silent, mj sterious figure, who for so long v as t he chief of the United r states ' Secret Service." His field Mas not tiuit of a city or a State hut 1 i lie whole world. Cities and States tire, sometimes, of tho hunt for an elusive fugitive, or of a seemingly hopeless plodding along the trail of a crime mystery. But there is a widely quoted saying "l.'nclo Sam f never tires: never gives up. If you offend him he will get you some I time, somewhere." For many years ihi "he" that stands for Uncle ! Sam's secret police was William .). Flynn, their chief. f ow "Chief" Flynn has retired to riiht criminals on his own ac- f count. Out of his vast experience lie will tell, from week to week, of f. his most interesting and exciting experiences with the cleverest of the t world's criminals and of intrigue in high places. I Captain set forth for the China Sea. They had told him that piracy was chief of the aquati' sports In those parts, and one might as well trv to induce a cat to Ignore cream as to expect the Captain to fall to be inter ested In a bit of Far Eastern piracy. Unhappy Un-happy the pirate who fell In with the Captain. Cap-tain. It took some time to get across the Pacific la those days, and the Captain, simply to while awa the days, invented a torpedo I shall not attempt to describe this fearsome thing except to say that It was about six feet long and resembled a huge porcupine. In thut it had steel spine bristling from Its body. Let a ship so much as touch one of those spines and the marine insurance folk would be making payments within a few weeks. And simple of operation? There was nothing to It except to case It Into tho water and attach a hawser to tho ring in its nose. It was provided with air chambers cham-bers that floated it Ju9t below tho surface. The hawser would have to bo long, ot course. The vessel towing the torpedo would cut across the bows of the Intended victim at a time nicely calculated Tho victim boat would plow into the hawser and, naturally pull the torpedo in toward her. Eventually the torpedo would be letched against the side of the unhappy Oi-"Kri.T.laiau And that was all. Towing His Live Torpedo, Blew Up Pirate Junk It worked beautifully The Captaiu reached the China Sea with his torpedo In tow lie obtained in his own mysterious way a sloop called the Leckwlth. With tho torpedo well astern ho sallied forth to Intercept In-tercept a Chinese junk, on which its pirate crew had loaded the cargo of a British racr chant vessel. The Junk caught the hawser and the torpedo tor-pedo caught the junk. Neither junk, crew nor cargo was ever located subsequently. The mariue hedgehog blew the pirates, their boat and their booty into thin air. Sometimes the Captain was a bit too vigorous vig-orous In September, 1S93, the Captain became Violently Interested In the affairs of Brazilian politicians who desired the over throw of Deodora da Fonseca, then President Presi-dent ot that country Floriano Pelxotto. the Vice President, was the leader of the revolutionists. Pelxotto had the army with him and thought the navy powers Admirals Ad-mirals Mello and Da Oarna were friendly. Poixotto, thus assured, called upon Da Fqnseca to abdicate. The President vacated va-cated and promptly dropped dead. We have It on the word of official dispatches that It was heart disease. Peixotto was declared President. That was easy enough. But Mello decided that he was not getting get-ting the proper recognition. It was his idea that he should be the power behind the Presidential chair, whereas Poixotto was of the opinion that his was a sufficient power. Mello began to gTow mean and Pelxotto sent out a hurry call for our friend the Captain. Oddly enough, the Captain happened to bo in Brazil at that very moment. News of the unrest in that country had reached our hero. The revolutionary bird never chirped but the Captain heard, and hearing he rushed to her. What would a revolution revolu-tion be without the Captain? They've languished lan-guished since he died. I wonder what he would have done with Russia? "In the harbor," explained the frightened fright-ened Pelxotto, "is that pirate Mello with his flagship, the Aquidaban." "I see," replied the Captain. "He Is a scoundrel and a traitor," continued con-tinued the President. "Likewise he annoys me. Do you think you could do anything about it9" "A simple matter," scoffed the Captain, and he explained his wire haired torpedo An hour later Mello began bombarding Rio de Janiero, and warships from America, Amer-ica, f.reat Britain, Italy, Oermauy, Austria Aus-tria and Portugal steamed Intu the harbor to see that every one had fair play They silenced Mello, and Boynton retired to a Govcrumeut machine shop, where he made 1 1 jtCgjWUug . the largest torpedo he had every attempted. i He procured a tug a crew and 2,000 feet ot hawser. He was so Intent upon prepar- ing to blow Mello out of the water that he :id not observe a launcti from the British cruiser Slrius approaching. I They took the Captain to Capt. Lang, J commanding the Slrlhs. who decided to send his prisoner to Mello for proper pun- f Ishment. The United States ship Charles- ton was lying in the bay Dramatically Poynton pointed to the Stars and Stripes ' You have the effrontery, sir," he roared 1 at the British captain, "to send an Amerl- I can citizen to be treated with by that pirate Mello while that flag flies above the waters cf this bay? "Oh very well," replied Captain Lang, I 1 I shall turn you over to Capt. Pickering of j the Charleston, despite tho fact that he's a friend of mine. Jolly good friend he'll be, too. when I do It. I'm sure he'd rather I that Mello would deal with you." I "You wrong, me, sir," was Boynton's de j fense before Capt. Pickering, "I did not I contemplate Injuring this bloody pirate I Mello The torpedo was for sale, air, and I I was of a mind to offer It to th 1 s obnox- h lous Mello for a price I dislike the man, r but murder is not a port of me." I Capt. Pickering fetched the old chap to New York and locked him up In the Brook j lyn Navy Yard. The Stato Department had a devil of a time deciding what to do with him. Finally after four days It re- I leased him upon his promise that he would avoid Brazil In the future " give my word gladly," he replied. "I have an intense dislike for the place." The Captain died In bed at his home In New York city, January 19, 1911. He was n magnificent old chap and it must have irked him to die between sheets. He was about 70 years old at the tlra of his death. He always claimed that he was born In Fifth avenue near Fourteenth street, and that his father had been a distinguished physician. |