a very slender clue fastens a robbery upon a bosom
friend of the victim—the loot recovered.
early in 1872, while i was chief of police of oil city, pennsylvania, i was sitting in my office in the city hall one morning, talking to col. e. a. kelley, who was at that time city comptroller. his office adjoined mine. the colonel was a jolly, good-natured gentleman, middle-aged, very portly, scholarly, and of military bearing. he was a graduate of annapolis naval academy, and had spent a portion of his early life in the united states navy. he had traveled a great deal, and was generally well-informed. he had formed a great liking to me, and took an interest in the police department, and especially in the detection of criminals and the capture of them, and loved to talk with me during our leisure moments relative to that portion of my duties as chief of the department.
we were thus engaged in a pleasant conversation, when two young men, who were probably from twenty-five to twenty-eight years of age, entered the office and inquired of the colonel for the chief of police. colonel kelley pointed[pg 124] to me saying, "there is the chief," and arose to leave the office. i knew that there was no cause for his leaving at the moment, so asked him to remain, feeling that he would be interested in the young men's business with me.
the spokesman of the two said to me that his name was william brewer, and that he was the superintendent of an oil company which was operating a large number of oil wells on the blood farm, which was located on oil creek, venango county, pennsylvania, and about six miles north of oil city. he stated that his home was in the state of ohio, near cleveland, where he had bought a small farm for a home for his parents, who were getting old, and who were now living on this farm. he said that he was earning a fairly good salary, and that he had been saving his money so as to make the annual payment on the farm, as he had made the purchase on the installment plan. his next annual payment of seven hundred dollars, including the interest, would be due in about a week from that date. he had been laying his money away in a trunk, which he kept in his room in the boarding-house. he stated that he had nine hundred dollars in bank notes, which he kept in a large, leather wallet, and which he placed in this trunk. he said that he kept the trunk locked, and on that morning he had occasion to unlock his trunk to take out some clothing, and to his dismay discovered that the wallet and its contents were missing. in answer to my question, he stated that he had found the trunk locked, and apparently intact. i believe i only asked him the one question. he did all the talking, clearly and distinctly, had a good face, and his general manner impressed me very much.
his companion, who looked near enough like him to be a brother, which in fact, i at first judged him to be, had nothing to say. after listening attentively to his story, i was silent for a few moments, and finally asked him how long it[pg 125] would take him to go to his boarding-house and bring his trunk to my office, in exactly the same condition in which he had found it. he replied that as the roads were quite bad he thought he could have the trunk in my office in about four hours. i then explained to him that as his boarding-house was outside of my jurisdiction as chief of police, that i really would have no right to go there, but that i would be glad to aid him to the best of my ability; to which he replied that he would bring the trunk to my office as requested, and thanked me for my trouble.
the boys then left the office, and i noticed that they had a horse and buggy, in which they departed. while this conversation was going on between myself and brewer, col. kelley was sitting with his arms folded, intently interested, but silent. when they had gone i returned to my office, and sat down, where the colonel was waiting for me. after i had seated myself and lighted a cigar the colonel said to me, "tom, why did you ask those boys to bring that trunk here to your office?" i unhesitatingly replied, "colonel, i don't know." right here i want to assure the reader that my reply was absolutely the truth. i really had no idea at the time that i asked the young fellow to bring his trunk to my office why i did so, other than that i had seen, while in the company of other chiefs of police and detectives, that they, as a rule, invariably cast as much mystery as possible about their work when dealing with people outside of their departments. neither did i feel at liberty to admit to these young men that i felt incapable of solving the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the money. all of which i explained to the colonel. he laughingly shook his head and said, "tom, you are a detective, sure enough. you are not candid in this explanation that you have given to me, but i beg your pardon, as it is really presumptuous on my part to ask you such [pg 126]questions. however, i will just wait and watch the outcome, which i believe will be all right." i tried to answer the colonel that i had been candid with him, but it was in vain.
in due time, during the afternoon of the same day, the boys returned to my office, carrying the trunk between them. col. kelley was on hand, as he had evidently been watching for them and had seen them as they entered my office. i asked him to be seated, and said to brewer, "i wish that you would place that trunk in this room in as near the same position as it was in your room at the boarding-house."
brewer said, "our room is square and nearly the shape of this office, but not so large. there are two windows in the west side of our room. they are about five feet apart." and he placed the trunk against the wall of the office between two windows, which were farther apart than the windows in his room. after he had placed the trunk, i said to him, "now, i want you to approach the trunk just as you did this morning, when you missed your money, unlock the trunk, and go through the same motions that you did until you discovered the loss."
he approached the trunk, got down on his right knee, unstrapped the trunk, produced a key, unlocked it, turned the lid back against the wall, then removed the tray which covered the portion of the trunk below the lid. this trunk was a cheap one, covered with an imitation of leather, and was comparatively new. the trunk and tray were lined with a delicate blue paper. the tint was of such a color that it would easily soil. the tray had sides and ends which were perhaps two inches deep, and slid down into the lower half of the trunk from the lid, where it rested upon two cleats at either end. it fitted the trunk snugly. there were two straps of light colored tape, which were about an inch wide and were fastened with carpet tacks to the center of each end of the tray. these[pg 127] tapes acted as handles by which the tray could be lifted from the trunk. brewer had to work for some time to get the tray up out of the trunk, for the reason that one of the tape straps had evidently been recently jerked from its fastenings. as stated before, these tapes had been fastened to the tray by means of four large-sized carpet tacks. when the one strap had been jerked off the tack remained firm in the tray, but the heads of the tacks had been pulled off. this left a sharp point on one of the tacks, which projected from the wood about one-sixteenth of an inch, and like a needle point.
while brewer was trying to remove the tray i was kneeling down at one end of the trunk and noticed the sharp point on the tack. i also noticed the mark of a thumb, which had been greasy and dirty, and which had been pressed over the tack as the light paper plainly showed.
meanwhile, the young man whom i supposed was the brother, was standing at the other end of the trunk opposite me, when i happened to look up just as he turned around towards me, with his hands by his side. i noticed that the thumb on his right hand, which was calloused and dirty, had been cut diagonally across, leaving the cut about three-quarters of an inch long, and about a thirty-second of an inch deep. the cut was fresh and was beginning to gape open, although not deep enough to bring blood. the hands of all men employed around oil wells become more or less saturated with oil, and are rough and calloused. generally they present a dirty and greasy appearance. as the fellow turned and i got a glimpse of the cut in the thumb, i rose from beside the trunk, faced him, and instantly seized his right hand. i carefully examined the cut, then looked at the imprint on the end of the tray, and pointing to the stain, said to him in a sharp, commanding tone, "where is this man's money?"
[pg 128]
where is this man's money
"where is this man's money?"
[pg 129]
he began to cry, and said, "if you will let me go i will get the money."
i asked him where the money was, and he said, "i hid it yesterday under the carpet in the hall at the boarding-house."
meanwhile, brewer had turned ashy pale, and burst into tears, exclaiming, "my god, chief, i am sorry to learn that he, above all other men, has taken my money. he knew all about it. he was the only person who knew that i kept the money where i did. we have been raised together. he was my schoolmate and is now my room-mate. his father and mother live in ohio and are our nearest neighbors. it would kill them to know that jim would do a thing like this. his name is jim davis."
i said to davis, "will you go with brewer and get that money and turn it over to him, intact?" he promised that he would do so, but he said, "chief, i cannot get the money from its hiding place unobserved until after the people in the house have gone to bed, tonight."
"that will be all right," said brewer, "i know jim will do as he promises. now, chief, if you will not arrest him i will gladly pay you anything that you may charge me, but please do not arrest him. i could not appear against him in court, for if i did so it would kill his mother, and probably my mother too."
i replied that i would make no charges for my services, and if he was satisfied it did not matter to me. i said, "you may take charge of him, and if he does not turn the money over to you at once, i will take the matter up and have him punished according to law."
the boys left with the trunk, and the next day brewer called upon me and told me that davis had turned all the money over to him, and had then attempted to commit suicide. he had gone to a near-by drug store and purchased a quantity of[pg 130] poison with suicidal intent. suspecting that davis had contemplated ending his life, brewer had detailed a trusted and mutual friend to watch him, unknown to davis, and who seized him and took the poison away from him before he could use it.
davis and brewer were friends afterwards and became inseparable, as they had been before that time. if the parents of either of them ever heard of the occurrence i am not aware of it.
after the boys had left, col. kelley, who had taken in the entire proceedings in silence, came to me with moisture in his eyes, and said, "chief, you are a brick."
