incidents encountered while working on a case in the

oil regions—capture of a couple of clever

sneaks and safe robbers.

in 1872, a year after i had been elected chief of police of oil city, pa. (and, by the way, i had the distinction of being the first chief of police of that town), the safe in the store of henry fair, in south oil city, was robbed late on a saturday night. this safe contained a number of bonds, some cash and other valuable papers. the robbery was not discovered until the following monday morning by mr. fair himself, who was the only person connected with the establishment who had the combination of the safe. mr. fair found the safe locked, as usual, and upon opening it found the bonds and cash missing from the safe. i was immediately notified of the robbery, and upon examining the premises found that no burglary had been committed. the safe and windows and doors of the store were all found to be intact on monday morning. i also learned that the cash and bonds which were missed on monday morning were known to[pg 270] have been in the safe as late as ten o'clock upon the saturday evening previous. i further learned that at that hour quite a large crowd of people were in the store, all of whom were supposed to be customers, and at the close of my investigation there was no doubt in my mind but that the safe had been rifled of its contents by the sneak method. during the business hours prior to ten o'clock saturday evening, the safe had not been locked and the door was left standing partially opened, so that clerks and others connected with the store might have easy access to it during the busy hours of the day to get change, to look at accounts, and other purposes, so it became apparent to me that there were probably at least two persons connected with the robbery, and that one of them had attracted the attention of the clerk nearest to the safe, while his partner quietly slipped behind the counter and to the safe and took the cash and missing papers unobserved. it was also apparent to me that this must have been done almost immediately before the store was closed for the night, as the cash box and some of the missing bonds had been out of the safe on the manager's desk until a short time before they were placed in the safe by mr. fair himself at about ten o'clock. upon further investigation i learned that two young men had visited the store about ten o'clock saturday evening. one of them purchased a package of smoking tobacco, while the other consumed considerable time in trying to select a pair of shoes, which, by the way, he did not purchase. one of these young men was known as "butch" dewitt, then about nineteen years of age, the other was william heilman, twenty-one years of age. the parents of these young men were respectable, hard-working people and both resided in oil city. the boys both bore bad reputations, but up to that time were not considered thieves. upon learning that they were at the store at a[pg 271] late hour saturday night, i concluded that i would locate and interview them, but upon further inquiry i learned that they had not been seen since the saturday night in question, and evidently had left town. i also learned that "butch" dewitt had a sweetheart, whose name was hattie bates, who was a professional dancer and was supposed to be at the time an employe of ben hogan, proprietor of a large dance hall at petrolia, butler county, pa.

for the information of the reader, i will say that ben hogan was a prize fighter of note and a sporting character generally. he at one time fought the celebrated tom allen for the heavyweight championship of the world, near st. louis. the fight was a draw and created a lot of bad blood between the two factions interested. some time after hogan's fight with tom allen he retired from the prize ring and became an evangelist, making his headquarters at chicago, and up to a few years ago, the last heard of him, the writer has been informed had been very successful in his missionary work. prior to the time hogan established himself at petrolia he had been engaged in the dance hall business at tidicute, warren county, pa., which is also an oil town on the banks of the allegheny river. while engaged in that business a party of roughs, who were looking for trouble, visited his place and started a disturbance in the dance hall, which resulted in one of the parties being killed and two or three of his companions being severely injured. hogan was arrested charged with murder. upon hearing of this trouble, and knowing as i did the character of the parties who created the disturbance, and that hogan was entirely justified in protecting his premises against the violence of this gang, who had gone to his place in search of trouble, i assisted hogan's attorneys by informing them as to the character and standing of the parties who created the trouble. hogan[pg 272] was acquitted and ever afterwards was very grateful and friendly towards me, and when i learned that "butch" dewitt's sweetheart was employed at hogan's dance hall, i hastened to petrolia, thinking that dewitt might visit his sweetheart there. petrolia was about sixty miles south of oil city and i arrived there on the afternoon of wednesday, after the robbery before mentioned. this was my first visit to petrolia, which was a big oil town or more like a mining camp, located in a valley on a tributary of the allegheny river, and the town consisted of one main street with buildings on both sides of the street running up and down the valley, all very close together and all frame. it consisted chiefly of boarding houses, saloons, dance halls and gambling houses. on my arrival at petrolia i started up this street. i had had a description of hogan's dance hall, which he had built a short time prior to my going there, and it was described as one of the largest buildings in town, and when i arrived in front of what i considered the largest building there i inquired for hogan's place. the man from whom i made this inquiry pointed out the building, which i had selected as hogan's, which was directly across the street from where i was standing, and told me that that was hogan's dance hall. there were two buildings standing along side of each other, and as they were almost identically the same in size and appearance, and being anxious to make no mistake, i inquired again, and the man pointed out the building to my left, so i understood, as hogan's, whereupon i crossed the street and entered the front door of the building, which was standing open. this was about four o'clock in the afternoon. i mention this fact for the reason that everything is usually very quiet about these dance halls until later in the evening, as places of this kind do all of their business at night. there was a screen, as there usually is, in front of bar-rooms, to[pg 273] shield the gaze of the passers-by on the sidewalk. as i entered the house supposed to be hogan's, and went around the screen to my left, i found a bar standing right back of the screen and behind the bar was a large young man with blonde hair, rather fine looking, standing about six feet, one inch, in height, and weighing in the neighborhood of two hundred pounds, and about thirty years old. this man was the then notorious "bill" casey, who was also a heavy weight prize fighter, and the proprietor of this dance hall. i knew casey upon sight, and he also recognized me. when i went around the screen i found myself face to face with him as he was leaning over with his elbows on the bar talking to one of his employes. he straightened up, looked at me for an instant, and exclaimed, "why, hello, chief. what in the world are you doing down here?" at the same time extending his right hand. i shook hands with him and said, "i just happened to be passing through petrolia on a little matter of business, and while on the opposite side of the street met a friend who told me that this was your place and that i would be likely to find you here at this time, so i just stepped in to pay my respects and shake hands with you." to which he replied, "i am mighty glad you did. you say that you are down here on a matter of business. you know that i am pretty well posted among the class of people that you are generally looking for, and if there is anything i can do for you i shall be glad to do so." i thanked him for his offer and told him that there might be some way in which he could assist me a little later on. he then said, "you know kittie, don't you?" (kittie was his wife), i said, "yes, i remember her." "wait a minute and i will call her," and he called to the rear part of the house for kittie. when she appeared he said to her, "kittie, you remember mr. furlong, don't you? he's chief of police at oil city, and i want you[pg 274] to shake hands with him." kittie came to where we were standing (in the meantime bill had come behind the bar alongside of me) and good-naturedly said, "oh, yes, i shall never forget mr. furlong." she then continued, "mr. furlong, bill and i often speak of you. you did the best thing that ever happened that time that you arrested bill in oil city and he has often told me that he would always remember you with the kindest of feelings for the reason that you did not kill him at the time he was arrested. the manner in which he acted and the manner in which he abused your man fry, if you had not appeared upon the scene as you did at that time he would have killed fry and would probably have been hung. you know he was drinking at the time and was acting very badly, as he always did when he drank. he has never touched a drop of any kind of intoxicating liquor since that time, and it has made a man of him, and i give you credit for what you did. bill has often said that you had a perfect right to kill him under the circumstances and has always felt very grateful." as she finished i said in reply, "well, i am very glad that you and bill feel as you do, and i appreciate your good will very much, although i regretted at the time what occurred, but knew that there was nothing else to do but what i did, and i am more than glad of the good results."

in this connection i will say that just prior to my arrest of "bill" casey at oil city, which was more than a year prior to the time of the foregoing interview, casey and his wife had a quarrel and had separated. mrs. casey (or kittie), as he called her, came to oil city and was boarding with a woman named mrs. brown, who had sixteen or eighteen other female boarders. casey, at this time, was living at petroleum center, in the oil country, and had heard that his wife was boarding with madam brown. he came to oil[pg 275] city in search of her and visited madam brown's house one afternoon about two o'clock. madam brown's house was situated in oil city in what is known as the "red light district" and was a large and well furnished establishment, in fact the finest of its kind in the oil regions of pennsylvania at that time. it so happened that i was passing madam brown's house, when i heard a tremendous uproar in the house; women were screaming and shouting for help, and it was a general tumult. some person i met on the street said to me, "you had better go into madam brown's house. officer fry has just gone in there and it seems as though he is in trouble," whereupon i hastened into the place, and in one of the parlors on my right as i went in i could hear officer fry calling for help. i ran into the parlor, where i found several women, all screaming at the top of their voices, and "bill" casey standing at one side of a large square, old fashioned piano, from which he had twisted one of the legs. he held this piano leg in his hand similar to the way in which a ball player holds his bat, and had officer fry backed up into a corner alongside of the piano and was about to bring the piano leg down upon the officer's head. fry had his revolver in his hand, but was unable to raise it, as casey had him covered with the leg of the piano. casey was standing with his back to the door from which i entered, and, upon taking in the situation, i pulled my revolver from my pocket and struck casey over the head with it just above the right ear, which cut an ugly gash and caused him to fall to the floor. i had dealt him a heavy blow, which took him completely by surprise, and before he could rally and arise from the floor he was seized by fry and myself and subdued only after a vigorous rough-and-tumble fight. he was locked up, but owing to the fact that his wife had been found by him in this disreputable place, and that he was under the[pg 276] influence of liquor, the committing magistrate fined him $200.00 and costs, with the agreement, on his part, that he was to leave town immediately, upon the payment of the fine and costs, which he did, and further agreeing that he would never again appear in oil city, or any place else under the influence of liquor. that promise he always kept until the day of his death.

with the above explanation i feel that it is unnecessary for me to say to the reader that i did not enter "bill" casey's place voluntarily. i had not the slightest idea "bill" casey was there. the last time i had seen him was at oil city on the day of his arrest, and he had said to me before leaving that he would get even with me if it took him the balance of his life, so the reader can imagine my predicament better than i can describe it, when i first found myself in the presence of "bill" casey and in his own place. it would have taken a good sized rope to have dragged me into that place had i known that casey was its proprietor, but on confronting him i could think of no better way than to act boldly and act as though i had voluntarily come in to call and pay my respects, which worked admirably.

after ascertaining the friendly feeling of casey and his wife towards me, i told them that i wanted to locate "butch" dewitt, who was a friend of hattie bates, who, i understood, was living next door with ben hogan. mrs. casey said to me, "i know mrs. hogan, and we are warm friends. i will go over and see her about this and see whether she knows anything about the whereabouts of dewitt or not." she did so, and in a few minutes returned with mrs. hogan, who said to me, "'butch' dewitt and a young thief by the name of heilman were here the night before last. dewitt, you know, is a sweetheart of the bates girl, who lives with me. dewitt and heilman had some money and left here[pg 277] yesterday morning at two o'clock for new brighton, pa., where they have a job of some kind that they expect to do, and intend to return here in a couple of days from new brighton."

i took the first train from petrolia to pittsburg, and then from pittsburg to new brighton, pa., where i arrived the following morning early. at new brighton i learned that the night before my arrival the safe in a factory had been blown open by burglars and a quantity of money stolen. at new brighton i received a good description of heilman and dewitt, and traced them down the railroad to rochester, pa., to a hotel. upon entering this hotel i found that they had registered under fictitious names and were still in their rooms at the hotel. i went to their room, forced an entrance, and found dewitt and heilman there. i arrested them and took them to oil city, and in the meantime heilman made a clean breast of the robbery. he told me that while he was examining the shoes before mentioned, dewitt sneaked around behind the counter and took from the safe, which was unlocked, the money and bonds that were missing. they took the currency with them and secreted the bonds and other things stolen by them from the safe in a tin lard can, which they had buried on a farm south of south oil city, known as the faren farm. they accompanied me to the place and we recovered the can and its contents. these boys were convicted and sent to prison.

the prize fighter "bill casey" continued as proprietor of the dance hall and saloon at petrolia, where he did a profitable business, and where he had many friends among the drillers and tool dressers who were employed at the oil wells in the district which surrounded petrolia. he was noted for being big-hearted, sociable and clever while sober, and it will be remembered he had quit drinking after his arrest at oil city.[pg 278] he had accumulated a small fortune, and upon the christmas eve following my interview with him, as before related, he and his wife left petrolia for the purpose of visiting his parents, who were living at the time at lockport, n. y. they boarded what is known as a mixed train, northbound, on the allegheny valley railroad, bound for buffalo. this train consisted of a number of freight cars, some of which were loaded with crude oil, a baggage car and two passenger coaches, which were at the rear of the train. the passenger coaches were crowded to their utmost capacity with passengers, as there were many people leaving the oil country to spend the holidays in other regions. as the train was rounding a very sharp curve near scrubgrass a front axletree broke on one of the freight cars, which precipitated the entire train, behind the breakdown, over a high bank into the allegheny river, which was at the time at high water mark. the crude oil ignited, by reason of the wreck, and set fire to everything. the oil spread out over the water, and, as crude oil burns just as fiercely upon water as it does upon land, the whole river was afire in a very short time from bank to bank, and the fire was carried down stream by the current at the rate of four or five miles an hour. many of the passengers were drowned, or injured and burned to death by the flames, as it should be remembered that the oil cars were ahead of the passenger coaches, and as the train was running upstream the flames immediately enveloped small portions of the passenger coaches which remained above the surface of the water. casey managed to escape from the wreck, and, being a very powerful man, took his wife with him and reached the bank in safety with the exception of a few burns. there was a crippled newsboy employed upon the train, and in the wreck he had managed to get a portion of his body through one of the windows which was upturned[pg 279] and out of the water, while his lower limbs were fastened in the wreck, and he was about to be engulfed in a body of floating burning oil, which was rapidly approaching him, when casey spied him. casey immediately left his wife standing on the bank and rushed to the assistance of the newsboy, and while tugging away trying to extricate the boy from the wreck casey was engulfed by the burning oil and lost his life, and thus died in the act of performing a humane and heroic deed.