one of my early experiences while chief of police of
oil city—how a bad man, with a long record,
was taken to jail.
the notorious tom daly of buffalo, new york, was arrested at oil city, pa., early in the summer of 1872. daly had been regarded in and around the city of buffalo for years, prior to his arrest at oil city, as a desperate and bad character. he had a police record almost as long as the state statutes. he was a fighter and associated and lived with the most vile and vicious characters to be found in the city. he was never known to work at any legitimate trade or business. he did pretend to gamble. he drank at times to excess, and was known to the police as a strong-arm, or hold-up, man, and was considered by the police a hard and bad man to arrest—a task which they were frequently called upon to perform. but as bad as his general reputation was, he had what was called a political pull in the slums district, in which he resided. he had a following of his own class because he was more aggressive and more physically [pg 280]powerful than his associates and followers, and not for the reason of any superior intellect on his part.
a couple of days before his arrest at oil city, complaint was lodged against daly and some of his associates by a man in buffalo, who charged them with having held him up and robbed him, by force, of a sum of money. the man also stated that daly and his confederates had brutally beaten him, the marks of which he bore plainly. two police officers were instructed to arrest daly and bring him to headquarters. as all the officers who were located in and about the precinct in which daly made his home knew him personally, the two officers who were detailed to make his arrest easily located him. when they approached him and told him that they had been instructed to arrest him he smilingly inquired on what charge, at the same time, as the officers were standing within his reach, he promptly struck first one and then the other terrific blows with his clenched fist, knocking both of them down. he then ran into a brothel, or dive, in front of which he had encountered the police officers. he, of course, disappeared and escaped being arrested.
the part of the city was known, at that time, as rock street, or the five points, and was the worst and lowest district of not only the city of buffalo, but probably as bad, if not worse, than any other in the country. it consisted principally of low dance halls and drinking places which were patronized almost entirely by the lower grade of sailors and canal boat men. as this district was bounded on the east by the erie canal and on the west by the buffalo creek, which is the lake harbor of buffalo, it was consequently a peninsula, narrow, and frequented by the class before mentioned.
after his escapade with the police, daly, on the same night, made his escape from buffalo and went direct to oil city, pa., where he had some friends and acquaintances. he arrived[pg 281] at oil city the next day about noon, where he met parties whom he knew and from whom he heard about the prowess of a valuable bulldog, owned by a respectable citizen named ziegenheim, and who was connected with a meat market on center street. this man daly was about thirty-five years of age, was over six feet in height and weighed at least two hundred pounds. he had an athletic build, was dark complexioned and somewhat marked by the after effects of small-pox. he had rather small dark eyes and the most villainous expression i think that i have ever seen. he was considered an expert boxer and was known to be a powerful man—at least by the two police officers whom he had knocked down and escaped from in buffalo. i had heard of daly and knew of his record, but i had never seen him until i was called upon to arrest him in oil city, and i did not know who he was at that time.
when daly had learned from the friends he had met in oil city of the valuable fighting bulldog before mentioned, he at once went to the meat market, where he found mr. ziegenheim, and tried to purchase the dog from him for the purpose of using him as a fighting dog. ziegenheim informed daly, in a polite but firm manner, that his dog was not for sale, as it was a pet of his wife and children, and that he would not part with the dog under any consideration, and especially not for the purpose daly proposed to use him. daly became angry and assaulted ziegenheim, who was fully as large a man as daly, but was a gentleman, and not a fighter. ziegenheim immediately sought refuge behind a large, round table, known as a meat block, which is used in all meat markets to cut meat on. it was probably about four feet in diameter, and by keeping on the opposite side ziegenheim was out of daly's reach. daly picked up a large cleaver, which he was holding in a threatening manner. at this juncture i entered[pg 282] the shop, having been summoned by mr. steele, ziegenheim's employer, who had run from the meat market to my office, which was just around the corner in the same block, and told me, in a very excited manner, that there was a big man trying to kill ziegenheim in the shop.
at the time that steele came into my office i was talking with the mayor, william m. williams, and when steele apprised me of mr. ziegenheim's danger i sprang to my feet and was about to leave for the meat market when the mayor said to me, "tom, you had better take a club or a gun with you. steele has said ziegenheim's assailant is a big, strong fellow." i hastily grabbed up a mace, or club, which was hanging on a rack near where i was standing, and hastened to the shop, where i found daly standing in front of the meat block before described, with his back to the door. he was holding a cleaver, as i said before, and facing ziegenheim, who was at the opposite side of the block. i approached him from the rear without being noticed by him, and placed my left hand upon the right collar of his coat as though i meant it, at the same time commanding him to drop the cleaver. whereupon he immediately turned his head and looked down upon me with a very disdainful and defiant expression. i saw in his eyes the most vile expression that i have ever seen. i instantly realized that i was in for trouble. he was wearing a stiff derby hat set back fairly well on his head, and it seemed to be tight fitting. upon noticing the expression on his countenance i instantly struck him as hard a blow as i could with the mace, which i held in my right hand, at the same time tightening my grip on his coat collar and vest. however, before i struck him he made a desperate backward lunge, evidently intending to get clear of me so that he might get far enough away from me to strike me with his fists. but, by reason of the strong hold i had on him i[pg 283] had drawn myself up close to him, and in his lunge he was so much heavier and larger than i that he carried me back with him, probably a distance of four or five feet. it was while he, or rather we, were making this lunge, that i struck him. my mace caught him, or more truthfully speaking, his hat, just above his forehead. it forced his hat, which was a stiff one, as stated, and drove it down over his forehead to his eyebrows. the hat was tight and the lining was leather, and with the force of the blow the lining cut the skin clear across the top of his forehead, and as the hat was forced down the skin peeled down over his forehead, and of course, the blood spurted over both of us. he fell to his knees with the force of the blow, but immediately tried to rise, when i hit him a second time, which felled him to the ground. i was still holding on to his collar, and when he fell i started for my office, dragging him behind me. he was upon his back and therefore helpless so long as i kept him moving. he regained consciousness when he had gone about a hundred feet and began pleading with me to let him up, which i did, with the understanding that he was to accompany me peaceably. this he agreed to and did.
it being at the time of the day when the streets were crowded with people, an immense crowd was attracted by the excitement, and a great many comments were heard, many of them condemning my action as brutal and uncalled for. there was both a morning and an evening paper published in oil city at that time. the evening paper got out an extra, which censured me severely, and was entirely in accord with the previous comments made by many of the crowd. they were, by the way, entirely ignorant of the facts which led me to act as i had found it necessary.
the crowd filled the mayor's office to overflowing, and among those present were a few friends and former [pg 284]associates of daly's, who succeeded in getting one of the citizens, a saloon proprietor and considered a good citizen and fairly well off, to come forward and intercede with the mayor, who at that time, in accordance with the laws of pennsylvania, was a committing magistrate. daly's friends told the mayor that they would pay his fine and the costs and would see that he left town within the hour, if he (the mayor) would let daly go upon the payment of the fine and costs for his having assaulted zeigenheim.
the mayor assented and fined him one hundred dollars and costs, three dollars and fifty cents, making a total of one hundred and three dollars and fifty cents. the citizens before mentioned paid this fine and daly left town immediately thereafter. he gave an alias to the mayor, and his friends did not betray him, and for this reason the mayor or myself did not know who he was until after he had departed.
mr. st. john, who was the editor of the evening paper, and who had so unmercifully roasted me, had always, prior to this occurrence, acted in a friendly manner towards me. the write-up that he had given me that evening, therefore, hurt my feelings beyond description.
a mr. bishop, who was the editor and proprietor of the morning paper, had come from buffalo, where he was born and raised, to oil city, and he at once took it upon himself to investigate, through correspondents in buffalo, by wire, what and who this man daly was. the result of which was that he devoted the entire first page of his paper, on the following morning, to daly's complete history, setting forth his police record, his vocation and his desperate character, as well as the full particulars and details of his most recent encounter with the two buffalo police officers, his escape from buffalo and his subsequent arrest by me at oil city. the article wound up with the most complimentary comments that[pg 285] i have ever received, considerable space being devoted to the fact of my having succeeded in subduing and arresting daly unassisted by any one. this article caused a majority of those who had so loudly denounced my actions of the previous evening to apologize for their hasty conclusions. mr. st. john, of the evening paper, was among the first to approach me with an apology for his publication of the evening before.
if i had known that it was the notorious tom daly i had been called upon to arrest i don't believe that i could have been pulled into that meat market with a large rope attached to my neck; but i was fully convinced that prompt and decisive action was required on my part the instant that i saw that vicious, and i might say, hideous expression on daly's face.
the result of this arrest had more to do with securing me the confidence and respect of the law-abiding citizens of oil city than any other one arrest that i had ever made, and i had made many of them.
