arrest of the culprit, and his cunning attempt to put
his captor out of the way in an effort
to make his escape.
in 1873, mrs. boardman, a widow woman with a large family of grown children, resided on a small farm in venango county, pennsylvania, a few miles east of oil city. she became acquainted with a hebrew doctor, who called[pg 333] himself dr. solomon steinman. he practiced medicine for a short time in and about rouseville, pennsylvania.
there were a number of producing oil wells on mrs. boardman's farm, and she, from the royalty obtained from the products of these wells, had accumulated quite a sum of money. the doctor, representing himself as a bachelor, managed to grow into the good graces of the widow, notwithstanding the fact that she was the mother of two sons who were almost as old as himself. in a remarkably short space of time the doctor succeeded in obtaining ten thousand dollars of the widow's money, having represented to her that he would invest it for her in property that would yield fabulous profits; but instead of making the investment, he quite suddenly left for parts unknown.
the widow's sons, on hearing that their mother had been swindled, reported the matter to me, i being chief of police of oil city. they requested me to locate and cause the arrest of the doctor on the charge of obtaining money under false pretense. i undertook the task of learning his whereabouts, and it seemed impossible to get any trace of him. he had disappeared from his boarding house, telling no person of his intention of leaving, and no trace could be found that would indicate where he had gone. he was at his boarding house for supper on the evening of his departure, and quietly left, after eating his evening meal, as though he was going to a cigar store or a barber shop, leaving what wardrobe he had, grip and other articles, in his room, and disappeared as effectually as though the ground had opened up and engulfed him.
the evening trains had all left the town before he had left his boarding house, so that he was obliged to have left the town on foot. no one around rouseville had ever[pg 334] seen a picture of him. he was a small man, dark complexioned, about forty-five years of age, five feet, six inches in height, and weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds, was smooth shaven, had black curly hair sprinkled with gray, and had a decided hebrew countenance. about five months after his disappearance, in looking over one of the morning papers, i noticed a short article, giving an account of a dr. lewis who had been arrested on the charge of malpractice, at bay city, michigan, the day before. this article gave a minute description of the man arrested, and from this description, which answered the one that i had of dr. steinman, i concluded that i had found the person i was looking for. i took the first train to bay city and found dr. lewis in his office, he having been released on a two thousand, five hundred dollar cash bond, which he had placed in the hands of the committing magistrate. i also learned that the man giving the name of dr. lewis was none other than dr. steinman.
he had already been indicted in venango county, pennsylvania, for obtaining money under false pretense, and the prosecuting officer of bay city, being willing to surrender him to me, i had no trouble in obtaining the necessary requisition papers. after getting the papers i left bay city with my prisoner.
i searched him carefully and took charge of all his personal effects. we took the train for detroit, michigan, arriving there in the afternoon. i locked him up in the police station until ten o'clock that evening, when i took him to the dock and boarded a steamer for cleveland, ohio. it was the old steamer northwestern, and our state room was on the upper deck, pretty well forward.
we left detroit about ten-thirty o'clock that night, and[pg 335] were due to arrive at cleveland in the morning between four and five o'clock. we retired about midnight. i assigned the upper berth to the prisoner, while i occupied the lower. as i said before, i had searched him thoroughly before leaving bay city.
about two o'clock in the morning, after leaving detroit, i dozed off to sleep, when i suddenly awakened and smelled the strong odor of chloroform. the stateroom was dark, but i reached up towards the upper berth and my hand came in contact with the doctor's. he was holding a cone that he had made from a towel, and had reached down from his berth and was holding this cone over a four ounce bottle of chloroform, and was trying to put me to sleep for good, but the first breath that i had inhaled, after he had placed the chloroform over my face, aroused me. i grabbed his arm, pulled him out of his berth onto the deck in front of the room, and would have thrown him into lake erie, were it not for the fact that he yelled at the top of his voice, and aroused the lookout on duty at the forward end of the vessel, and also the wheelman, both of whom reached us in time to prevent me from drowning the doctor. if i had carried out my intention of throwing him overboard, nothing could have saved him from drowning. i then made him dress himself and took him down to the forecastle, where the captain placed two of the crew to guard him until we arrived in cleveland.
i have never learned how, or where, the doctor secured the bottle of chloroform, as i had searched him thoroughly, and i am positive he did not have it on him when we left bay city, and have come to the conclusion that he must have secured it while he was in the lock-up at detroit. of course, i did not search him there.
during the civil war, on december 20, 1861, i received[pg 336] a gun shot wound above the right knee, at the battle of drainesville, virginia, and before the doctor began to dress the wound he administered chloroform to me. the after effects of the stuff were very disagreeable and i did not get over it for a long time, and resolved that i would never again take chloroform under any circumstances. i really suffered more from the nasty stuff than i did from the wound. this, i presume, accounts for the shock the odor of the chloroform produced on me.
i arrived with the prisoner at oil city in due time. he was tried at the first term of court thereafter, and convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of ten years.
i succeeded in locating and recovering nearly five thousand dollars of the money the doctor had fraudulently secured from the widow. this was returned to her by due process of law.
