facts regarding the conviction of an international
and great northern baggageman of many crimes.
early in the '80s the railroad companies of the southwest were troubled very much by the continued receipt of complaints of passengers from all quarters of the united states, and some from foreign countries, and their filing claims for articles which had been stolen from their trunks and other baggage while in transit.
the iron mountain railroad company and the international & great northern railroad company were both[pg 350] parts of the gould system, and formed a through and direct line between st. louis, galveston and san antonio, texas in the winter season both galveston and san antonio were winter resorts, largely patronized by health seekers. the complaints became so numerous that they were turned over to my department for investigation.
i took the matter up and after a long and tedious investigation decided to pay special attention to one george hersogg, who was employed as train baggage-master, running between longview and san antonio, texas. in my investigation i had noticed that nearly every case of lost articles from baggage were traced to the train on which hersogg was baggage-master, therefore i concluded to test him first.
hersogg occupied a room in a private boarding house when at longview, where he had a twenty-four hour layover. i sent one of my operatives, george herbert, to longview, who represented himself as a railroad man, and he secured a room in the same boarding house where hersogg was stopping. after remaining there for a few days herbert became acquainted with hersogg and with his runs, and when he would be absent from his room. having accomplished this, herbert became indisposed, and for that reason was compelled to remain in his room for a few days.
in the meantime impressions of certain keyholes had been taken, and a number of skeleton keys had been sent to herbert at longview. he had noticed that hersogg had two rather large trunks in his room, and when the proper opportunity presented itself he examined the contents of mr. hersogg's trunks, unbeknown to the inmates of the boarding house, and to herbert's great surprise he found in one of the trunks a silver mounted smith & [pg 351]wesson, pearl handled revolver, which he immediately recognized as the property of the hon. joseph harris, who, at that time, was circuit attorney for the city of st. louis, but was in san antonio for his health. herbert also found a number of articles of jewelry, which he knew to be the property of mrs. harris. in this connection i will say that herbert had been a member of the st. louis police department prior to his entering my service, and while there he had been on detached service at the circuit attorney's office, in which capacity he had acted for about two years, thereby meeting mr. harris daily, and seeing his wife very frequently, and becoming familiar with both harris' revolver and mrs. harris' jewelry.
upon the discovery of the revolver herbert promptly reported to me by wire code. up to that time we had had no report of the harris robbery, and, in fact, did not know that mr. harris had gone to san antonio. on receipt of herbert's report, i at once got into communication with harris at san antonio, and he verified the loss of the articles which herbert had reported he had found in the trunk of the baggageman at longview.
herbert also found other articles, the loss of which had been reported from various sections of the country. the most valuable article was a diamond and emerald ring, which contained one large diamond and two small sized emeralds. this ring was the property of a lady who lived at peoria, ill., and who had gone over the route to san antonio some months before the discovery of it in hersogg's trunk. she valued the ring at about $800.00.
we arrested hersogg, and he was tried in due time convicted and served four years in one of the state prisons of texas.
many of the stolen articles which were recovered were fully identified, and returned to their owners.
it developed that hersogg had provided himself with skeleton keys of all sizes and styles. having a whole baggage car to himself, he was thus able to open and inspect all the baggage at his leisure. he was afforded ample time between stations in which to loot the contents of the baggage car, and strap and lock them up again, leaving no trace on the outside of the baggage having ever been tampered with.
the capture and conviction of hersogg was not only a source of relief to the gould system, but was an equal relief to all connecting lines.
