Twenty Years a Detective
in the Wickedest City in the World.

CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE.

Twenty Years a Detective

IN THE WICKEDEST CITY IN THE WORLD.

20,000 ARRESTS MADE
12,900 CONVICTIONS ON STATE AND CITY LAWS
200 PENITENTIARY CONVICTIONS

The Devil and the Grafter

AND

HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER TO DECEIVE,
SWINDLE AND DESTROY MANKIND

AN ARMY OF 600,000 CRIMINALS AT WAR WITH
SOCIETY AND RELIGION

By CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE

The World-Famous Criminologist and Detective

"The Incorruptible Sherlock Holmes of America"

After twenty years of heroic warfare and scores of hair-breadth
escapes, in his unceasing battle with the devil and the grafter,
Mr. Wooldridge tells in a graphic manner how Wildcat Insurance,
Fake Mines and Oil Wells, Turf Swindlers, Home Buying Swindlers,
Fake Bond and Investment Companies, Bucket Shops, Blind
Pools in Grain and Stocks, Pool Rooms and Hand Books, Fake
Mail Order Houses, ordinary Gambling Houses, Panel Houses,
Matrimonial Bureaus, Fake Underwriting, Fake Banks, Collecting
Agencies, Fake Medicine Companies, Clairvoyants, Fortune Tellers,
Palmists and other criminals of all classes operate, and how their
organizations have been broken up and destroyed by hundreds.

THE WORK ALSO CONTAINS

Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge's "Never-Fail" System

For Detecting and Outwitting All Classes of
Grafters and Swindlers

Copyright, 1908,
BY
CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE.
Chicago Publishing Co.,
83-91 Plymouth Place,
Chicago.

[PREFACE.]

In presenting this work to the public the author has no apologies to make nor favors to ask. It is a simple history of his connection with the Police Department of Chicago, compiled from his own memoranda, the newspapers, and the official records. The matter herein contained differs from those records only in details, as many facts are given in the book which have never been made public. The author has no disposition to malign any one, and names are used only in cases in which the facts are supported by the archives of the Police Department and of the criminal court. In the conscientious discharge of his duties as an officer of the law, the author has in all cases studied the mode of legal procedure. His aim has been solely to protect society and the taxpayer, and to punish the guilty. The evidences of his sincerity accompany the book in the form of letters from the highest officers in the city government, from the mayor down to the precinct captain, and furnish overwhelming testimony as to his endeavors to serve the public faithfully and honestly. No effort has been made to bestow self-praise, and where this occurs, it is only a reproduction, perhaps in different language, of the comments indulged in by the newspapers of Chicago and other cities, whose reporters are among the brightest and most talented young men in all the walks and professions of life. To them the officer acknowledges his obligations in many instances. Often he has worked hand-in-hand with them. They have traveled with him in the dead hours of the night, in his efforts to suppress crime or track a criminal, and have often given him assistance in the way of suggestions.

He now submits his work and his record to the public, hoping it will give him a kindly reception.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS.]

Preface[7]-[8]
Testimonials[11]
Biography of the Author[27]
Graft Nation's Worst Foe[51]
The "Never-Fail" System to Beat the Get-Rich-Quick Swindles[112]
The Best Rules for Health[116]
Matrimonial Agents Coining Cupid's Wiles[119]
The Great Mistake. Our Penal System is a Relic of Early Savagery[192]
Vagrants, Who and Why[204]
The Young Criminals and How They Are Bred in Chicago[230]
Wiles of Fortune Telling[246]
Wife or Gallows[267]
A Clever Shop Lifter (Fainting Bertha)[272]
Front[284]
The Criminal's Last Chance Gone[288]
Burglary a Science[311]
Cell Terms for "Con" Men[341]
Panel-House Thieves[348]
Gambling and Crime[358]
A Heartless Fraud[401]
The Bogus Mine[409]
A Giant Swindle[418]
Quacks[426]
Fabulous Losses in Big Turf Frauds[448]
Fake Drug Vendors[462]
Bucket-Shop[471]
On "Sure Things." How to Learn Their Real Character[482]
Huge Swindles Bared[487]
The Social Evil[500]
Suppress Manufacture and Sale of Dangerous Weapons[508]
Getting Something for Nothing[517]
Want Ad. Fakers[527]
Millionaire Banker and Broker Arrested[533]
Dora McDonald[551]
Mike McDonald[581]

[PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.]

The two arch enemies of happiness and prosperity are the Devil and the Grafter. The church is fighting the Devil, the law is fighting the Grafter. The great mass of human beings, as they journey along the pathway of life, know not the dangers that lie in wait from these two sources. Honest themselves, credulous and innocent, they trust their fellow man.

Statistics show that four-fifths of all young men and women, and nine-tenths of the widows are swindled out of the money and property that comes to them by inheritance. Every year thousands of laboring men spend their hard earnings and beggar their families by falling in traps laid for them. Thousands of innocent girls and women, struggling for a respectable livelihood, fall victims to the demons who traffic in human honor.

The Grafters spend millions upon millions of dollars annually in advertising in America alone. There is not a Post Office in the land where every mail does not carry their appeals and thieving schemes; and they collect hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the trusting public. The State and National Governments spend millions of dollars a year in trying to catch and curb these grafters. Some of Satan's worst grafters are found in the church, working the brethren; and he has them by thousands in every walk of life.

The object of this book is to protect the public by joining hands with the church and the government in their work against the Devil and the Grafter. The author reveals and exposes the Grafter with his schemes, his traps, his pitfalls and his victims. The reader of this book will be fortified and armed with knowledge, facts and law, that should forever protect him, his family and his friends from the wiles of the Grafters.

It is with the confidence that this work fills an imperative need, and that it should be in the hands of every minister, every physician, every teacher and every mother and father in the land, that the author and publisher send it forth on what they believe to be a mission of good to the world.

[WORDS OF COMMENDATION.]

From Chas. S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois:

"It is with pleasure that I am able to say that Detective Wooldridge has conducted all his cases with zeal and intelligence."

J. M. Longenecker, former State's Attorney, says:

"Mr. Wooldridge has thorough knowledge of evidence and is an expert in preparing a criminal case for trial. I have found him to be one of the most efficient officers in the Department."

R. W. McClaughrey, Warden of U. S. Prison at Leavenworth, Kans., Ex-Warden of Illinois State Penitentiary and Ex-Chief of Police of Chicago, says in a letter to the author:

"You were not only subject to bribes, but also frequently a target of perjurers and scoundrels of every degree. You came out from every ordeal unscathed, and maintained a character for integrity and fearlessness in the discharge of your duties that warranted the highest commendation. It gives me pleasure to make this statement."

J. J. Badenoch, Ex-General Supt. of Police, writing Mr. Wooldridge, says:

"Dear Sir—Before I retire from the command of the Police Department, I desire to thank you for your bravery and loyal service. The character of your work being such that bribes are frequently offered by the criminal class, it becomes necessary to select men of perfect integrity for the purpose, and I now know that I made no mistake in selecting you for this trying duty. It affords me great pleasure to commend you for your bravery and fidelity to your duties."

Nicholas Hunt, Inspector Commanding Second Division, says:

"I have known Clifton R. Wooldridge for the last ten years. As an officer he is par-excellent, absolutely without fear and with a detective ability so strongly developed it almost appealed to me as an extra sense. If I wanted to secure the arrest of a desperate man, I would put Mr. Wooldridge in charge of the case in preference to any one I know, as, with his bravery, he has discretion."

Geo. M. Shippy, Chief of Police, of Chicago, writing Mr. Wooldridge, says:

"Your heart is in the right place, and while I have always found you stern and persistent in the pursuit and prosecution of criminals, you were very kind and considerate, and I can truthfully say that more than one evil doer was helped to reform and was given material assistance by you."

Luke P. Colleran, Chief of Detectives, says:

"His book is most worthy and truthful and commendable; and I take pleasure in commending it to all."