The Spiritualists and the Detectives

by Allan Pinkerton

• CHAPTER I.
• "Kal'm'zoo!"—The Home of the Nettletons.—Lilly Nettleton.—A wild Heart and a burning Brain. [13]
• CHAPTER II.
• The "Circuit-Rider."—Mr. Pinkerton and these Gospel Knights-Errant in the early Days.—The Rev. Mr. Bland appears.—"And Satan came also!"—A "charge" is established.—A Compact "where the golden maple-leaves fall."—Bland departs.—"The scared form of a young Woman steals away from her Home!" [19]
• CHAPTER III.
• Lilly in Detroit.—First and last Remorse.—The reverend Villain and his Victim enjoy the Hospitality of the Michigan Exchange Hotel.—A Scene.—"Bland, am I to go to your Mother's, as you promised?"—The Clergyman(?) "crazed."—Everything, save Respectability.—A Woman's Will.—And a Man's Cajolement. [27]
• CHAPTER IV.
• Tells how the Rev. Mr. Bland preached a Funeral Sermon.—Shows a dainty Cottage, holding more than the Neighbors knew.—Installs Lilly as a Clergyman's Mistress.—Reverts to a Desolate Home.—Introduces Dick Hosford, a returned "Forty-Niner," who begins a despairing Search.—And shows that unholy, as well as true Love, does not always run smoothly. [33]
• CHAPTER V.
• Reckless Fancies.—The "Cursed Church Interests."—Bland's "little Bird" becomes a busy Bird.—Merges into a great Raven of the Night.—Gathers together Valuables.—And while a folded Handkerchief lies across the Clergyman's Face, steals away into the Storm and the Night.—Gone!—"Are ye all dead in there?"—Drifting together.—"Don't give the Gal that Ticket!"—A great-hearted Man.—The Rev. Bland officiates at a Wedding.—Competence and Contentment. [39]
• CHAPTER VI.
• Mr. Pinkerton is called upon.—Mr. Harcout, a ministerial-looking Man, with an After-dinner Voice, appears.—A Case with a Woman in it, as is usually the case.—Mr. Pinkerton hesitates.—An anxious Millionaire. [47]
• CHAPTER VII.
• In Council.—Mr. Lyon the Millionaire, with Mr. Harcout the Adventurer and Adviser, appear together.—How Mr. Lyon became Mrs. Winslow's Victim.—"Our blessed Faith" and the Woman's strange Power.—A Tender Subject.—Deep Games.—A One Hundred Thousand Dollar Suit for Breach of Promise of Marriage.—A good deal of Money.—All liable to err.—A most magnificent Woman.—The "Case" taken. [55]
• CHAPTER VIII.
• The Case begun.—Mr. Pinkerton makes a preliminary Investigation at Rochester.—Mrs. Winslow, Trance Medium.—A Ride to Port Charlotte.—Harcout as a Barnacle.—Much married.—Mr. Pinkerton visits the Mediums.—Drops in at a Washington Hall Meeting.—Sees the naughty Woman.—And returns to New York convinced that the Spiritualistic Adventuress is a Woman of remarkable Ability. [65]
• CHAPTER IX.
• "Our Case."—Harcout's Egotism and Interference.—The strange Chain of Evidence.—A Trail of Spiritualism, Lust, and Licentiousness.— Superintendent Bangs locates the Detectives.—A pernicious System.—Three Old Maids named Grim.—Mr. Bangs baffled by Mr. Lyon, who won't be "worried."—One Honest Spiritualistic Doctor.—The Trail secured.—A Tigress.—Mr. Bangs "goes West." [75]
• CHAPTER X.
• Rochester.—A Profitable Field for Mrs. Winslow.—Her sumptuous Apartments.—The Detectives at Work.—Mrs. Winslow's Cautiousness.— Child-Training.—Mysterious Drives.—A dapper little Blond Gentleman.—Two Birds with one Stone.—A French Divinity.—Le Compte. [87]
• CHAPTER XI.
• The Half-way House.—A jolly German Landlord.—Detective Fox runs down Le Compte.—A "Positive, Prophetic, Healing and Trance Medium."—Harcout the Adviser reappears, and is anxious lest Mr. Lyon be drawn into some terrible Confession.—Mr. Pinkerton decides to know more about Le Compte.—And with the harassed Mr. Lyon interviews him.—Treachery and Blackmail.—"A much untractable Man."—Light shines upon Mrs. Winslow.—Another Man.—Mr. Pinkerton mad. [98]
• CHAPTER XII.
• The Raven of the Detroit Cottage in another Character.—Mrs. Winslow yearns for a retired Montreal Banker.—Love's Rivalry.—A mysterious Note.—The Response.—Another Trip to Port Charlotte by four Hearts that beat as one.—What Mr. Pinkerton, as one of the party, sees and hears.—"Jones of Rochester."—Le Compte and Mrs. Winslow resolve to fly to Paris, "the magnificent, the beautiful, the sublime!"—"My God, are they all that way?" [114]
• CHAPTER XIII.
• Mr. Pinkerton again interviews Le Compte.—And very much desires to wring his Neck.—A Bargain and Sale.—Le Compte's Story—"Little by Little, Patience by Patience."—A Toronto Merchant in Mrs. Winslow's Toils.—Detective Bristol, "the retired Banker," in Clover.—Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah individually and collectively woo him.—Ancient Maidens full of Soul.—A Signal. [128]
• CHAPTER XIV.
• Mr. Bangs on the Trail in the West.—Terre Haute and its Spiritualists.—Mrs. Deck's Boarding-house.—The Nettleton Family broken up.—Back at the Michigan Exchange.—Mother Blake's Recital.—Through Chicago to Wisconsin.—A disheartening Story.—The practical result of Spiritualism. [141]
• CHAPTER XV.
• A Chicago Divorce "Shyster."—Hosford found.—His pathetic Narrative.—More Facts. [151]
• CHAPTER XVI.
• Mrs. Winslow's Signal answered.—She endeavors to win Bristol, and shows that they are "Affinities."—Detective Fox mystified.—An Evening with the One fair Woman.—Closer Intimacies.—A Journey proposed.—Detective Bristol as a Lover. [162]
• CHAPTER XVII.
• Careful Work.—Bristol's Trick on the Bell-boy at Queen's Hotel, Toronto.—The old Merchant.—In the Toils.—A Face at the Transom.—A cowardly Puppet before a brazen Adventuress.—The Horrors of Blackmail.—"Furnished Rooms to Rent." [175]
• CHAPTER XVIII.
• Harcout again.—"Things going slow."—A Bit of personal History.—A new Tenant.—Detective Generalship.—Mrs. Winslow fears she is watched.—Mr. Pinkerton cogitates. [186]
• CHAPTER XIX.
• Mrs. Winslow becomes confidential.—Some of her Exploits.—Her Plans.—A Sample of Legal Pleading.—A fishy Story.—The Adventuress as a Somnambulist.—Detective Bristol virtuously indignant.—Failing to win the "Retired Banker," Mrs. Winslow assails Detective Fox with her Charms. [197]
• CHAPTER XX.
• A Female Spiritualist's Ideas of Political and Social Economy.—The Weaknesses of Judges.—Legal Acumen of the Adventuress.—An unfriendly Move.—Harcout attacked.—Lilly Nettleton and the Rev. Mr. Bland again together.—A Whirlwind. [209]
• CHAPTER XXI.
• Mrs. Winslow, under the Influence of "Spirits" of an earthly Order, becomes romantic, religious, and poetical.—A Trance.—Detective Bristol also proves a Poet.—A Drama to be written. [220]
• CHAPTER XXII.
• Mr. Pinkerton decides to favor Mrs. Winslow with a Series of Annoyances.—The mysterious Package.—The Detectives labor under well-merited Suspicion.—"My God! what's that?"—The deadly Phial.—This Time a Mysterious Box.—Its suggestive Contents.—"The Thing she was."—Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah assaulted.—A Punch and Judy Show. [230]
• CHAPTER XXIII.
• Cast down.—"Trifles."—A charitable Offering.—Dreariness.—Going Crazy.—An interrupted Seance.—A new Form of the Devil.—The Red-herring Expedition and its Result.—A mad Dutchman.—Desolation.—An order for a Coffin.—The sympathizing Undertaker, Mr. Boxem. [244]
• CHAPTER XXIV.
• Breaking up.—Doubts and Queries.—Suspected Developments.—The Detectives completely outwitted.—On the Trail again.—From Rochester to St. Louis.—A prophetic Hotel Clerk.—More Detectives and more Need for them.—Lightning Changes. [269]
• CHAPTER XXV.
• Still foiled.—Mr. Pinkerton perplexed over the Character of the Adventuress.—Her wonderful recuperative Powers.—A lively Chase.—Another unexpected Move.—The Detectives beaten at every Point.—From Town to Town.—Mrs. Winslow's Shrewdness.—Among the Spiritualists at Terre Haute.—Plotting.—The beautiful Belle Ruggles.—A wild Night in a ramshackle old Boarding-House.—Blood-curdling "Manifestations."—Moaning and weeping for Day.—Outwitted again.—Mr. Pinkerton makes a chance Discovery.—Success. [285]
• CHAPTER XXVI.
• Shows how Mrs. Winslow makes a new Move.—Also introduces the famous Evalena Gray, Physical Spiritual Medium, at her sumptuous Apartments on West Twenty-first Street, New York.—Reminds the Reader of the Aristocratic Classes deluded by Spiritualism.—Describes a Seance and explains the "Rope-trick," and other Spiritualistic Sleight-of-hand Performances. [307]
• CHAPTER XXVII.
• After the Seance.—Daddy, the "Accommodation Husband."—The two fascinating Swindlers in Council.—Miss Evalena's European Career.—How the Millionaire Brewer was baited and played with.—A Bit of Criminal History.—A choice Pair.—Mrs. Winslow's Aspirations and Resolves. [326]
• CHAPTER XXVIII.
• Mrs. Winslow demonstrates her Legal Ability.—The "Breach of Promise Trial."—A grand Rally of the Spiritualistic Friends of the Adventuress.—The Jury disagree.—Mrs. Winslow convicted at St. Louis of Common Barratry.—An honest Judge's Rebuke.—A new Trial.—The Spiritualistic Swindler overthrown.—Remorse and Wretchedness. [341]

PREFACE.

I WISH to anticipate any adverse criticism that may be made upon the following pages, by being as frank with the public as I trust the critics will be fair with me.

Therefore I must say at the beginning that I expect many well-meaning people to differ with me as to the propriety of giving this book to the public; but I am exceedingly hopeful that that difference will not amount to a serious condemnation. Nor can I think it will when I earnestly assert that I have caused its publication out of as honest a motive as I ever possessed; and I am sure that whatever the American people have come to think of me in other respects, they are pretty certain of my honesty.

The incidents related are true, though, out of a proper regard for my patrons and many who do not sustain that relation, but who unavoidably become identified in numberless ways with my operations in ferreting out crime and criminals, I have deemed it best to locate the story in a city several hundred miles from the place where the occurrences really transpired, and, for the same reason, have given the characters fictitious names; but the incidents are exact parallels of the original facts, and in many cases are literal transcripts of, while in every instance they agree with, the records of the case as minutely reported during its progress.

By way of further explanation, I desire to remind my readers how very difficult it is for those not familiar with the detective business to realize the masses of iniquity we are often obliged to unearth, unpalatable as the work may be and is. But while, from the nature of my business, my records are necessarily so exhaustive, and have been made so thoroughly minute, as to contain simply everything, good or bad, regarding an operation, and are, therefore, as records, reliable and true—though they thus become repositories of much that is vile—I have striven in every instance, while relating the truth and nothing but the truth, to speak of unpleasant things in as delicate a manner as possible, and in a way which, while plain enough to convey with proper force and directness the moral lessons that these developments cannot fail to impress upon the minds of all readers, might still leave no unclean thought behind them; and the only sense in which a charge that my "Detective Stories" were in any respect untrue might be sustained, would be in the fact that I have in numberless instances, for the very good reason mentioned, told immeasurably less, and never more, than the whole truth.

I make no assumption of having given in this book an exhaustive exposé of modern spiritualism, and I wish it as well remembered that I have no more prejudice against the good there is in that ism than I have against the good there is in any other ism; but my experience with these people, which has been large, has invariably been against their honesty or social purity.