The gentlemen sat still in the coach some minutes after they were gone, till one of them contrived to untie himself, and unbound the rest. After some consultation, it was thought best to return to the city. When they arrived at the post-office a person was despatched to the scene of the robbery, where he found the mail bags cut open and the packages and newspapers scattered around, but the villains had carried away the letters.
On the 16th of December, Wilson carried one of the watches they had taken to Crosswell Holmes, a pawnbroker, and pledged it for twenty dollars. He said he was a carpenter unable to get employment, and was therefore obliged to raise money on his watch. He agreed to pay Mr. Holmes in — days, with two dollars commission, and signed the obligation “John James, North Second street.”
On the 21st, Porter carried another watch (a golden one) to a Mr. Prentiss, a pawnbroker, and asked sixty dollars on it. Mr. Prentiss refused to advance more than forty-five, when Porter left him, saying he could get fifty anywhere. On this occasion he represented himself as a carpenter, who wanted money to repair his house. The next day Wilson called on Mr. Prentiss with the same watch, saying the gentleman who owned it had made up his mind to take the forty-five dollars offered, and that he would act as his agent. Mr. Prentiss gave him the money, and wrote a receipt, which Wilson signed “George Brown, for John Keys.”
Nothing occurred to direct suspicion to either of our rogues as the robbers of the mail till the middle of January, when a Mr. Jeffers, a police officer of Baltimore, found reason to believe that Poteet and Wilson were the persons who shot at the keeper of the penitentiary and at the stage driver before mentioned. He sought them, and found Wilson first, in a tavern. The robber drew a pistol from his pocket and bade Mr. Jeffers stand off, but the latter seized him by the wrist and collar and held him till the landlord came into the room. The landlord took the pistol from Wilson at the request of Jeffers, who then asked the culprit for the other, but he denied having any. However, after the police officer had nearly strangled him he gave up another. Mr. Jeffers thrust him into a chair, when he said, “Let me stand up, and I’ll give it to you.” With the landlord’s assistance, Mr. Jeffers took him to a magistrate’s office. He was committed to prison.
The next day Mr. Jeffers visited him, and told him he had heard that two men had offered to pawn a gold watch, and he believed from the description that he was one of them. At the same time he gave Wilson a description of the other man. Wilson replied that it was Porter, and but for him, he, Wilson, would not have been in this difficulty. He added that Porter had a better right to suffer than himself, and he would therefore disclose the whole matter. His story, as told to Mr. Jeffers, was as follows.
He had gone out three several times with Porter to rob the Lancaster mail, but his heart failing him, they returned without effecting their purpose. When Porter and Poteet proposed to rob the Reading mail, he would have had nothing to do with it, had he not feared that Porter would kill him if he refused. He then described the robbery, and the part each had taken in it, pretty much as we have related above. While the pillage was going on, he said, he was very anxious to get away, but Porter declared he would not hurry himself. He added that he was sorry he had ever seen Porter. He was steady at work in Philadelphia till he came and seduced him from his employment. He believed Porter would as lief kill a man as eat his breakfast. All this confession took place without any inducement on the part of Jeffers.
This confession put the police of Baltimore on the look-out for Porter and Poteet. On the ninth of February, Mr. Stewart, a constable, met Porter in the street, and accosted him with a question concerning his health. He added that he had been looking for him all day, and must now take him with him. Porter asked him what he wanted, and on what authority he arrested him. The officer replied that he carried his authority in his face, and then asked if he knew Wilson or Poteet, or could tell where they might be found. He denied all knowledge of them, but followed Mr. Stewart quietly to his house. The officer searched him, and took from him a powder-flask and a pair of pistols. Porter asked if he meant to keep them, and the constable replied that he did. Porter very sternly said, “I hope I shall live to buy another pair for somebody.” He admitted before a magistrate that he knew Poteet.
Mr. Stewart conducted Wilson to Philadelphia first, and Porter afterwards. After they got into the stage, Wilson said that he believed his case was hopeless, and that he would plead guilty to every charge brought against him. Mr. Stewart asked him if he were not afraid to undertake to rob a stage so full of passengers. “No,” replied the villain, “three good men could rob a dozen at any time.”
Poteet was also arrested, and consented to save his own life by becoming state’s evidence.
Porter’s demeanor after his arrest was marked by that cool courage that seems to have been the only favorable trait in his character. He spoke freely of his past life, without showing the least compunction, and said that if the passengers had resisted, he would not have scrupled to shed blood.