Hastening to New York in response to the telegram sent him, Robert Pinkerton examined the evidence already collected by his representative, and then himself questioned all persons in any way concerned in the handling of the money. Mr. Pinkerton, after his investigation, was not so sure as some persons were that the package had been stolen by employees of the express company. He inclined rather to the opinion that, in the rush of business in the express office, the false package, badly made up though it was, might have been passed by one of the clerks. This conclusion turned his suspicions first toward the two bank messengers. Of these he was not long in deciding Dominie Earle to be, in all probability, innocent. While he had known of instances where old men, after years of unimpeachable life, had suddenly turned to crime, he knew such cases to be infrequent, and he decided that Earle's was not one of them. Of the innocence of the other messenger, Crawford, he was not so sure. He began a careful study of his record.
Edward Sturgis Crawford at this time was about twenty-seven years old, a man of medium height, a decided blond, with large blue eyes, and of a rather effeminate type. He went scrupulously dressed, had white hands with carefully manicured nails, parted his hair in the middle, and altogether was somewhat of a dandy. He had entered the bank on the recommendation of a wealthy New-Yorker, a young man about town, who, strange to say, had made Crawford's acquaintance, and indeed struck up quite a friendship with him, while the latter was serving in the humble capacity of conductor on a Broadway car. This was about a year before the time of the robbery. Thus far Crawford had attended to his work satisfactorily, doing nothing to arouse suspicion, unless it was indulging a tendency to extravagance in dress. His salary was but forty-two dollars a month, and yet he permitted himself such luxuries as silk underclothes, fine patent-leather shoes, and other apparel to correspond. Pushing back further into Crawford's record, Mr. Pinkerton learned that he had grown up in the town of Hancock, New York, where he had been accused of stealing sixty dollars from his employer and afterward of perpetrating a fraud upon an insurance company. Putting all these facts together, Mr. Pinkerton decided that, in spite of a perfectly self-possessed manner and the good opinion of his employers, Crawford would stand further watching. His general conduct subsequent to the robbery was, however, such as to convince every one, except the dogged detective, that he was innocent of this crime. In vain did "shadows" follow him night and day, week after week; they discovered nothing. He retained his place in the bank, doing the humble duties of messenger with the same regularity as before, and living apparently in perfect content with the small salary he was drawing. His expenses were lightened, it is true, by an arrangement voluntarily offered by his friend, the young man about town, who invited him to live in his own home on Thirty-eighth Street, whereby not only was he saved the ordinary outlay for lodgings, but many comforts and luxuries were afforded him that would otherwise have been beyond his reach.
Thus three months went by with no result; then four, five, six months; and, finally, all but a year. Then, suddenly, in April, 1889, Crawford took his departure for Central America, giving out to his friends that he was going there to assume the management of a banana plantation of sixty thousand acres, owned by his wealthy friend and benefactor.
Before Crawford sailed, however, the "shadows" had informed Mr. Pinkerton of Crawford's intention, and asked instructions. Should they arrest the man before he took flight, or should they let him go? Mr. Pinkerton realized that he was dealing with a man who, if guilty, was a criminal of unusual cleverness and cunning. His arrest would probably accomplish nothing, and might spoil everything. There was little likelihood that the stolen money would be found on Crawford's person; he would probably arrange some safer way for its transmission. Perhaps it had gone ahead of him to Central America weeks before.
"We'll let him go," said Mr. Pinkerton, with a grim smile; "only we'll have some one go with him."
The Pinkerton representative employed to shadow Crawford on the voyage sent word, by the first mail after their arrival in Central America, that the young man had rarely left his state-room, and that whenever forced to do so had employed a colored servant to stand on guard so that no one could go inside.
Nothing more occurred, however, to justify the suspicion against Crawford until the early part of 1890, when the persistent efforts of the detectives were rewarded by an important discovery. It was then that Robert Pinkerton learned that Crawford had told a deliberate lie when examined before the bank officials in regard to his family relations in New York. He had stated that his only relative in New York was a brother, Marvin Crawford, who was then driving a streetcar on the Bleecker Street line. Now it came to the knowledge of Mr. Pinkerton that Crawford had in the city three married aunts and several cousins. The reason for Crawford's having concealed this fact was presently brought to light through the testimony of one of the aunts, who, having been induced to speak, not without difficulty, stated that on Sunday, May 6, 1888, two days after the robbery, her nephew had called at her house, and given her a package which he said contained gloves, and which he wished her to keep for him. It was about this time that the papers contained the first news of the robbery, and, her suspicions having been aroused, she picked a hole in the paper covering of the package large enough to let her see that there was money inside. Somewhat disturbed, she took the package to her husband, who opened it and found that it contained two thousand dollars in bank-notes. Realizing the importance of this discovery, the husband told his wife that when Crawford came back to claim the package she should refer him to him, which she did.
Some days later, on learning from his aunt that she had spoken to her husband about the package, Crawford became greatly excited, and told her she had made a dreadful mistake. A stormy scene followed with his uncle, in which the latter positively refused to render him the money until he was satisfied that Crawford was its rightful possessor. A few days later Crawford's young friend, the man about town, called on the uncle, and stated that the money in the package belonged to him and must be surrendered. The uncle was still obdurate; and when Crawford and his friend became violent in manner, he remarked meaningly that if they made any more trouble he would deliver the package of money to the Adams Express Company and let the company decide to whom it belonged. This brought the angry claimants to their senses, and Crawford's friend left the house and never returned. Finally Crawford's uncle compromised the contention by giving his nephew five hundred dollars out of the two thousand, and retaining the balance himself, in payment, one must suppose, for his silence. At any rate, he kept fifteen hundred dollars, and also a receipt in Crawford's handwriting for the five hundred dollars paid to him.
Other members of the family recalled the fact that a few days after the robbery Crawford had left in his aunt's store-room a valise, which he had subsequently called for and taken away. None of them had seen the contents of the valise, but they remembered that Crawford on the second visit had remained alone in the store-room for quite a time, perhaps twenty minutes, and after his departure they found there a rubber band like those used at the bank. The detectives also discovered that on the 15th of May, 1888, eleven days after the robbery, Crawford had rented a safety-deposit box at a bank in the Fifth Avenue Hotel building, under the name of Eugene Holt. On the 18th of May he had exchanged this box for a larger one. During the following months he made several visits to the box, but for what purpose, was not known.
On presenting this accumulated evidence to the Adams Express Company, along with his own deductions, Robert Pinkerton was not long in convincing his employers that the situation required in Central America the presence of some more adroit detective than had yet been sent there. The difficulty of the case was heightened by the fact that Crawford had established himself in British Honduras, and that the extradition treaty between the United States and England did not then, as it does now, provide for the surrender of criminals guilty of such offenses as that which Crawford was believed to have committed. Crawford could be arrested, therefore, only by being gotten into another country by some clever manœuver. The man best capable of carrying out such a manœuver was Robert Pinkerton himself; and, accordingly, the express company, despite the very considerable expense involved, and fully aware that the result must be uncertain, authorized Mr. Pinkerton to go personally in pursuit of Crawford.