Hundreds of persons have been murdered by slow poisoning. In such cases the detective must look for the relative who would benefit by the death of the person murdered. Persons very often are murdered so that the insurance they may carry can be claimed. It should be ascertained if the person murdered had any quarrels with business associates, relatives, friends, or other persons, or if the enmity of any person in particular was incurred at any time. If a weapon was used to cause death, it should be ascertained from the nature of the wound what kind of weapon was used, and if the weapon prove to be a pistol, its calibre, make, etc., should be gone into. Regardless of the kind of weapon used, if its nature can be established, the detective should endeavor to learn where it was secured, who was known to be in possession of, or known to have carried such a weapon. In murder cases every clue, no matter how small or vague, should be run out by the detective. The smallest clues often develop the best results. As the circumstances in every murder case will differ, the detective must use his own judgment as to how to proceed. Application of good judgment and good common sense methods have never failed to bring about results.
[CHAPTER VII]
GRAFTERS
A class of criminals who are, in my opinion, the most obnoxious of any the detective may have to deal with, and of which class only a small percentage are detected and convicted are the grafters. I will venture to state that not more than one such criminal in every hundred finds his way behind prison bars, where all thieves of this class rightly belong. The general public cannot perceive how prevalent this form of stealing has become. The reason probably is because the grafter of today usually moves in the best society and often holds a position of trust, which facts tend to divert suspicion from him and from his crooked dealings.
I am sure that a successful career awaits any ambitious young detective who will devote his time and energy to hunting down grafters. One or two successful cases will start the detective on the road to success. The field for detectives for this class of work is unlimited, remuneration is the best, and better still, the grafter is by far the easiest of all criminals to catch. It is as easy to catch grafters as it is to catch fish, the process being simply a matter of baiting a hook; the grafter, in his greed for money, will do the rest.
In both large and small cities, and in country districts as well, grafters are daily gathering in ill gotten money in many different ways. Criminal records of most of our states show that men, while holding important positions of trust in our state departments, have been detected and found guilty of various forms of grafting. The same records, in a good many of our large cities, will show the same. I believe that one of the best things that could possibly be done by the governors of our states, by the mayors of our cities, and by our prosecuting attorneys, would be to employ annually a first-class, reliable detective to investigate thoroughly into the various interests of the public which they control to ascertain if grafting exists. Grafting has usually been found where such investigations have been made.
The various ways by which men who have held official positions in state, county and city governments have been known to profit by grafting would be a long story to relate. Regarding grafting by public officials, there is one thing in particular that the detective should always keep in mind, that being that political records show that thousands of men throughout the country have had themselves elected to public office, the full term of which netted them in salary often only half the amount expended by them in having themselves elected to office. When such persons are elected to public office it very often is the beginning of grafting by them in some form.
We will grant that some of these men were public spirited citizens, and while in office may have served the public at their own expense. Nevertheless, when we know that a man has actually bought his way, and paid dearly to have himself elected to office, that man will at least bear watching. I have in mind the case of a certain county official in a western state, who, some years ago, succeeded in having himself elected to office, which office, for its entire term of three years, carried a salary amounting to $2,400.00. This man was known to have expended close to $5,000.00 to become elected. Within a year after taking office he was ousted by the people of the county, who demanded his resignation, it having been found that his campaign for election was financed by a certain manufacturing company, and that after taking office he had accepted certain additional sums of money to protect the interests of the same concern.