The night of the loot was rainy, and the roads were muddy. When the robbery was discovered, fresh wagon and horse tracks were found leading to and from the village. The tracks showed a broken shoe on one of the horse’s feet. These tracks were traced to Scranton, where a search of the livery stables discovered the horse with the broken shoe.
This led to the arrest of the two sporting men, one of whom had hired the rig. One of these gentlemen squealed, implicating Shinburn, who, some weeks later, was arrested and taken to Wilkesbarre. Here, pending a hearing of the case, he was kept at a hotel in charge of a special deputy sheriff, who, on retiring to bed at night, handcuffed himself and Shinburn together.
Shinburn saw that he was caught dead to rights, and that, unless he could escape, he had a term of imprisonment before him. He therefore broached the subject of escape to his jailer, and finally induced him to consent to permit his prisoner to pick the handcuff lock and get away.
For this Shinburn agreed to give his jailer two thousand dollars. He did not have this amount with him, but, by convincing the deputy that he had nothing to lose, the latter was induced to take Shinburn’s promise of payment. Therefore, about midnight, while the deputy was snoring like a trooper, Shinburn picked the lock of the cuff on his own wrist with a common pen which had been bent to serve the purpose.
There was another guard in an adjoining room, with an open door between. Therefore Shinburn quietly gathered up his own clothes, taking also his jailer’s overcoat and gun, and slipped out into the hall and there dressed himself. He then dropped to the ground from a window, walked to Pittston, boarded a gravity railroad coal car, and rode to Waymart. From here he was driven to Great Bend on the Erie Railroad, where he boarded a train and landed safely in New York.
And now comes the sequel, which proves that crooks of a certain grade are as careful of their promises as are the most honored business men. Shinburn did not find it convenient to pay the promised two thousand dollars until July, 1869. Then he sought to reach his whilom jailer, but learned that he had left Wilkesbarre. All inquiries as to where he had gone failed to locate him. Thereupon Shinburn inserted a personal in the New York Herald, so worded that the person for whom it was intended, and he alone, would understand it. After weeks of advertising, the man was heard from. He came on to New York at Shinburn’s expense, where he was paid the promised two thousand dollars.
I was present when he received this money, and I can tell you he was a happy man. He said:—
“It’s lucky that I did not get this money when you escaped. If I had, it would all be gone with the rest of my money. I lost everything I had in a deal I went into, and have been dead broke ever since. This money will start me to going again.”
I wish I could say that with that money he built up an enormous fortune; but as a matter of fact I never heard of him after he left us, so do not know what finally became of him.