He was besieged by lawyers who were anxious to defend him, but he declined their offers, telling them when the time came he had lawyers selected to defend him, and steadfastly refused to divulge their names. The second day after his arrest Dingfelter was allowed to mingle with the other prisoners in what was called the "bull ring." An allotted time is given to the prisoners each day in this place for exercise. Maxwell noticed that almost immediately after his arrest the newspapers were giving Dingfelter all the notoriety, and had dropped himself, so he hastened to make the acquaintance of one so notorious when they met in the "bull ring." This was the only opportunity of meeting him, and from the first time that Maxwell saw Dingfelter he never lost an opportunity of talking with him, and he stuck to Dingfelter like the proverbial fly to the horse. The first time Maxwell approached Dingfelter he rushed up to him and said, "You are Dingfelter, I believe." Dingfelter replied that he was and Maxwell then said, "They seem to have a strong case against you." "You will have to excuse me, sir, I don't want to be considered impolite," Dingfelter replied, "but I must decline to talk to any one in this place about my case, as you call it. I don't believe it would be a good thing for me or any other person to talk about a charge that is pending against them in a place of this kind. I shall be glad to talk with you on any other subject, however, but I trust that you will hereafter refrain from asking me any questions regarding the charge now pending against me in court, and then, I don't know you."
Maxwell hastily said, "Oh, I am Maxwell. I am the fellow who is charged with the murder of that man Preller, who was killed in the Southern Hotel, and whose body was found in a trunk. I was arrested at Auckland, New Zealand, and brought back here to St. Louis to stand trial, but I have been assured by my attorneys that I will be acquitted. They have no proof against me, and just as soon as I can get a trial, why, of course, I will go free."
"So you are Maxwell," said Dingfelter. "I have been reading in the papers about you, and if you will pardon me for saying it, it seems to me that you have already been talking too much about your case. If you are not guilty of the crime with which you stand charged, why you ought to be acquitted, and I hope you will be."
After this first interview between Maxwell and Dingfelter, he and many other prisoners looked upon Dingfelter as being a wise and unusually smart prisoner. Dingfelter was in jail forty-seven days, and during all that time Maxwell never let an opportunity pass without talking to him. I received daily reports from my operative, a task which I found very difficult, and it became more difficult by reason of the Southwestern Railroad strike, which broke out on March 4, 1886, and continued during Dingfelter's stay in the St. Louis jail. Being Chief Special Agent for the Gould system, my time was occupied in protecting the railroad company's property, and in apprehending people who were continually committing illegal acts. I was occupied almost day and night in this work.
From Dingfelter's daily reports I learned that Maxwell had admitted that he had killed Preller for the purpose of obtaining seven one hundred dollar bills that he knew Preller to have, as he had shown him the money in the Adams House at Boston, before they separated there. He also had pawned the plunder for the money which had brought him to America, and that he had made Preller believe that he was connected with the titled family of Maxwell, that his right name was Hugh M. Brookes, and that he would like to place himself under the guidance and advice of an able crook, as he believed Dingfelter to be, when he gained his liberty, as he was sure he would, in the near future. He told Dingfelter in detail how he had killed Preller by administering an overdose of morphia, hypodermically; of how, after dinner on the fatal Sunday, Preller had complained of a pain in his stomach; that he, Maxwell, saw that was his opportunity for carrying out the plan he had already formed for taking Preller's life in order to secure the money; that he had provided himself with a large quantity of morphia and the hypodermic syringe, and that he had also procured four ounces of chloroform, for the purpose of administering it to Preller immediately before death, to prevent the body from becoming rigid, as it does immediately after death, "as," said Maxwell in his explanation to Dingfelter, "I had to conceal his long body in the trunk, which was so much shorter, and I did not want to cut off his limbs, fearing that the trace of the blood would betray me."
On receiving Dingfelter's report relative to the use of the morphia in the murder, I at once reported the fact to Messrs. Clover and McDonald, who immediately arranged with two of the most prominent doctors in St. Louis to examine the body of Preller for traces of the morphia. Messrs. Clover, McDonald, the doctors, an official of Bellefontaine Cemetery, and myself, went to the cemetery, where Preller's body had been buried, exhumed the body, and the doctors made the necessary examination, keeping what they discovered to themselves, and they did not divulge anything about it until called on to testify at Maxwell's trial, when they said that the traces of the hypodermic syringe were plainly visible on the arm, and that traces of morphia were found. When Maxwell was arrested a quantity of morphia was found among his effects, and also the hypodermic syringe, but up to this discovery neither had been considered in connection with the murder, as it had been taken for granted that Preller's death had been caused by chloroform. Of course, the exhuming of the body, and the arrangement that had been made were known to no one but Messrs. Clover, McDonald, the two doctors, the cemetery official and myself, and was treated as a profound secret.
Meanwhile, after Dingfelter had been in jail and had obtained the information we wanted from Maxwell, I decided that it was unnecessary to keep him there longer, so I arranged to have Dingfelter released on bail, which had been fixed at three thousand five hundred dollars. I had ex-Judge Henry D. Laughlin, of St. Louis, sign Dingfelter's bond. I did this without Judge Laughlin's knowledge that I even knew who Dingfelter was. Upon his release I immediately sent him to New York, where he entered into correspondence with friends of Maxwell's. Just before being released he asked Maxwell if he could keep a secret, and Maxwell said that he could, whereupon Dingfelter said:
"I expect to leave this place soon."
"How are you going to get out?" asked Maxwell.
"Ah," said Dingfelter, "that is none of your business. You said you could keep a secret, and the first thing you are doing is to pry into my business by asking how I am going to get out. After I am gone from here, of course, you will know it, but if you do not know how I propose to get out it will be impossible for you to tell any one about it. For that reason it is better that you should not know anything further than what I have already said."