Fifty Years a Detective: 35 Real Detective Stories

by Thomas Furlong

I left St. Louis on the first train, and arrived at Sherman in due time, where I found Mr. Finby, who informed me that the company's agent, in charge at Sherman (whom I will call No. 4) had left there on the Saturday night previous, since which time not one word had been heard from him. He further stated that No. 4 had told his assistant on Saturday evening, that he was going to take a run down to Galveston on personal business, and expected to return on the following Monday. It then being Wednesday, and No. 4 not having returned, Mr. Finby had become aroused and wired the head of his department at St. Louis, which accounted for my appearance in Sherman. I at once began my investigation, with a view of locating No. 4, the missing agent. I remained in and about Sherman several days, during which time the traveling auditor was busily engaged, with some of his assistants, in auditing and trying to straighten out the accounts of the station.

In the meantime, telegraph messages of inquiry were pouring into Sherman from parties in New York, Philadelphia, Fall River, Mass., and Providence, Rhode Island. These parties had purchased and paid for large quantities of cotton, the total amount aggregating $121,000, and they wanted to know why they had not received it. Messages of this kind had been pouring into Sherman for a month or six weeks prior to the time Mr. Finby had been called there.

The officers of the railroad became alarmed, believing from the facts learned up to this time, that the cotton for which the eastern buyers were inquiring, had been shipped and had been diverted, and probably stolen. If this were true the railroad company would be responsible for the loss of the cotton to the buyers and would probably have to pay additional damages. Thus the loss of this cotton was a serious matter for the company.

After I had worked at Sherman for about ten days, as hard and earnestly as I had ever worked on a case in my life, I succeeded in obtaining information that led me to believe that there were three other men connected with No. 4, the missing agent, in this swindle. I had also succeeded in locating the family and friends of No. 4, and the other three suspects, whose names I withhold for the reason that some of them were connected with respectable families and have near relatives living today, who were in no way responsible for the wrong-doing of these men and ought not to be subjected to the humiliation which the publication of these names might inflict upon them.

During my investigation I learned that one of these men (whom in mentioning I will call No. 1) had a brother living in New Orleans. (I will call the other two confederates No. 2 and No. 3, withholding their names for the reasons I have already given.) I had decided to go to New Orleans direct from Sherman and there quietly investigate the brother of No. 1. I had also telegraphed to my office at St. Louis, Mo., instructing George W. Herbert, one of my assistants, to meet me in New Orleans, which he did.

We located No. 1's brother in New Orleans very easily, and after I had previously obtained information that No. 1's wife might be stopping temporarily with her brother-in-law's family, who were living in a large and rather pretentious mansion in that city, I began to watch the mansion for the purpose of learning, if possible, whether or not No. 1's wife was staying there. I had a photograph of No. 1 and also of his wife. She was a beautiful woman. She was born and raised in the state of Tennessee, where her mother and other near relatives resided.

I had learned that a man answering the description of No. 1 in all respects had registered at the then leading hotel of Sherman under the name of J. D. Dillard, Jr. This man had reached the hotel at a late hour at night, was assigned to a room and remained in it all the following day, ordering his meals sent to the room, explaining to the hotel people that he was ill. During the day No. 4 called at the hotel and quietly visited the room occupied by Dillard, where he (No. 4) had remained an hour or more. He went to Dillard's room without making any inquiries at the office, merely consulting the register.

Dillard, who was really No. 1, left his room about midnight the following night, and took a north-bound train from Sherman. Nobody had seen the supposed Dillard during the time of his stay at Sherman, except the night clerk, who had not noticed him particularly when he assigned him to his room, and a chamber-maid, a mulatto, who had charge of the room of No. 1, or Dillard, as he called himself, had waited on him while he was there. She had become familiar with his features and stated to me that she would know him on sight any place. She described Dillard accurately, after which I exhibited No. 1's photograph. She instantly identified it as a good picture of Mr. Dillard. This is what caused me to place No. 1's brother's house in New Orleans under surveillance. I also traced Dillard from Sherman, Texas, to Emporia, Kansas, where the photographs of himself and wife were identified by the proprietor of the hotel and the employes there, at which the Dillards had stopped for a period of a month prior to Dillard's recent visit to Sherman. Mrs. Dillard had remained at Emporia during her husband's absence, and he joined her at Emporia on his return from Sherman, and they departed from there immediately for parts unknown. I traced them to Topeka, Kansas, where the trail was lost.

My assistant and myself kept up a steady watch on the home of the brother of No. 1, in New Orleans, day and night, for about three weeks. We divided the time into eight hour watches, one of us sleeping while the other was on duty. It was one of the most difficult tasks of the kind I had ever undertaken, for the reason that I was personally known to the chief of police of New Orleans, who was a friend of mine. I was also known to a number of police detectives of that city, and owing to the prominence of the family and connections of No. 1 I did not deem it expedient to meet any of the police authorities, as by so doing I, of course, would feel compelled to explain to them the cause of my presence in their city. I had no doubt that some of them would render me all the assistance they could, but I was afraid that some of them might talk about my presence in the city, and the friends of No. 1 might hear of it, and thereby be the means of hindering me in my efforts to locate the whereabouts of No. 1. For this reason it required more vigilance on my part to keep out of sight of the police, who knew me, than what I was bestowing to the watching of the house in question.

During the long vigil many humorous incidents occurred. One morning, after we had been on watch several days, I hit upon a plan to find if there were any women about the big house, as we had seen none up to this time, hoping thereby to locate the wife of No. 1. A few blocks down the street a couple of good-looking young Italian girls were playing a hand organ. The instrument was a fine new one and of exceedingly loud tone. I quietly bargained for their services to take up their station in front of the house I was watching, telling them to play there as long as the police would permit them. The music and the performance of the monkeys brought several women from the house to the veranda, but to my disappointment, the much wanted woman was not among them. The performance was repeated several mornings, with the same results. Mrs. Dillard was not in the house, as we afterwards learned.