Fifty Years a Detective: 35 Real Detective Stories

by Thomas Furlong

During the years of 1875-6 I was Chief Special Agent of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. One morning I was called to Brookville, Pennsylvania, to investigate the burglary of the company's office at that point during the preceding night. On arriving in the little town I found the office of the company almost a wreck, the safe having been blown to pieces with dynamite or some other explosive, and its contents, including quite a sum of money and a number of Centennial Exposition and railroad tickets were missing. After some hard work, I obtained a clue which led me to believe that the job had been done by the notorious Watts gang.

This outlaw band, which originally consisted of eight men, had long terrorized the good citizens of Jefferson, Clarion, Forest and Elk Counties—in much the same manner as had the James Boys and their gang of cut-throats the citizens of western Missouri.

Wess Watts.

Noted Pennsylvania bandit leader run down and captured
by Detective Furlong.

There was no crime too big or too little for them to commit, but they made a specialty of arson, murder, robbery and safe-blowing. The organizer and leader was Wess Watts, who, before he had adopted outlawry as a profession, had been a gun and locksmith in Brookville, and had the reputation of being a skilled mechanic. He was about 28 years of age, 5 feet 11 inches in height, and weighed in the neighborhood of 190 pounds. There had never been any question of his gameness and he was known as the crack shot of that portion of Pennsylvania. He often gave exhibitions of his expertness in the handling of firearms. One of his favorite stunts was to shoot an apple from the head of his brother at a distance of twenty paces with either a gun or revolver.

In reporting to Mr. David McCargo, the General Superintendent of the road, a day or so later, that I was convinced that the Watts gang was responsible for the Brookville job, and venturing the opinion that this gang would continue to prey upon the railroad at intervals until they were exterminated; whereupon Mr. McCargo said, "You are hereby instructed to bend every effort toward the suppression of this gang, and you will be relieved from all other duties until this has been accomplished."

I at once took up the work, by visiting the Western Penitentiary at Allegheny City, where I found a former member of the Watts gang, who had been convicted of horse stealing and was at that time serving a ten-year sentence for the same. This man's name was Lafayette Edwards, and he had been connected with the Watts gang for a number of years and was a member at the time of his arrest. He was about thirty-five years of age. He had a younger brother by the name of Horace Edwards, who had been connected with the gang until about a year previous to the arrest of Lafayette, when he grew tired of the life he had been leading, and, as the gang was daily growing bolder in their depredations, he was afraid they would all be brought to justice sooner or later, so he disappeared, no one knowing his whereabouts in Brookville. On approaching Lafayette, at the penitentiary, I told him who I was, that I had learned of both his and his brother's connection with the Watts gang and that I desired to find Horace, so that I might get the facts from him as to his knowledge of the crimes perpetrated by the gang while he was a member of it. Lafayette Edwards said he believed that his brother would tell all he knew, providing he would not be punished for the part he had taken while working with the gang. I explained to him that so long as Horace had severed his connection with the gang, that I had no doubt but that the prosecuting officers would use his testimony against the other members of the gang and nolle prosequi all charges against him, which is a custom, as the prosecuting attorney in criminal cases has the right, with the permission of the court, to annul proceedings against a criminal, where he has been used as a State's witness. I also told him if he would assist me in locating Horace, that I would do all that I could, consistently, with the proper officers to have the charges annulled against his brother. Finally he told me that Horace was engaged as a farm hand at a point near Vermillion, Illinois. He said that Horace had joined the church and was living an honest and conscientious life. I went to Vermillion and located Horace Edwards, who was working as a farm hand under an alias, and found that he had established a good reputation, joined the church, and was respected by all who knew him. In other words, he had made friends with everybody with whom he came in contact during his few months' stay in that neighborhood. This information I verified before approaching Horace. I finally called on him and told him who I was, that I was from Pennsylvania, and that I had seen his brother Lafayette, who was in the penitentiary in Allegheny City, who had given me his address, and, in fact, I told him the line of facts that I knew he would recognize as facts. I then proposed to him that he go back to Pennsylvania with me, at my expense, promising that I would keep him quietly in a small town near Brookville, where he would not be known until I had apprehended the balance of the Watts gang, and that I would pay his expenses back to Illinois, where he had so many friends, and was favorably known, and that the people would not become aware of his identity after his return among them. In this connection, I wish to say that Horace had adopted his mother's maiden name. To this Horace replied promptly that, as he had become a church member, he would render all the assistance in his power towards bringing his former companions to justice, and thereby preventing them from committing further depredations. I told the parties by whom he was employed that his presence was required as a witness in an important case in court in Pennsylvania, and that I had come after him and had no doubt but that he would return again in a few weeks. I took him back to Pennsylvania, and rounded up the balance of the gang, with the exception of the leader, Wess Watts. I learned that he had last been heard from at Paducah, Kentucky. This I learned through the assistance of a sister of Mrs. Watts, who was in correspondence with her. I went to Paducah and found Mrs. Watts. From my investigations I had become so familiar with the depredations of the gang, the dates and places where they had been committed that I decided to approach Mrs. Watts by representing myself as a friend of her husband and other members of the gang. At this she became angry and excited, and told me that if she had a kettle of boiling water convenient she would scald me, as she had no further use for her husband or any of his friends. He had deserted her and their child, and had run away with another man's wife. It was then my turn to sympathize with her, which I did to the best of my ability, and of course, denounced Wess Watts in plain words for having deserted his wife and child in such a manner. Mrs. Watts, who, by the way, was really a good natured woman and rather good looking, of the blonde type, about 25 years of age, finally told me that her husband had taken this other woman, and that she had heard, a few days prior to my visit, that he and Oliver Brooks had opened a gun and locksmith repair shop at Shawneetown, Illinois. She said Watts and this woman and Oliver Brooks and the Brooks woman were living together, and that they had their shingle out for gun and lock repairing, but in reality were committing burglaries and thefts almost nightly in the vicinity of Shawneetown. I took a boat at Paducah for Shawneetown, which is on the Ohio river some 50 miles from Paducah. I arrived at Shawneetown, which was then a very small place, about 3 o'clock in the morning. The town is very low, the Ohio river being held out of the town by a high levee along its banks. After leaving the boat I went over the levee to the only street in the town parallel to the river and had no trouble in locating the gun shop, by reason of the sign over the door. Directly opposite this shop was a general merchandise store with a large pile of empty dry goods boxes standing in front of it. I seated myself upon one of these boxes, as it was not quite daylight when I found the place and, as I had had some sleep coming up on the boat, I was not sleepy. I could not go to a hotel at that time without arousing some comment, and, therefore, concluded I would wait in the vicinity of the gun shop and watch for developments. I had been sitting on the box for perhaps three-quarters of an hour, and day was just beginning to break, when I noticed a little cloud of smoke coming out of the stovepipe (which served as a chimney) in the shanty in which the gun shop was located. A few minutes later the door of the gun shop was opened and I could see, from my perch on the box across the street, that some one was sweeping. I could see the broom, but could not see who was operating it. I watched the broom for a few minutes and then concluded I would go over to the shop and look in and see who was doing the sweeping.

This shop was a one-story frame shanty, about 16 feet wide, by perhaps, 24 feet long. It was divided in the middle by a partition, making two rooms. The front room, being the gun shop, contained a vise bench to the right of the front door, upon which were a lot of tools, such as files, wrenches, one or two old guns and a couple of pistols.