TRAGIC ENDING OF A BIG CASE ON WHICH A GREAT DEAL OF REAL DETECTIVE WORK
HAD BEEN DONE.
The cotton swindle occurred at Sherman, Texas, on the Texas & Pacific
Railroad, early in the fall of 1883. It was in the cotton shipping
season, and Sherman was a point from which a very large amount of cotton
was shipped annually, it being the principal shipping point, or outlet,
for one of the largest cotton producing districts in the state. For this
reason the eastern cotton buyers and cotton mill owners were represented
by agents at these shipping points. These agents were really brokers. It
was the practice of these brokers, as soon as they had purchased cotton,
to have it delivered at once to the railroad company for shipment, when
they would receive from the railroad company's agent a bill of lading,
setting forth the number and weight of each bale. This bill of lading,
when signed by the railroad agent, was negotiable at any bank in the
cotton producing district. The bank would take the bill of lading,
allowing the depositor ninety per cent cash on the face value and would
hold ten per cent back until the exact value of the cotton was
ascertained by the proper officials. The practice of cashing these bills
of lading was then general in the cotton-growing country, and, I
presume, it is at the present time.
It was early in the month of January, 1884, when I was suddenly called
to the office of Capt. C. G. Warner, who was then General Auditor for
the Gould Railway System. The Texas & Pacific was one of the many Gould
lines. I occupied the position of Chief Special Agent for that system.
On my arrival at Capt. Warner's office, he informed me that he had just
received from Sherman, Texas, a long telegraph message from one of his
traveling auditors, which stated that a large amount of cotton, which
had been shipped from that station, had undoubtedly been diverted in
transit, as the cotton had not reached its proper destination. Capt.
Warner instructed me to go to Sherman at once, where I would find the
traveling auditor, Mr. Finby, and make a thorough investigation.
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.
Meanwhile the brother, a gentleman of leisure, was in the habit of
strolling each morning from his house to the postoffice, where he
usually mailed several letters. He always dropped these letters in the
general receptacle, which had an opening in the main corridor at least a
foot in length and three inches wide, and led to a large box in the
basement below the main floor. This box would hold probably a wagon load
of letters and packages, and when a letter was dropped in this mass it
was almost impossible to find it again.
No. 1's brother was a man middle-aged, rather slow in his movements, and
very deliberate in everything that he did. He carried these letters in
an inside pocket of his dress coat, and walked with a cane. He would
approach the general mail box, placing his cane under his left arm and
carefully removing his snug-fitting glove from his right hand, would
take the letters, consisting of three or more, and in an exasperatingly
deliberate and slow manner deposit them in the box with the other mail.
He would watch them until they had disappeared down the chute and out of
sight. This operation was repeated by him daily, except Sundays, during
the three weeks, and witnessed each time by either Herbert or myself,
and had grown very tiresome to both of us. Finally I concluded that we
would prepare two letters and address them to ourselves, stamp them
properly and then cover the back of each envelope with a thick coating
of mucilage. Herbert was given one of the letters, I keeping the other.
Herbert placed himself on one side of the chute, while I took my
position on the other side, each of us being some distance away from the
receptacle.
The main corridor of the postoffice, in the forenoon, was generally
crowded with people passing to and fro, between the hours of ten and
twelve o'clock; for this reason we attracted no special attention. We
knew about the time that No. 1's brother was in the habit of visiting
the postoffice, and, therefore, we were not kept waiting but a few
moments for his appearance. He approached the mail box in his usual
manner, and was as painfully deliberate as he had been on previous
occasions, and after he had gone through the customary maneuvers, but
before he had time to drop the three letters from his hand, Herbert
rushed up to the receptacle from the left side and I from the right, and
we both reached out our hands at the same time with the letters we held
having the mucilaged surface, in such a way that they came in contact
with the three letters he had in his hand, and forcing the letters into
the chute with ours, the mucilage sticking the bunch of five letters
together. All slid into the chute. No. 1's brother became very indignant
and muttered something about rudeness and awkwardness. I attempted a
hasty apology and disappeared around the corner to the office of the
Assistant Postmaster, whose acquaintance I had previously formed. I told
him that I had just deposited two letters in the main repository and
that I had discovered that I had placed the letters in the wrong
envelopes, and wished to get them so that I might rectify my mistake. He
at once conducted me to the main mail box below, where there were at
least a half a wagon load of letters and general mail matter. I at once
found the bunch of five letters which were stuck together with the
mucilage, and in separating them had ample time to note the different
addresses on the three envelopes mailed by No. 1's brother. One of these
was addressed to a relative of Mrs. Dillard, to her home in Tennessee.
Another was addressed to another brother of No. 1, who resided in
Atlanta, Georgia. The third letter was addressed to J. D. Dillard, Jr.,
Ocean Springs, Mississippi. I knew of the relatives in Tennessee and of
the brother in Atlanta, Georgia, and also that J. D. Dillard, Jr., was
the man I wanted to locate, and for the first time learned that he was
at Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Ocean Springs was then a small winter
resort located on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, between
Montgomery and New Orleans. It was also an harbor on Mobile Bay and near
Biloxi, Mississippi.
Upon the receipt of this information I went to Ocean Springs, Miss.,
arriving there about midnight on the night that I had seen the letter
addressed by No. 1's brother to this place. There I found that the
postoffice of the town was kept in a grocery store, which was part of
the principal hotel of the town. I learned that the landlord, who was a
very genial, clever man, and proprietor of the grocery store, was
postmaster. I quietly showed him the photograph of No. 1 and his wife,
and he immediately identified them as Mr. and Mrs. Dillard, Jr. He told
me that Dillard had represented himself to him as a rich iron
manufacturer from Chattanooga, Tenn., that his wife was in ill health
and that they had been there for the past month or more and had rented a
beautiful cottage known as the Montgomery Cottage, where they were
living. This cottage was situated on a small peninsula, which extended
from the main land, dividing Biloxi Bay from Mobile Bay. It was about
two miles from the postoffice at Ocean Springs. The positive and ready
manner in which the postmaster identified the photographs satisfied me
beyond any doubt that I had succeeded in locating No. 1. I gave the
postmaster to understand that No. 1 had fallen heir to a sum of money
and property, and that neither he nor his wife had become aware of the
fact, and that I was very desirous of apprising him of his good fortune
as a surprise, and before doing so, I desired to have all necessary
papers prepared, which would require a week or ten days, and, therefore,
I was anxious to have the matter kept a profound secret until everything
was ready. The postmaster readily promised me that he would not mention
the matter to any person until I gave him permission to do so, and after
making these arrangements I felt perfectly safe in not arresting No. 1
until I had secured the proper papers authorizing the same.
It was necessary for me to obtain requisition papers from the Governors
of Mississippi and Texas. It would take about eight or ten days to
accomplish this, as proper complaint had to be lodged at Sherman, Texas,
request for the requisition had to be sent from Sherman to Austin,
Texas, and the request of the Governor of Texas to the Governor of
Mississippi for the extradition papers, at Jackson, Miss., where the
agent for the state of Texas had to appear in person to receive the
papers. I had myself appointed as the agent for the state of Texas.
At the conclusion of my understanding with the postmaster of Ocean
Springs, I took a night train to New Orleans, where I met George
Herbert, and instructed him to go on the first train to Ocean Springs,
and on arriving there to represent himself as an invalid and to act the
part. He was naturally thin and had a sallow complexion, usually without
any color.
He represented himself as having just passed through a severe attack of
rheumatism, and claimed that he had been advised by his physician to
come to Ocean Springs, where he should spend at least a month during his
convalescence. He equipped himself with two heavy walking canes, which
he carried continuously during his stay at Ocean Springs, and while he
made good progress walking, he seemed to bystanders to do so with some
difficulty, but the balmy climate of the resort seemed to benefit him
greatly, and he appeared to improve daily while there. He was instructed
by me to meander around and to get to the Montgomery Cottage, providing,
of course, if he could succeed in so doing without arousing any
suspicion, and if he did succeed in getting inside of the cottage, that
he was to make a diagram of the place and surroundings, which Herbert
could do nicely, as he was a good draftsman. He succeeded admirably. He
formed the acquaintance of No. 1, whom he met at the postoffice on the
second day after his arrival. He also met him again the following day at
the same place, when No. 1 gave him an invitation to come over to the
cottage and take a sail on the bay, as he (No. 1) had a very nice
sailing yacht, which he kept anchored in front of the cottage. Herbert
accepted the invitation and visited the cottage the following day, when
No. 1 introduced him to his wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, who
happened to be at the cottage making a visit. He belonged in Tennessee.
Herbert was also introduced to a young woman, about thirty years of age,
who was rather good-looking, a brunette and of medium size. This woman
was introduced to him under an assumed name, as we learned within a few
days thereafter that she was really the wife of the missing agent.
Herbert was invited to luncheon at the cottage, and took a short sail
with No. 1, No. 1's wife and the brunette lady before mentioned. The
yacht was a schooner-rigged, of about twenty tons burden, and was
skillfully manned by a man about thirty-five years of age, black curly
hair, a little bald, about five feet, five or six inches in height,
weighing probably one hundred and thirty or thirty-five pounds, dark
complexioned, and inclined to be slender, hollow cheeked, and had
somewhat of a consumptive appearance. Herbert was not introduced to this
man by his host, but thought nothing of the matter, believing the
sailing master, who was always in uniform, to be simply an employe of
No. 1.
Herbert made a good diagram of the interior of the cottage, as well as
the entrances and the grounds and outbuildings. After that he made daily
visits to the cottage, when the weather permitted, the occupants seeming
to enjoy and encourage his visits. He had made arrangements with the
livery stable for the services of an old, but gentle horse, and an
old-fashioned buggy, in which he drove around every day.
Herbert forwarded the diagram to me along with his daily reports during
my absence from Ocean Springs. All this time I was busily engaged in
procuring the necessary papers and making arrangements to effect the
arrest of both No. 1 and No. 4, as upon receipt of Herbert's accurate
description of the sailing master of the yacht, I had become satisfied
that the sailing-master was none other than No. 4, the much wanted
agent.
In due time I procured the papers and proceeded to Canton, Miss., which
was the county seat for Ocean Springs. I there found Sheriff Clark of
that county. As sheriff he was commanded in the requisition papers to
render me, as agent for the state of Texas, all assistance I needed in
making the arrests. I found Sheriff Clark to be a fine, affable
gentleman of the "old school." He was an ex-Confederate captain, having
served through the Civil War, had been elected sheriff of his county at
the close of that conflict, and had succeeded himself in office up to
the time of which I write. I requested the sheriff to go with me himself
and furnish one of his deputies.
We left Canton, which was about twenty miles north of Ocean Springs,
about ten o'clock at night, and arrived at a station five miles north of
the Springs an hour later, where we left the train, as we did not deem
it safe to get off the train at Ocean Springs. I had been informed by
Herbert, with whom I was in daily communication, that No. 1's
brother-in-law visited the depot at Ocean Springs at night so as to see
everybody who got off the night trains at that station. He also stated
that all passenger trains passing that station were seen by some person
connected with the cottage.
I omitted stating heretofore that both No. 1 and No. 4 were good
telegraph operators, and Herbert, while inspecting the premises, had
noticed two tiny copper wires running into the cottage, and had followed
them from the cottage to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and
later discovered that these wires were connected with the commercial
wire of the Western Union Telegraph Co., that ran between New Orleans
and the north. He also found that they had a telegraph office fixed up
in one of the rooms of the cottage where they could find out all that
was passing over the wires of the Western Union Co., and take their
ease.
The peninsular upon which the cottage was situated was thickly covered
with pine and cedar trees, and the wires were entirely hidden and could
not have been discovered by any person unless one who was engaged as
Herbert was, so that these gentlemen could while away their time
listening to what was going over the wires.
After leaving the train, Sheriff Clark, his deputy and myself leisurely
walked down the tracks to within a quarter of a mile of Ocean Springs,
and then making a detour around the station, we reached the peninsula
south from Ocean Springs, at which point I had arranged to meet Herbert.
It began raining the evening before we had left Canton, and continued to
rain all night. It was in the month of February, and was a cold and
chilly rain. The night was inky dark.
When we reached the peninsula we were sheltered by the dense foliage of
the trees, and we approached the cottage to within about one thousand
feet, and then decided to remain quietly among the trees until we could
see daylight begin to appear in the east. At the first appearance of
daylight Herbert and myself reconnoitered, circling the cottage, he
going one way and I the other. We found that every one was apparently
asleep. We then went back and reported to Sheriff Clark and his deputy.
We surrounded the place, Herbert and the deputy covering the rear of the
cottage, and the sheriff and myself going to the front door and rapping
for admission, which was denied. After we had rapped for admission we
could hear the window shutters being pushed open and the inmates peered
out of the windows and discovered that the place was surrounded, or
rather guarded, on each side. Finally Sheriff Clark told the occupants
that unless they opened the door that we would force it. After some
parleying the front door was opened. The door was a double door and only
one-half of it was opened, and very suddenly No. 1's brother-in-law, a
very tall and slender individual, appeared in the open door with a
double-barreled shotgun in his hands, but before he had time to raise
the gun to a shooting position, he found himself covered with two
double-barreled guns, one in the hands of the sheriff and the other in
my hand. Upon being ordered to drop the gun he did so promptly. The
sheriff took possession of him and I started down the wide hall, which
ran directly through the center of the cottage. As I was passing the
second door from the front door No. 1 stepped out of the room into the
hall with a pistol in his hand. I recognized him and promptly arrested
him.