I went to the room indicated and rapped, but was refused admission. I
then forced the door and found No. 4 standing in the middle of the room
partly dressed. After some trouble with No. 4 and his wife, we took them
all to Ocean Springs. We walked over there, a distance of about two
miles. It was breakfast time when we reached there, and the rain had
stopped. We went to the hotel and got something to eat, and the landlord
learned for the first time the true nature of the surprise that I had in
store for No. 1.
There was an early train to New Orleans, and Herbert and I took the two
prisoners and left on this train for that city. I telegraphed ahead to
have a carriage meet us outside of New Orleans, and we left the train a
short distance from that city. Here we entered the carriage, which
conveyed us to the ferry boat at New Orleans. We took the ferry and went
across to Algiers. Our object in doing this was that I wished to avoid
newspaper notoriety. The newspaper men we were sure to meet in the main
station at New Orleans had we gone there.
At Algiers we boarded a Southern Pacific train for Houston, Texas. At
Houston we took a Houston & Texas Central train, which took us through
to Dallas, Texas.
The prisoners were lodged in jail before the newspapers had mentioned
the capture or arrest, for the reason that I knew that there were two
others connected with the swindle, who resided in Dallas, and had not
yet been arrested, who were not even suspected of having any connection
with the swindle or any other crime by the people of Dallas.
We arrived at Dallas at night with the prisoners. The following morning
the Chief of Police, Jim Arnold, and myself picked up and arrested the
other two accomplices. These men were Hebrews. One of them had been a
respectable and prominent cotton buyer up to his connection with the
swindle. The other was an educated man and somewhat noted for having
been mixed up in crooked dealings. He was a lawyer, but was not
practicing law for a livelihood.
The reader should remember that No. 1 was an ex-railroad agent and
telegraph operator, and had been employed as such up to about one year
and a half before he became engaged in this cotton swindle. He had
become thoroughly familiar with the railroad system of receiving and
handling cotton.
No. 2, who lived in Dallas, was also familiar with the buying and
selling, and value of cotton, as well as the customary way of obtaining
cash from the banks on bills of lading for the same.
No. 3 was the reputable cotton buyer, or broker, before mentioned in
this story. He also lived in Dallas.
The arrests at Dallas added greatly to the excitement which was caused
by the incarceration of No. 4 and No. 1 the night before.
The prisoners all waived preliminary hearings and were committed to
jail in default of bail to wait the action of the Grand Jury, which
convened a month or six weeks later. In the meantime, three of the
defendants succeeded in getting bonds and were released from jail. My
recollection now is that the bonds were fixed at $10,000 each.
No. 3 was taken sick immediately after his arrest and continued to
steadily grow worse until he died, which was about two months after he
was arrested.
No. 1 and No. 2 almost immediately after they had been released on bonds
fled the country, No. 1 going to Old Mexico, and No. 2 seeking refuge in
London, Ontario, Canada.
When the cases were called for trial in court at Dallas, Texas, No. 1
and No. 2 failed to appear, and their bonds were declared forfeited. No.
3, having died, his bond, of course, was not forfeited.
No. 4, it appears either did not try to procure bail, or if so, did not
succeed, as he remained in jail. Meanwhile I was employed in procuring
duplicates of the bills of lading, which had been issued and sold to the
purchasers of the cotton, which caused me to visit the cities of
Philadelphia, New York, Providence, Rhode Island and Fall River, Mass.
The procuring of these duplicates proved no easy task, but I finally
obtained certified copies of all of them. These duplicates were to be
used as evidence at the trial.
I was at Dallas on the date set for the trial, and, on learning of the
absence of the defendants, and that the court had postponed the trial of
No. 4, he being the only one within the reach of the court, I at once
reported the situation to the railroad officials at St. Louis, in reply
to which I received instructions by wire from Vice-President Hoxie, of
the Missouri Pacific to proceed at once to locate and arrest the
fugitives and take them back to Dallas, and there to turn them over to
the proper authorities, so that they might be dealt with according to
law.
Upon receipt of these instructions, I detailed operatives Bailey and
Herbert of my staff to locate and arrest No. 1, which they succeeded in
doing after a lot of hard and good work. They arrested him at Guymas,
Old Mexico. This city is located on the Pacific Coast. They brought
their prisoner back to Dallas and lodged him in jail.
I had assumed the task of locating No. 2. After considerable work I
discovered that he was in London, Canada, which is just one hundred
miles east of Detroit, Michigan. I visited London, where I saw No. 2,
without being seen by him. He would have known me at sight, as it was I
who had arrested him in Dallas.
I found that he had surrounded himself with a number of sympathizing
friends in London, many of whom were fugitives from justice from the
United States, as he was. Many of them, he among them, had money and
felt safe while on Canadian soil.
The extradition treaty then in force between Great Britain and the
United States was known as the Ashburton and Webster Treaty, and was
passed, I believe, in 1844. This treaty only permitted the extradition
of fugitives charged with one of seven crimes; murder, felonious assault
with intent to murder, arson, rape, forgery, uttering of forged paper
and perjury.
After I had seen No. 2 in London, I communicated the facts by wire code
to Mr. Hoxie, he giving my report to ex-Governor John C. Brown, the
General Solicitor for the Gould System of railroads. His headquarters
were in the same building with Mr. Hoxie's at St. Louis.
Governor Brown was thoroughly conversant with this case, and had a
national reputation as a lawyer, and when told by Mr. Hoxie of the
whereabouts of No. 2, he at once wired me, by code, to try my best to
induce No. 2 to accompany me across the line of Canada into either
Michigan or New York state. If I succeeded in getting him across the
boundary line I could hold him in either state until extradition papers
could be secured from the Governor of Texas.
From the instructions Gov. Brown had wired me, I was satisfied that the
Governor was not familiar with the statutes of Canada pertaining to
extradition. If I had attempted to induce the fugitive across the Canada
line for the purpose of arresting him without legal authority I would be
subjecting myself to prosecution for kidnapping. If convicted of that
charge under the Canadian statutes, I would have been sent to prison for
a term of from two to seven years. Knowing that it was impossible for me
to obey Gov. Brown's instructions, I employed a young attorney, or
barrister, as they are called in Canada, whose name was McBride, and
while he had been practicing law but a few years, he was recommended to
me very highly for his ability and integrity.
During my consultation with him I explained to him fully that the bills
of lading, which had been used in the cotton swindle, had been signed by
the company's agent in blank and then turned over by the agent to No. 2
in blocks. No. 2 had then filled out each blank for various numbers of
bales of cotton, setting forth the number of bales and the weight of
each bale in the regular way. He then turned the bills of lading thus
prepared by him over to No. 3, whom the reader will remember was a
cotton buyer. No. 3 placed these bills of lading in various banks at
Sherman, Dallas and other Texas towns. He drew cash from the banks for
the face value, less ten per cent, for the purpose heretofore stated.
After explaining all this to Mr. McBride, I asked him what crime these
men had committed under the statutes of Canada. He promptly answered
without even referring to the statutes, that under the Canadian law,
they were all guilty of forgery and having uttered and published forged
paper, including the company's agent who had signed each of these bills
as agent.
I said, "Supposing these men had fled from the United States and were
found in Canada, could they be arrested and extradited back to the
United States for trial?"
"Yes," he said, "they surely could, under the provisions of the
Ashburton and Webster Treaty, which provides for the extradition of
fugitives who are legally charged with the crime of forgery, or of
uttering and publishing forged paper."
"But," I said, "Mr. McBride, the company's agent signed these bills of
lading."
He replied, "I understand from you that the agent had received no
cotton. Am I right?"