INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE ARREST OF E. T. SIMMONS, WHICH IS
ACCOMPLISHED AFTER MUCH HARD WORK--HIS CONVICTION.
In 1873, E. T. H. Simmons was employed as book-keeper in the Oil City
Savings Bank, at Oil City, Pa. Simmons was about 28 years of age, and
married. He had borne a good reputation, was cultured, pleasant and mild
mannered, and also was known to be very industrious, and his associates
were the best young people in the community. By perseverance and his
strict attention to business he had risen from a messenger boy in the
bank to head book-keeper. He married a young and handsome lady, who was
an adopted daughter of a prominent citizen of Oil City, by the name of
Hiram Hoag. This young woman had been raised by her adopted parents in
luxury, and was stylish and naturally extravagant. After her marriage to
Simmons her extravagant habits seemed to increase, to the extent that
her husband's salary was not large enough to supply her demands. His
affection for her and his desire to satisfy her every wish led him to
steal the funds from the bank. At first he took the money in small
amounts, which he covered by falsifying the accounts. The authorities of
the bank noticed that there was something wrong in the accounts, and
immediately and quietly employed the services of an expert accountant,
unbeknown to Simmons, the head book-keeper.
On the morning that the expert accountant appeared at the bank and took
charge of the books Simmons suddenly feigned illness, and left the bank
for his home, from which he immediately disappeared for parts unknown,
his wife remaining in her home in Oil City.
Mr. John Mulwheeney, president of the bank, promptly engaged the
services of what was then considered the greatest detective agency in
the United States, to locate and apprehend Simmons. However, the
operatives of the detective agency referred to, after a number of months
had been consumed and a large amount of expense incurred by them, had
failed to locate the fugitive. Finally the president, Mr. Mulwheeney,
requested me to try and locate Simmons. In the meantime Simmons' wife
had quietly left Oil City, unbeknown to any person outside of the family
who had raised her, it being but natural for that family to keep her
whereabouts a secret.
I undertook the case only after the earnest entreaty of President
Mulwheeney. As a matter of fact, I thought that the bank authorities
should have applied to me in the first place, after Simmons had
disappeared, and before they had engaged the detective agency. By reason
that the then far-famed detective agency had incurred an enormous bill
of expenses and finally failed, I bent all my energy towards the task,
and succeeded in a remarkably short space of time in tracing Simmons'
movements from the time he left Oil City. I found that he had gone to
New York City, found there that he had boarded a ship for Panama,
Central America, and learned there that he had crossed the Isthmus to
Aspewall, and again boarded a ship from there for San Francisco. At San
Francisco he landed, I learned, and had gone across the bay to Oakland,
California, where he engaged lodgings, and a short time after having
arrived there he had obtained a position on board a steamship as
assistant purser. This ship was then plying between San Francisco and
Victoria, British Columbia.
I also ascertained that a wealthy old bachelor uncle of Simmons resided
in San Francisco, and was a large stockholder and director in the
steamship line by which Simmons was employed as assistant purser. I
afterwards learned that it was through the influence of this uncle that
Simmons had secured the position with the company. This uncle was about
seventy years of age, and was what was known as a '49er. He was among
the earliest of the mine prospectors who had gone overland to California
in the year 1849.
At the conclusion of my investigation I found that the steamship on
which Simmons was an officer was due to arrive in San Francisco a few
days later. In the meantime, I ascertained that Simmons' wife had joined
her husband in Oakland, and that they had fitted up a comfortable little
cottage in the suburbs of that town, so I quietly awaited the arrival of
the ship Mr. Simmons was employed on.
In due time the ship arrived, and I took up a position where I could
plainly see every one that left the ship. Finally, after all the
passengers had left, the officers began to leave the ship for their
homes, and among them I noticed E. T. M. Simmons. Simmons had changed
his uniform for a suit of plain business clothes, and it being after
dark in the evening I had but little trouble in following him
unobserved. I shadowed him until he reached his residence on Tenth
street, in Oakland, where he was met at the door by his wife and his
mother, who appeared to be on a visit at his home. I then withdrew and
learned that the ship would remain in port forty-eight hours.
The following morning I took a train from Oakland for Sacramento,
California, for the purpose of procuring the necessary requisition
papers, which would authorize me to arrest and convey Simmons from
California back to Venango County, Pennsylvania, as the authorized agent
for the state of Pennsylvania. This I accomplished in a few moments,
having already procured all the necessary papers with the exception of
the signature of the Governor of California. I returned to Oakland the
same day, and about ten o'clock, after first having ascertained that
Simmons was at his home, I, accompanied by Detective James Coffee, of
San Francisco, whom I had requested to assist me, approached Simmons'
cottage. I requested Officer Coffee to ring the front door bell while I
took up a position on the porch at the back door. Coffee, as instructed,
vigorously rang the front door bell. When Simmons, who had gone to bed,
heard the bell he at once sprang from his bed, and wrapping his clothes
in a bundle, not waiting to put them on, ran to the back door, hastily
opened it, and ran headlong into my arms. I heard him instructing his
wife, or mother, as he left his room, not to open the front door until
he had time to get out of the back door.
This cottage, being in the suburbs, there was a large open space of
ground at the rear of the cottage, which was thickly covered with
live-oak trees, and if Simmons had succeeded in getting away from the
cottage and among the live oaks he would have effectually been hidden by
the dense foliage, and would, in all probability, have made his escape.
We at once took him to San Francisco, and by reason of my having known
him so well and favorably, I did not lock him up, but instead took him
to my room, where I kept him until train time, when we took the
Overland train for Omaha, Pittsburg and Oil City, where we arrived in
due time and safe, with but a single incident of importance on the trip.
Before leaving San Francisco I told Simmons that if he would stay close
to me during our trip homeward I would not place him in irons, and that
no person on the train, not even the crew, would know that he was a
prisoner. He agreed to this and everything went along swimmingly until
after midnight on the second night out of San Francisco. Simmons and I
occupied a lower single berth in the Pullman. Simmons was sleeping next
to the window, and I occupied the side next to the aisle. I had made it
a rule not to let Simmons go to sleep, and kept talking to him just as
long as I could keep awake myself. The result was that Simmons got to
the point that he was ready to drop into slumber as soon as I would
allow him to do so by stopping talking to him. In those days I could
stand the loss of sleep if it was necessary. On the second night, as I
said, while I was feigning sleep I noticed Simmons was also playing
"possum." Finally he quietly turned the bed-spread down off of himself
and then noiselessly took his wearing apparel from the hammock, which
was above him, and proceeded to creep over me into the aisle with his
clothes under one arm. I lay perfectly quiet and did not disturb him
until he had succeeded in reaching the aisle, when I suddenly grabbed
him by one of his limbs and threw him back into the berth. He
strenuously denied that he was trying to escape, and protested that he
was merely restless, and thought he would sit up a while and not disturb
me, but, as a matter of fact, he was really attempting to escape from
the train. This occurred in a desert in Utah, but after that he behaved
himself and made me no further trouble.
After we arrived in Oil City he was locked in the county jail, in
default of bail, and when his case was called he pleaded guilty to the
charge of embezzlement and was sentenced, by the Hon. John M. Trunkey,
at Franklin, Pa., to a term of ten years in the Western Penitentiary of
Pennsylvania, which is at Allegheny City.
However, after he had pleaded guilty and received his sentence, and
before he had been taken to the penitentiary, he received a letter from
his wife, written from Oakland, California, in which she coolly and
heartlessly informed him that as he had pleaded guilty to a charge of
felony, and had been sentenced to a term in prison, that she had decided
to avail herself of her legal privilege, under the existing conditions,
and apply for a divorce from him, which the law would grant her on the
ground that he was a convicted felon, and that she had made up her mind
to marry his wealthy old uncle, the "forty-niner" who had procured
Simmons his position on the steamship. She immediately proceeded to
carry out her plans. She wound up her letter by saying that she would
rather be an old man's darling than a felon's slave.
The contents of this letter almost broke poor Simmons' heart. Every
person in and about Oil City, who knew him, knew that it was through her
extravagance and love of luxury that he had committed the crime, and
when the contents of this letter became known the sympathy of all who
knew Simmons was aroused in his favor, and the best people in the
community, including the officers of the bank whose funds he had
embezzled, filed a petition with the governor of the state for a pardon
for him. This petition was later signed by the prosecuting attorney and
by Judge Trunkey, himself.
Meanwhile Simmons had been taken to the penitentiary, but he only
remained there a short time until the governor of the state pardoned
him. On his release he went immediately to California to find his former
wife, now the wife of his old uncle, and at once instituted proceedings
for the custody of their child, which he easily obtained. The child was
born a short time after his father's arrest, and Simmons had never seen
his son. Simmons obtained employment in the passenger department of a
large railroad company. This position he filled creditably for a number
of years.
His former wife visited Oil City about two years after her marriage to
the second husband. She was accompanied by a couple of maids and a
number of trunks, which contained many costly robes and gowns. During
her stay in Oil City she called on a number of her girlhood friends and
acquaintances, but it so happened that they were all out when she called
and finding it impossible to meet them she, as the soldiers say, "hiked"
from Oil City, and so far as the writer knows has never been heard of in
that city since.