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ALLAN PINKERTON'S
DETECTIVE STORIES.
***
VOL. V.
THE SPIRITUALISTS AND DETECTIVES.
ALLAN PINKERTON'S
GREAT DETECTIVE BOOKS.
***
1.--MOLLIE MAGUIRES AND DETECTIVES.
2.--STRIKERS, COMMUNISTS, AND DETECTIVES.
3.--CRIMINAL REMINISCENCES AND DETECTIVES.
4.--THE MODEL TOWN AND DETECTIVES.
5.--SPIRITUALISTS AND DETECTIVES.
6.--EXPRESSMAN AND DETECTIVES.
7.--THE SOMNAMBULIST AND DETECTIVES.
8.--CLAUDE MELNOTTE AS A DETECTIVE.
9.--MISSISSIPPI OUTLAWS AND DETECTIVES.
10.--GYPSIES AND DETECTIVES.
11.--BUCHOLZ AND DETECTIVES.
12.--THE RAILROAD FORGER AND DETECTIVES.
13.--BANK ROBBERS AND DETECTIVES.
14.--BURGLAR'S FATE AND DETECTIVES.
15.--A DOUBLE LIFE AND DETECTIVES.
***
These wonderful Detective Stories by Allan Pinkerton are
having an unprecedented success. Their sale far
exceeding one hundred thousand copies. "The
interest which the reader feels from the outset
is intense and resistless; he is swept along
by the narrative, held by it, whether
he will or no."
***
All beautifully illustrated, and published uniform with this
volume. Price $1.50 each. Sold by all booksellers, and
sent _free_ by mail, on receipt of price, by
G. W. CARLETON & CO., Publishers,
New York.
THE
SPIRITUALISTS
AND
THE DETECTIVES.
BY
ALLAN PINKERTON,
AUTHOR OF
"THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE," "CLAUDE MELNOTTE AS
A DETECTIVE," "THE SOMNAMBULIST AND THE DETECTIVE,"
"THE MODEL TOWN AND THE DETECTIVES," ETC.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK:
_G. W. Dillingham, Publisher_,
SUCCESSOR TO G. W. CARLETON & CO.
LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO.
MDCCCLXXXIX.
COPYRIGHTED, 1876, BY
ALLAN PINKERTON
TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO.,
PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS,
_205-213 East 12th St._,
NEW YORK.
CONTENTS.
***
CHAPTER I.
"Kal'm'zoo!"-- The Home of the Nettletons.-- Lilly
Nettleton.-- A wild Heart and a burning Brain. 13
CHAPTER II.
The "Circuit-Rider."-- Mr. Pinkerton and these Gospel
Knights-Errant in the early Days.-- The Rev. Mr. Bland
appears.-- "And Satan came also!"-- A "charge" is
established.-- A Compact "where the golden maple-leaves
fall."-- Bland departs.-- "The scared form of a young
Woman steals away from her Home!" 19
CHAPTER III.
Lilly in Detroit.-- First and last Remorse.-- The reverend
Villain and his Victim enjoy the Hospitality of the
Michigan Exchange Hotel.-- A Scene.-- "Bland, am I to go
to your Mother's, as you promised?"-- The Clergyman(?)
"crazed."-- Everything, save Respectability.-- A Woman's
Will.-- And a Man's Cajolement. 27
CHAPTER IV.
Tells how the Rev. Mr. Bland preached a Funeral Sermon.--
Shows a dainty Cottage, holding more than the Neighbors
knew.-- Installs Lilly as a Clergyman's Mistress.--
Reverts to a Desolate Home.-- Introduces Dick Hosford, a
returned "Forty-Niner," who begins a despairing Search.--
And shows that unholy, as well as true Love, does not
always run smoothly. 33
CHAPTER V.
Reckless Fancies.-- The "Cursed Church Interests."-- Bland's
"little Bird" becomes a busy Bird.-- Merges into a great
Raven of the Night.-- Gathers together Valuables.-- And
while a folded Handkerchief lies across the Clergyman's
Face, steals away into the Storm and the Night.-- Gone!--
"Are ye all dead in there?"-- Drifting together.-- "Don't
give the Gal that Ticket!"-- A great-hearted Man.-- The
Rev. Bland officiates at a Wedding.-- Competence and
Contentment. 39
CHAPTER VI.
Mr. Pinkerton is called upon.-- Mr. Harcout, a
ministerial-looking Man, with an After-dinner Voice,
appears.-- A Case with a Woman in it, as is usually
the case.-- Mr. Pinkerton hesitates.-- An anxious
Millionaire. 47
CHAPTER VII.
In Council.-- Mr. Lyon the Millionaire, with Mr. Harcout the
Adventurer and Adviser, appear together.-- How Mr. Lyon
became Mrs. Winslow's Victim.-- "Our blessed Faith" and
the Woman's strange Power.-- A Tender Subject.-- Deep
Games.-- A One Hundred Thousand Dollar Suit for Breach
of Promise of Marriage.-- A good deal of Money.-- All
liable to err.-- A most magnificent Woman.-- The "Case"
taken. 55
CHAPTER VIII.
The Case begun.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a preliminary
Investigation at Rochester.-- Mrs. Winslow, Trance
Medium.-- A Ride to Port Charlotte.-- Harcout as a
Barnacle.-- Much married.-- Mr. Pinkerton visits the
Mediums.-- Drops in at a Washington Hall Meeting.-- Sees
the naughty Woman.-- And returns to New York convinced
that the Spiritualistic Adventuress is a Woman of
remarkable Ability. 65
CHAPTER IX.
"Our Case."-- Harcout's Egotism and Interference.-- The
strange Chain of Evidence.-- A Trail of Spiritualism,
Lust, and Licentiousness.-- Superintendent Bangs locates
the Detectives.-- A pernicious System.-- Three Old Maids
named Grim.-- Mr. Bangs baffled by Mr. Lyon, who won't be
"worried."-- One Honest Spiritualistic Doctor.-- The Trail
secured.-- A Tigress.-- Mr. Bangs "goes West." 75
CHAPTER X.
Rochester.-- A Profitable Field for Mrs. Winslow.-- Her
sumptuous Apartments.-- The Detectives at Work.-- Mrs.
Winslow's Cautiousness.-- Child-Training.-- Mysterious
Drives.-- A dapper little Blond Gentleman.-- Two Birds
with one Stone.-- A French Divinity.-- Le Compte. 87
CHAPTER XI.
The Half-way House.-- A jolly German Landlord.-- Detective
Fox runs down Le Compte.-- A "Positive, Prophetic, Healing
and Trance Medium."-- Harcout the Adviser reappears, and
is anxious lest Mr. Lyon be drawn into some terrible
Confession.-- Mr. Pinkerton decides to know more about Le
Compte.-- And with the harassed Mr. Lyon interviews him.--
Treachery and Blackmail.-- "A much untractable Man."--
Light shines upon Mrs. Winslow.-- Another Man.-- Mr.
Pinkerton mad. 98
CHAPTER XII.
The Raven of the Detroit Cottage in another Character.-- Mrs.
Winslow yearns for a retired Montreal Banker.-- Love's
Rivalry.-- A mysterious Note.-- The Response.-- Another
Trip to Port Charlotte by four Hearts that beat as one.--
What Mr. Pinkerton, as one of the party, sees and hears.--
"Jones of Rochester."-- Le Compte and Mrs. Winslow resolve
to fly to Paris, "the magnificent, the beautiful, the
sublime!"-- "My God, are they all that way?" 114
CHAPTER XIII.
Mr. Pinkerton again interviews Le Compte.-- And very much
desires to wring his Neck.-- A Bargain and Sale.-- Le
Compte's Story-- "Little by Little, Patience by
Patience."-- A Toronto Merchant in Mrs. Winslow's Toils.--
Detective Bristol, "the retired Banker," in Clover.--
Tabitha, Amanda, and Hannah individually and
collectively woo him.-- Ancient Maidens full of Soul.--
A Signal. 128
CHAPTER XIV.
Mr. Bangs on the Trail in the West.-- Terre Haute and its
Spiritualists.-- Mrs. Deck's Boarding-house.-- The
Nettleton Family broken up.-- Back at the Michigan
Exchange.-- Mother Blake's Recital.-- Through Chicago to
Wisconsin.-- A disheartening Story.-- The practical result
of Spiritualism. 141
CHAPTER XV.
A Chicago Divorce "Shyster."-- Hosford found.-- His pathetic
Narrative.-- More Facts. 151
CHAPTER XVI.
Mrs. Winslow's Signal answered.-- She endeavors to win
Bristol, and shows that they are "Affinities."-- Detective
Fox mystified.-- An Evening with the One fair Woman.--
Closer Intimacies.-- A Journey proposed.-- Detective
Bristol as a Lover. 162
CHAPTER XVII.
Careful Work.-- Bristol's Trick on the Bell-boy at Queen's
Hotel, Toronto.-- The old Merchant.-- In the Toils.-- A
Face at the Transom.-- A cowardly Puppet before a brazen
Adventuress.-- The Horrors of Blackmail.-- "Furnished
Rooms to Rent." 175
CHAPTER XVIII.
Harcout again.-- "Things going slow."-- A Bit of personal
History.-- A new Tenant.-- Detective Generalship.--
Mrs. Winslow fears she is watched.-- Mr. Pinkerton
cogitates. 186
CHAPTER XIX.
Mrs. Winslow becomes confidential.-- Some of her Exploits.--
Her Plans.-- A Sample of Legal Pleading.-- A fishy
Story.-- The Adventuress as a Somnambulist.-- Detective
Bristol virtuously indignant.-- Failing to win the
"Retired Banker," Mrs. Winslow assails Detective Fox with
her Charms. 197
CHAPTER XX.
A Female Spiritualist's Ideas of Political and Social
Economy.-- The Weaknesses of Judges.-- Legal Acumen of the
Adventuress.-- An unfriendly Move.-- Harcout attacked.--
Lilly Nettleton and the Rev. Mr. Bland again together.-- A
Whirlwind. 209
CHAPTER XXI.
Mrs. Winslow, under the Influence of "Spirits" of an earthly
Order, becomes romantic, religious, and poetical.-- A
Trance.-- Detective Bristol also proves a Poet.-- A Drama
to be written. 220
CHAPTER XXII.
Mr. Pinkerton decides to favor Mrs. Winslow with a Series of
Annoyances.-- The mysterious Package.-- The Detectives
labor under well-merited Suspicion.-- "My God! what's
that?"-- The deadly Phial.-- This Time a Mysterious Box.--
Its suggestive Contents.-- "The Thing she was."-- Tabitha,
Amanda, and Hannah assaulted.-- A Punch and Judy
Show. 230
CHAPTER XXIII.
Cast down.-- "Trifles."-- A charitable Offering.--
Dreariness.-- Going Crazy.-- An interrupted Seance.-- A
new Form of the Devil.-- The Red-herring Expedition and
its Result.-- A mad Dutchman.-- Desolation.-- An order
for a Coffin.-- The sympathizing Undertaker, Mr.
Boxem. 244
CHAPTER XXIV.
Breaking up.-- Doubts and Queries.-- Suspected
Developments.-- The Detectives completely outwitted.-- On
the Trail again.-- From Rochester to St. Louis.-- A
prophetic Hotel Clerk.-- More Detectives and more Need for
them.-- Lightning Changes. 269
CHAPTER XXV.
Still foiled.-- Mr. Pinkerton perplexed over the Character of
the Adventuress.-- Her wonderful recuperative Powers.-- A
lively Chase.-- Another unexpected Move.-- The Detectives
beaten at every Point.-- From Town to Town.-- Mrs.
Winslow's Shrewdness.-- Among the Spiritualists at Terre
Haute.-- Plotting.-- The beautiful Belle Ruggles.-- A wild
Night in a ramshackle old Boarding-House.-- Blood-curdling
"Manifestations."-- Moaning and weeping for Day.--
Outwitted again.-- Mr. Pinkerton makes a chance
Discovery.-- Success. 285
CHAPTER XXVI.
Shows how Mrs. Winslow makes a new Move.-- Also introduces
the famous Evalena Gray, Physical Spiritual Medium, at her
sumptuous Apartments on West Twenty-first Street, New
York.-- Reminds the Reader of the Aristocratic Classes
deluded by Spiritualism.-- Describes a Seance and explains
the "Rope-trick," and other Spiritualistic Sleight-of-hand
Performances. 307
CHAPTER XXVII.
After the Seance.-- Daddy, the "Accommodation Husband."-- The
two fascinating Swindlers in Council.-- Miss Evalena's
European Career.-- How the Millionaire Brewer was baited
and played with.-- A Bit of Criminal History.-- A choice
Pair.-- Mrs. Winslow's Aspirations and Resolves. 326
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Mrs. Winslow demonstrates her Legal Ability.-- The "Breach of
Promise Trial."-- A grand Rally of the Spiritualistic
Friends of the Adventuress.-- The Jury disagree.-- Mrs.
Winslow convicted at St. Louis of Common Barratry.-- An
honest Judge's Rebuke.-- A new Trial.-- The Spiritualistic
Swindler overthrown.-- Remorse and Wretchedness. 341
PREFACE.
I wish to anticipate any adverse criticism that may be made upon the
following pages, by being as frank with the public as I trust the
critics will be fair with me.
Therefore I must say at the beginning that I expect many well-meaning
people to differ with me as to the propriety of giving this book to the
public; but I am exceedingly hopeful that that difference will not
amount to a serious condemnation. Nor can I think it will when I
earnestly assert that I have caused its publication out of as honest a
motive as I ever possessed; and I am sure that whatever the American
people have come to think of me in other respects, they are pretty
certain of my honesty.
The incidents related are true, though, out of a proper regard for my
patrons and many who do not sustain that relation, but who unavoidably
become identified in numberless ways with my operations in ferreting out
crime and criminals, I have deemed it best to locate the story in a city
several hundred miles from the place where the occurrences really
transpired, and, for the same reason, have given the characters
fictitious names; but the incidents are exact parallels of the original
facts, and in many cases are literal transcripts of, while in every
instance they agree with, the records of the case as minutely reported
during its progress.
By way of further explanation, I desire to remind my readers how very
difficult it is for those not familiar with the detective business to
realize the masses of iniquity we are often obliged to unearth,
unpalatable as the work may be and is. But while, from the nature of my
business, my records are necessarily so exhaustive, and have been made
so thoroughly minute, as to contain simply everything, good or bad,
regarding an operation, and are, therefore, as records, reliable and
true--though they thus become repositories of much that is vile--I have
striven in every instance, while relating the truth and nothing but the
truth, to speak of unpleasant things in as delicate a manner as
possible, and in a way which, while plain enough to convey with proper
force and directness the moral lessons that these developments cannot
fail to impress upon the minds of all readers, might still leave no
unclean thought behind them; and the only sense in which a charge that
my "Detective Stories" were in any respect untrue might be sustained,
would be in the fact that I have in numberless instances, for the very
good reason mentioned, told immeasurably less, and never more, than the
whole truth.
I make no assumption of having given in this book an exhaustive _exposé_
of modern spiritualism, and I wish it as well remembered that I have no
more prejudice against the good there is in that ism than I have
against the good there is in any other ism; but my experience with these
people, which has been large, has invariably been against their honesty
or social purity.
So far as there being anything about Spiritualism to compel awe or
attract any but weak-minded or "weak-moraled" people, the assumption is
simply absurd; for the few illustrations given in the following pages
will show how utterly preposterous the claim of supernatural power is,
as applied to the _cause_ of these "manifestations," which are not, in
themselves, first-class tricks, but which, when made mysterious and
enshrouded with the element of superstitious fear--which all of us in
some measure possess--lead crowds of inconsiderate people into unusual
eccentricities, if not eventually into insane asylums, as in some
painful instances of which the public are already well aware.
In my exceptionally strange avocation I have been enabled to view this
entire matter from the side which the public cannot reach--the side
where the fraud of it all is so apparent that it becomes disgustingly
monotonous and common; and as a matter of duty to those who are half
inclined to accept Spiritualism as a divine revelation and blessed
experience, I have given but a single case--a sample of hundreds of
others--which illustrates the despicable character of many, if not a
majority, of Spiritualism's public champions and private disciples; only
adding that in this instance the picture does not show a thousandth part
of the hideousness of the original.
The Judge Williams mentioned as having presided at Batavia, N. Y., is
no myth, but an eminent jurist at present sitting upon the bench of one
of the most important courts in the country. He has not only furnished a
copy of his scathing remarks to the Winslow-Lyon jury upon their
disagreement, as related, but will vouch for the correctness of much of
this narrative, as most of the facts mentioned came under his personal
observation.
I have given them to the public trusting they will fill some good place
in the world, and assist in removing from the minds of those who are
occupying the debatable ground regarding the question of the genuineness
of Spiritualism and Spiritualistic "manifestations" the superstitious
fear and the sensuous fascination which have heretofore bound and held
them.
ALLAN PINKERTON.
CHICAGO, January, 1877.
THE SPIRITUALISTS
AND
THE DETECTIVES.
***
CHAPTER I.
"Kal'm'zoo!"-- The Home of the Nettletons.-- Lilly
Nettleton.-- A wild Heart and a burning Brain.
Most commercial and uncommercial travellers filling the swift shuttles
of transit between the East and the West will remember that while
passing through Michigan, over the Central road, the brakeman has
shrieked the legend "Kal'm'zoo!" at them as the train rushed into one of
the prettiest little cities in the country. There is nothing
particularly picturesque about Kalamazoo, unless the wondering face of
some harmless lunatic, on parole from the Asylum which stands so
gloomily among the hills beyond the town, the solemn visage of some
Baptist University student, who with his toast, tea and Thucydides, has
become grave and attenuated, or the plump form of some "seminary girl"
who _will_ look at the incoming trains, and flout her handkerchief too,
in spite of parents, principals, and all the proprieties, and the
ordinary ebb and flow of the life of a stirring provincial town, may be
so considered. Neither is there anything particularly interesting about
Kalamazoo, save its native, quiet beauty. It meets life easily, and,
like a happily-disposed tradesman, takes its full measure of traffic and
enjoyment with undisturbed tranquillity, cultivating neat yards and
streets, the social graces, and occasionally the arts, with a lazy sort
of satisfaction that is pleasant to look upon and contemplate.
Standing at any street-corner of the city, you will see wide avenues of
fine business houses or elegant residences, and, where the latter, a
wealth of neatly-trimmed shrubbery, and long lines of overarching maple
trees merging into pretty vistas which seem to invite you beyond to the
beautiful hills, uplands and valleys, with their murmuring streams,
sloping farms and well-kept homes, where both plenty and contentment
seem to be waiting to give you a right hearty welcome.
About twenty-five years ago, when the country was much newer, and the
sturdy farmers that have made this great West blossom so magically until
it has become the whole world's storehouse, were held closely to their
arduous work by the hard hand of necessity and toil, a few miles up the
river from the then little village of Kalamazoo might have been seen a
comfortable log farm-house which nestled within a pretty ravine sloping
down to the banks of the lazily-flowing stream. It was a plain, homely
sort of a place, but there was an air of thrift and cleanliness about
the locality that told of earnest toil and its sure reward.
The farm was of that character generally described as "openings;" here a
clump of oak, beech, and maple trees, there a rich stretch of
meadow-land; beyond, a series of hills extending to the uplands, the
bases of which were girted with groves, and whose summits were composed
of a warm, rich, stony loam, where the golden seas of ripening grain,
touched by passing zephyrs, waved and shimmered in the glowing summer
sun; while where the river wound along towards the villages below, there
was a dense growth of elm, maple, and beech trees, standing there dark
and sombre, save where the glintings of sunlight pierced their foliaged
armor, like grim sentinels of the centuries.
This was the home of Robert Nettleton, a plain and uneducated farmer,
who had several years before removed from the East with his family, and
with them was slowly accumulating a competence for his declining days.
Robert Nettleton's family consisted of himself, his wife, and their
three children. He was looked upon by his neighbors as somewhat erratic
and strange, being repelling in his manner, and at times sullen and
reticent. He went about his duties in a severe way, and at all times
compelled the strictest obedience from each member of his family. On the
contrary, his wife was a meek-eyed little woman, patient and
long-suffering, and was looked upon in the neighborhood as a nonentity
from her unresisting, broken-down demeanor, save in times of sickness
and trouble, when she was immediately in great demand, as she had little
to say, but much to do, and had an effective method of noiseless, tender
watching and nursing at command, which was at all times ungrudgingly
employed.
The children consisted of one boy and two girls, the eldest of whom, now
in her eighteenth year, little dreamed of the despicable commotion she
was to create in after-life, and was the reigning belle of the
community, though she always kept the country bumpkins at a respectful
distance and was feared by fully as many as she was admired, from her
impetuous, imperious ways, that brooked no opposition or hinderance. One
would have to travel a long distance to find a more attractive figure
and face than those possessed by this country girl. She was somewhat
above the medium height, a living model for a Venus, supple and lithe as
the willows that grew upon the banks of the winding stream, and so
physically powerful that she had already gained some notoriety among her
acquaintances through having soundly shaken the pedagogue of the
district school, and afterwards pitched him through the window into an
adjacent snow-drift, where he had remained buried to his middle, his
legs wildly waving signals of distress, until she had just as
impulsively released him.
Although somewhat strange and unusual, her features, while not
strikingly beautiful, were still singularly attractive. Her head, which
was large and seemingly well provided with faculties of quick
perception, was covered with a wondrous wealth of black hair, so heavy
and luxurious as to be almost unmanageable, and which, when not in
restraint, fell about her form, hiding it completely, nearly to her
feet. Her forehead was full and prominent, while her eyes, large and
rather deeply set, and fringed with heavy lashes, were of that peculiar
gray color which at times may be touched by all shades, while a trace of
blue always predominates. There was nothing worth remarking about other
portions of her face, save that, critically examined, too much of it
seemed to have got into her chin, and her upper lip had a strange habit
of hugging her brilliantly white teeth too closely, and then curling
upward before meeting the lower one, where sometimes crimson and ashy
paleness played like quick and cruel lightning, a key to the slumbering
devils within her. At these times, too, there was a certain light in her
eyes that an observing person would feel a peculiar dread of awakening,
though usually her face showed a complete repose, and it would have been
difficult to decide whether she was a very ordinary or a very
extraordinary character.
Still, with her magnificent figure and strangely attractive face, she
was a young woman to strongly draw just two classes of men towards
her--students of character and students of form. The first she
invariably disappointed and repelled, always awakening the indefinable
dread I have mentioned, while her presence among the latter class as
swiftly opened the floodgates of passion to swiftly sweep the better
nature and all good resolves before it. So, with her peculiarly
unfortunate construction, it is not strange that, on arriving at that
period of life when the almost omnipotent power of a self-willed woman
begins to develop and hint at the possibilities beyond the threshold of
the strange life her inexperienced feet had just reached, Lilly
Nettleton should have felt an oppressive sense of littleness in the
quiet community in which she lived, and experienced a burning desire to
cast these humble associations from her, to compel admiration and
conquer whoever and whatever she might meet in the wide, wide world
beyond.