SAEGER APPEARS IN DENVER UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME--HE MEETS AN OLD FRIEND
IN THE PERSON OF GUS POTTER, TO WHOM HE MAKES A FULL CONFESSION--HE
FALLS INTO A LITTLE TRAP SET BY GEN. COOK AND IS CAPTURED BEFORE HE
KNOWS IT--SAEGER TELLS THE STORY OF HIS WANDERINGS--BENNEHOFF GOES
BACK ON THE REWARD AND SAEGER ESCAPES.
Gen. Cook had learned that Mr. Gus Potter and his wife, who then, as they
do now, kept a restaurant on Blake street, had known Saeger personally
before coming to Colorado. He naturally concluded that if Saeger should
come to Denver he would be found at Potters place. Hence he decided to
keep an eye on this establishment. One day, in passing the Potter place,
he saw a man walk out--tall, dark-haired, dark-complexioned and
fine-looking, answering, in fact, the description of Saeger to the letter.
He allowed the stranger to pass on unmolested, but when he had disappeared
sought Mr. Potter, and to his great delight learned that his eyes had not
deceived him and that his inference had been correct. Cook virtually had
his man, and was in a fair way to secure a prize for which his entire
profession had been contending.
Gen. Cook first caught sight of his man June 15, 1874, and he soon learned
that this was the second visit which Saeger had paid to Potter's place,
having come in first on the day preceding. Mr. Potter told the detective
all he knew about Saeger, who had adopted the alias of Thomas L. Magee,
and related the fellow's story as he had received it. Saeger had stated
that he had come to Denver with a large herd of cattle and a force of
thirty herders. The cattle were halted about eight miles distant from
Denver, up Cherry creek, and Magee came to town to transact some business.
While here he stepped into Potters restaurant to get some oysters. He had
no idea that he was anywhere near people who knew him, not being
acquainted with the locality. While partaking of his meal. Mrs. Potter,
happening to pass through the dining room, heard Magee speak, and she at
once noticed a familiar tone in his voice. Taking a keen look at the man,
she at once discovered that it was James Saeger, whom she had not seen for
years, or since she was a little girl, but whose features had made such an
impression upon her memory as to remain there indelible. Mrs. Potter
accosted him with "How do you do, Mr. Saeger?" whereupon he turned
instantly, as though a voice had called him from another land, and
answered her. So completely overcome was he--not knowing at first his
interrogator--that he confessed his identity and engaged in conversation.
Mr. Potter and his wife and Saeger then spent several hours together in
conversation. He was also recognized at once by Mr. Potter, when called
in, for he had, many years ago, adopted Potter as his son, in Saegerstown.
He told Potter that he was now in the Texas cattle trade, and was the
owner of between 30,000 and 40,000 head in that state; also, that he had
several herds on the road between Texas and Colorado. He returned to his
herd near the city that night, and came to town again the next day, in the
meantime informing Potter that he desired to make him his attorney for the
transfer of a large quantity of property. It was on the occasion of this
second visit that Detective Cook had discovered his man. Potter knew all
the particulars of the Bennehoff robbery, and Saeger's complicity in the
affair, but had been ignorant of his whereabouts until the strange
incident occurred which brought the fugitive into his restaurant for a
dish of oysters. Knowing that Detective Cook had been advised, several
years before, of the occurrence, and had a full description of the man,
and as Saeger had played a dirty trick on his (Potter's) uncle in
Saegerstown, by which that relative had to suffer the penalty of the law,
Potter made no effort to screen the man, and entered into a plan to assist
in the capture of him. He induced his brother, Charles Potter, to go out
to Saeger's camp, up Cherry creek, and get Saeger to come into town on the
Sunday following. This was done because there was danger of Saeger's
getting wind of the operations of the detectives, and of his giving or
attempting to give them the slip. Potter went to the camp, when Saeger was
found in a genial mood. He partook freely of some good spirits Potter had
along, and finally, when night was well advanced, and there was supposed
to be little danger of detection, he himself suggested coming to Denver,
and together the couple came in. They were met promptly upon their arrival
by Mr. Cook, who approached the fugitive on the street, and without any
ado made him a prisoner. The fellow was given no opportunity to make any
defense, and, seeing that he had at last been caught in a trap from which
he could not, at any rate not then, extricate himself, he surrendered with
good grace and went quietly to jail.
In conversation with Cook, Potter and others, after his arrest, Saeger
freely admitted that he was the identical Bennehoff robber, but averred
that had he been armed the officer would never have taken him. It was the
first time, he said, that he had ever been taken unawares, although he had
been followed and watched for six years. He also related somewhat of his
life since the time of the robbery. After leaving Saegerstown with the
money--which he had in an old clothes bag--he engaged as a coal heaver on
a steamer on the Ohio river. The first stopping place was Pittsburg, after
which he went to New Orleans, becoming a gambler further down the
Mississippi. From New Orleans he passed over to Cuba. He did not stay
there long, but went to Mexico, from which country he went to Texas. In
short, he had been a wanderer over the face of the earth, fleeing
constantly from the detectives who he knew were hounding him down, and
resorting to every possible means of disguising himself. In Texas he found
himself comparatively safe, and if he had been content to remain there,
buried away off on the Llano Estacado, as he was, he might have remained
there in safety. He had lost all his money when he went to Texas, for he
had gambled constantly and had led a fast life, and had engaged there as a
cowboy, but he was too shrewd to disclose this fact in this interview. He
preferred to have it believed that he was still very wealthy, and the
sequel shows that he adopted the wise course in this respect. Saeger
stated further in the conversation that he had been cornered several times
before, but managed to get away through the free use of money. The money,
or the bulk of it, which was stolen, he said, was placed where it never
could be touched. Saeger told Potter that he had always intended to repay
Bennehoff in full, trusting to speculations to realize money enough to
double his pile, but that he had had reverses and lost a good deal.
Saeger was also called upon at the jail by a Texas detective, who chanced
at the time to be in Denver, and who knew all the particulars in this
case, having been retained to capture Saeger immediately after the
robbery. He was at the Bennehoff house and took notes of all the
circumstances, and searched for Saeger eight months without so much as
getting a "pointer" as to his whereabouts, and finally gave up the chase.
The gentleman had a talk with the prisoner, who confessed to him that he
was the man they had been looking for. The Texas detective, although
perhaps a slight bit jealous, was loud in his praise of his Rocky Mountain
brother. For that matter, everybody congratulated and praised Gen. Cook
for the good work which he had done. The _Rocky Mountain News_ said:
"Our detective force has achieved a signal victory in this capture. We
congratulate Mr. Cook on his good luck in capturing the robber. It is a
great deal better for people to remain honest, or, if they will commit
crimes, to keep away from the country where Dave Cook officiates. His
eagle eye and insinuating manner will spot and fool the keenest of
thieves."
But what of the $100,000? the reader will be anxious to know. The result
shows how ungrateful some people can be, and how great the risk that
detectives take in hunting down and arresting wrong-doers. Bennehoff was
notified of the arrest soon after it was made, and he sent his son, in
company with an officer, forthwith, to secure the prisoner and whatever of
valuables he might have retained. When the son came he offered Gen. Cook
the paltry sum of $200 for his services. The offer was spurned, and
negotiations as to the reward were then broken off with the young man,
though suit was begun to recover the entire sum offered. But before papers
could be served, Bennehoff had stolen out of town. So that part of the
transaction ended. Having been treated so shabbily, Cook left Bennehoff to
conduct his business with Saeger as best he could. The young man hurried
his work through, fearing the suit and detention, and started back to
Pennsylvania with notes from Saeger for part of the money which had been
stolen, and which were secured by mortgage upon Saeger's herds of
cattle--which, by the way, it was discovered he did not own--not a single
Texas steer. Indeed, it was ascertained by Gen. Cook soon afterwards, that
Saeger had merely attached himself to a Texas drove and had come to
Colorado as a herder. He had been driven out of Texas for his misdoings
there. While in that state, and sailing under an _alias_, he had been
chosen as an inspector of cattle at the Red river crossing, and as such
used his official position to aid a few accomplices, with whom he had
stolen 1,400 head of cattle. This fact became known before the stock was
driven off, and Saeger only escaped lynching by hasty flight. This
circumstance brought him to Colorado.
Gen. C. W. Wright was Saeger's lawyer, and he was also busy at this time,
and before the town knew it, Saeger had been released on a writ of _habeas
corpus_, and was far away on a horse provided for his escape.
So far as is known, the Pennsylvania safe blower is still at liberty, if
he is not dead, simply because a miserly old man was unwilling to pay a
detective for his work. But the capture will go down to the future as one
of the neatest ever made by an officer in the West.
A UTAH MURDERER'S CAPTURE.