_The Mother of the Farringtons, being arrested, boasts that her Sons
"Will never be taken Alive."--Another Unfortunate Blunder by
Amateur Detectives.--An interesting Fate intended for the
Detectives.--William A. Pinkerton captures the Murderer of a
Negro in Union City, proving "a very good Fellow--for a
Yankee."--An Unfortunate Publication.--Nigger-Wool Swamp and
its Outlaws._
The more William thought about it, the more convinced he became that his
theory was correct, and he took steps to verify his suspicions by
placing a watch upon Mrs. Farrington's movements. He also made
arrangements to get possession of any letters that might come for her,
and then, being hastily recalled by the superintendent of the express
company, he hurried back to Union City.
He there learned that, during his absence, Clark had talked with both
Lester and his wife. The latter had warned him of his danger, and he had
then disappeared in the cane-brake. The men stationed at Lester's for
the express purpose of arresting any of the robbers who might come
there, had been either unaware of Clark's visit, or else they had been
afraid to attempt his capture, and he had escaped again when almost
within our grasp. William had, therefore, been called back by telegraph
to take charge of the men engaged in beating through the cane-brake, as
it had been clearly demonstrated that, without a determined leader,
these men were no more useful than a flock of sheep. The hunt went on
for several days with no results whatever, while at the same time scouts
patroled the highways, and other men kept watch upon the ferries and
fords for many miles around.
While this was going on, the express agent at Gillem Station was keeping
a close watch upon Mrs. Farrington, when suddenly she announced her
intention of going to join her sons in Texas. Instead of sending word to
William at once, the agent began operations on his own account, and when
Mrs. Farrington arrived at Waverly, Tennessee, he caused her arrest. She
had started with two new wagons and a complete outfit for an overland
journey of some length, so that her progress could not have been very
rapid, and nothing would have been lost by waiting for instructions; but
the insane desire to play detective seemed to overpower all other
considerations in the minds of the company's agents, and she was
arrested by the sheriff and a _posse_ of citizens. Her salutation to the
officer who stopped her settled the question of identity at once, for,
on being told that she would be obliged to let him search her wagons for
certain men, she replied:
"Oh! yes; I know what you want. You would like to find my two sons and
Barton for the express robbery; but you will never catch them, for they
are not now in this country, and they will never be taken alive."
This piece of information led the express agent to take the only
sensible step of his whole proceeding. Mrs. Farrington had two negro
families with her, some of whom had belonged to her before the war; and,
with the personal attachment noticeable in many of the colored people,
they were now desirous of going West with her. It occurred to the agent
that some of them, from their confidential relations to the family,
might be able to give some information as to the whereabouts of the
boys. The negroes were, therefore, taken separately and closely
examined, until one of the men was urgently persuaded to reveal what he
knew. He said that Levi, Hillary, and Barton had committed the robbery,
and that they had since been at Mrs. Farrington's together. According to
an agreement between the mother and her sons, she was to start for
Texas, passing through Nigger-Wool Swamp, on the west side of the
Mississippi, and the two eldest sons were to meet her in the swamp, when
they would determine where to go.
The agent also learned that the men had arrived at their mother's house
Friday evening, November 10, and that a man who had gone there to sell
her a wagon had been met by Hillary Farrington with a shot-gun; on
seeing that it was a neighbor, however, Hillary had lowered his gun and
allowed him to come in. It was also learned that the three desperadoes
had been seen at the house of the Farringtons' uncle, named Douglas, on
Hurricane Creek, about ten miles from Waverly; again, on Monday, they
had been noticed at Hurricane Mills, making their way to Fowler's
Landing, on the Tennessee River between Florence and Johnsonville,
fourteen miles from the last-named place. It was evident that they
intended to strike across the country below Reel's Foot Lake, and cross
the Mississippi at some point between Columbus and Memphis. The men were
all well mounted and armed, and they had changed their personal
appearance somewhat by altering the arrangement of their hair, whiskers,
and beards.
The arrest of Mrs. Farrington was a most unfortunate blunder, since it
disclosed to the criminals how close had been their pursuit, while
little really important information was obtained. It was a good
illustration of the danger of taking any decided step in a criminal
investigation before knowing to a certainty that some good result would
be obtained. The parties thus learned that we were not only aware of
their identity, but also that we were very close upon their track, and
the danger, as well as the difficulty, of the case was largely
increased. These men were desperadoes of the most reckless type, and
they would not have hesitated a moment to lie in ambush and kill their
pursuers, if they had found it possible to do so.
In order to intercept the fugitives before reaching the swampy country
near the Mississippi, the number of scouts and patrolling parties was
increased by the superintendent of the express company, and two men,
named Ball and Bledsoe, were engaged to follow Mrs. Farrington on
horseback until her sons should join her in Nigger-Wool Swamp. This
would have been a sensible and necessary move if the right kind of men
had been employed; but the selection of untrained men for the delicate
and important work of "shadowing" such an experienced gang of villains
was risky in the extreme. Had they ever met Barton and the Farringtons,
the latter would have undoubtedly murdered both of them without scruple;
but there was no danger of such a meeting, since the robbers, and Mrs.
Farrington also, were perfectly aware of the presence of their pursuers
from the start. Indeed, they afterward stated that it had been their
intention to have led the detectives on as far as the wild, unsettled
country of Western Missouri, and to have then hanged them in some
unfrequented spot, placing the inscription "Horse-thief" upon each of
the bodies. Subsequent events prevented them from carrying out this
plan, but there was no doubt that they would have taken that or some
other equally daring means of ridding themselves of pursuit. The manner
in which Ball and Bledsoe exposed their intentions wherever they went
showed the inexperience of both men in such work; for, along the whole
route over which they passed, they were known as officers tracking a
band of thieves; and we afterward learned that, while they were
innocently and unsuspectingly following Mrs. Farrington, two of the men,
Barton and Clark, were almost continually watching them. However, they
had been started on their mission by the superintendent before William
could make any other arrangements, as he was away at Lester's Landing
when the chase began.
From William's reports to me, I saw the uselessness of maintaining such
a body of men in the work of scouting, watching ferries, and beating the
cane-brake, for the reason that no good could come of it. I knew that if
the robbers could escape from Lester's Landing and make their way to
Gillem Station once, they could do it again. Clark (or Hillary
Farrington) had been at Lester's early Thursday morning, while guards
were stationed all about; yet, on Saturday morning he was at his
mother's farm, and no one had even seen him on the way. This convinced
me that they had such a knowledge of the country as to make it
impossible to stop them by any system of guards or patrols, and I
therefore wrote several letters asking that the superintendent discharge
this expensive force at once, and allow me to manage the whole operation
by my own plans and with my own men. While William, therefore, was at
work with indefatigable energy and perseverance, scouting and following
up all the reports brought in by the vast army of volunteer detectives
in the company's employ, we were both satisfied that the method adopted
was useless, and that even the ferry guards would discover nothing.
Knowing the character of the three desperadoes, I had no doubt of their
sagacity in avoiding observation and pursuit; they would never try to
cross without knowing positively whether the ferry was guarded, and if
there should be any real danger, they would undoubtedly steal a skiff
and make their horses swim across the river, a feat of no great risk in
the then low condition of the water.
About this time an incident occurred which added greatly to William's
popularity in Union City, and gained for him the respect and kindly
feeling of the community. On Sunday two roughs, having drank enough bad
whisky to be absolutely fiendish, began to beat an old and inoffensive
negro whom they happened to meet. A merchant, named Blakemore, who was
passing at the time, stopped to remonstrate with the ruffians, when one
of them turned and plunged a knife into his stomach, inflicting a wound
which caused his death next day. The murderer was the terror of the
town, and so great was the fear of him that he would have probably
escaped had not William appeared on the street as he rushed away
flourishing his bloody knife and threatening to kill any one who should
stand in his way. The sight of William's heavy revolver leveled at his
head, backed by the certainty which he saw in William's face that death
or surrender was his only alternative, caused him to choose the latter,
and he was lodged in jail to await his trial for murder. The people of
the town were quite enthusiastic over the way in which William had
brought the fellow to bay, and then compelled his surrender; and they
even went so far as to say that he was "a good fellow, a very good
fellow indeed--for a Yankee."
On the twentieth of November an unfortunate publicity was given to our
operations by the publication in the Union City _Journal_ of a long
history of the Farringtons, showing their whole career of crime, and
terminating with an account of their latest exploit, as developed by our
investigations in and about Union City. It is unnecessary to state the
source whence this information was derived, further than to say that it
was not obtained from any member of my force. It was a very dangerous
piece of news to be published, since it might have wholly overthrown all
our plans, besides involving the death of two or three men engaged in
the operation; fortunately, the robbers were undoubtedly across the
Mississippi by that time, and beyond the reach of newspapers for some
weeks at least.
On the same day that this matter was published, Mrs. Farrington crossed
the Mississippi River at Bird's Point, opposite Cairo, and the fact was
reported to William and to me by telegraph. We had previously learned
that Mrs. Farrington had relatives in Springfield, Missouri, and in Dade
County, in the same State, and the probabilities were that, instead of
going to Texas, she was going to visit in one of these places.
Meanwhile, though my opinion was that her sons intended to rejoin her
somewhere, either in Nigger-Wool Swamp or at her place of destination, I
had no certainty that such was their intention; and, bearing in mind the
warning they had received by her arrest at Waverly (and possibly by
reading the newspaper article previously mentioned), I felt that every
clue must be carefully traced, even though it might lead in an exactly
opposite direction from that in which our previous suspicions had caused
us to look. My correspondents and agents in Louisville, Cincinnati, St.
Louis, and New Orleans were, therefore, kept on the alert to capture the
men if they should venture into those cities, while I held three
determined men ready to go at once in pursuit of Mrs. Farrington, in
case she should take the route through Nigger-Wool Swamp.
It will be remembered that one of the negroes accompanying Mrs.
Farrington had stated that her sons were to join her in that swamp; now,
there were three possibilities about this statement: first, the negro
might have lied; second, he might have been so informed by the old lady
on purpose to give a false scent in case he should be questioned; and,
third, while their intention might have been to meet there, subsequent
events might have altered their plans. Still, thinking the subject over
carefully, I decided that she would not take so difficult a course
unless she really intended to meet her sons there. My reasons for so
thinking were based upon the nature of the place, and, to comprehend my
solicitude about Nigger-Wool Swamp, a description of it will be
necessary.
The swamp is more than seventy miles long by about thirty-five miles
wide, and, as a piece of bottomless ooze, its superior cannot be found
in the United States. There are just two roads crossing it, one running
from Hall's Ferry, at Point Pleasant, Missouri, and the other from
Mitchell's Ferry, thirty-five miles below. These roads are mere
bog-paths in themselves, being heavily overlaid with underbrush and
corduroy logs, yet they afford the only means of crossing this vast
morass. The period of the annual overflow turns it into a turbid,
sluggish lake, the roads being then deeply buried under water; but even
in the dryest seasons the greater portion of the swamp is a bottomless
slime of mud and putrefying vegetation. Large tracts of thickly-wooded
land are contained within the limits of the swamp, and these constitute
a semi-substantial basis for the two roads which run through them; but
even these clumps are impassable at most seasons, except along the
artificially-constructed roads. Sometimes, for miles and miles, nothing
but the rankest of swamp-vegetation is seen, growing in wild profusion
and covering the treacherous ooze with a close network of leaves and
branches, until the surface looks firm enough to be taken for solid
ground; but should any unfortunate traveler venture to cross such a
spot, his limbs would be clogged by these clinging water-plants, his
feet would find no secure resting-place, and, sinking rapidly deeper and
deeper into the mire, his bones would find a sepulcher where nothing but
a general natural convulsion would ever disturb them.
Still, there are occasional islands of firm ground through this section,
and these have become the resort of lawless characters of every
nationality and degree of crime. Over the entrance to Nigger-Wool Swamp
might be placed, with perfect truthfulness, the motto: "Who enters here
leaves hope behind." Each man is a law unto himself, and he must
maintain his rights by the strong arm and the ready shot-gun. In one
thing only are the dwellers of the swamp united, namely: a bitter and
deadly resistance to the law. No officer of justice ventures therein to
perform any of the duties of his office; unless backed by a powerful
body of determined men, he would never return alive, and, if so
accompanied, he would never succeed in catching a glimpse of any
criminal whom he might be seeking.
About the middle of the swamp, the two roads cross each other at a spot
called "The Gates," and every person traveling through either way must
pass this place. Knowing this fact, I felt sure that Mrs. Farrington
would await the arrival of her sons at "The Gates," in case she entered
the swamp, and I determined that, in such an event, I should try to
capture them there. I was fully aware of the danger of such an attempt,
but I knew that to take the bull by the horns is sometimes the safest
means of overpowering him. To send officers to that point with the
avowed purpose of arresting any one, would be equivalent to sending them
to their certain death, and I had no intention of doing anything of the
kind; but I had men of my force who could visit Nigger-Wool Swamp for
the professed purpose of hiding there from pursuit for alleged crimes,
and, when the moment came for action, I did not doubt that they would
bring out their men before the neighboring outlaws could discover their
object.
Everything depended upon the course Mrs. Farrington should take on
leaving the Mississippi River, since by striking north from the point
where she crossed, she could skirt the edge of the swamp, while if she
turned south toward Point Pleasant, I should know that she intended to
carry out her original programme. This question was quickly settled,
however, not only by the reports of the scouts, Ball and Bledsoe, who
were following Mrs. Farrington, but also by an unexpected piece of
intelligence from Gillem Station. Mrs. Farrington moved about twenty or
twenty-five miles each day, and, from the fact that she went north to
Fredericktown, there was no doubt that she had changed her plan of
meeting her sons in Nigger-Wool Swamp.