November 20, 1896, Detective Wooldridge made a high dive.
To offset his aerial stunt he took a high dive from the top of a
building, landing on his head in a pile of refuse with such force as
to go "in over his head" and stick there so tightly that it required
the combined strength of two officers to pull him out by the legs.
It was near Twelfth and State streets while pursuing two women across
a roof that his remarkable stunt took place. The women jumped from
the roof into a pile of refuse. They landed on their feet. Wooldridge
came after them. He landed on his head. As he landed he grasped a
woman with either hand, and held them until the arrival of his brother
officers effected his release and their capture.
But these are only humorous incidents, things to laugh over when the
day's work is done. In the parlance of the detectives, they belong to
"straight police work." As a direct antithesis to them is the story
of the murder and the black cat, which is in real life a weirder and
more startling affair than Poe's fantastic tale of the same subject. A
black cat helped solve a murder in a way which puts a distinct strain
on the credulity of the uninitiated.