Chapter XVI (1)

Proof of Positive Identification--the Finger Print.

Crime is developing at a great rate, yet but comparatively few police departments have provided themselves with the necessary instruction and equipment to successfully combat it. A vast majority of the police departments in this enlightened age continue to pin their faith to the flint-lock musket of a by-gone day, while the lawbreaker eludes and evades and convictions grow fewer and farther between.

The greatest factor in the detection of crime--the one indisputable incriminating evidence of guilt--the present tell-tale imprint of the finger, is more often overlooked than it is pressed into service in bringing the guilty to the bar of justice.

Perhaps one of the greatest chief reasons for the lack of a world-wide use of the simplest known method of directly connecting the criminal with his crime is the misconception of the utter simplicity of securing such evidence and the certainty of it.

The following are a few of the great number of crimes committed in which the finger print alone played the important part and furnished proof of identification.

JENNINGS CASE.

On September 19, 1910, Clarence B. Hiller, who lived at 1837 104th Street, Chicago, Illinois, was murdered in his home, evidently by a burglar.

The following morning Capt. Michael Evans and his son, Wm. M. Evans, of the Chicago Bureau of Identification, went to the Hiller residence to look for finger prints. They found three on the newly painted porch railing. The rail was sawed off and taken to headquarters, where the prints were photographed.

Certain circumstances pointed to a negro, named Thomas Jennings, as the murderer, and he was arrested and his finger prints taken. They corresponded exactly with those found on the porch rail.

Jennings was brought to trial before Judge Marcus A. Kavanaugh, at Chicago, and was convicted November 11th.

Jennings’ attorney fought against the admission of finger prints as evidence and argued that, as a means of identification, finger prints were unsubstantial. He was overruled by Judge Kavanaugh and four experts testified to the many points of similarity that existed between the prints found on the porch rail and those taken from Jennings’ fingers.

One of the jurymen said, after Jennings had been convicted: “The finger prints, and the finger prints alone, convinced us that Jennings was guilty.”

The case was taken to the Supreme Court of Illinois on appeal, but the verdict was upheld. In handing down their decision the justices of the Supreme Court said:

“When photography was first introduced, it was seriously
questioned whether pictures thus created could properly be
introduced as evidence. But this method of proof, as well as
by means of X-ray and the microscope, is now admitted without
question.

“We are disposed to hold, from the evidence of the four
witnesses who testified and from the writings we have referred
to on this subject, that there is a scientific basis for the
system of finger print identification and that the courts are
justified in admitting this class of evidence.

“Such evidence may or may not be of independent strength, but
it is admissible, with other proof, tending to make out a case.
If references as to the identity of persons based on the voice,
the appearance or age, are admissible, why does not this record
justify the admission of finger print testimony under common law
rules of evidence.”

Jennings was hanged on February 16 1912, at Chicago.

THE CHARLES CRISPI CASE.

In the winter of 1911, the loft of H. M. Bernstein and Brothers, 1701 Wooster street, manufacturers of ladies’ garments, was burglarized in the early morning. Finger prints found in the burglary were discovered to be those of Cesare J. Selle, alias Charles Crispi, who, upon this identification, was arrested and indicted for the crime of burglary, in the second degree, second offense. At first, Selle’s attorneys proceeded with the trial on a plea of not guilty, but after Joseph Faurot, the finger print expert, had testified the attorneys for the defense withdrew the plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to the crime of burglary. Judge Rosalsky after the plea had been taken said to Selle:

“I want you to make a full confession. I can assure you that
no indictment will be found against you or any witness who
testified in your behalf in the course of your trial for
perjury, but it is more for the interest of justice and science
that you tell the truth. It is invaluable for us to know whether
or not the expert testimony given during your trial was correct
or otherwise. The finger print experts are of the opinion that
the science of identification, by means of finger prints, is
more exact than the Bertillon System of photography. Did you
remove the pane of glass, in evidence here, from the door of the
loft of H. M. Bernstein and Brothers?”

The defendant answered that he did. In view of the fact that he had assisted the officers in helping to establish the authenticity of the finger print identification he was given a sentence of only six months.

* * * * *

In the year of 1910, two men broke into a home in Flatbush; they were discovered and one of them shot a member of the household. One of the burglars was also shot, and his injury led to the arrest of the other. Finger prints of both were taken, but the New York Finger Print Files contained no record of the injured burgler. He insisted that he had never been arrested before and that he had, by chance, been induced to take part in the Flatbush burglary. Captain Faurot researched his files, but could find no duplicate of his finger print card; still there was something strangely familiar with one of his prints. Suddenly it came to him. Some months before, there had been a burglary in Brooklyn, and upon a cut glass rose jar one of the thieves had left a thumb print, and a large photograph of this print was on file at the identification bureau. This photograph was compared with the impression of the wounded man, and found to agree with the print of his left thumb. Going directly to the hospital where the man was confined, Captain Faurot said to him: “When you broke into that house on Park Slope, three months ago, why did you not take that cut glass rose bowl?” “It was too heavy to carry away,” replied the man.

* * * * *

In the Coppersmith case in Chicago, Russell Pethick, a grocery delivery boy, who murdered Mrs. Coppersmith and her baby boy, endeavored to put the officers on the wrong trail by giving the description of a man he saw going into the Coppersmith home about the time of the murder, and when taken to the Bureau of Identification in that city, through a ruse, his finger prints were obtained and afterwards fourteen points of comparison were found in two fingers and on the bloody handle of the hammer with which he killed Mrs. Coppersmith. When confronted with his finger prints he pleaded guilty and is now serving a life sentence in the Illinois penitentiary at Joliet.

Another case of more recent date comes to my mind, where a clever identification was made. In San Francisco an expert burglar robbed several rooms in the St. Francis, the leading hotel of San Francisco. Among the people robbed was Miss “Billie” Burke, the celebrated actress, from whose room was taken about ten thousand dollars worth of valuable jewelry. There was no possibility of getting identification as to the thief; but a few days later an officer of the San Francisco police department arrested a man while attempting to dispose of some of the stolen jewelry. This man was a Swede or Norwegian named Peter Johansen, and he positively refused to give any information regarding himself. Through the kindness of Chief White of the San Francisco Police Department several copies of the man’s photograph were obtained and sent to Europe for identification, together with his finger prints, as it was the opinion that this man, who had only been in this country but a short time, had come from Europe for the purpose of operating in San Francisco during the progress of the World’s Fair. Chief White also wrote to Europe, enclosing pictures and finger prints of him, and we both got copies from Superintendent McCarthy at Scotland Yard identifying the man, not alone by his photograph, but positively by his finger prints. He gave a long criminal history of Johansen, where he had served time in England, Sweden, South Africa and Australia. I consider this a marvelous case of identification, as the finger prints in all of these different countries compared with those taken in San Francisco.

Story Section

Author’s Announcement

The stories following relate my experiences and those of other officers and detectives. They are stories of cases in real life, handled successfully by different officers of the law. The stories are educational, covering several branches of the detective profession, both in police circles and private detective agencies.

The detectives, the police officer and all peace officers may derive both pleasure and profit by a reading of these stories.

RUFUS H. CLENDENEN.

Professional Bootlegging, 1915–1921.

(Written before National Prohibition became effective)

Mountains subserve important uses of the economy of nature, especially with the water system of the world. They are at once great collectors and distributors of water. But from time immemorial the mountains of the Virginias, Kentucky and Tennessee have been famed for things other than the uses of water.

Who is there who has not read of the mountain character who relied upon his “still” in some brush covered cove to produce the mountain nectar from yellow corn that has waved its golden bannerets on those sun-kissed hills, and which has brought imagined happiness to the wearied soul of the mountaineer--and not infrequently filled his heart with murder--for the juice of the yellow corn breeds dangerous lightning in the blood.

We have also read of the hatred these men have borne towards the law’s representatives,--the “revenu” officers and detectives. Of the many and bloody battles, of the strategic moves adopted by the one and of the deadly aim of the other’s rifle.

But this story deals not with the mountain “still” but rather with the new mountain, the “bootlegger”--the man who smuggles whiskey into dry territory in violation of the law and sells it to those who are ready and willing to pay the price.

The different dry states have raised a great crop of those “bootleggers” but West Virginia, in proportion to its size, has perhaps outstripped them all. In cities of 5,000 or more there are several “professionals” who vie with one another in their anxiety to break the law. By the “professional” is meant the man of means who is financially able to hire from one to a dozen men, or women, to work for him. These workers are called “runners” and when caught bringing more than one quart of whiskey a month into the state, or selling or attempting to sell the liquor, they are frequently sentenced to serve sixty days in jail and fined $100, or more, while the “professional” goes unmolested.

But the professional “bootlegger” invariably places the indelible mark of his nefarious profession upon himself, for he stands by his “runners” and secures for them the best of counsel, who continues their cases from term to term on one pretext or another, and if eventually convicted, he sees that they receive good meals while in jail, and when the sentence is finished he sees that the fine is paid. The old legend, that there is “Honor among thieves” seems to hold in these cases, for the “runner” never connects the man higher up, the “professional”, with his misfortune, and receives his confinement and punishment without a word of complaint. No doubt the man receives a financial consideration for his silence.

It is estimated that in the City of Charleston, West Virginia, the State capital, which has a population of something like 40,000, there are at least two thousand persons engaged in violating the prohibition law. Hundreds are convicted each year. It is charged that there is lack of co-operation between the Prohibition Department of the state and the municipal and county officers. The laxity in this respect on the part of municipal officers may be due to the fact that there is no fee attached to the conviction of violators of the prohibition law.

The schemes invented to evade the law are about as remarkable and numerous as the violators themselves. It is known that automobiles have slipped into the state carrying as many as thirty-two cases of whiskey, which is seven hundred and sixty pints. The “bootlegger” can buy the whiskey at $27.00 a case and can sell it in wholesale lots at $80.00 a case. Should he conclude to retail it he can get $5.00 a pint, out of which he must pay his runner $1.00. Thus it can be seen that the “professional” bootlegging business is a rather profitable enterprise.

It is remarkable the extent and the ingeniousness of the schemes adopted and devised in order to bring whiskey into the state. A short time ago a funeral procession wound its way slowly and majestically down the turnpike that connects Ohio and West Virginia. An alert officer was impressed with the extreme seriousness of the driver of the hearse and the undertaker who sat by his side. The hearse was stopped and an inspection made, and to the surprise of the officer he found the hearse packed with cases of the rarest brands of whiskey.

Farm houses and buildings are frequently used by the “professional” to secrete quantities of whiskey until such time as it is safe to attempt distribution. It is marvelous the amount of ingenuity that is being wasted in the construction of false partitions, sliding floors, window facings, door facings and traps and other devices that almost defy detection. The freight train is also used by the common “bootlegger”, and daily deliveries are made of supposed coffee in huge sacks, while in reality the coffee is just around the outside, as the center of the sack is filled with whiskey bottles.

It is surprising how many men of shady character and dishonest methods have grown in corpulence since the passing of the prohibition law. An investigation of the person of some of those “big” boys have revealed specially made vests with various and sundry pockets which invariably contain a pint of whiskey. As many as twenty-four pints have been found in the pockets of one man. While engaged in the search of a Virginian train at the Chesapeake and Ohio depot in the City of Charleston one morning, the writer and Sam Fields, a local prohibition officer, noticed an unusually large colored preacher across the aisle from where we were standing. Fields approached the preacher and said “Good morning, Parson.” Fields and I engaged the colored man in conversation and soon confirmed our suspicion that the man was a “bootlegger” owing to the fullness of his clothing. A search of the clothing of the supposed “Parson” disclosed an under-jacket made of bed-ticking, underclothing made of canvass containing pockets, thirty-six pockets in all, and each one containing a pint of whiskey. When taken from the coach to the platform it required aid to get him from the seat, he was so burdened with contraband.

Often I have taken from a person a caulking hammer with a bunch of oakum tied around it so as to hide from two to six pints of whiskey. I have relieved the male and female foreigner of corsets made of tin and shaped and soldered so as to fit the breast and abdomen, containing approximately one gallon of liquor. The extra tires on automobiles, copper lined, have been found to contain a large quantity of liquor. False bottoms, radiators, extra gasoline tanks, etc., have been confiscated containing gallons of liquors. I have frequently caught both men and women with from three to five hot water bottles on their person--and each bottle filled with whiskey. Violin, mandolin, guitar and banjo cases are frequently placed very carefully in the racks of passenger coaches and when inspected more often hold whiskey than musical instruments. Trunks and express packages are used as a means of conveyance, but the trained detective soon discerns the odor coming from such articles, and when the goods are called for arrests follow. Even a casket supposed to contain a corpse and bearing a doctor’s certificate has been found to contain “Old Crow” instead of the remains of some recently departed soul. A one-legged negro in Charleston capitalized his misfortune by adopting and using a hollow cork leg which would hold five gallons of whiskey. He was caught and a solid leg was substituted for the shell-like affair.

Even the well-to-do people of this State who are possessed with an unquenchable thirst resort to all sorts of tricks to get whiskey either for themselves or friends. One prominent woman pretended to have broken her arm and it was discovered that the supposed injured member was bound with splints of half pints instead of pieces of wood. Even old saw mill boilers have been used to convey liquors into the state, to say nothing of milk cans, egg shells and dozens of other methods. The bootleggers were so numerous in this state a few months back that it was considered among themselves that some plan or means of identification would soon be necessary to prevent wasting time trying to sell to one another. The officers might suggest a red badge.

The up-to-date and modern bootlegger has gone all the rest one better. He has himself fitted with a corset which is hollow and has hinges at various points. The same enterprising variety of mankind also has similar outfits made of rubber or oil cloth.

Several persons in this state have died from drinking wood alcohol, not knowing that it was deadly poison. A negro porter in a hospital was recently arrested and convicted of selling, to men of the back counties, alcohol which had been used in preserving freak babies. Another brand of drink which is made in sections of the state is called “cow cider” and is in reality the juice from the grain and fodder of the silo. It not only causes intoxication but carries with it a severe headache for several days thereafter. A hop brew called “old hen” is another of the strange drinks made for the purpose of making drunk come.

Whether prohibition develops booze maniacs has not as yet been determined by the medical fraternity, but it seems to be a proven fact that human nature wants that which it is told it cannot have. Man is something like a marauding old muley cow. A muley cow will eat anything on top of this majestic earth that she can steal, from a hickory shirt to a temperance newspaper, and anything she can’t get through her throat she will chew and suck the juice. That is human nature to a T. Man values that which is hardest to get. I fear that until the law of nature is reversed the legitimate effect of prohibition will be blind tigers, mountain and cellar stills, the breeding of bootleggers and the sale and consumption of a death dealing brand of booze.

We shall not commence at 1921 to 1922. The white corn nectar is now made in each little village, coal camp, oil fields and principal cities in the Virginias, Kentucky and Tennessee, and this mountain dew is flavored with ground ivy, drugs of different kinds and sometimes even lye is put into it to make it taste hot like whiskey of high proof. People are now complaining of the theft of their wash tubs, rain barrels, wash boilers, etc. Stills are made of zinc tubs, oil cans, milk cans, tin boilers, gasoline tubes, kettles, etc.

They have a coloring (caramel) making the color of corn whiskey red. Dried peaches used as a “mash” makes the liquor yellow in color like peach brandy. About 75% of the stills captured are made of zinc vessels, tin and iron pipes, making a poison called “moonshine” which is killing people every day.

In West Virginia you will find the moonshiners organized and assistance and aid given them from people in good standing. It is also the case in Kentucky and Tennessee. In the Blue Ridge and Cumberland mountains of Virginia moonshining has been going on since the civil war. They are an organized band, and when the approach of officers of the law is noticed, where no telephone system is used, they use a ramshorn, gun barrel, conch shells, high power rifles, etc., to warn the offenders of the approach of the officers. Very often a woman will go to the back door of her home and call her cows at the hour of midnight, using this method to warn her husband or other members of the family that officials are at the house or are near. The sounds made by these different signals can be heard for a long distance at night among the mountains and 80% of the contemplated raids of officers of the law on moonshiners and moonshine stills are “tipped-off” in this manner. The old method of building fires of wood has given way to the more modern and less easy to detect method of using gasoline or kerosene stoves, which method is a very good one, owing to the fact that no smoke arises from the fires and the light is very easily shielded from view.

It has been worked many times that a man would come in from the mountains, disclose to officers of the law the location of a “still” and receive from said officers a small reward for the information. As soon as he leaves the officers he will return to the moonshine region and tell the moonshiners that a raid is to be made on a certain day. In this way the informer will receive a reward from both officers of the law and the moonshiners.

When moonshine liquor cannot be obtained in the cities the “topers” resort to all kind of drugs to satisfy their thirst, such as hair tonic, pre-digested beef, Jamaica ginger, lemon extracts, all of which contain a certain per cent of alcohol.

Prohibition Amendment.

Amendment of Section 46, Article 6 of the State Constitution, ratified by vote of the people at a general election held in the month of November, 1912, known as the Prohibition Amendment.

“Sec. 46. On and after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen, the manufacture, sale and keeping for sale of malt, vinous or spirituous liquors, wine, ale, porter, beer or any intoxicating drink, mixture or preparation of like nature, except as hereinafter provided, are hereby prohibited in this State. _Provided, however_, that the manufacture and sale and keeping for sale of such liquors for medicinal, pharmaceutical, mechanical, sacramental, and scientific purposes, and the manufacture and sale of denatured alcohol for industrial purposes may be permitted under such regulations as the legislature may prescribe. The legislature shall, without delay, enact such laws, with regulations, conditions, securities and penalties as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this section.”

* * * * *

An Act of Congress of the United States known as the

Webb-Kenyon Law.

“An Act divesting intoxicating liquors of their inter-state character in certain cases.”

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That the shipment or transportation, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, of any spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor of any kind, from one State, Territory or District of the United States, or place non-contiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, into any other State, Territory or District of the United States, or place non-contiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or from any foreign country into any State, Territory or District of the United States, or place non-contiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, which said spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor is intended, by any person interested therein, to be received, possessed, sold, or in any manner used, either in the original package or otherwise, in violation of any law of such State, Territory or District of the United States, or place non-contiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Postal Regulations--Parcels Post.

The regulations of the United States Postal Department prohibit the shipment of intoxicating liquors by mail--the language of the rule being as follows:

“There shall be prohibited from the mails all spirituous,
vinous, fermented or other intoxicating liquors of any
kind.”--Section 16, paragraph 2, Parcels Post Regulations.

Sec. 37. It shall be unlawful for any person to own, operate, maintain or have in his possession, or interest in any apparatus for the manufacture of intoxicating liquors, commonly known as “moonshine still”, or any device of like kind or character. For the purposes of this act, any mechanism, apparatus or device that is kept or maintained in any desert, secluded, hidden, secret or solitary place, away from the observation of the general public, or in any building, dwelling-house or other place, for the purpose of distilling, making or manufacturing intoxicating liquors, or which by any process of evaporation, separate alcoholic liquor from grain, molasses, fruit, or any other fermented substance, or that is capable of any such use, shall be taken and deemed to be a “moonshine still”; and the owner or operator of any such “moonshine still” shall be deemed a “moonshiner”. Any person owning, operating, maintaining or having in his possession, or having any interest in any moonshine still, shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than three hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, and be confined in the penitentiary not less than two nor more than five years. Any person who aids or abets in the operation or maintenance of any moonshine still shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than two hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and confined in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than three years.

Gunnoe Murder Case.

On the banks of the Great Kanawha river, two miles above the City of Charleston, West Virginia, lived a dairyman by the name of Willard Gunnoe. Gunnoe, together with his wife and his wife’s sister, Ocie Mullens, lived in a brown cabin surrounded by the picturesque mountains of West Virginia and five acres of fertile soil, on which grazed the milch cows of his dairy. The nearest cabin to Gunnoe’s place was about one quarter of a mile away.

In the month of April, in the Spring of 1914, Mrs. Gunnoe was reported to have been found dead in her kitchen by Willard Gunnoe, her husband, and Ocie Mullens, her sister. The Mullens girl and Gunnoe had been to the barn, some seventy-five yards from the house, attending the cows. The alarm or report of the finding of Mrs. Gunnoe was given by her husband to neighbors. On information furnished to the Prosecuting Attorney of Kanawha County, that official instructed G. D. Acree, a constable of Charleston District, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the case. The Prosecuting Attorney also requested the writer to work in conjunction with Mr. Acree in making the investigation.

On our arrival at Gunnoe’s house we started our investigations and found foot prints from a large foot on the kitchen cabinet and the condition of the room showed there had been a struggle. Our next step was to examine the body of Mrs. Gunnoe. A careful examination disclosed finger prints on her throat and bruises on her arms. Her lips and right side of her face were burned, apparently by carbolic acid. These findings aroused our suspicions and we called Doctor O. L. Aultz, then the county physician. Dr. Aultz advised a post-mortem examination of the body, and all witnesses were hastily summoned before C. W. Dering, a Justice of the Peace of Charleston District, who acted as coroner.

Mr. Gunnoe’s testimony before the coroner’s jury was to the effect that he, together with Ocie Mullens, were in the habit of going to the barn and milking before daylight in order to make early deliveries of milk in the City of Charleston and suburbs; that after completing their work they returned to the house and found Mrs. Gunnoe’s body lying on the kitchen floor. He stated that at the time he returned to the house day was breaking and he saw a man running from the kitchen door; that he and his wife had had no trouble and there was no reason for her committing suicide; that he was positive she had been murdered by the unknown man he saw running from the house. Mr. Gunnoe also stated that he heard no cries or commotion in the house whatsoever. Gunnoe showed no emotion over the matter and acted unconcerned. His actions caused no suspicion. Gunnoe had a long scratch from the left eye leading to the tip of the nose as if caused by a finger nail and when asked the question as to the cause of the scratch, he stated that while watering his horse down at the river a sharp stick struck him in the face and made the scratched place.

Ocie Mullens testified that she had heard no struggle or cries and that she had also seen the man running from the house as Gunnoe had testified. The witnesses were not separated during the examination and she corroborated Gunnoe’s statements. After the hearing of the evidence, the jury returned a verdict that Mrs. Gunnoe had been murdered at the hands of an unknown person. For the purpose of further investigating the matter, a warrant was sworn out for the arrest of Gunnoe and Miss Mullens on instructions from the Prosecuting Attorney and they were held without bond to await the action of the next grand jury.

Constable Acree and I made repeated trips to Kanawha City and continued our investigations and found foot prints in the mud leading from the rear of the house to the barn and from the barn to the kitchen. About half way between the barn and the house we discovered tracks which led us to believe there had been a struggle at that point. One of the prints compared with that found on the kitchen cabinet and the other tallied with that of Mrs. Gunnoe, showing that she and her husband had been at this point on the morning of the murder. To further bear out this point, Mrs. Gunnoe’s shoes were covered with mud. On our return from the Gunnoe house we visited the morgue and viewed again the body of Mrs. Gunnoe. Our purpose for the second examination was to try and determine, if possible, whether or not the scratch on Gunnoe’s face was caused by Mrs. Gunnoe during some kind of a struggle or fight. We examined beneath the finger nails of Mrs. Gunnoe and cleaned them out with a tooth pick. The result of this disclosed human flesh.

Our next step in the line of evidence was obtained from the post-mortem examination made by Doctor Aultz, which disclosed that death preceded the apparent taking of the carbolic acid, as when her throat was examined it showed no discoloration.

Gunnoe was indicted and tried in the Intermediate Court of Kanawha county for the murder of his wife. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree, which carries a sentence of from five to eighteen years in the penitentiary. Judge H. K. Black sentenced Gunnoe to serve twelve years. Gunnoe resorted to all legal steps to avoid the serving of his sentence, carrying his case to the State Supreme Court, which court sustained the judgment of the court below. After failing in his purpose Gunnoe, while confined in jail awaiting transportation to the penitentiary requested permission to converse with the Prosecuting Attorney. This leave was granted and in the presence of Hon. T. C. Townsend, then Prosecuting Attorney for Kanawha County, and the writer, Gunnoe confessed to the crime and stated that he killed his wife accidentally by strangling her to death. The altercation between them which led to the killing was caused by jealousy on the part of Mrs. Gunnoe, she accusing him of being intimate with her sister.

Strange Creek Case.

In September, in the Fall of 1915, the writer was called to Glenville, the county seat of Gilmer county, and was also called upon about the same time by the Prosecuting Attorney of Braxton county in regard to the above case.

Near Gilmer Station, on the then Coal and Coke Railway (now the B. & O.) a young boy was rowing a small boat in Elk river and found the corpse of a fully developed baby about three months old. The boy was somewhat frightened at his gruesome find and went to the Town of Gilmer and reported the finding of the dead baby. For some time there was a question of jurisdiction between the authorities of Braxton and Gilmer counties, and after a conference between L. H. Barnett, Prosecuting Attorney of Gilmer county, and James E. Cutlip, Prosecuting Attorney of Braxton county, it was decided that Gilmer county had jurisdiction.

I was then detailed on the case by Mr. Barnett and began my investigation the latter part of September. No clue was in evidence and no information to start from. For several days I visited each little town on the Coal and Coke road between Orlando in Lewis county and Clay Court House in Clay county. About ten days after I started my investigation I was lunching at a small hotel at Burnsville and heard a lady speaking of a young woman who had left the station at Burnsville one night before the arrival of the B. & O. train carrying a small baby and a yellow suit case. Upon investigating this matter I found that a yellow suit case filling this description had been checked to a station a few miles away, called Strange Creek on the C. & C. railway. After securing all the information I could around Burnsville I went to Strange Creek and found out that a young lady who had been teaching school at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, had returned home and lived on a farm up Strange Creek a few miles from Strange Creek station. No one suspicioned the young school teacher, whose name was Ora Wilson. She was from a good and respectable family which owned several farms in Braxton and Clay counties.

I received at Strange Creek a description, as best I could, of Ora Wilson and went back to Burnsville with this description. I found it tallied with the one given me by the agent and the woman who had seen her leave the depot a few nights before. I then walked from Burnsville to Gassaway, a distance of about fourteen miles, inquiring as I went if any one had seen a lady carrying a baby the night that she was seen at Burnsville. There is a little school house about one mile from the station at Gilmer and I ascertained that a strange woman had stayed there all night alone. My next step was to proceed to Strange Creek where I gathered from dates which I had that Miss Ora Wilson had reached Strange Creek the evening after the woman had been seen in the school house near Gilmer station.

Through an intimate friend of the Wilson family I found out that Ora Wilson had been stopping at Weston, the county seat of Lewis county, and that she had a three months old baby. This friend also advised me that she was at her home on Strange Creek and that the baby was missing. After receiving this information I satisfied myself that Miss Wilson was the party wanted for the drowning of the child. I secured a warrant for her arrest and went to Strange Creek and proceeded up Strange Creek on horse back. On my way up the Creek I tapped the telephone wires and learned from conversations on the rural line that my presence and purpose in the neighborhood had been divulged to the Wilson family and others along the line. When I arrived at the Wilson home Miss Wilson was not there, and on account of it being a stormy night it was impossible for me to make any search at that time. The next morning Miss Wilson’s brother, who is a farmer, came to me at the place where I stopped over night and stated that his sister, Ora Wilson, had been out all night in the woods and wished to give herself up. Mr. Wilson said he would accompany me to Gassaway that night and we would then take the morning train there to Gilmer Station. When we arrived at Gilmer station the whole town and vicinity had turned out to see us, about two hundred in number. We hurried her from the train to a taxi-cab which was waiting and from there went to Glenville where she was placed in the county jail. Miss Wilson would make no statement and would not converse with me. Her brother remarked to me on different occasions that his sister was insane and that he was going to employ the best counsel to do what he could for her. He employed Senator Kidd, a very able attorney. At the preliminary hearing of Miss Wilson, held at Glenville, Senator Kidd waived examination and she was held without bond to await the action of the next grand jury.

When the grand jury finished its work, it failed to return an indictment against her. The jury’s action in this matter, I have always thought, was brought about by Senator Kidd’s cleverness. He would take every farmer and citizen who would come to Glenville on business to see “the crazy woman up here in jail.” This caused the sentiment of the people to favor Miss Wilson and so many of the people and citizens of the county had seen her it was impossible to get a jury who was not in sympathy with her and she was released from custody.

The Smith Gang, or the Lucky Thirteen.

In the year 1906, the Smith family, originally from Kentucky, moved to Crown Hill, West Virginia, a mining town a short distance from Charleston, known as one of the toughest little centers in the State of West Virginia.

The father, W. H. “Bud” Smith, by occupation a miner, with a chief side line in making counterfeit ten dollar gold pieces, which he passed in poker games, at country stores and on persons who were unable to detect them. This counterfeit would only last a few days, as its color would change. The United States Marshal and other officers pursued him for about four years and about the year 1910 found his molds in the “Black Cat” mine near Crown Hill.

Tot Smith, a son of W. H. “Bud” Smith was a very young and desperate outlaw. While engaged in a friendly wrestling match at Crown Hill one Sunday evening, a young man by the name of Albert Summerfield threw Tot to the ground twice, when Smith became aggravated and shot Summerfield through the body. Mrs. Charles Summerfield interfered and tried to take the pistol from Tot and he discharged a shot into her body from which she afterwards died. Tot was apprehended for this murder and was incarcerated in the county jail for a number of months, when he became ill and one of Charleston’s best citizens aided and assisted him in getting a $5,000.00 bond. When his case was called for trial in the Intermediate Court he was absent and his bond was forfeited. His bondsman at this time detailed the writer to apprehend young Smith. In my investigation I found that young Smith would mail a package to his mother from some point in Oklahoma and his next letter would be mailed in Missouri or Kansas, never giving us a chance to apprehend him in any city from where he would communicate. I made several trips to Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana and parts of West Virginia in an effort to secure the proper information to effect his arrest, but he evaded me at all times. One winter day in 1913 I went to Crown Hill to capture him when he and his father quietly got into a row boat, each having a Springfield rifle and crossed the Kanawha river, leaving me behind. They took the mountain trail which is just back of Riverside, West Virginia, and not having anyone to assist me I did not follow them into the woods.

My investigation quietly went on, and at all times I had the house of Richard Hager (his uncle), under surveillance. On Friday evening, March 13, 1913, (Lucky Thirteen) I received a telephone call which stated that two strange men were at the Hager home at Paint Branch on Cabin Creek. Being well armed, I summoned a local officer to accompany me, but between Charleston and a stop on the C. & O. called South Ruffner he gave up the trip and returned to Charleston. I then walked on to South Ruffner and caught what is known as the “Bull Moose” train, a local C. & O. freight, and went to Cabin Creek Junction and walked up to Paint Branch, a distance of five miles, arriving there just before dawn.

Upon my arrival the Hager family was up making a fire in the kitchen stove when I knocked on the door. Mrs. Hager came to the door and asked me what I wanted. I stated to her that I had been informed that Tot Smith, who was wanted for murder, was in the house. She told me there had been two men from Kentucky staying with them for a few days but they had gone. By this time Richard Hager came through the house and told me that there were two strange men up stairs, but neither of them was Tot Smith or Bud Smith. I told them I wanted to look the situation over myself and started up the stairs. Mrs. Hager told me that if I went up the steps I would never come back alive, at the same time urging her husband to shoot me in the back. I went up the stairs where the children of Hager’s were sleeping and there were two young girls, aged about 12 and 16 years in the first room I entered. I examined the under mattress and found two feet which did not belong to either of the girls, which feet were between the mattress. I was satisfied that these were Tot Smith’s feminine feet. At this point I heard a door open and Bud Smith said, “You will take nobody from this house,” and saying this ran down the stairs. I ran down the stairs after him and he ran into the front room and picked up a Mauser rifle. I demanded at the point of my pistol that he drop the rifle, which he did. I did not fear Tot Smith and I was sure that it was he up stairs and thought he was securely hidden. I then told Bud Smith that I knew Tot was upstairs and that I was going to search the place. At this point Tot Smith knocked on the window while I was standing in front of the house and called to me and remarked, “Clendenen, if you won’t shoot, I will come down and give up.” I told him not to bring anyone with him and to come down the stairs with his hands up, which he did. I had their clothes brought to the front door where they dressed.

Mrs. Hager proceeded to curse me and call me all manner of vile names till her husband made her cease.

By this time breakfast was ready and the prisoners asked me to allow them to eat. Over the protest of Mrs. Hager I sat down and joined them at the table. After breakfast both men requested me not to handcuff them and I complied with their request, bringing them to Charleston to the Kanawha county jail. In this case I received a reward of $700.00.

Fred Smith, a younger son, became a notorious burglar, having served a term in the state penitentiary for robbery committed in Boone county. He was arrested and convicted by the writer and members of the police department for highway robbery. While waiting to serve his sentence he made good his escape from the county jail, in company with another Smith, named Dot, convicted of the same crime. At this time fifteen prisoners sawed their way to freedom.

W. H. “Bud” Smith was tried and convicted at Charleston in the United States Court for the Southern District of West Virginia and given a sentence of a number of years, which he served, and on returning died at Leewood on Cabin Creek, West Virginia, in the year 1919.

Tot Smith was tried for murder and convicted and given eight years in the penitentiary at Moundsville. Serving about four years of this sentence he was paroled on good behavior and became a noted bootlegger, carrying liquor from Kentucky to the coal fields of West Virginia. While leaving Ashland, Kentucky, with a considerable quantity of liquor, riding in a coal car a special agent of the C. & O. at Ashland saw him. Tot saw the special agent first and pulled his gun and instantly killed him. After this affair he escaped. Being indicted for this murder a reward was offered for his apprehension and about six months later he was accidentally arrested for hoboing and identified by Special Agent Johnson of the C. & O. as Tot Smith. He was returned to Ashland, Kentucky, tried for murder and convicted of murder in the first degree. He is now serving a life sentence in the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Frankfort, Kentucky.

A Railroad Theft.

During the holidays it is customary for railroads to employ what is termed “relief agents” or men who are experienced in railroad agent work, to take the places of men wishing to be absent during the holidays.

The agent at Clendenin, West Virginia, on the Coal and Coke Railway, wanted to be relieved for ten days. H. Crawford Bosworth, alias R. W. Edwards, called on the train master of the Coal and Coke at Charleston, West Virginia, and advised him that he was a telegraph operator and had had considerable experience as station agent and that if there was a position open as “relief agent” he would like to have the same.

Bosworth was employed by E. O. McGrain to relieve the station agent at Clendenin for ten days. At this time the oil fields were running in full blast and Clendenin was in the center of the field. Considerable money was taken in by the railroad from freight and passenger traffic during the holidays. At one time Bosworth had over four thousand dollars in his possession and the assistant agent became suspicious of him and notified one of the Clendenin banks just across the street from the depot to call and get about twenty-six hundred dollars, which he knew should be placed in the bank. The bank did so, leaving several hundred dollars in cash still in Bosworth’s hands. On Monday evening before Christmas, 1915, Bosworth came to Charleston, bringing with him several hundred dollars and never returned to Clendenin. The writer, being Special Agent of the Coal and Coke system, was notified of the theft and I immediately started an investigation.

No one was acquainted with Bosworth. No one knew of any of his relatives or place of abode. In a few days I understood that some of the references Bosworth gave to Mr. McGrain had been dead for a number of years. I gathered all the data and information I could and consulted with the different employees, passenger conductors, etc. We received some information from a conductor on a local freight who stated that he had seen Bosworth over on the B. & O. about Chillicothe, Ohio. I went to Chillicothe and made an investigation but received no information or clue that would lead to his identity. On this trip I visited several small Ohio towns on the B. & O. but failed to get any information as to my man. On returning from Chillicothe I purchased a Cincinnati Post from the news agent, dated January 26, 1916. In this issue of the Post I found a photograph of one Miss Myrta Snider, stating that she had been holding a “man’s job” on the B. & O. at Orient, Ohio, which is on the B. & O. S. W. Miss Snider was in Cincinnati at the time seeking employment and had made application to Miss Margaret Maxon, in charge of the State Cities Free Employment Bureau in the City Hall. I went to Cincinnati and located Miss Snider and had an interview with her in reference to the description of Bosworth. She stated that at one time she had a sweetheart on the B. & O. at Manchester, Ohio, by the name of H. Crawford Bosworth and she told me that he had married a girl by the name of Marjorie Smithson, a daughter of a blacksmith at Cuba, Ohio. I followed this clue and found it genuine, but found that the Smithsons had moved to Manchester, Ohio. I detailed one of my female representatives to make the trip to Manchester, Ohio, by way of Cincinnati and she went there under the disguise of an agent of the Prisoner’s Relief and Aid Society of Huntington, West Virginia. The operative was in Manchester but a few days when she made the acquaintance of Mr. Smithson, who was still engaged in the blacksmith business and informed him of her business, saying that she was appointing sub-agents on a nice percentage to work for her. He immediately informed her that his daughter Marjorie had been “down south” and had returned home and would be glad to assist her. My representative went to the Smithson home where she met Marjorie Bosworth, the wife of H. Crawford Bosworth. After gaining her confidence and employing her as an agent, she gradually extracted from her the information that Bosworth was in business in Atlanta, Georgia.

Upon receiving this information from my representative I immediately started for Atlanta, Georgia, and on my arrival there went to police headquarters. The chief of police at Atlanta detailed two of his best detectives at that time, namely: Hollingsworth and Sturdevant to assist me in locating Bosworth and making the arrest. After two days of investigation we found that Bosworth had owned a pool room at No. 249 Whitehall street, but had sold out and had left the city. The detectives gave up the case when they were assured by persons whom they trusted that Bosworth was not there any longer. I then started the investigation myself and in two days I had Bosworth located and called the two detectives above mentioned. We arrested him as he was entering a fashionable rooming house. When told we wanted him for the embezzlement, he said he would not return alive and started to fight. We were compelled to give him a severe beating before he was subdued. After the fight, he and two other crooks were taken to the hospital which adjoins the city hall. Bosworth engaged the services of Lawton Nalley as counsel and for several days fought requisition papers. We were granted an audience at 11:45 on Saturday morning before the Governor. Mr. Nalley called us at the State House forty-five minutes later stating that he had withdrawn from the case. Governor Harris of Georgia immediately honored the requisition of Governor Hatfield of West Virginia and we left with Bosworth for West Virginia.

After Bosworth’s arrival in Charleston we received telegrams from numerous railroads and bonding companies who wanted him. The reward would have amounted to about $2500.00 in all, but while confined in the county jail, Bosworth made the statement that if the bonding companies would not allow him to settle for all the thefts he had committed that he would not be tried. A week before the convening of the grand jury, Bosworth in some mysterious manner sawed his way from the jail and escaped.

Holly Griffith--West Virginia’s Most Noted Criminal.

A little over thirty years ago there was born in Harrison county, West Virginia, near the City of Clarksburg, a young man by the name of Holly Griffith. Griffith was born of poor parents and had very little chance to secure an education. The thought never entered the minds of his parents that their child would turn out to be the case-hardened criminal and murderer that he is, but such was his fate, as never before in the annals of history of criminals in the State of West Virginia has there been a man who led such a spectacular life of crime as did Griffith.