From Boniface to Bank Burglar; Or, The Price of Persecution: How a Successful Business Man, Through the Miscarriage of Justice, Became a Notorious Bank LooterWhite, George M. (George Miles)
History
From Boniface to Bank Burglar; Or, The Price of Persecution: How a Successful Business Man, Through the Miscarriage of Justice, Became a Notorious Bank Looter
White, George M. (George Miles)
Bank robberies -- United States; Criminals -- Biography; White, George M. (George Miles)
But the tireless energy they’d put in the case was at last rewarded.
Cummings was located in New York City. Thither they returned, but
arrived one day too late, for the bird had flown. However, as Golden
was talking to the housekeeper, his eyes fell on a sensational weekly
story paper lying on a table, which bore the name of Cummings,--and
he gained the information from the housekeeper that the paper had
been changed to another address. As she apparently knew little or
nothing about Cummings, the detectives went to the office of the story
paper. There they found that the paper was being sent to “M. Shinburn,
Saratoga, New York.” This was a mighty small clew to follow. At their
wits’ end, however, the detectives decided to make the trip. Possibly
they might find Cummings there.
It was not difficult to find “M. Shinburn.” The gossips in Saratoga
believed him to be a wealthy business man who had recently located
there and who had purchased a large farm on the outskirts of the
village, where he lived with a brother, whose name, they had heard, was
Frank. The few who had made his acquaintance found him to be of a most
affable sort. Indeed, they declared that he had come from the South
or West, and had bought the farm about a month previous. Just when he
first put in an appearance at Saratoga they could not tell, however.
As the days wore on, many little characteristics in Shinburn made the
detectives believe that he was not all he professed to be. They felt
certain that it would be a wise move to arrest him; yet there was
the Dr. Hollister _fiasco_ still fresh in their minds, and to make
another mistake was something not to be relished. At last, driven to
desperation by circumstances, Golden told Kelso that the risk must be
taken; and it was--but I will allow the former to relate, in his own
way, what came of it.
“We were at our last ditch,” said he, “when we decided to take him in.
It was a big risk,--much like a plunge in the dark,--but we determined
to do it. The favorable opportunity came one night right after the
theatre. Kelso and I waited on the outside, and when Shinburn came to
the street, we pinched him. Now, mind you, it was just speculation.
Well, he put up the stiffest kind of a kick, but we would not let up
on him until every pocket had been turned inside out and every scrap
of paper examined. We found on him five coupons cut from bonds, and
two railroad bonds, all stolen from the Walpole Bank. Of course that
settled it for keeps. We locked him up, and then, armed with only
our nerve, we searched his house, his brother Frank putting up a big
holler, and found files, skeleton keys, wax impressions, and other
burglars’ tools. Among the keys we discovered was a duplicate that
would open the outer vault door of the Ashuilot Bank at Keene.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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