Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American DetectivesMcWatters, George S.
General
Knots Untied; Or, Ways and By-ways in the Hidden Life of American Detectives
McWatters, George S.
Detectives
Restell expected to escape his deserts by peaching on Harland; but
Montgomery had not so promised him when Daniels caged him in the cell,
and Montgomery had taken care to not do so, for officers of the law and
detectives are very scrupulous about keeping their plighted word to
even the basest criminals. And if they were not so, the whole
fraternity of wretches would know it, and refuse to give evidence at
any time, and thus many a criminal mystery would go unexplained, and
many an innocent, like Hattie, might suffer the full consequences of a
criminality of which they were not guilty. It is often better to let a
dozen guilty go than that one innocent should suffer. Restell was taken
to the Tombs, on charge of a crime here unmentionable; but a portion of
the evidence against him failed by the death of a witness for the
prosecution, while he lay in prison, and a matter of forgery having
meanwhile become disclosed involving him, he was tried on that, and
sent to Sing Sing for four years and some months--the longest term the
law would allow for his offence.
Mr. Daniels interwove in this narrative many interesting facts, to
which I cannot, at this distance of time, do justice. He was a keen
observer of human nature, and told a story pleasantly. He recited to me
many other tales of almost equal interest; and, as I learn that he is
alive at this writing, I am not sure that I shall not try to hunt him
up, and engage him to give zest, with his piquant stories, to these
pages; for it matters not whose an interesting experience may be, so
that we have the facts. Truly, "facts _are_ stranger than fictions"
often; and it has occurred to me, while hunting over my diaries and
burnishing up my memory, to hint to my publishers that the truest,
shortest, and best way to collect a volume of marvellous experiences
would be to invite a number of detectives to dinner, accompanied by
short-hand reporters, and treat them so well that they tarry with their
story-telling through the night.
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ABOUT BOGUS LOTTERIES.
HOW THEY ARE "GOT UP"--THEIR MODE OF OPERATIONS DETAILED--HOW
THEY MANAGE THE "DRAWN NUMBERS" BEFOREHAND--THE GREAT
SHREWDNESS OF THE OPERATORS--THE SOCIAL RESPECTABILITY OF
THESE--THE GREAT FIRM OF "G. W. HUNTINGTON & CO."--THE IMMENSE
CIRCULATION OF THEIR JOURNAL--THEIR VICTIM, A MAINE FARMER, WHO
BELIEVED HE HAD "DRAWN" FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, AND COUNSELLOR
WHEATON, HIS LAWYER, A STORY TO THE POINT--WHO INVEST IN
LOTTERIES: CHILDREN, WIDOWS, CLERGYMEN, BANK CASHIERS,
ETC.--HOW THE FIRM OF "G. W. H. & CO." WAS CAPTURED--NO. 23,
WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK, THEIR PRETENDED BANKING HOUSE--HOW A
BOGUS LOTTERY COMPANY SWINDLED ITS OWN AGENTS--A QUEER TALE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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