Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives: Don Pedro and the Detectives; Poisoner and the DetectivesPinkerton, Allan
History
Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives: Don Pedro and the Detectives; Poisoner and the Detectives
Pinkerton, Allan
Detective and mystery stories; Detectives
"I am twenty-two years of age," said Barton, "and my native place was
Columbus, Mississippi. When quite young, I left home and took to
following the army. About five or six years ago I moved to Normandy,
Tennessee, and lived with the family of Major Landis, and two or three
years later, I went to work on the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad
as a brakeman, remaining as such over two years. About three years since
I formed the acquaintance of Hillary and Levi Farrington, at Waverly,
Tennessee. These are the men otherwise known as J. H. Clark and Edward
J. Russell. Afterward I opened a saloon in Nashville, and Levi
Farrington visited me there several times. Last April or May he was
arrested on suspicion of counterfeiting, but as there was no case
against him, he was discharged. After a short time, I went down to visit
Levi at Mrs. Farrington's; she lived at the head of Tumbling Run Creek,
twelve miles back of Gillem Station. Hillary was in jail at Memphis at
that time, charged with murder and horse-stealing. When he got out of
jail, Levi, Hillary, and myself all made a trip to Little Rock,
Arkansas, gambling by throwing three-card monte, and we won about
thirteen hundred dollars; we then returned to Gillem Station, where we
remained until the twenty-first of July, this year. During this time,
Levi, who frequently rode back and forth on the express trains, spoke of
the feasibility of robbing them.
"On the morning of July 21, Levi, Hillary, and myself left Gillem
Station for the purpose of robbing the express train at some of the
stations either on that road or on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. At
Union City we changed cars, and arrived at Moscow just after dark. The
plan was, that we all three should enter the car and overpower the
messenger; but Levi and Hillary were the only ones who entered. I
remained on the platform of the first passenger coach and kept watch.
When the train was passing the water tank, they slacked up the speed,
and we all jumped off and struck for the woods. The messenger had
nothing whatever to do with this robbery, so far as I was ever informed.
"As I said before, we struck into the woods and reached the river just
above Hickman, where we stole a fisherman's skiff, and all three of us
started down the river. Finding that we were pursued, we left the skiff
on the Tennessee shore, near Island Number Ten. We then took the river
road and walked back as far as Lester's Landing, arriving there about
dinner-time, July 23. Levi divided the money, giving me one-third of one
thousand dollars, which was all, he said, in the safe, although I always
believed there was more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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