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
At Mr. Merrick's they obtained a good guide, and four other citizens
joined them, so that they had quite a formidable party. After visiting
several houses in the cane-brake, they learned where Taylor was
staying, and, on going there, they saw him looking at them from a front
window. Galway asked Taylor to come down a few minutes to give them some
information, and Taylor unsuspectingly complied. He had been allowed to
go free so long, and had so often talked with William and others about
the robbery, that he did not imagine their object on this occasion. On
coming into the yard, therefore, he greeted the men cordially, supposing
them to be a party scouting for the other robbers, of whose arrest he
had not heard. When he saw a couple of navy revolvers close to his head,
and heard an order to throw up his hands, he surrendered without a word.
He was evidently badly frightened, but he would not confess having had
any part in the robbery, and he refused to tell where his share of the
money was concealed. He was placed on Connell's horse and taken to
Merrick's, where another horse was obtained, and the party went on to
Hickman; thence he was taken by wagon to Union City, arriving there
about midnight of Saturday. Both Barton and Taylor were placed in rooms
in the hotel, where they were carefully watched night and day by my
detectives, the county jail being almost useless as a place for keeping
prisoners.
On learning that the whole party had been arrested, Taylor made a very
full confession of all the circumstances connected with the robbery, and
the movements of the robbers after it had occurred. He confirmed
Barton's account in every particular, but revealed nothing new of any
importance. His share of the stolen money had been only about one
hundred and fifty dollars, as Levi had made him believe that they had
obtained only six hundred dollars in all. About fifty dollars were found
on Taylor's person; the rest he had spent. He said that Levi Farrington
had hidden all the checks, drafts, and unnegotiable paper underneath an
old log in the woods, but that he could not tell where the log was, nor
find it, since it was not marked in any way, nor had they taken any
bearings by which to remember it. He gave an account of the evening when
Hicks, the tipsy planter, came to their camp-fire, which agreed exactly
with the previous statements of Hicks and Barton; but one slight remark
in his confession seemed to account for the fifth man mentioned by
Hicks. Taylor said that during most of the time Hicks was at their camp,
one or two of the party were lying on the ground with their feet toward
the fire, and that there was a log of wood lying beside them. Now, it is
probable that Hicks was just drunk enough to be unable to tell the
difference between a man and a log, especially as, in his description of
the men, he gave the appearance of Hillary Farrington twice as belonging
to different persons. Hicks's vision was somewhat uncertain that night,
evidently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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