True Detective Stories from the Archives of the PinkertonsMoffett, Cleveland
History
True Detective Stories from the Archives of the Pinkertons
Moffett, Cleveland
Crime -- United States; Criminals -- United States; Detective and mystery stories, American
Thus the robbers would have had full opportunity to approach the safe
unobserved and exercise their skill upon it, could they have secured
entrance to the ticket-office. Nor was this a difficult matter, since
the door leading into it was known to have three keys, in the hands of
various employees of the road, from whom they might have been procured
or stolen. More important still was the fact, ascertained by Mr.
Bangs, that the safe itself had three keys, intrusted to as many men,
whose duties required them to have access to the safe. It subsequently
transpired that two of these keys had been made by the men who carried
them, for their own convenience and without the knowledge of their
superiors. The door leading into the ticket-office opened from the
men's waiting-room, where people had been coming and going during the
entire night of the robbery. Such of these people as could be found
were questioned closely as to what they had observed on this night,
but they could furnish no information that threw light upon the case.
Some significance was found in the coincidence that nine years before
there had been a robbery at Susquehanna, in which thirty thousand
dollars had been stolen from the express company's safe. The
Pinkertons knew that for years a band of professional thieves had been
traveling through the country, operating on safes that could be opened
with a key. Among them were experts in fitting locks, especially
skilled in making keys from impressions, and known as professional
"fitters." At first it was considered possible that the robbery had
been committed by these men; but, after the most careful search and
inquiry, Superintendent Bangs concluded that this was not the case and
that the pouch had been stolen by some person or persons resident in
Susquehanna, presumably by one or more of the railroad employees who
had access to the office, or by persons intimately acquainted with
some of the men who had keys to the safe.
"Shadows" were put on all persons who might have had access to the
ticket-office and the safe; but, although this was continued for
weeks, nothing conclusive came to light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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