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
The portrait thus chosen by common accord was that of Frank Bruce, one
of the most desperate burglars of the younger generation in the
country, and it seemed only necessary now to find Bruce, to have the
problem solved. Many days were spent, and hundreds of dollars, in
searching for him. Dozens of cities were visited, and every
conceivable effort made to get on his track; but it was not until his
pursuers were almost weary of the chase that he was finally discovered
living quietly in Chicago, on Cottage Grove Avenue, near Thirty-sixth
Street, where he was operating with another high-class burglar,
"Billy" Boyce.
Requisition papers were at once procured from the governor of Iowa on
the governor of Illinois, and men were sent to take Bruce into
custody, when the "shadows" reported that he and Boyce had left for
Milwaukee, where, of course, the requisition papers were valueless.
Fortunately, that same night they attempted a burglary in Milwaukee,
for which they were arrested and held for ninety days. This gave the
Chicago detectives abundant time to identify Bruce as the missing
robber.
Mr. Pinkerton himself went at once to Milwaukee, saw Bruce in the
jail, heard his story, verified its essential facts, and within two
days, to his own complete disappointment, and in spite of himself, had
proved a complete alibi for Bruce. To satisfy himself in this
connection, Mr. Pinkerton brought conductor Ashmore and Mr. Shaw to
Milwaukee, and pointed Bruce out to them; and, after looking carefully
at him, both men declared they had made a mistake in choosing his
portrait, and that Bruce was not the robber.
With Bruce clear, the detectives were again without a suspect, and
almost without a clue. Just here, however, Mr. Pinkerton recalled that
on a trip to the West, some three years previous, to investigate the
case of a man arrested at Reno, Nevada, on a charge of "holding up" a
faro-bank, and while stopping over in Salt Lake City, Utah, he had run
across some sporting men in that city with whom he was well
acquainted, and on his telling them where he was going and what his
business was, one of them, whom Mr. Pinkerton had known for years, had
said: "Why, the man at Reno is innocent. The men who committed that
robbery are in this city. One of them is a smooth-faced boy, about
twenty years of age, and the other is a heavy-set, dark-complexioned
fellow, with a dark mustache. They are the intimate friends and
companions of Jack Denton, the well-known gambler of Salt Lake; and
only a short time ago, at Salt Lake, they entered a house one night,
going in through a rear door, and compelled two ladies, who were just
returned from a ball, to give up a large amount of diamonds."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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