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
Though not interested in this particular robbery, Mr. Pinkerton had
mentally jotted down the intimacy of Jack Denton with this class of
people; and he recalled it now in connection with the fact that Jack
Denton was one of the two gamblers to whom Pollock had exposed his
diamonds at the pawnshop in Omaha. He at once decided to secure
definite information in regard to the boy who had been with Denton at
Salt Lake three years earlier. Proceeding immediately to Salt Lake
City, and making cautious inquiries, he learned that the boy in
question, since he first heard of him, had been arrested and convicted
of robbery at Ogden, Utah, and sentenced to one year's term in the
penitentiary. An investigation at the penitentiary disclosed that the
young man had given the name of James Burke, had served out his
sentence under that name, and had been released about one month
previous to the Pollock robbery.
Denton, in the meantime, had left Salt Lake and gone to Omaha, there
to make his home. The boy Burke, argued the detective, had naturally
followed his friend to that place. An accurate description of Burke
was got from the records of the Utah penitentiary, and some idea of
him and his friends was derived from the officials of the prison. But
where to find him in the whole great West was a question.
Inquiries at Salt Lake developed the further fact that Burke had had
one intimate friend there, a man named Marshall P. Hooker. Hooker had
now, however, left Salt Lake and removed to Denver. For a man of his
class, Hooker was unusually talkative, and was known by "crooks"
throughout the country as "Windy" Hooker. Plans were made for keeping
a watch on him and on Jack Denton, in the hope, by "shadowing" the
movements of these two, of ultimately locating Burke.
Through the free talk of Hooker, reported back to the detective, it
was soon learned that Burke was known by the alias of "Kid" McCoy, and
that he had recently been operating on the Pacific coast in "holding
up" faro-banks, and had also been concerned in two large robberies,
one at Lincoln, Nebraska, and the other at Sacramento, California. His
whereabouts at that time, however, were unknown.
Much time had now elapsed since the robbery, and the sensation caused
by it had died out. Jack Denton and his friends seldom spoke of it,
and Hooker never spoke of it unless the subject was introduced to him.
Both men were extremely shy of strangers, and it was almost impossible
for a detective to draw them out, as anybody who introduced the
subject of the robbery was at once looked upon with suspicion. For the
purpose of creating further talk upon the subject, Mr. Pinkerton
caused to be inserted in the Omaha papers an advertisement as follows:
"Five hundred dollars will be paid for any information
leading up to the identification of the party who robbed
William G. Pollock on the Sioux City and Pacific train,
November 4, 1892.
"WILLIAM A. PINKERTON,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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