Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the WorldWooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
History
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World
Wooldridge, Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman)
Crime -- Illinois -- Chicago; Police -- Illinois -- Chicago
Mayor Dunne upon investigation learned the large mass of evidence
gathered, and ordered the investigation to go forward, which, resulted
in the arrest and holding over of John H. Harris to the Grand Jury.
COMMITS SUICIDE.
These complaints and evidence were turned over to Colonel James
Stuart, Chief Inspector of the Mails at the Chicago Postoffice, for
further investigation. A fraud order was requested. On August 18,
1907, Mr. Harris committed suicide by blowing out his brains at 168 N.
Hamlin avenue, Chicago, Illinois, after the mask had been pulled off
and his methods exposed.
One is unable to state whether John H. Harris is opening a mail order
house, paper and marriage agency in the other world. When he left he
did not leave word where he would make his next stop, but if he went
to the other world, we are not informed that wireless telegraph or
balloon companies have as yet perfected the lines of transportation
or communication.
Harris is a fairly representative and concrete expression of the
regulation matrimonial agent. It was through such agencies as his that
the great crimes eventually were pulled off.
SECONDARY TYPES.
But in the following letters we have an excellent example of the
second type, the little grafter who wants anything you can give, from
$5 to $100. From the text of the letters it will be observed that this
man was operating as a minister, a lawyer and an employment agency at
one and the same time, as the letters are all from one source.
In the case of the lawyer this scoundrel was trading upon the name of
Edward H. Morris, one of the foremost colored attorneys of the United
States, a man universally respected and admired by men in all walks
of life. When the fact of this trading on his name was brought to the
real attorney's attention he was furious, and he cheerfully gave all
the assistance in his power to Detective Wooldridge.
This smooth one was afterward arrested in New Orleans, convicted and
sent to prison for a term.
Here follows the text of the letters:
MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES' STOCK LETTERS UNDER THE GUISE OF MINISTRY.
REV. JOSEPH SPENCER,
80 Madison Street.
Manager of American Book Concern.
Dealer in Religious Books.
Chicago, Ill., July 26, 1905.
MR. O. W. ZINK,
Marshall, Mo.
Dear Sir:
For many years I have been a MINISTER of the GOSPEL and
during that time I have not only performed hundreds of
marriages, but have arranged many, and there are at the
present time among my acquaintances some half dozen wealthy
ladies, ranging in age from twenty to forty or fifty years,
one of whom is the handsome widow whose photo I enclose
herewith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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