OTHER KINDS OF DETECTIVE WORK

I believe it will be of interest to both experienced and inexperienced detectives to be enlightened regarding some of the many other sources from which private detective work arises. Lawyers throughout the country, in both large and small cities, and even in thinly settled country communities, are large employers of private detective service. When prosecuting or defending damage cases, attorneys very often need detective service in getting at facts, in order to properly prepare their cases. Witnesses must be interviewed, and very often investigated. Murder, burglary, damage and divorce cases supply needs for a great deal of detective work.

State, county and city governments are large employers of private detectives. Counties and cities often have their own staffs of detectives, but there are many occasions when special detectives must be pressed into service. Nowadays election frauds are practiced practically everywhere. Private detectives are needed and can easily obtain employment wherever there are professional politicians. Trusted employees often go wrong and disappear with public funds. Officials holding high offices very often turn out to be embezzlers. Dozens of banks are being defrauded daily somewhere by forgers, sneak thieves and others. Hundreds of our large banking institutions periodically place under surveillance their entire staffs of employees, from the cashier down to the messenger boy and porter in order to keep advised regarding the habits and associates of the employees, which information enables them to select from time to time the proper persons for promotion.

Large manufacturers, no matter what the line, usually are extensive employers of private detectives. I have in mind a large manufacturing concern which employes in its factory probably three thousand persons, and at all times not less than two hundred traveling salesmen, also dozens of branch managers. When it is suspected that a traveling salesman is not attending to business, he is placed under surveillance while on his travels from city to city, for probably one, two or three weeks. The detective’s report will show the time of day the salesman begins work, what firms he calls on, how much time spent with each firm, and how much time is idled away, and the time the salesman discontinued work each day; also how much time the salesman may spend in saloons or other places, how he spends his evenings and how much money he spends.

In connection with this class of detective work, I once had occasion to keep under surveillance for three weeks a traveling salesman, who, as it developed, devoted more time to a side line than he did to the line he was being paid to travel and promote business for. Needless to state, this salesman, after his employers received my reports, was obliged to change his ways. The tendency of salesmen to devote time to side lines is one of the worst evils that employers of traveling salesmen have to contend with.

In factories, no matter of what nature, employers usually find it expedient to place secretly among their employees, detectives who work side by side with the employees. Male or female detectives are so placed, as the case may warrant. The reports these detectives are enabled to render show which employees are worthy of trust or promotion and those that are not. Such reports will show who are the lazy ones, the dissatisfied ones, the strike agitators, those who steal tools, material or supplies, those who violate any rules of the factory or shop; also what kind of treatment is accorded the employees by the foreman. An entire book could be written on this branch of detective work alone. It is an undisputed fact that large employers of labor nowadays cannot conduct their business as successfully without secret service work.

Besides the thousands of manufactories, transportation companies and others who constantly employ detectives, we have the wholesale companies who deal in groceries, dry goods, drugs, shoes, etc., who also are in need of such services. The traveling salesman of such concerns must be looked after, also the drones and thieves with which their warehouses become infested.

ILLEGAL LIQUOR SELLING

Illegal liquor selling opens a very broad field for detectives throughout the country, and I have personally obtained and directed the obtaining of evidence in a hundred different ways. In this branch of the work one cannot be guided by any set rule, but must be governed by prevailing conditions. If it be desired to obtain evidence regarding the illegal sale of liquor, or regarding any other violations of law in a hotel of any size, there is only one good plan, and that is to have the detective obtain employment at the place for a few weeks or a month.

I have had many occasions to direct the work of obtaining evidence of the illegal sale of liquor, gambling and other vices in small towns. In the average town of from three to ten thousand population, the best plan is to have the detective obtain employment in some mill, factory or store. In this way he can easily become acquainted and can associate with whatever element he may choose to associate with and without his purpose being suspected. After the detective has been in the town for two or three weeks, and has purchased liquor at the various places where it is sold illegally, a second detective is sent to the town who poses as the friend of the first one. The first detective then proceeds to take his friend around to the various places in the evening, or on Sunday, and in this way corroborative evidence is obtained. Bottles of liquor should be obtained at the various places and retained intact for use later as evidence.

ANONYMOUS LETTERS

There are written and mailed every year thousands of anonymous letters, threatening and otherwise, and there is need for much detective work along this line. Many such letters are written and addressed with the typewriter, the authors believing that by so writing them they can escape detection. But this is not so, as I have always found it easier to trace to the writer those that are written with typewriter, because when type is placed under the magnifying glass it is found that type differs considerably on every typewriter, and each set of type has its own peculiarities. With the assistance of an able typewriter expert, I was enabled during the course of one year to clear up three anonymous letter cases wherein the letters were written with a typewriter.

Thousands of letters known as “black hand” letters are mailed and sent throughout the country, the sending of which offers a wide field for investigation. “Black Hand” letters are by no means all sent by Italians, as is commonly believed. The term is usually applied to letters in which sums of money are anonymously demanded, upon threats of death, torture or punishment.

“ROPING”

The term “roping” is used in connection with detective work to express cultivating the acquaintance of a criminal or other person for the purpose of learning what the person may know regarding a crime or other matter about which it may be desired to obtain information. There is a vast lot of detective work of this kind done, and I will submit a few cases, since every detective should be proficient along this line.

A man was in charge of the supply department for a large corporation, and was suspected of carrying to his home such articles as light globes, machinists’ tools, paint, stamped envelopes, soap, towels, etc. Being called upon to verify this, I detailed a female detective on the case, who succeeded in obtaining lodging and board at the house, and in two weeks she had seen and brought away more than fifty different kinds of articles that had been stolen and carried home by this man.

I once directed the investigation of an $8,000.00 jewel theft which was brought to a successful close by having a negro detective “rope” a negro waiter. The jewels in question were inadvertently left lying on a chair in a cafe by a well known actress, and they were not missed until the following morning. Three negro waiters came under suspicion and finally suspicion was narrowed down to one of them, who, after the theft, kept roving from city to city. Although he was kept under close surveillance for a period of four months he was never seen with any of the stolen jewels, and apparently made no effort to dispose of them. The suspect finally obtained a position as waiter in a fashionable cafe in a certain large city, when I arranged for a similar position at the same cafe for a negro detective, who immediately began cultivating the acquaintance of the suspect. After two weeks he told the suspect that he was worried over the fear of arrest for having stolen some jewelry in another city. This caused the suspect to feel safe in confiding to the detective the fact that he also had stolen some jewels and was worried over the matter. On a certain night they arranged to meet at the suspect’s room to show each other their stolen jewels, the detective arranging for this so as to ascertain where the suspect was keeping his. The suspect was arrested the following day, and at his room practically all of the stolen jewels were recovered.

I have handled a great many cases wherein the acquaintance of persons holding confidential positions were cultivated. For example, men who employ private secretaries often desire to know if the secretary is absolutely reliable and trustworthy. Whether the secretary be man or woman, “roping” is resorted to, to ascertain if such persons would divulge secrets of their employers. “Roping” of this class of people often entails great expense and detective work of a very high order. I have handled several cases wherein it was necessary to have the detective, in order to get acquainted in a natural way, join the same church and clubs to which the party to be “roped” belonged, also furnished the detective with an automobile and other things so as to keep up appearances, and apparently be on an equal footing with the person to be “roped.”

Roping is very frequently resorted to in damage cases, also in theft cases. Many fake damage suits are brought annually against street railway and other transportation companies. While such suits are pending it is a good plan to have a male or female detective, as circumstances may require, get acquainted with, or obtain room and board with the person to be “roped,” and which usually results in the detective learning the extent of the person’s injuries, if there be any, and such other information of value to attorneys defending such a case.

DETECTIVE WORK IN WAREHOUSES

As previously stated herein, every owner of a wholesale house or warehouse can employ detective service with profit, also packing houses and similar concerns. I have in mind a certain wholesale drug house which employs approximately one hundred men the year round. At one time it was estimated that between two and three hundred dollars worth of goods were stolen and carried off per month. I detailed a detective to go to work in the building among the other employees, and at the end of four weeks the detective’s reports showed specific instances of stealing on the part of sixteen employees. The detective was then permitted to discontinue, and I took these sixteen men in hand, one after another, and obtained signed confessions from them relative to their stealings, and all were discharged. I recall that one of these men admitted stealing and carrying off seven Gillette safety razors in a period of two weeks. Also one of the men whom we took in charge, as he was about to quit work for the day, had secreted on his person six different stolen articles.

In the case of a large packing house it was found that drivers were short some of their goods upon arriving at depots, claiming that the missing goods either were stolen or had not been loaded upon their trucks. They made these trips to the depots between midnight and 5 a. m. These drivers with their trucks were shadowed, when it was found that each had along his route a place where goods were unloaded and sold by the driver. In the case of another large packing house I uncovered thefts of butter alone amounting to three hundred pounds per month.

EXPRESS COMPANIES

Express companies are large employers of detective service, because the temptation to steal goods while in transit is very strong with a great many employees. By detailing secret detectives to work with employees, both in the depots and on trains, I have uncovered many thefts. I once obtained a confession from an express messenger who admitted having stolen in one day two dressed turkeys, a loin of pork, two pounds of butter and a quart of whiskey. He admitted these thefts after he was shown that his helper in the express car was a secret detective, who saw him appropriate the articles.

I once had occasion to conduct an investigation for an express company regarding the theft of $1,500.00 worth of unset diamonds, which were stolen while in transit. In the course of three weeks the thief had not been detected, and the nearest that responsibility could be fixed was that the theft was committed by one of three persons. A ruse was then resorted to which produced results, and which ruse often brings results in cases of theft by employees. We caused it to be published in the newspapers that after several weeks investigation and surveillance we had learned the identity of the thief, and that an arrest would positively be made the following day. This had the effect of causing the thief to believe that he had actually been detected, for the next day the stolen diamonds were delivered to the company by mail. The same ruse, applied in various forms, has also been the means of obtaining many confessions in criminal cases. Fear of arrest and conviction often leads a first offender to give up his plunder, and the successful use of this ruse is a matter of bringing it to the attention of the one under suspicion in the most forceful way.

On behalf of an express company, I once was called upon to investigate what was reported to be a burglary of the express office in a town of about five thousand population. Upon arrival there the next day I found that the front window of the office was broken, the break being sufficiently large to have admitted a man’s body. I talked with the agent whose breath indicated to me that he had been intoxicated the night previous, and which fact he admitted. This agent had reported to his superiors that upon arrival at the office that morning he found the front window broken, that the safe apparently had not been tampered with, as the key was found to work perfectly. Upon opening the safe he found that two hundred dollars was missing, fifty dollars having been left in the safe by the burglar, according to his statement. Nothing else around the office was stolen or tampered with. In less than five minutes after arriving there I concluded that if any cash had been stolen the agent himself was the guilty one. From a boy outside I learned that the window became broken during a severe electrical storm the previous night, which placed the town in darkness for several hours around midnight. An overhead sign was blown down and crashed through the window. Being further convinced that the agent was guilty and had taken advantage of these circumstances to report a burglary, I asked the agent if he had ever loaned his safe key to anyone, and he replied in the negative. I then told him that I knew how the window had become broken, and asked him if he believed it logical that a thief would take the trouble and risk arrest by having a suitable key made for the safe, enter the building, steal two hundred dollars of the cash and leave fifty there. I told him that in my judgment such would be the work of an employee but not of a burglar. The agent hung his head and I told him I was justified in having him arrested on the spot. He confessed immediately, less than an hour after my arrival upon the scene. The facts as shown in this incident should prove of much worth to the experienced or inexperienced detective.

CONSPIRACIES

The disclosure of conspiracies in their hundreds of forms offers a broad field for the detective. Hundreds of damage suits are instituted annually throughout the country wherein damages claimed to have been suffered by the plaintiff are nothing more than conspiracies to defraud. The field for such investigation is very wide, especially as it applies to fake bankruptcy cases and damage cases brought by persons against railroad and street railway companies. For example, I once investigated a case wherein the store of a certain jewelry firm was destroyed by fire. Later they claimed that during the excitement of the fire some $20,000.00 worth of diamonds were stolen from the premises by some person unknown. The creditors were loath to believe this and had an investigation made which developed that the diamonds in question had not been stolen, but were removed from the store by the owners previous to the fire, and that the fire itself no doubt was a part of the plan to defraud creditors.

Railroad companies suffer tremendously as a result of conspiracies, of which the following is an example, and which ease I personally directed: A new railroad was constructed through a certain farming district, for a distance of perhaps fifteen miles. Before the advent of the railroad none of this farming land had ever been valued at more than twenty-five dollars per acre. Practically all the farmers along the line of the railroad claimed damages up to a hundred dollars per acre. The cases were decided in the courts, upon the opinions of viewers who were appointed by the court, and which body of viewers was composed of disinterested farmers of the same county.

After the railroad company had been compelled to pay two or three excessive claims, it looked about for relief, it having suspected right along that a conspiracy existed among the farmers and viewers to claim and recommend such excessive damages. After three cases had been decided against the railroad company, I detailed two detectives to visit these farmers, and who pretended to have been sent by a number of farmers of a far distant county, who also proposed bringing damage suits against a new railroad company; that they had heard of the success these farmers were having with their suits, and that it was desired to know along just what lines they were proceeding. The two detectives also advised the ring leaders that they did not want the information gratis, and if given assistance were authorized to pay a certain percentage of all damages secured in the distant county. The result was these farmers then unsuspectingly told the detectives how they had all met and agreed to claim certain amounts of damages, and how they had even gone so far as to hold mock trials at several of the farmers’ homes, so that all concerned would be properly coached when the time came to go into court. At these mock trials one farmer would pose as plaintiff, while another would pose as the railroad company’s attorney, when questions were asked, and answers agreed upon, as was anticipated would come out at the real trials or hearings. Needless to state, that after corroborative evidence of this conspiracy was placed in the hands of the railroad company’s attorney, no more excessive damages were paid, and I later had the pleasure of being advised that this bit of detective work saved the railroad company fully forty thousand dollars.

As to how creditors are defrauded in hundreds of instances, the following is a fair example: A retail shoe dealer in a middle western state went into bankruptcy owing several eastern jobbers several thousand dollars. Examination of the dealers’ stock and records of sales for several months developed the fact that two or three thousand dollars worth of shoes purchased from the eastern jobbers evidently had never entered the dealer’s place of business. It was suspected that the merchandise was concealed or had been secretly disposed of by the dealer. I directed an investigation which resulted in locating the goods in another city, the investigation having been conducted along the following lines:

Information as to the road over which the goods were shipped, together with dates, weights and car numbers was first obtained from the shippers. The drayage company on the dealer’s end was then seen, after which drivers for the drayage company were interviewed, and which developed information that the missing goods had never been delivered to the dealer’s place of business, but instead were moved from one depot to another and promptly re-shipped to another city. The same plan was then followed in that city with the drayage companies and the goods easily located, and which were promptly attached by the creditors.

In another case an Italian fruit jobber once received three carloads of fruit, and after disposing of same left suddenly for parts unknown, without remitting to, or paying the shippers. I was called into this case, and I promptly directed that the Italian’s wife and children be placed under close surveillance. In about a week the wife and children packed up their household goods and had the same shipped to a city some three hundred miles distant. The household goods were then watched closely after being unloaded in the freight depot at the point of destination. Three days later the goods were removed from the depot and taken to the home of an Italian, whose house was then kept under surveillance, but no trace could be seen of the fugitive. At the end of a week the household goods were again taken out, hauled to a depot and re-shipped to a small town a hundred miles away. I recall having personally examined the shipping tags attached to the goods upon this occasion, which gave us the address of the final destination of the household goods, and which address, a few days later, enabled us to cause the arrest of the fugitive.

TESTING RETAIL BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENTS

The making of test purchases in retail stores is done very extensively, and for which work detectives are employed. Taking for example a high class confectionery store, drug store or cigar store. The proprietor may not come to his place of business until late in the morning, or may be away for perhaps a week. He desires to know if his sales clerks are honest and reliable, and courteous to customers during his absence from the place of business. The detective retained for this purpose enters the store one, two or three times a day and makes purchases the same as any other customer would, and while in the place makes careful note of the kind of treatment accorded him by the sales clerk, and in particular notes if the amount of his purchase is properly rung up on the cash register, with which most retail business establishments are now equipped. Owners of department stores and of saloons spend thousands of dollars annually for detective work of this kind.

DIVORCE CASES

As everyone knows, thousands of divorce actions are brought every year throughout the country and many detectives find employment in connection with such cases. The custom is that when the husband, for instance, suspects his wife of infidelity, he has her placed under surveillance for a month or so, which usually develops whether or not his suspicions are well founded. However, information and corroborative evidence is obtained by the husband, or by the wife, as the case may be, in a hundred other ways. While detective work of this nature has no doubt always been profitable to detectives, my opinion is that it has never been any too creditable, and my advice to the detective is to keep as clear of this kind of work as possible, because such cases require skillful work and handling, and often when handled successfully, the results do not offset the undesirable notoriety that may be given the detective.

ARSON

As is quite well known, the fire losses in the United States run annually into millions of dollars, and if one would take the trouble to have half an hour’s talk with any fire insurance expert it will be found that a surprisingly large percentage of fires are no doubt the results of schemes to defraud fire insurance companies. Much detective work is directed in an effort to lessen these losses, and to bring about the arrest and conviction of the offenders, but my knowledge of conditions is that the crime of arson continues on the increase rather than on the decrease.

Life and accident insurance companies throughout the country employ hundreds of detectives the year round to investigate risks and fraudulent claims. Many individuals somewhere daily place in the hands of private detectives, various kinds of cases to be investigated, and in conclusion I will say that when a case is submitted to the detective for investigation it should be made the subject of careful thought and consideration. As a rule, every case differs in some way, but if good common sense methods are applied, results can be secured, no matter how difficult or how complicated the case may be at the start.

FINGER PRINTS
SIMPLIFIED

A New Handbook of the Science of Finger Print
Identification

By JAMES HOLT

CONTENTS