Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1916 — The Preller Murder Case [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Preller Murder Case

Stories of the Greatest Cases in the Career of Thomas Furlong, the Famous Railroad Detective, Told by Himself Copyright by W. G. Chapman

The conviction of the murderer of Clarence Preller, a man named Hugh M. Brookes, waa one of the hardest pieces of work ever performed by me. The true story, which I have never before disclosed, has a remarkable psychological interest, in that I kept my assistants in ignorance of the part that each was playing, while my own recompense consisted only in a contused eye apd a number of scratches, bumps and bruises. The Preller murder occurred in the Bummer of 1885, in one of the rooms of the Southern hotel, St. Louis. Clarence Preller w»b a young Englishman, representing Important commercial interests. Brookes, the murderer, was also an Englishman, of respectable parentage, bflt a criminal past. However, until he met Preller on the steamship which conveyed them to America, his welrst crime had been the theft of some property belonging to fellow-students at a law school. Brookes, representing that he was a man of title, succeeded in ingratiating himself with Preller during the course of the voyage. They journeyed to Boston together, and Preller, who was en route for New Zealand, by way of San Francisco, proposed that they should reunite at St. Louis. Brookes, passing under the name of Maxwell, engaged a double room at the Southern hotel, and was there joined by Preller a day or two later. Brookes, or Maxwell, had learned that Preller had in his possession seven one-hundred-dollar bills, and had already resolved to murder him. On the Sunday after the reunion, after dinner, Preller complained of stomach trouble. Maxwell, claiming to have some knowledge of medicine, administered a hypodermic injection of morphine, giving his victim enough to kill. Just as Preller was breathing his last the murderer poured a quantity of chloroform upon Preller’s lips, completing hip work. When the man who had trusted him was dead, Maxwell stripped the body and placed a suit of his own underwear on it. Maxwell was short in stature, being only about five feet five inches in height, while Preller was much larger, about six feet tall. Maxwell’s clothing was marked with the name of Hugh M. Brookes, and his obvious design was to have it appear that he had committed suicide, or had been murdered, leaving the police to search for the dead man as the murderer. Brookes emptied out the trunk belonging to Preller and thrust the body Into it. Then, strapping and locking it, he put hie own, as well as Preller’s effects, into his own trunk and retired for the night. The next morning he paid his bill, stating to the clerk that Preller had gone out of town for a few days, but would return shortly, and that he desired the room to be held for him, as his trunk and effects wquld remain there until he called for them. He added that he had to leave that morning, but expected to rejoin Preller later in another city. Brookes had already made that fundamental error which all murderers seem to make. He planned to leave his own effects behind him and to ship the trunk containing the body to a distant place, where the dead man would simply be known by the marks on the underclothes. But he had given wrong instructions to the porter, or else the porter made a mistake, for the trunk brought down was his own and not that containing the body. Brookes became very much alarmed. He took a ticket for San Francisco, and thence sailed for Auckland, New Zealand, to which spot Preller had been bound, apparently still trying to carry out the substitution of identities.

The body was discovered, the detectives got on the trail of the murderer, and he wits arrested on the arrival of his ship at Auckland and brought back to St Louis. While in Jail he employed two lawyers to defend him, and it was then that I came into the case. A few days after Brookes had been lodged in jail Mr. Ashley C. Clover, circuit attorney of St. Louis, and his assistant. Marshall F. McDonald, drove out to my Residence. I was then special agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad company, and my visitors were well known to me. “Furlong,” said Mr. Clover, "it looks as though Brookes will go free.” “How is that?” I asked. . “Because,” replied the other, “while there is scarcely any doubt that Maxwell caused the death of Preller by chloroform, yet he may have done it innocently, and if such is the case he could not be convicted of the murder. Now, Tom, I want you to get the facts in this case for me.” I asked for a day to think the matter over, to which suggestion they agreed. When my visitors returned I said:

“Gentlemen, I have been thinking about the case in question, and have become satisfied that there were but two persons who knew the whole facts connected with the case. One of these persons is now in Jail, and the other is dead. In my opinion Maxwell is the only living person who knows the facts, and therefore he is the only person from whom these facts can be obtained. I believe I can get these facts from him. I shall be glad to do anything that I can to assist you in unraveling this case, with the understanding that I am not to receive any compensation for what I do myself, but I expect yoq gentlemen to pay the operative that I may use in this work the same amount of salary that we are paying him, and his actual expenses.” This being agreed, I telegraphed to Philadelphia for a man in my employ there named John McCulloch, a truthful, honest man, but a little thickheaded: just the man who would interpret his instructions to the letter, and carry them out in this way—which was what I wanted. 0 I began by obtaining possession of a few blank checks from the office of D. S. H. Smith, who was local treasurer of the Missouri Pacific Railroad company in St. Louis. My chief clerk was a good penman, and I set him to practice until he could not only Imitate Doctor Smith’s signature, but could imitate it Just badly enough to arouse suspicion in the mind of a bank cashier. I next had my clerk fill out a blank check for the amount of $1,188.10. Thig check I gave to McCulloch, instructing him to present it to the paying teller of the Mechanics’ bank, which was then on Fourth street. I had received a genuine check from Dr. Smith a few days before, and had purposely held this out, and wae waiting across the street from the bank when McCulloch, who is now to be known as Frank Dingfelter, entered to cash the forged check. As soon as Dingfelter entered the bank I followed him. The paying teller examined the check curiously, and then, seeing me, excitedly motioned to me to come to the window. As I approached, the teller, in an excited voice, commanded me to arrest Dingfelter. “He has presented a large fake check bearing the name of Dr. Smith, for nearly twelve hundred dollars,” he said. “Why, you know Dr. Smith’s signature.” "Yes. Here ie one of Dr. Smith’s checks,” I answered. “I know this is genuine, for I saw the doctor sign it."

The two checks were compared by me, and I continued: “While I am not an expert on handwriting, I do not believe that Dr. Smith wrote that signature.” “Where did you get that check?” demanded the teller of Dlngfelter. “I got it from Dr. Smith,” waa the reply. “Will you go with me and see Dr. Smith?” I asked. “Well, I don’t know whether I will or not,” Dlngfelter answered. “Are you an officer?” “I am the chief special agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad company,” I replied. “Oh, well, that is different I will go with you and see Dr. Smith,” said Dlngfelter.

We started for Dr. Smith’s office accordingly. At the corner of Sixth and Pine streets I gave Dlngfelter the prearranged signal, which was for him to hit me a good, stiff punch in the face. A large, clumsy policeman, wearing a raincoat was standing under An awning near the corner saloon. Dlngfelter hit hard, as he had been instructed, and struck me above the eye, knocking me down and inflicting a severe contusion. Dlngfelter stumbled and also fell, and the clumsy policeman made a dash for him. In the ensuing fight the policeman lost most of his uniform, and all three of us went down in the mud and were covered with filth before Dlngfelter was finally subdued.

Dlngfelter was taken to headquarters and searched. In an inside pocket was discovered a letter directed to some person in San Francisco, together with a large sum of money. The letter seemed to implicate the prisoner in a series of bank swindles which had excited the people of the Pacific coast. The newspapers had printed a good deal about this gang, and the St. Louis detectives felt that they were on the trail of the robbers. The afternoon newspapers censured and ridiculed me for having failed to discover this letter. However, I was not disconcerted, for it had taken me about two hours to compose and write the same epistle. The St. Louis papers devoted to Dlngfelter a good deal of the space that they had been devoting to Maxwell, much to the disgust of the latter. The two men met in the “bull ring” in the jail, and Maxwell hastened to make the acquaintance Of so notorious a swindler as Dlngfelter seemed to be. The more the latter held himself aloof, the more anxious Maxwell appeared to be to cultivate his acquaintance. “You are Dlngfelter, I believe," said Maxwell.

Dingfelter replied that he was, and Maxwell continued: "They seem to have a strong case against you.” “You will have to excuse me, sir,” answered Dingfelter. ‘T don’t want to seem impolite, but I must decline to talk to anyone in this place about my case, as you call it*, I don’t believe it would be a good thing for me or any other person to talk about a charge that is pending against him in a place of this kind. Besides, I don’t know you." "I am Maxwell," replied the other. “I am the fellow who is charged with the murder of that man Preller, who was killed in the Southern hotel, and whose body was found in a trunk. I waa arrested at Auckland, New Zealand, and brought back here to St, Louis to stand trial, but I have been assured by my attorneys that I will be acquitted. They have no case against me, and just as soon as I can get a trial, why, of course I will go free.”

"I have been reading in the papers about you,” answered Dingfelter, "and if you will pardon me for saying so, it seems to me that you have already been talking too much about your case. If you are not guilty of the crime with which you stand charged you ought to be acquitted, and I hop© you will be.” Dingfelter was in jail for fortyseven days, during which time Maxwell never let the opportunity pass without talking to him. Meanwhile Dingfelter was making daily reports to me. Maxwell, who seemed to have implicit confidence in Dingfelter, admitted that he had killed Preller to obtain the seven hundred dollars which the latter possessed. Maxwell also told Dingfelter that he had used morphine, which had not hitherto been suspected, owing to the presence of the chloroform. The body was at once exhumed, and traces of morphine were found, the examining doctors guarding the secret faithfully until the trial. After this information had been obtained from Maxwell it was unnecessary to keep Dingfelter in jail any longer, and it was accordingly arranged to have him released on bail. When Dingfelter told Maxwell that he wasf about to leave the prison he added that if there was any way in which he could assist him he would be glad to do so. “You can do a whole lot for me,” answered Maxwell, "by getting two of your friende to come here when my trial is called and have them testify that they met Preller and myself in Boston, and that they accompanied us to the depot when we were leaving Boston; that at the depot I proposed that the party take a parting drinki that Preller, these two men, and myself went to a case, and that when I paid I displayed a roll of seven one-hundred-dollar bills; that I explained that I wanted to change one of these bills so that I might have smaller bills with which to pay my expenses on my way to St. Louis. If they will testify to this it will account for the six one-hundred-dollar bills that I took from Preller.” "Are you sure that your lawyers will not get these friends of mine into

trouble or let the police get next to them if I can get them to come?” asked Dingfelter. , Maxwell assured Dingfelter that his friends would be perfectly safe in coming to St. Louis, and that the police would not get next to them, provided, of course, that they were not already known to the police. It was about five o’clock in the evening when Dingfelter waa released from Jail on bond, and at that hour the courts in the building had adjourned for the day, and the newspaper correspondents and all others had left the building except for the few attaches who were on duty. Thus Dingfelter left the jail unobserved. He took a circuitous route to my house, where he remained until a late hour, when I sent him to New York. I had instructed him to open a correspondence with Maxwell from that city, so as to get positive instructions from Maxwell as to what the witnesses were to testify to when they took the stand in his defense. He carried out these instructions to the letter. The correspondence was kept up through the medium of Maxwell’s attorneys, copies of the letters sent, and the originals that came back, coming into my hands. When the trial was called Dingfelter, or McCulloch, as he may now be known again, returned td St. Louis, his presence there being unknown to anyone except myself and Messrs. Clover and McDonald. At the trial Maxwell took the stand In his own defense and testified that he had administered chloroform to hie friend Preller on the fatal evening at the Southern hotel, for the purpose of alleviating his pain. He saw fit to mention a certain disease as the cause of Preller’s sufferings, whereupon a second autopsy was made, which showed conclusively 'that Maxwell’s statement on this point was untrue.

Dingfelter was among the first witnesses to be called by the prosecution. After being duly sworn, he took his seat on the witness stand. Maxwell shot one glance at him, turned ashen pale, and collapsed. He hurriedly communicated to his attorneys the fact that he recognized Dihgfelter, which caused consternation among the party for the defense. The following questions were then put by the assistant circuit attorney, Mr. Marshall F. McDonald, and were answered as follows: Q. What is your name? A. John F. McCulloch. Q. Where were you bom? A. Wilmington, Del. Q. How old are you? A. Thirty years. T ... Si_i—, Q. What is your business? A. Detective. Q. By whom are you employed? A Thomas Furlong. Q. Do you know the defendant in this case (pointing to Maxwell)? A. Yes, sir. Q. When did you first become acquainted with him? Aln the city jail. Q. Were you a prisoner in the Jai|? A. Yes, sir. Q. What were you charged with? A I believe it was forgery. Q. When and where were you arrested? A. I was arrested at the Mechanics’ bank on the corner of Fourth and Pine stre&s, this city, by Thomas Furlong, who was afterwards assisted by a police officer, whose name I do not know. ;

Q. Why did Furlong arrest you? A. He was commanded to do so by the paying teller of the Mechanics’ bank. Q. Why did the teller cause your arrest? A. Because I had presented a check bearing what was purported to be the signature of D. S. H. Smith, local treasurer of the Missouri Pacific Railway company. The paying teller told Furlong, in my presence, that the signature was a forgery. Q. Did you know it to be a forgery? A. I did not. Q. Where did you get this check? A. Mr. Furlong gave me the check and instructed me to present it at the bank, as I did, and told me that he would be at the bank when I presented it Q. Was Mr. Furlong there? A. Yes, he into; the bank while I was at the teller’s window. That was when Mr. Warner, as I believe the teller’s name is, told him to arrest me. Q. Then you do not know whether the check was a forgery or not? A. No, sir. I was only obeying the instructions of my employer, Mr. Furlong. I guess he can tell you all about that check. More consternation, but this time among the police, who had been confident that Dingfelter was one of the leaders of the bank robbers on the Pacific coast The moment Dingfelter stated that he was a detective one of the city detectives rushed out of the court to the office of the chief of police, whor sin the opposite end of the huilaw&sf and informed him what had occuSßl. The chief rushed into the court room, and from that time consternation prevailed among all the authorities around the building. For two days Dingfelter was kept upon the stand. After he had been excused I was called. Having been duly sworn, I was told by the prosecuting attorney to state to the court and jury how I had been approached by Mr. Clover and himself, and what I had done in connection with the case. I gave a detailed account of my work from the beginning. When I had finished my direct testimony the counsel for the defense began to cross-examine me. "Where did you get this check?” he asked, exhibiting the check which Dingfelter had presented. "This is onß of the blank checks that I took from Dr. Smith’s office in the manner already described,” I answered.

"Then you stole this check from Dr. Smith’s office?” was the next question. “I took that blank check from Dr. Smith’s office without his knowledge or consent.” Q. Who filled out this check and signed Dr. Smith’s name? A. That check was filled out by one of my employees I stood alongside of him while he filled it out He did it under my instructions, and if he had refused to do it I would have discharged him and he knew it; and if the law has been violated in any way I am responsible for it” “You knew that it was a forgery, and that forgery is a crime under the law?” Inquired the opposing counsel. To which I replied that inasmuch as intent is the essence of crime, and as there was no intent to obtain money or other valuables by means of the check, I did not believe I had been guilty of forgery. I pointed out, furthermore, that I had been at the bank on the morning when McCulloch presented the check, for the purpose of preventing the teller from cashing it, in case he had failed to perceive that the signature was not genuine. Almost every person in the court room had been of the opinion that I had got myself into serious trouble by obtaining the blank checks and causing one to be filled out and signed and presented. But after my explanation it was evident that I had remained well within the letter of the law. The testimony was overwhelming against Maxwell, and the Jury quickly returned a verdict of murder in the first degree. It is satisfactory to add that Maxwell, or Brookes, paid the penalty of his crime by banging. The psychology of this case makes it unusually interesting. “Why,” I have been asked many times, “did you cause McCulloch to knock you down and strip the policeman and.

yourself, compelling you, furthermore, to go around for several days with your right eye and one side of your face discolored?” I knew that Maxwell was enjoying the notoriety which the newspapers were giving him. I knew, also, that the public was growing tired of reading about him, and, therefore, believed that if 1 could paint my assistant as a more desperate criminal for the time being, by the notoriety which he, in turn, would gain through the newspapers, it would have the effect of attracting Maxwell’s attention to him, so that he might bask in the light which was shed upon McCulloch. I considered it necessary to have MoCulloch slug me and the police officer in order to allay any suspicion that might have arisen in the mind of til* chief of police or any of his men. The chief was an alert and experienced officer, and if he had for a moment suspected that McCulloch was not what he represented himself to be, or that he was connected with me, he would undoubtedly have exposed the scheme. I could have obtained the blank check from Dr. Smith for the asking, but Dr. Smith would, of course, have wanted an explanation, and if I had given It Dr.. Smith would have been obliged to state the facts on the witness stand when called before the grand jury, and this would have been fatal to the plan. By keeping my plans and motives profoundly secret 1 produced this result: that each person told the truth, as he believed it to be. As there was no city fund for the payment of the expenses of outside detectives, Mr. Clover paid McCulloch out of hie own pocket, the total sum expended amounting to about six hundred dollars. I got, as my compensation, the above-mentioned black eye, a swollen jaw, and a number of bumps and bruises.

MAXWELL TURNED ABHEN PALE AND COLLAPSED.

KNOCKING ME DOWN AND INFLICTING A SEVERE CONTUSION.