Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1876 — $500,000 IN PERIL! [ARTICLE]

$500,000 IN PERIL!

Chicago ‘Crooks’ vs. McCoy & Thompson’s Bank! THEY WORK”FIVE MONTHS TUNNELING UNDER THE VAULT. Watched all the Time by Detectives, who Light at the Proper Moment They Capture the Whole Gang with their Tools. Mart, Y. B. Warner is Implicated as a Principal, is Arrested, Rires Bail and Departs afler Night Four Victims of Misplaced Confidence on his Bonds.

Rensselaer has been in a fever of excitement since last Saturday morning over the discovery that an attempt had been made to rob Messrs. McCoy & Thompson’s bank. These gentlemen are aiways very reticent concerning matters in which they are interested, and it is with difficulty that connected details of the affair can be gethered from them; we therefore copy from tho Inter-Ocean and Tribune, of Chicago, what is probably a complete as well as substantially true report of the matter. THE “INTER OCEAN” BTOHY.

To Captain William Turtle, Chief of the Chicago Detective Bureau, and his able lieutenant, Captain Bull belong the honor of having frustrated what, without their assistance, would probably have been one of the most extensive and sucesstul bank robberies of the day. It is an honor which they have earned by months of hard—such labor as few who arc not familiar with the inside workings of a detective bureau, can appreciate. The history of the affair, ns recited to our reporter yesterday by Captains Turtle, and Bull, sounds like a romance, and could it be published precisely ns it was detailed, would he read with as great interest as was ever excited by a novel or a drama. Unfortunately for the reader, tho ends of justice demand that the detectives’ mode of operations be kept a secre'. Captain Turtle is on the track of even larger game than that which he brought to Nfcg on Saturday, and it would never do to start ltfrom cover

before he is ready to spring his trap. A revelation of his movements in the' case

which he has just brought to a successful issue might have that effect. But there is much that our reporter is permuted to relate, aud that much will prove sufficiently interesting. Several months ago a casual observation, which to an ordinary mortal would have passed unnoticed, led Captain Turtle to suspect that mischief was brewing. His suspicion nt first was as shadowy as the remark which aroused it, hot it was sufficient to excite him to activity. Following the slight clue, with the assistance of Captain Bull, he was enabled in a few weeks to reduce the shadow to substance. The substaiiee was this : Three of the most experienced, skillful, and determined of Chicago’s outlaws, in conjunction with a Fagin of Rensselaer, a small town in Jasper county, Ind., were preparing to rob the bank at the latter place, owned and managed by Messrs. Alfred McCoy and Alfred Thompson, neither of whom had the slightest suspicion of the affair until warned by the detectives. The would-be robbers were

the notorious Bill Wray, whose name and misdeeds are familiar to the readers of Chicago papers; James "ilkins, alias Martin, alias a dozen other surnames, and Martin Davis, alias Richardson. These are the Chicago crooks. Davis and Filkins are only less notorious than was Bill Wray. Both are well known to uur police, and shortly before starting fbr their field of labor at Rensselaer were sentenced to a term of imprisonment foi^highway robbery in. this city. They are 26 or So years of age, and at least half their lives has been -devoted to the dev-H’s sendee, in Filkins’ case, perhaps, seven years ought to be omitted, as he was an inmate of the Michigan City Penitentiary during that time. The fout th conspirator was a native of the soil, M. V. B. Warner, a saloon-keeper of Rensselaer, lie belongs to a good family, the other members of which are Jhighlyrespected citizens of Jasper county, but he is a black sheep of the m<-st somber hue. He has been suspected of implication in every robbery that has taken place in or near Rensselaer, but until now no proof of his guilt has ever been obtained. He was the manager of the j ib which Captain Turtle so happily spoiled. Bill Wray was the principal, and Filkins and Davis were subordinates. The bank of McCoy & Thompson is situated on the main thoroughfare of Rensselaer. It is a two-story building, on the first floor of which are the counting room, consultation room and vault. On the second story there are three rooms, occupied by District Attorney Simon P. Thompson, brother of Alfred Tnompson, one of the banking firm, as a law office. Attached to the rear of the building, and extending around it on one side for about twenty, feet, is a wood-shed. In order to reach the vault they were compelled to make their way through eleven feet of masonry. Had they begun on the opposite side of the building their work would have been mueh easier, as the vault wall was only five feet thick; but had they done so detection was almost certain. Working as they did, they I were comparatively safe. They enterod j the woodshed, made an aperture in the outer wall of the building under the stairway, and below the level of the floor. All the debris was carefully secreted under the building, and to further against; discovery the thieves each morning on leaving their tunnel carefully bricked up j the aperture with a single thickness of brick. Had they not been suspected and watched, therefore, it is not probable that their work would have been detected untHthey had secured the booty. The tunmd terminated directly underneath the vault, and part of the cobble stones, with which the space between the the foundation walls trerc filled, hid been removed. The floor 4

of the vault was of litne stone. It waa the evident, intention of the cracksmen to re- ! move one of these stones from the floor, allowing it to fall to the ground, and thus gain access to the vault. Oneo there, it would have been the work of fifteen minutes to break open the safe and remove the contents. On Wednesday morning last, Captain 1 Turtle received information which led him to dispatch Captain Bull and three detectives by the earliest train to Rensselaer. Up to this time Messrs. McCoy & Thompson had been kept in partial ignorance of what was going on. Tliey had been informed that the robbery of their bank win in contemplation, but that was all. Now it became necessary to give them the details, and appreciating the danger, they gave the detectives every assistance. The latter were taken to one of the upper rooms of tho bank, where they remained during the day. while at night they concealed themselves in the counting room. They expected the attack upon the safe to be made on Wednesday or Thursday night, and had laid their plans for the capture of the whole gang of oraksmen. It is the custom of burglars to leave one of th#ir number outside to warn them in case of discovery. It was Captain Bull’s intention to allow the thieves to enter the tnnnel, then station two officers at the aperture, and send a third out to arrest the watcher. The latter it was expected, would give the alarm and recall his pals, who would make their way to the entrance of the tunnel and endeavor to escape. Only one could crawl through the aperture at a time. Each man as he

preseated his head was to be reduced to a state of placidity by means of a slung shot, then handcuffed and removed to jail. By tbU simple scheme Captain Bull hoped to avoid trouble in making the arrests. However, he was not destined to execute it. Wednesday night and Thursday night passed, and Friday night came, but the safe-blowers came not. About 1:30 Saturday morning Captain Bull heard voices outside the building, and concluded to reconnoiter. As he suspected, the voices belonged to Filkins and Davis. lie could not hear what they said, but he saw by tlieir actions that they bad no intention of' attacking the safe, that night. Presently they turned away and walked in the direction of Warner’s saloon. Captain Bull followed. Tho saloon was closed, and

“Warner had ovidently gone home. The men heaped a few mild imprecations upon his head, and turned their footsteps in the direction of the country. Captain Bull still followed. It was a dangerous undertaking to shadow these men, for it was ii bright moonlight night, there was the greatest possible risk of detection, and, in case of discovery, he had two desperate characters to deal with. Nevertheless, he followed them, step by step, until they reached AVarner’s house, about half a mile from the bank. They entered and called “Warner. Ho came out on the east side of - the house. Captain Bull crawled under some brush which had been placed on either side of the rail fence, aud got within five yards of the villains; so near that he could hear every word that was spoken. “Why were you not at’the saloon as you agreed?’’ demanded Filkius, in a somewhat indignant voice. “Warner replied that lie had waited half

an hour later than the appointed time, and had concluded they were not coming.

Davis remarked lliat they had come as early as they could, and asked Warner when they were to open the safe. Both Davis and Filkins urged that the job be executed without delay, but Warner very strenuously objected. “1 have, spent §6OO or S7OO in this matter and I say it can’t go on now. There’s not over $20,000 in the bank, county funds included, and the bank’s watched, too. You go back to Chicago, and come down here at fair time. There’ll be a great many folks going and coming, and you won’t be noticed. At that time there’ll be at least $30,000 there waiting for you, and when you get the swag I have a team that’ll take you out of town at the rate of ten miles an hour.” Filkins and Davis said they couldn’t go home,'as they were broke. “What have you done with the rest of your tools?” asked Warner. “They are all right, under the porch of the Baptist church,” said Davis. “Well,” said Warner, “you meet me at the saloon at 0 o'clock in the morning with

the tools and I’ll gi\e you money to go to Chicago.” That ended the conference. Davis and Filkins turned toward the town, and Captain Bull followed. Having seen them enter the City Hotel, and supposing they would remain there all night, he went to the church, and there under one of the porches, as Davis had indicated, he found the tools. Without disturbing them, he returned to the bank, got one of his officers and stationed him under the cnurch to await the coming of the men and see what they did with the tools. They never came. Captain Bull waited until near six o’clock, then secured the tools, and went, to the hotel which he had seen Filkins enter, but they were not there. The proprietor had been unable to accommodate them, and they had gone to the Hopkins House. Inquiry at the latter developed the fact that they had been gone an hour. It should have been stated that Captain Bull had gone to a juslice of the peace, at three o’clock, immediately after securing the tools, and obtained warrants for the arrest of all the parties. On discovering their flight, therefore, 119 was fully prepared to pursue them. Accordingly he hired a team aud started three officers after the Chicago thieves, while he remained to txtke charge of Warner. Filkins and Davis were found at Francesville, seventeen miles from Rensselaer, waiting for the Chicago train. They made no resistance when arrested. In conversation they denied all knowledge of the affair, and even iusisted that had never seen or heard of Rensselaer. They were taken to that town, however, and introduced to the Sheriff. What had become of Bill Wray? That question can be briefly answered. Some two months ago, the readers of the InterOcean will remember, three safes were blown in one night in Rensselaer, and the burglars left in a small boat. Being hotly pursued’ one of them jumped into the river and in the attempt to swim ashore was drbwned. That man was Bill Wray, though the public is now informed of that fact for the first time. His companion, a young man who used to work for Warner, was arrested with Wray’s share of the plunder. Wray had worked a month on the bank tunnel, and finding some spare time on his hands endeavored to employ it in the above manner, and with the above result. He has received his sentence. It is to be hoped his companions in guilt will soon receive theirs. • • Hie cracksmen, had they accomplished the robbery, would have obtained a far greater booty than they suspect 6d . The bank contained, including county funds and other cash deposits jndsecurities, more than $500,000’ Nearly one-tbinl of this, amount was cash, and could doubtless have

been carried off without difficulty, lint the men were watched from the time they ’ left the eity until their arrest. A detective shadowed them from Chicago to Valparaiso, where they went by rail ; from Valparaiso to San Pierre, a distance they accomplished on foot; and from San | Pierre by train to Rensselaer. At ValpaI raiso they narrowly escaped ’arrest by the City Marshal, who knew them to be thieves. Had they been captured at that time, they would probably have been saved three months of hard and useless labor The set of tools captured by Captain Bull is ono of the most complete ever found. It comprises more than fifty pieces, some of them the newest and most valuable inventions of the safe-blowing fraternity. A few were brought to Chicago, and are now at Captain Turtle’s office. Their simplicity and effectiveness command admiration. use of an innocent-looking lever, screw and vise, a pressure of twenty or twenty-five horse power can be brought to bear on the hnndle, combination, or door of a safe. The tools are all of the best steel, and the workmanship is of the finest. The cracksmen who invented them and those who use them are artists, and, give them a fair opportunity, not a safe in the country could stand their attack. The public—that portion of the public which has money—owe Captain Turtle and Captain Bull a debt of gratitude for effecting this capture. They have done well. THE “TRIBUNE” STORY.

It was about three months ago, said the chunky little Captain, sitting down to a tete-a-tete with the reporter and Capt. Bull, the head man in his employ that I first learned of this contemplated robbery» How I learned of it will of course be of no interest, and besides it is a part of my own business which I ought not to disclose. And' now to my story: The bank is that of Alfred McCoy & Alfred Thompson, two wealthy gentlemen of Rensselaer, Jasper County, Ind., but a short distance, as you will see by the map, from this city. The thieves are James Filkins and Martin Davis, of whom I shall speak more fully hereafter. Immediately on hearing that such a robbery was contemplated, I shadowed these two man all the time they were in town, and also had a man placed to command the bank.~l corresponded with the proprietors, and even as late as last week had a consultation with Mr. Thompson at the Fidelity Savings Bank in this city. Immediately afterwards I wrote to the firm that they need not be at all alarmed, because I was on the right track, arid the thieves could do nothing without my being fully apprised of it. Now, when I tell you that, all this time I knew of a secret pas-sage-way that was being delved under the building into the vault, you may imagine my nervousness. Day by day the work of the thieves progressed, and at last, about the middle of last week, I heard that the passage-way had reached the stone slnh iu the side of the vault, and all that remained to gain access to the safes was to throw this slab forward by a jimmy. I knew that the persons who were making this passage-way were not the ones who were to do the job, and so I bided my time. Last Wednesday morning these two cracksmen, Filkins and Davis, left town by the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne Railroad. They went .to Valparaiso, and thence by foot through fields of corn to San Pierre, a station on the Louisville & New Albany Railroad. The City Marshal of Valparaiso spotted them as they were leaving towu on account of the burglar’s tools they carried in a sack, but soon lost trail of them, as they doubled up on their tracks and led hitn a wildgoose chase. From San Fierre they took a team to Rensselaer, arriving there at midnight Wednesday. Upon the same morning that they left, my men, Capt. Bull and three others, left by tho morning train on the Michigan Southern Railroad for Otis, and left there on the Louisville & New Albany road for Rensselaer, beating the crooks by six hours in tlieir arri val.

The thieves did not immediately enter the town, but remained for some time in the woods just outside. Presently one of them wended his way to the saloon of M. V. B. Warner, a notorious character in the town, who has frequently been under suspicion. Something prevented them from at-i tempting anything that night, and they returned into the country. Thursday morning Warner was seen going out to their hidingplace with provisions. The same night they returned and entered the town, and struck a beeline for Warner’s saloon. Finding the place locked up, they went to his residence, about half a mile from town, but found time during the hours of 1 and 3a. m. to take a look at the bank, aud ascertain some knowledge of tLe lay of tbe land. They left without making any move npon the bank, and returned to their hiding-place in the country, from which they did not emerge until the next (Friday) night. During all this time Capt. Bull and his men were located in the bank building. Friday night, they heard the two fellows in consultation on the sidewalk opposite the bank, and in tbe clear bright moonlignx could readily distinguish their forms and faces. As they moved away, they were shadowed to Warner’s„saloon, but finding him absent, they again proceeded to his house. All this time they were closely shadowed by Capt. Bull, and even as they were calling Warner out of his house to a consultation under the shade of overhanging trees, the bully Captain was qpsconsed ; in the shade of a neighboring fence so close, as to easily hear afl that was said. On Monday morning Mart. Warner was arrested on an Indictment found against him by the grand jury at its session two months ago, for complicity in the Chappell cattle stealing affair of a year ago. The indictment sets forth that he received SI,OOO as his share in that transaction, and he tvas compelled to give bond of SSOO for his appearance at the next term of the circuit court. His sureties on this bond are Josiah Gains, Jacob Johns and Charles B. Steward. On his bond for complicity in the attempted bank robbery John Groom is surety. Towards evening on Monday a box was found in the rpar of the postoffiee, on which was a shipping direction in his name, that con* tained a lot of house breaking tools and a flask of powder, together with a lose some ten or fifteen feet long. Thesp cumulative circumstances against him, together with the appearance of Chicago papers containing accounts of the work of tbe detectives alarmed Warner’s bondsmen and thoy clamored for release from their responsibility- Seeing bow matters were tending, and pot caring about go-

ing to jail, Matt, quietly gave his friends tho slip, and has dot been seen or heard of since.