Mrs. Blank’s Diamonds

How They Were Recovered by a Secret Service Detective

In the winter of 1863— it was the very last week in December—a strange robbery occurred in the residence of a prominent United States Senator who was occupying a house on Massachusetts avenue. One afternoon his wife discovered that her diamonds were missing. She had them in her hands on, say Tuesday afternoon, and on Friday afternoon they were gone. She had them in a box in a bureau drawer in her bedroom, and was sure that the key to this drawer had not passed out of her possession. The box was not locked, and it had not even been lifted out of the drawer. Some one had simply raised the lid and lifted the diamonds out. The thief must have opened the bureau with a false key; but who was the thief? Only one domestic had access to the bedroom, and she was above suspicion. No breaking and entering had been committed, no caller could be suspected, and “the diamond mystery,” as it was called, was a puzzler. It was given over to the police detectives to struggle with, and we of the Government service did not even hear all the particulars. The gems were valued at $16,000. The Senator at once privately offered a reward of $5,000 and no questions asked, but nothing came of it.

Seven weeks after the robbery occurred I was detailed to look up a clerk in the Treasury Department who had pocketed $4,800 of Uncle Sam’s greenbacks and slid out. He had about thirty hours the start of me, and he kept increasing the advantage. He went first to Philadelphia. While he probably did not tarry there two hours I was half a day learning that he had gone to New York. He was not in that city an hour, but I was a day and a half learning that he had gone to Syracuse. I traced him from thence to Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago and back… Read More