Detective Pinkerton

How He Captured a Mail Robber

The Hob-Nailed Boots, Etc.

[From the N.Y. Evening Post]

Many years ago, when Western railroad traveling was not the safest in the world, and when all the moneys due from the East in payment for Western produce had to be sent in cash by the mails, there occurred, not far from Chicago, each time several accidents in consequence of trains being thrown off the track, during which mail cars were broken open and the bags robbed to a very large amount. The first of these accidents happened within six miles of the “Garden City,” and was caused by the Michigan Southern running into the Illinois Central mail train, if I remember rightly, striking it at right angles, and not only cutting it into two parts, but making a complete wreck of both trains.

The loss in every way was large, and the conductor and engineer were killed on the spot—the former lying with his face upwards near the mail car—which it was afterward discovered had been forced open and the gold and silver it contained carried off. Mr. Pinkerton, the great western detective, who was then beginning one of the most remarkable and successful careers known to police history, was sent for to investigate the robbery, and he discovered on the face of the dead conductor of the train the imprint of a nail head, such as was usually worn by English laborers in the soles of their heavy boots. He then examined the ground, and was lucky enough to find a complete imprint of the sole of the left boot, containing a double row of nails, all of which were exactly like… Read More