A Clever Detective Story
[From the New York Tribune]
A woman, giving her name as Mrs. Newnham has been prosecuting for some months past a claim against the Williams & Guion Steamship Company to recover $1,000 upon a trunk claimed to have been lost while on the passage from Liverpool to New York. She said that she sailed from Liverpool in the steamer Nevada, having in her possession six trunks, and that she saw them all safely stored on board the vessel. She even made oath that during the voyage she sat upon the missing trunk, although the manifest showed only five[.] Upon reaching port she put in her claim for the six trunks and, before a notary, made oath to her statement. The passenger agent of the Company, had every steamship dock in the city searched, and every baggage manifest inspected, without any solution of the difficulty. He then wrote to the agents in Liverpool, who, after an extended search, found the missing property in a boarding house in that city. It had obviously never been taken on board the steamer.
A few days since, and before the above fact was known here, a deputy sheriff from Grafton, Vermont, entered the office, and asked the agent if he was not engaged in a litigation with a certain Mrs. Newnham. The agent apprised the officer of the facts then known, and the deputy then informed him that her husband was a notorious English “cracksman,” for whom he had been searching for more than seven months. “He was arrested,” said the sheriff, “about eight months since, for cracking a bank at Grafton, Vermont and was lodged in the county jail. I had him especially in charge, and gave him much of my attention. One day, as I was leaving the cell, he suddenly sprang forward and struck me a blow which felled me to the floor, and rendered me almost senseless, and then escaped, and has since been at large. I traced him to this city, but he has completely eluded me. Upon learning from a member of the sporting fraternity here, with whom I have managed to ingratiate myself, that Newnham’s wife was engaged in the laudable calling of shoplifting, and that she was trying to swindle your company out of £200 sterling, I thought that, by uniting our interests, we might be of service to each other.”
The agent decided to join interests with the Sheriff. He dispatched a letter to a house of assignation in West Houston Street, known as “Clark’s,” where Newnham had ordered all letters to be sent, asking her to come to the office of No. 29, Broadway, and he would try to settle her claims. She agreed to the proposition. The services of two private detectives were then procured, and they were stationed outside on the pavement. The Vermont Sheriff took his position in the private office, armed with a requisition upon the Governor of Vermont, to await the coming of Mrs. Newnham. She was not far behind the appointed time, and the agent in a few moments convinced her that he was ready to sign the check for the £200, provided she would procure the signature of her husband to the receipt. This she readily promised to obtain, and going to the door, gave some signal to her husband, then passing carelessly down the other side of Broadway. He came across the street, entered the building, was told to step into the office where the check would be made out. Mr. Newnham entered accordingly, and at once recognized the officer. The detectives outside had carelessly strolled in after their victim, and had been engaged in an inquiry concerning the price of steerage passage. The moment the burglar entered the private office, the Sheriff rose, and upon his giving the signal, the detectives secured the burglar after some struggling. The handcuffs were at once put on him, and the Sheriff left with his prisoner for Grafton, Vermont, on the afternoon train.