Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, October 27, 1914, Page 2

The Professions THE EGYPTIAN SANITARIUM OF CHRONIC DISEASES Smith-Hardin Bldg., Cor. Main and Florida Ave, ; Phone 391 Electricity, X-Ray, Light, Heat, Hydrotherapy, Turkish Baths, Phys jcal Culture, Massage, Dietetics, Bte. You can get here what you get in Battle Creek and Hot Springs and save time and expense. G. D. & H. D. MENDENHALL CONSULTING ENGINEERS THE CRIMINAL Tells STORIES ¢ FAMOUS CRIMES How ' He Planned the Deed and Sought to Close Every Avenue of Knowl Leading to His Guilt. The Detective Shows How Futile These Efforts Were and How the Old Adage, Murder By HENRY C. TERRY Will Out, “Always Holds Good.” . (Copyright by P. L. Nelson THE MYSTERY OF DOBBS FERRY. me a pretty good fellow,-and I pald pe was dressed only in his nightshirt, ANY persons are still living who recall the shock that!| money back and more with it. I had yack which might have come from a has been stolen. Temple seemed to m his money. He played steadily hi for & couple of days, and 1 got thd 1314. toop, but there were no ::nlmorpo to show that this plan of entrance had been adopted. 'l'ho= work on the safe showed clearly that first-class men had been on the trick, and the lock had been operated by knocking out the spindle in the com- | bination and working the tumblers. | The burglar-proof compartment had been battered in by some system that I was not familiar with, and it was & . wonder to me that the noise had not . been heard by everybody in the house. | “Mr. Temple's body bad been found ! in the dining room adjoining the of- |nco. and his appearance indicated that he had been dead several hours. ere were several slight black . an 6 Iing blue marks on his shoulder and G i went threugh the country many a talk with Temple, and found; ¢5)) His bed-clothes Wwere mot dll-| that he lived in Dobbs Ferry, In 8 tyrhed any more than a person would | Temple, a wealthy New| gplendid mansion. I judged that he, rqinarily disturb them in getting out Suite 212-216 Drane Building at the news that Andrew 1 York banker, had been! was the black sheep in the fafhily,' ;¢ ped, and I could not see any rea- Lakeland, Fla. Phosphate Land Examinations and 58S Plant Designs, tarthwork Specialists Surveys. Residence Phone 240 Black DR. J. Q. SCARBOROUGH, CHIROPRACTOR Lady in Attendance Consultation Free Office in Dyches Building Between Park and Auditorium Residence phone, 278 Black. Office phone, 278 Blue. DR. SARAH E. WHEELER O0STEOPATH Munn Annex, Door South of First National Bank Lakeland, Florida J. D. TRAMMELL Attorney-at-Law Van Huss Bldg. Lakeland, Fla DR. W. R. GROOVER PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON Rooms 6 and 4. Kentucky Buildins Lakeland, Florida LOUIS A. FORT ARCHITECT Kibler Hotel, Lakeland, Florida DR. C. C. WILSON PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON Special Attention Given To DISEASES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN Deen-Bryant Bldg. oms 8, 9, 10, Office Yhone 857 Resiaence Phone 367 Blue A, X, ERICKSON ATTORNEY-AT-LAW Real Estate Questions Drane Building DR. R. B. FAUDOCK DEN'IST Room No. 1, Di-kson Bldg. Lakeland, Fla. Office Phone 138; Residence 91 Blac) ———— e g D. O. Rogers Edwin Spencer, Jv ROGERS & SPENCER Attorneys at Law, Bryant Buillding Lakelangd, Florida EPPES TUCKER, JR. LAWYER Raymondo Bldg., Lakeland, Florida KELSEY BLANTON, ATTORNEY AT LAW Office in Munn Building Lakeland Florida W. 8. PRESTON, LAWYER Office Upstairs East of Court Houre BARTOW, FLA. Examination of Titles and Real Re tate Law a Specialty DR. H. MERCER RICHARDS PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON Office: Rooms 5 and 6, Elliston Bldg. Lakeland, Florida ' Phones: Office 378; Resid. 301 Blue FRANK H. THOMPSON NOTARY PUBLIC Dickson Building Office phone 402. Res. 312 Red Special attention to drafting legal papers. Marriage licenses and abstracts tarnished W. HERMAN WATSON, M. D. Morgan-Groover Bldg. Telephones: Office 351; Res. 113 Red Lakeland, Floride NORTHROP SCHOOL OF MUSIC KINDERGARTEN AND PRIMARY MRS. ENSIGN NORTHROP, Lakeland, Florida PETERSON & OWENS ATTORNEYS AT LAW 3 Dickson Building Esjablished in July, 1900 ‘DR. W. 8. IRVIN \ DENTIST Room 14):{ 15 Kentucky Building foully murdered and robbed | for his brothers were all in business, by his own son in his palatial Dobbs' he told me, and he did nothing but Ferry house. This is the intimate blow in an allowance which he re- story of the men who actually! ceived from his father. planned the crime, their hopes, their| «pyring one of our chats he told fears, their ambitions. Secure in their | me that his father kept a big bank- fll-gotten gains they believe that Do ro] in his safe at home, and the only ‘eye can reach them, that justice, for| reason he gave for it was that the them, is truly blind. Then comes thol old man was getting cranky. I be- story of the detective, like an inexor-| came deeply interested in the story, able fate, that tears down the elab-' owing to the hard times that had orate edifice of lies and, in pointing ' geryck the firm of Wooley & Spengler, out the true criminals, saves the life ! of an innocent man. | CHAN WOOLEY'S STORY. | “l was the principal figure,” said han Wooley, “in what was known as the Dobbs Ferry mystery, and if I had not a good strain of blood in me somewhere, an innocent man would have suffered a severe penalty, and there were certain circumstances connected with the case which might have resulted in his being put to death. v ‘ “The man who makes his living out; of thievery, if he wants to be suc-| cessful, must always have his eyes : and ears open for tips. The tips that | he gets may sometimes be like the tip from the race track tout, but to get the most out of the business everything must be followed to the end. My old side partner was Andy Spangler, who was the son of a preacher and well educated, and we went into trade together as card sharps. At one time there was no better game than this, provided al- ways that you did not go against pro- fessionals, who were ready to scrap at the slightest sign of crookedness. We went about the country as gentle- men of wealth, and were in any kind of business that would be likely to gain the confidence of our neighbors and lead them into a game with an idea that they would get a fair chance, “It was Andy’s proud boast that we never skinned a man who could not afford to lose the money, and it has been my eftort in all the crooked transactions that I was ever in to ‘| divide only the wealth of men who would not miss a few dollars. This shows you the effect of example and sound teaching. It is the petty crook, the mean thief, who would take the last dollar from a poor man, who is despised and brings discredit upon all classes or thieves. “Andy and I had many a trip on the Mississippi in the days when the high rollers used to put up a cotton crop on a single deal, and with all | our cleverness we sometimes got the wrong end of the stick. The longest trip that we ever made was around the world, and a pack of cards paid our expenses everywhere. We played about all the games known in the dif- ferent places we visited, and often lost money, but when we got a chance with our little pack there was noth- ing that any one could do to touch us. When we became too well known all over the country to do business with hotel guests, we dropped the cards and went in with big Jim Shandley and his gang of bank wreckers on the famous tour which they made in this country and Can- ada. We went everywhere, and cleaned out safes with a rapidity that set everybody's tongué a-wagging. “It got tired of being a sport with an income, and when I got a good show I drifted back to New York and went in with Andy and Billy Peters in the gambling business. There wasn't any protection from the po- lice then. All you had to do was to throw open the shutters and begin business. We started two places; one at the corner of Sixth avenue and 28th street, to catch the hotel people, and the other at the Bowery and Houston street, to cater to the dead game sports, who were ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. We made money fast, and Andy and I left the running of the houses to Peters, who i rooms, and I woke him up. and tried to get Temple to fix a limit on the old man's pile. He couldn’t or wouldn't do it, and I sent Andy up to Dobbs Ferry to take a look at the Temple mansion, to find out what sort of a prospect there was for an exchange of the Temple bank-roll. The house was far in the country and about on the dividing line with Hast- ings. Andy came back with a report that the game was as easy as the kick of a goose, and the coin-box was like finding it in the street. I did not exactly relish going back to old tricks, but something had to be dome, and that was all there was about it. The plan of the house showed that it was adapted for second-story work, and there were only two men who lived in it. One was my young friend Temple and the other was the old man. The other inmates were women; two or three daughters and domes- tic servants. Andy was not able to get the location of the strong box, 80 as to know what tools could best be used to open fit. “We picked out for our visit a very stormy night, when we knew that young Temple was in the city blow- ing in his allowance. This left us only the old man to deal with and the women. We went up the river on an early train as far as Yonkers and there I got a carriage from a solid friend of mine who knew enough to keep his mouth shut and ask no questions. We reached the Temple house before midnight. All the lights were out and Andy went up a pillar , on the back piazza to the roof and ' fastened a rope ladder for future use. We got into the house in about five minutes. We went to the different rooms on the second floor and found old Temple alone in bed asleep. There was no one in the adjoining I made things plain to him: It was simply to give up the safe combination or lose his life. He was badly scared, and said that he would open the strong box. He got up, shaking like a leaf, and took us to an office off the dining- room. I made lights in several rooms 80 that the light in the office would not attract attention, while Andy had the old man working on the lock. When I returned to the office the old man groaned suddenly, placed his hand over his heart and fell heavily against the safe door. He was un- conscious, and we carried him into another room, opened the safe and cleaned it out. We reached New York before daylight with a big roll of securities and $45,000 in money.” DETECTIVE ARMSTRONG'S TALE. P “There is an easy solution,” said Detective Armstrong, “to every mys- tery, and when mysterious circum- stances are cleared away it always ' makes you wonder how the proper key escaped’ you. The robbery of Andrew Temple in his home in Dobbs Ferry was one of those peculiar cases that you will not meet more than once in a lifetime, “I reached the Temple mansion the morning after the robbery, and the first salute I got was that Andrew Temple: had been murdered by thieves during the night. The family physician was present to attend to the women in the household, who were suffering from severe shock, and he informed me that Mr. Temple had been killed by a pistol wound in the forehead. I looked at the dead man and saw just above the temple a small ! had the reptuation of going on the | hole which looked like the wounds I level, while we tried the Wall street | had seen made in the head by bullets, game. This was a game, and the and I took it for granted that the first one we had ever struck, where ' physiclan was correct. I had a mur- we were the suckers. They got our, der then upon my hands, as well as coin as fast as we put it in, and when | the robbery, which only became an our luck was the worst, Peters gave incident in the investigation. I fol- us a ripping dig, by skipping away lowed the usual form, which is a sec- with the bank-roll, which was a big ond nature to the detective, of look- one, because the games then were ing over the details of the robbery, run without limit. “While I was trying to pick up something out of the wreck, and kept the game going on borrowed capital, I met a young fellow named Robert Temple, the son of a banker. He came to me with a complaint that the house owed him $3,500. He claimed that he had won that amount while Peters was in charge, and I did not dare dispute it, for we had not made it known that Peters had given us a cold shake, as, if we had done that, we would have lost our custo-; mers in a night. Gamblers are a su- perstitious lot, and none of them will play in a house where the bank-roll e s S | to see it the work had been done by experts or chance visitors. I hunted high and low about the premises, and I could not find the slightest indica- tion as to how the thieves had gained an entrance. I had it upon the words of the servants and several members of the family that every window and door had been found locked in the morning, when they had examined the house, with the exception of the swindow on the second floor over the plazza, and this was never locked. “It would not have given any good second story men trouble to have reached the window by climbing from e i where sounded his praise.” g I gon for his going down stairs with-| out his clothes, or, at least barefoot- | ,ed. A peculiar circumstance was that ' 'he had two large revolvers in his, room, and they were found where they ; were usually kept. It nntuullyi | g 'struck me, that if he had heard thieves working in the lower part of the house he would have armed him- ! ' gelf, before starting out to make an investigation. Any sane man would have taken that precaution. More- over 1 could not understand how a pistol shot could have been fired in the house without arousing the fam- ily. The safe had been cleaned out entirely, and even papers had been taken which were of no value or use to any one except Mr. Temple. I thought a few days later that I had found a solution to many of the pecu- liar circumstances, but in fact I was miles away from the truth. { “After Mr. Temple was buried a search was made for his wili, and one was found in his desk in his office in this city. It was dated ten years before his death, and it gave Robert Temple, the oldest boy, one-third of the estate, after providing for Mrs. Temple, and the remainder of the estate was divided equally among the four children. Bob Temple seemed to be the only one who was pleased over the will. The day after the will was read I received word to call upon Lawyer Trumbul, Mr. Temple's law- i yer. He informed me in the pres- ence of two of Mr. Temple's children, ' that several months before his death, Mr. Temple made a new will in which . Bob Temple had been left a small allowance, instead of the bulk of the estate. Mr. Temple’s reason for do- ing this was to prevent Bob from squandering the money in riotous liv- ing and gambling, and the lawyer was positive that the will had been kept in Mr. Temple's safe at home. He had seen it there two days before the robbery. | “With this information in my mind it seemed to me that the person most interested in the death of Mr. Temple was his son Bob, and the pore I thought of it the stronger became my conviction that Bob had a hand in the robbery. The way I figured it out was that Bob, who spent most EER of his time away from home with a | «g-;» fast set, had found out about the %% making of the will which cut him off. He put up a job to get the will, and brought the thieves to the house and let them in with his keys. They went to work on the safe and the old man heard them. He called from his room to know who was there, and Bob an- | & ‘swered. Then the old man came | = down to see what was going on. Bob | knew that stealing the will would amount to nothing without the old ' man’s death. 1 belleve that it was . the intention of Bob to kill the old man before he left the house. When | ' Mr. Temple entered the room Bob, or perhaps one of the crooks, shot |, him. Then the way was easy for the | < j thieves, and easier for Bob to win his i fortune. The evidence pointed in' & this direction, and some enterprising ' | reporter got hold of some of the facts and published a story about the loss | & of the will, and some facts which = Bob Temple would have to explain. “Bob’s family turned against him bitterly, and I was on the point of putting him under arrest when Law- yer Trumbul recelved a letter con- taining the missing will from a per- | &. son who said that he was one of the | crooks. The letter gave another plece of startling information to the effect that Mr. Temple had not been | - shot, and the wound in his forehead | % had been made by falling against the safe. To verify this the body was exhumed, and the wound in the head was found not to have fractured the skull. I found on one of the hinges | of the safe a few spots of blood, and the sharp point of the hinge had un- doubtedly made the wound. “With the shadow of suspicion re- moved from Bob Temple, I took him into my confidence and found him to | be the best one in the family after all, in spite of his wildness. He told me all about his habits, and recalled | that one day he had spoken to Chan Wooley about his father’s wealth and the valuables that he kept in his safe. I became a regular visitor in Wooley’s | gambling house, and one evening I | noticed a ring on the finger of one of | the dealers which resembled one that ! had been taken from Temple's safe, ! After the game I arrested the dnla?.' I accused him of committing the rob- | bery and murder. He told me the ring had been given to him by ‘Wooley. I got a sample of Wooley’s bandwriting and found that it was similar to the writing in the letter written by the crook who returned the will. [ arrested Wooley, and when he learned of the evidence against him |% $3.25 Value 3.75 Value 5.00 Value Linoleum, only*per{yard..... Crex 9x12 Art Squares.......... $6.20 ¢ Weé now have an All Cotton Mattress 45-1b for-........... You will save money by trading with us Lakeland Furniture and Hardware Co. S S oG Do b Blldndged 3 BSRd SOPPPIDBBPPIPLPPES Mayes Grocery Company WHOLESALE GROCERS GG g “A Business Without Books” EXEFELERS oid E find that low prices and long time will not go haud in hand, and on May 1st we installed our NEW SYSTEM OF LOW.PRICES FOR STRICTLY CASH. We have saved the people of Lakeland and Polk County thousands of dollars in the past, and our new system will still reduce the cost of living, and also reduce our expenses, and enable us to put the knife in still deeper. We carry a full line of Groceries, Feed, Grain, Hay, Crate Material, and Wilson & Toomer's IDEAL EERTILIZERS always on hand. Mayes Grocery Company 211 West Main Street. LAKELAND, FLA. APRER LS gm Phone 46 THE ELECTRIC STORE 307 E. Main St. DO YOU KNOW What you get without|{Charge when you buy Electric Irons, Toaster Stoves. Percolators, Heaters, from Us. [ Advice of experts as to desirability 0 each device for the work intended. You won’t have to spend your moncy for something that won’t meet you expectations. You Get- SPGB AP PAT DO PPN IPGDOE Facility of quick repair, as we cairy | Repair Parts for our own line of he admitted his guilt, but would not | % arantee ood. give away his partners. He suffered | i d goods. AT s o ] Florida Electric and Machinery Co