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SOLDIERS’ DEPARTMENT.QUEER HIDING PLACE.it upful lcand i“Inextlet 1 glass it int from“Tthinlt;thenintothechaiiown env\ *0 the i cone imci a mi ewef licki beat ite sr. iHon)AMo iAtcea* the) the r expmoi*■i iclaiCthecanhim4 44 lt;Colhav44W-^4 lt;plel44tsv0yesresnyii3df;rhhd-yBt:oe.rnl-r•y,nid:hLl-70ir-d-d-ietiet-e,iUBUitli!e.edre-heataP-rnsthoWhere a Secret-Service Detective Found a Faj master's Thieving Clerk.In the spring of 1864 an army pay-niaster named Booth had in his employ as clerk a voung man named Theodorei‘ OCushman, a good-looking, intelligent fellow, whose parents lived in a small town in Ohio. Booth had taken the young man on the recommendation of a Congressman, and was much pleased with him. About the middle of May, when Cushman had been employed about six weeks, he suddenly disappeared, and with him wqnt the sum of $13,000, taken from the paymaster’ssafe. His gett:ng the money was a very bold thing. The safe stood open,and in the oilice sat the paymaster anda friend, and there were two other clerks besides Cushman. The youngman put on his hat and coat to go out, placed the package of money in his pocket unseen, and had two hours the start whon it was missed.When I was placed on the case I soon learned that Cushman, honest and respectable as he appeared in the eyes ofhis friends, was really the consort ofmany bad people. He drank and gambled, and was a general favor.te with several female adventurers. Indeed, I even discovered that he had left Washington in the company of a woman named Bell Grover. He must have been planning a raid on the pav-mas-ter1 s safe, and felt reasonably sure of making a haul, for the women was pa ked up ready to leave, and both were on their way to Baltimore within an hour from the time that the money was taken. They had two days thestart of me, but I traced them to Phila delphia, from there to Trenton, from Trenton to Jersey City, and they crossed to New York only two hours ahead of me. In Philadelphia, Cushman bought the woman $800 worth of diamonds. I had an idea that they would plan to take a steamer for Europe, and I hadto telegraph to Washington for help in the case. We watched the ship offices, overhauled the hotels, and five days slipped away and we had not been able to pick up the trail again. It was a question whether they had not left the city almost as soon as they had entered it * After the first day there were four of us on the case direct while the police were rendering us all the assistance possible. We had none of us met Cushman or the woman face to face, nor did we have their photographs. We were trailing them from descriptions, and faulty ones at that,Towards night on the afternoon of the fifth day I was crossing Union Square when I encountered a young fellow whom I at once spotted for Cushman.He had shaved ofl his mustache, changed his style of collar and put on a new suit of clothes, but 1 had a feeling that he was the man I wanted. I turned and followed him, and after a bit he looked about him in such a way as to prove that he was a criminal of some sort. He went to a hotel and wrote a letter andinclosed a $50 bill in it From there he went to a hardware store and bought a revolver. Then he started out like one going home and I followed him to a boarding house on Lexington avenue.Ten minutes after Cusnman entered the house I rang the bell, and it did not take over five more to explain my errand to the landlady. She volunteered to lead me to Cushman’s room, which was up two flights, but she at the same time informed me that Mrs. Cushman had left the house a few minutes before his arrival. When I knocked on thedoor I heard some one moving inside, but no answer was returned to my summons. I waited five minutes and then broke the door in, but Cushman was nowhere to be found. It was an elegantly furnished room, and the pair had gone straight to the house from the foot of Desbrosscs street. I looked out of the various windows, under the bed and behind the sofa, but Cushman was not to be found. He could not have descended to the ground, and I made up my mind that when he came up stairs he entered some other room, although I thought I heard him move about after I knocked.I was about to leave the room to make a search of the house when I heard a great sputtering and sneezing, and the wooden mantel was pushed back and Cushman came out of the fireplace. It was a mock fire-grate, but so nicely arranged that I was deceived.His quarters were terribly cramped and thehmc and dust had filled his eyes and set him to sneezing. He was terribly chagrined and crestfallen over his *h capture, but a still worse thing was in store for him. The woman for whom he had rained h'mself had been entrust- rc ed to carry the bulk of the “swag,”and rc she had taken advant ge of his absenceto run away with it. We did our best to find her, but she got away to Europe 01 with at least $10,000 of the stolen 01 money. Cushman was taken to Wash- r( ington, tried for the robbery and got a ten-year sen ence, not more than half of 8( which had been served when he died.—Detroit Free Press,saic to tIwaitiornoi;seamaHefenhinanccorJera Jin vgr be ihillCaIneteraacisueamevlt;thecrcortinswpLnlt;crH;feitnanOisicaFofsi(saresi:4 4tc
Newspaper Details
Caldwell Noble County Republican
Caldwell, Ohio, US
Thu, Nov 11, 1886
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IN, USA 04 Mar 2023
Other Publications Near Caldwell, Ohio
The Journal
Caldwell Noble County Republican
