Читать книгу Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World - Clifton R. Wooldridge - Страница 6

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From The Chicago Tribune of November 25, 1906.

"Chicago may be surprised to learn that it has a Sherlock Holmes of its own, but it has; and before his actual experiences in crime-hunting, the fictional experiences through which Poe, Doyle, and Nick Carter put their detectives pale into insignificance. His name is Clifton R. Wooldridge.

"Truth is stranger even than detective fiction, and in the number of his adventures of mystery, danger and excitement he has all the detective heroes of fiction and reality beaten easily.

"He has personally arrested 19,500 people, 200 of them were sent to the penitentiary; 3,000 to the house of correction; 6,000 paid fines; 100 girls under age were rescued from lives of shame; $100,000 worth of property was recovered; 100 panel houses were closed; 100 matrimonial bureaus were broken up.

Disguised as a JEW IN THE GHETTO

"Wooldridge has refused perhaps 500 bribes of from $500 to $5,000 each. He has been under fire forty-four times. He has been wounded dozens of times. He has impersonated almost every kind of character. He has, in his crime hunting, associated with members of the '400' and fraternized with hobos. He has dined with the elite and smoked in opium dens. He has done everything that one expects the detective of fiction to do and which the real detective seldom does.

"When occasion requires he ceases to appear as Wooldridge. He can make a disguise so quickly and effectively that even an actor would be astonished. Gilded youth, negro gambler, honest farmer or lodging house 'bum,' it requires but a few minutes to 'make-up,' to run to earth elusive wrong-doers."

The pictures which appear here are actual photographs taken from life in the garb and disguises worn by the author in several famous cases.

"HECK HOUSTON"—STOCK-RAISER FROM WYOMING

In this garb the author makes himself an easy mark for the crooks and grafters of the Stock-Yard district. The hold-up man—the card-sharp—the bunco-steerer—the get-rich-quick stock-broker fall "easy game" to the detective thus disguised.

ASSOCIATING WITH THE STOCK AND BOND GRAFTERS

Disguised as an Englishman who has money and is looking for a good investment, Mr. Wooldridge is easily mistaken for a "sucker." The trap is set. He apparently walks into it; but, in a few minutes, the grafter finds himself on the way to prison.

POLICY-SAM JOHNSON

This is a favorite disguise of the author when doing detective duty among the lowest and most disreputable criminals. Unsuspectingly the crooks offer him all sorts of dirty work at small prices for assistance in criminal acts.

WE NEVER SLEEP

Detectives disguised as tramps: "I am made all things to all men," says St. Paul. The Detective must also make himself all things to all men, that he may find and catch the rascals. To be up-to-date it is necessary to be able to assume as many disguises as there are classes of people among whom criminals hide.

POLICY-SAM JOHNSON SHOOTING CRAPS

An illustration of the way the detective employs himself in the gambling dens. It is often necessary to play and lose money in these places that he may get at the facts. Observe that he is watching proceedings in another part of the room while he is throwing the dice.

SHADOWING ONE OF THE FOUR HUNDRED.

Some of the most dangerous grafters in the world hobnob with the elite. Here we have our author in evening dress, passing as a man of society at a banquet of the rich, shadowing a "high-flyer" crook.

CRAPS AND CARDS

The gambling house is a station on the road to crime. In proportion to population there are, perhaps, more negro gamblers than of any other race.

A LITTLE GAME IN THE ALLEY AT NOON

Many boys and young men spend their noon hour in cultivating bad habits that lead to nights of gambling; and then come crimes to get money that they may gamble more.

A RESTING PLACE ON THE ROAD TO CRIME.

The gilded saloon is the club-room of the crook. Here he hatches his plots; here he drinks to get desperate courage to carry them out; and here he returns when the crime has been committed to drown remorse and harden conscience.

YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE

A GAME OF POKER FOR "A SMALL STAKE"

This is a clangorous stop. Many a ruined man traces his downfall to the day he began in youth to "bet" a little "to make the game interesting."

Emma Ford (Sisters) Pearl Smith

Mary White, Flossie Moore

FOUR FAMOUS NEGRO WOMEN GRAFTERS

As confidence workers, highway robbers, and desperate criminals they were the terror of officers and courts. Together they stole and robbed people of more than $200,000.00. They were finally run to earth and put in prison. Our author followed one of them across the continent and back.

THE DESTINATION OF THE GRAFTER.

"The way of the transgressor is hard." "Be sure your sin will find you out." The penitentiary is full of bright men who might have been eminently successful—an honor to themselves and a blessing to mankind, if they had only heeded the old adage—"Honesty is the best policy."

WOOLDRIDGE'S CABINET OF BURGLAR TOOLS.

At the police headquarters in Chicago, one of the most attractive curios is the above cabinet of burglar-tools and weapons taken by the author from robbers and crooks during his eighteen years of service.

TURNING THE BOYS FROM CRIMINAL PATHS

This is a photograph of the Juvenile Court in Chicago, where boys who commit crimes are tried and sent to the Reformatory, instead of to prison with hardened criminals. The author claims that our prison system is filling the country with criminals.