Part 1

Twenty Years a Detective

IN THE WICKEDEST CITY IN THE WORLD.

20,000 ARRESTS MADE 12,900 CONVICTIONS ON STATE AND CITY LAWS 200 PENITENTIARY CONVICTIONS

The Devil and the Grafter AND HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER TO DECEIVE, SWINDLE AND DESTROY MANKIND

AN ARMY OF 600,000 CRIMINALS AT WAR WITH SOCIETY AND RELIGION

BY CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE The World-Famous Criminologist and Detective

"THE INCORRUPTIBLE SHERLOCK HOLMES OF AMERICA"

After twenty years of heroic warfare and scores of hair-breadth escapes, in his unceasing battle with the devil and the grafter, Mr. Wooldridge tells in a graphic manner how Wildcat Insurance, Fake Mines and Oil Wells, Turf Swindlers, Home Buying Swindlers, Fake Bond and Investment Companies, Bucket Shops, Blind Pools in Grain and Stocks, Pool Rooms and Hand Books, Fake Mail Order Houses, ordinary Gambling Houses, Panel Houses, Matrimonial Bureaus, Fake Underwriting, Fake Banks, Collecting Agencies, Fake Medicine Companies, Clairvoyants, Fortune Tellers, Palmists and other criminals of all classes operate, and how their organizations have been broken up and destroyed by hundreds.

THE WORK ALSO CONTAINS

Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge's "Never-Fail" System

_For Detecting and Outwitting All Classes of Grafters and Swindlers_

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE.

Chicago Publishing Co., 83-91 Plymouth Place, Chicago.

PREFACE.

In presenting this work to the public the author has no apologies to make nor favors to ask. It is a simple history of his connection with the Police Department of Chicago, compiled from his own memoranda, the newspapers, and the official records. The matter herein contained differs from those records only in details, as many facts are given in the book which have never been made public. The author has no disposition to malign any one, and names are used only in cases in which the facts are supported by the archives of the Police Department and of the criminal court. In the conscientious discharge of his duties as an officer of the law, the author has in all cases studied the mode of legal procedure. His aim has been solely to protect society and the taxpayer, and to punish the guilty. The evidences of his sincerity accompany the book in the form of letters from the highest officers in the city government, from the mayor down to the precinct captain, and furnish overwhelming testimony as to his endeavors to serve the public faithfully and honestly. No effort has been made to bestow self-praise, and where this occurs, it is only a reproduction, perhaps in different language, of the comments indulged in by the newspapers of Chicago and other cities, whose reporters are among the brightest and most talented young men in all the walks and professions of life. To them the officer acknowledges his obligations in many instances. Often he has worked hand-in-hand with them. They have traveled with him in the dead hours of the night, in his efforts to suppress crime or track a criminal, and have often given him assistance in the way of suggestions.

He now submits his work and his record to the public, hoping it will give him a kindly reception.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preface 7-8

Testimonials 11

Biography of the Author 27

Graft Nation's Worst Foe 51

The "Never-Fail" System to Beat the Get-Rich-Quick Swindles 112

The Best Rules for Health 116

Matrimonial Agents Coining Cupid's Wiles 119

The Great Mistake. Our Penal System is a Relic of Early Savagery 192

Vagrants, Who and Why 204

The Young Criminals and How They Are Bred in Chicago 230

Wiles of Fortune Telling 246

Wife or Gallows 267

A Clever Shop Lifter (Fainting Bertha) 272

Front 284

The Criminal's Last Chance Gone 288

Burglary a Science 311

Cell Terms for "Con" Men 341

Panel-House Thieves 348

Gambling and Crime 358

A Heartless Fraud 401

The Bogus Mine 409

A Giant Swindle 418

Quacks 426

Fabulous Losses in Big Turf Frauds 448

Fake Drug Vendors 462

Bucket-Shop 471

On "Sure Things." How to Learn Their Real Character 482

Huge Swindles Bared 487

The Social Evil 500

Suppress Manufacture and Sale of Dangerous Weapons 508

Getting Something for Nothing 517

Want Ad. Fakers 527

Millionaire Banker and Broker Arrested 533

Dora McDonald 551

Mike McDonald 581

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

The two arch enemies of happiness and prosperity are the Devil and the Grafter. The church is fighting the Devil, the law is fighting the Grafter. The great mass of human beings, as they journey along the pathway of life, know not the dangers that lie in wait from these two sources. Honest themselves, credulous and innocent, they trust their fellow man.

Statistics show that four-fifths of all young men and women, and nine-tenths of the widows are swindled out of the money and property that comes to them by inheritance. Every year thousands of laboring men spend their hard earnings and beggar their families by falling in traps laid for them. Thousands of innocent girls and women, struggling for a respectable livelihood, fall victims to the demons who traffic in human honor.

The Grafters spend millions upon millions of dollars annually in advertising in America alone. There is not a Post Office in the land where every mail does not carry their appeals and thieving schemes; and they collect hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the trusting public. The State and National Governments spend millions of dollars a year in trying to catch and curb these grafters. Some of Satan's worst grafters are found in the church, working the brethren; and he has them by thousands in every walk of life.

The object of this book is to protect the public by joining hands with the church and the government in their work against the Devil and the Grafter. The author reveals and exposes the Grafter with his schemes, his traps, his pitfalls and his victims. The reader of this book will be fortified and armed with knowledge, facts and law, that should forever protect him, his family and his friends from the wiles of the Grafters.

It is with the confidence that this work fills an imperative need, and that it should be in the hands of every minister, every physician, every teacher and every mother and father in the land, that the author and publisher send it forth on what they believe to be a mission of good to the world.

WORDS OF COMMENDATION.

=From Chas. S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois:=

"It is with pleasure that I am able to say that Detective Wooldridge has conducted all his cases with zeal and intelligence."

=J. M. Longenecker, former State's Attorney, says:=

"Mr. Wooldridge has thorough knowledge of evidence and is an expert in preparing a criminal case for trial. I have found him to be one of the most efficient officers in the Department."

=R. W. McClaughrey, Warden of U. S. Prison at Leavenworth, Kans., Ex-Warden of Illinois State Penitentiary and Ex-Chief of Police of Chicago, says in a letter to the author:=

"You were not only subject to bribes, but also frequently a target of perjurers and scoundrels of every degree. You came out from every ordeal unscathed, and maintained a character for integrity and fearlessness in the discharge of your duties that warranted the highest commendation. It gives me pleasure to make this statement."

=J. J. Badenoch, Ex-General Supt. of Police, writing Mr. Wooldridge, says:=

"Dear Sir--Before I retire from the command of the Police Department, I desire to thank you for your bravery and loyal service. The character of your work being such that bribes are frequently offered by the criminal class, it becomes necessary to select men of perfect integrity for the purpose, and I now know that I made no mistake in selecting you for this trying duty. It affords me great pleasure to commend you for your bravery and fidelity to your duties."

=Nicholas Hunt, Inspector Commanding Second Division, says:=

"I have known Clifton R. Wooldridge for the last ten years. As an officer he is par-excellent, absolutely without fear and with a detective ability so strongly developed it almost appealed to me as an extra sense. If I wanted to secure the arrest of a desperate man, I would put Mr. Wooldridge in charge of the case in preference to any one I know, as, with his bravery, he has discretion."

=Geo. M. Shippy, Chief of Police, of Chicago, writing Mr. Wooldridge, says:=

"Your heart is in the right place, and while I have always found you stern and persistent in the pursuit and prosecution of criminals, you were very kind and considerate, and I can truthfully say that more than one evil doer was helped to reform and was given material assistance by you."

=Luke P. Colleran, Chief of Detectives, says:=

"His book is most worthy and truthful and commendable; and I take pleasure in commending it to all."

SHERLOCK HOLMES IN REAL LIFE.

_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.

"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.

CLIFTON R. WOOLDRIDGE

AMERICA'S FOREMOST DETECTIVE.

Clifton R. Wooldridge was born February 25, 1854, in Franklin county, Kentucky. He received a common school education, and then started out in the world to shift for himself. From 1868 to 1871, he held the position of shipping clerk and collector for the Washington Foundry in St. Louis, Missouri. Severing his connection with that company, he went to Washington, D. C., and was attached to the United States Signal Bureau from March 1, 1871, to December 5, 1872. He then took up the business of railroading, and for the following nine years occupied positions as fireman, brakeman, switchman, conductor and general yard master.

When the gold fever broke out in the Black Hills in 1879, Mr. Wooldridge along with many others went to that region to better his fortune. Six months later he joined the engineering corps of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad and assisted in locating the line from Canon City to Leadville, as well as several of the branches. The work was not only very difficult, but very dangerous, and at times, when he was assisting in locating the line through the Royal Gorge in the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, he was suspended from a rope, which ran from the peak of one cliff to the other, with his surveying instruments strapped to his back. This gorge is fifty feet wide at the bottom and seventy feet wide at the top, the walls of solid rock rising three thousand feet above the level of the river below. The work was slow and required a great deal of skill, but it was accomplished successfully.

Mr. Wooldridge went to Denver in 1880 and engaged in contracting and mining the following eighteen months. He then took a position as engineer and foreman of the Denver Daily Republican, where he remained until May 29, 1883. The following August he came to Chicago and took a position with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway. In 1886, he severed his connection with the railroad and founded the "Switchman's Journal." He conducted and edited the paper until May 26th, when he was burned out, together with the firm of Donohue & Henneberry at the corner of Congress street and Wabash avenue, as well as many other business houses in that locality, entailing a total loss of nearly $1,000,000. Thus the savings of many years were swept away, leaving him penniless and in debt. He again turned his attention to railroading and secured a position with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and had accumulated enough money to pay the indebtedness which resulted from the fire, when the great strike was inaugurated on that road in February, 1888. The strike included the engineers, firemen and switchmen, and continued nearly a year. On October 5th of that year Mr. Wooldridge made application for a position on the Chicago police force, and having the highest endorsements, he was appointed and assigned to the Desplaines Street Station. It was soon discovered that Wooldridge as a police officer had no superiors and few equals. Neither politics, religion, creed, color, or nationality obstructed him in the performance of his police duties, and the fact was demonstrated and conceded times without number that he could not be bought, bribed, or intimidated. He selected for his motto, "Right wrongs no man; equal justice to all." His superior officers soon recognized the fact that no braver, more honest or efficient police officer ever wore a star or carried a club.

The mass of records on file in the police headquarters and in the office of the clerk of the municipal and criminal court demonstrate conclusively that he has made one of the most remarkable records of any police officer in the United States if not in the world. Mr. Wooldridge has seen twenty years of experience and training in active police work. Ten years of this time he was located in what is commonly known as the Levee district, a territory where criminals congregate and where crimes of all degrees are committed.

BORN IN KENTUCKY.

Mr. Wooldridge is therefore of Southern extraction. And in spite of the "big stick" which this terror of the grafters has carried for twenty years, he still "speaks softly," the gentle accent of the old South. But behind that soft speech there is a determined soul. The smooth-running accents of the South are in this case the velvet which hides the glove of iron.

The following are some of the deeds of valor, work and achievements he has accomplished:

AN UNPARALLELED RECORD.

20,000 arrests made by Detective Wooldridge.

He keeps a record of each arrest, time, place and disposition of the case.

14,000 arrests made for violation State and city misdemeanors.

6,000 arrests made on criminal charges.

10,500 of these prisoners paid fines.

2,400 of these prisoners were sent to jail or the house of correction.

200 of these were convicted and sent to the penitentiary.

1,000 get-rich-quick concerns were raided and broken up.

60 wagon loads of literature seized and destroyed.

A conservative estimate of the sum contributed annually by this highly civilized nation to "safe investment" and "get-rich-quick" concerns is $150,000,000.

300 poker, crap and gambling games raided and closed; $1,000,000 lost.

200 wine rooms closed up. These wine rooms were the downfall and ruination of hundreds of innocent girls.

185 wildcat insurance companies raided and closed.

2,500,000 bogus securities and 10 patrol wagon loads of books, papers and literature seized. These companies paid no losses, and there were, it is estimated, 1,000,000 persons who had taken out fire insurance policies in these wildcat companies.

They had sustained fire losses and were not indemnified. The conservative estimated loss by these wildcat insurance companies is $10,000,000.

$200,000 of lost and stolen property was recovered and returned to the owners by Detective Wooldridge.

129 slot machines seized and broken up; valued at $10,000.

130 policy shops raided and closed: $100,000 would be a conservative estimate of the amount lost by the players.

125 matrimonial agencies raided and broken up.

4,500,000 matrimonial letters seized and destroyed.

1,500,000 matrimonial agencies' stock letters seized and destroyed.

1,400,000 matrimonial stock photographs seized and destroyed.

500,000 photographs sent to the matrimonial agencies by men and women who were seeking their affinities seized and destroyed.

40 wagon loads of matrimonial literature seized and destroyed.

110 turf frauds raided and closed: $8,000,000 lost by the public.

$20,000 bribe was offered Wooldridge by the turf swindlers to let them run, but he refused to take it.

105 panel houses raided and closed.

$1,500,000 was stolen annually from 1889 to October, 1896. At that time there were 64 uniformed officers stationed in front of the panel houses. Detectives Wooldridge and Schubert were assigned to break them, which was accomplished in three weeks' time.

100 bucketshops raided and closed; $5,000,000 lost through them.

July 31, 1900, Detective Wooldridge, in charge of 50 officers, arrested 415 men and landed them in the Harrison Street Police Station, and dismantled the following bucketshops:

10 and 12 Pacific avenue, 25 Sherman street, 14 Pacific avenue, 10 Pacific avenue, 210 Opera House Block, 7 Exchange court, 19 Lyric Building, and 37 Dearborn street. It was one of the largest and most sensational raids ever made in Chicago, and will be long remembered.