14 A rllE BEE: OMAHA, SUNDAY, JULY 24, 1921. Worlds Greatest Detective Cases i I Daring Marseilles Bank Robbery; Expert Finds Solution to Ingenious Plot Within a Few Hours. ' (Tr. Tlalthaiard Is the great crime Xpert -hen solved the extraor dinary murder related below by method which would make even Sherlock Holme feel he bad m't tnaater. Dr. Bnlthaiard I a Frenrhmnn, well known In po lice circle, though comparatively unknown at present to the (en eral publlo even of France. He has for many year mad a pe cial tudy of wound of all kind, especially bullet wound. One of th atandard work on bullet wounda. In fact, ha been written by this (Untitle, detective.) (Copyright 121, by th World-Wld New Service, Inc.) By NAZARIENE DAAN KANNI BELLE. With unfailing regularity Jules Santon had driven his handsome motor car tip to the door of the Stirete hank in Marseilles once a week precisely at 2 o'clock. One of the most trusted servants of the bank, it had been his duty to drive another trusted servant. Mon sieur Bcnot, from the chief office of. the bank in Marseilles to one ot its local branches with a supply of gold and notes securely fastened in a strongly-bound bank box. Precisely at 2 o'clock on January .19. 1910. Tules Santon drove the bank's car up to the side entrance of the head office. A fine stinging snow, driven by a bitter north wind, cut in to the faces of those who were com pelled to be out. Jules himself with his large motor coat, cap and gog gles, could hardly be seen, so well had he protected himself against the weather. Monsieur Benot, accompanied by another bank official, quickly came down the steps and crossed the snow-covered pavement with their Trerinii box hetween them. As soon 1 as the box was safely placed in the. r the sernnrl hank official hurried out of the biting cold, while Monsieur Benot prepared to make himself comfortable for the half hour's journey before him. But that journey was to be delayed for the first time in his memory. From out of the bank building there dashed a young man in the uniform Nof the bank's messengers, waving to Jules Santon not to start. "What is it?" asked Monsieur Benot. "The manager wants to see you before you go," said the messenger. "Get inside the car, and keep an eye on that box, Jules," said Mon sieur Benot. "I shan't be more than a few minutes." In his hurry he did not notice as he went up the bank steps the cus tomer who went quickly out of the swing doors and crashed into him. Together the two slipped on the snow and rolled on to the pavement. i "A thousand pardons, monsieur! cried the stranger, quickly rising, and flefping up Bcnot. "I was in a hur ry, and was not looking where I was going." "The fault is mine," smiled Benot in return. "I, too. was in a hurry." L, Polite Stranger. : The two, in a typical French man ner, brushed the snow off each oth er's clothes, and parted with mutual apologies for their carelessness. The bank official had just entered the vestibule after these few minutes' delay, when the messenger who had called him away came dashing up breathless. "Oh, sir, I'm sorry to have trou bled you. An important customer has called to see the manager, and he has instructed me to say he will see vou immediately on your re turn." With a grumble at his wasted time, Benot turned and entered the bank car again, while the driver left his charge of the precious box, and re sumed his position at the steering wheel. In another moment the two were rapidly on their way to the branch bank. ' At the branch bank Benot's arrival was expected, as it had been week in and week out for several years, and an official at once came out of tha bank and helped him to carry in the heavy box from the bank's car. Fol lowing the usual routine, the branch cashier opened the box with his du plicate set of keys, and took out the two large bags it contained and the . package of bank notes. He opened : the first bag and gave a horrified x '. clamation as he pulled out a handful of small stones. Hurriedly he ' opened the other bag. That, too, was filled with stones. The bundle of notes was nothing more than a bundle of common paper cut to the sice of bank notes. "Good heavens 1" cried Benot. "The bags were filled in front of my eyes, and the notes put in the box by myself. It was locked in front of me, and has never been out of my sight or Stanton's. There was $300, 000 in notes and gold this time, more than usual." vHe and the cashier hurried out to the waiting car. Jules Santon had disappeared. 'Without the loss of a moment the head office was telephoned to and the police promptly informed, while instructions were given that noth ing was to be touched any further till the latter had irrived. At 4 o'clock Dr. Dalthazard, one of the most famous - criminologists and scientific detectives in France, ar rived on the scene and took charge of the investigation, an investigation which was only to take a few hours, bnt was to prove one of the most wonderful in the whole history of crime. Chauffeur's Body. . His first step was to examine the waiting car, which had not been toadied in any way till his appear ance. He at once made the discov ery of the body of the missing chauf ieur wedged out of sight between die back of the rear scat and the Jack of the car. The unfortunate man was quickly carried into the bonk and there examined by the de tective. .."This U the man who drove you $iere?" he asked Benot. "Yes," replied the latter. J 1 '""When did you get heref" I "A little over half an hour ago I answered the bank official. "Impossible l" cried Balthazard. LEliSJ5n as been dead two hours, He couldn't possibly have driven you here. Benot was too astounded to pro test. He could have sworn that he had been driven by Jules. In a daze he followed the detective back to the car. The latter made an ex tremely thorough examination of the motor, going over it inch by inch, the detective continually making notes of his observations. The steps, doors, windows and floor were gone over minutely. His filial act was to raise the cushions and look in the compartments beneath them. From one he took a cap, muffler and coat identical with the ones the dead man was wearing. "I suppose these are a duplicate set belonging to Santon? he asked. "Certainly not!" replied Benot ex citedly. "I am absolutely sure he hadn't any other motor clothes than those he was wearing." The detective looked puzzled. It was clear to him that somehow or other Jules Santon had been mur dered while in charge of the bank's car, and after his body had been thrust out of sight behind the seat, his pace had been taken by some one dressed in duplicate clothes. But when was he murdered? "Did you notice anything peculiar in any way about Santon when he drove you here? Did he stop or slow up anywhere, for instance?" asked the detective. "No," replied Benot. "We fol lowed our usual routine exactly." "Tell me everything that hap pened, no matter how trivial, from the time you saw the gold and notes put in the box till you saw it opened here," said the detective. Face Lights Up. As soon as Benot came to the in cident of his recall to the bank by the messenger, and the accidental collision with the bank's customer, the detective's face began to light up. "Oh, I begin to see. That acci dent wasn't quite so accidental as it appeared," he said. "I suppose you don't know how long you left San ton in the car?" "As it so happened. I can tell to the minute," replied Benot. "I looked at my watch when we were about to start, and it was just a quarter past two. When I entered the car for the second time I again looked at my watch mechanically, and it was 22 minutes past." seven minutes and just over two hours ago Good heavens, we are dealing with some clever criminals. In that seven minutes the chauffeur was murdered, his body thrust out of sight and another box substituted for the one containing the notes and gold. It was one of the criminals, disguised as the dead man, whb drove you here." The detective was frankly puzzled over the chauffeur's death. His first examination had convinced him that he had net been strangled, pois oned or drugged. There were no marks on his throat nor any signs of how he had been killed, in fact. But his second examination brought to light the way he had been killed, and it was as remarkable as the rest of the whole affair. He began to go over the dead man's head and face with a magnifying class, and in only a lew minutes a small clot of blood on the hair at the top of his head attracted his attention. He parted the hair, and there, in the skull, was a small hole only about the sixteenth of an inch in diameterl The dead man had been murdered by some fine small-steel weapon, which had been driven vertically through the top of his head. From this wound the detective obtained an important clue to the identity of the murderer. "We'll now drive back to the head office," he said. "I think I have found out all I want to know here. You had better come with me, be cause I shall want to know exactly where the car stood outside the bank and other details," he added to Benot. The detective, with a number of police officials, made a careful ex amination of the side street in which the dead chauffeur had been mur dered. Luckily there had been very little traffic down the street that day, and the fine snow which had been falling had left practically un touched the marks of the big . car in the snow. "That's what I expected to find," said Balthazard, pointing .to the tracks of a car running parallel to and close those of the bank car. He gave certain instructcions to two of his assistants, and care ful measurements and particulars were soon taken of the track of the strange car. Unfortunately this track was lost in the traffic in the main road, but from the marks left in the side street the detective strengthened the theory he had al ready found. To the puzzled Benot, who had followed every one of his movements there seemed no discov eries of real importance to make, save that the trusted servant of the bank, Santon, had been murdered in a most mysterious and remarkable way. The detective, however, seemed to be getting cheerier every minute as he went over the ground so care fully. "We'll now finish up from where we started," he said, "and then per haps we shan't be long before we nut our hands on the men we want. Five or six people have been con cerned in it." By the orders of the police all the bank employes had been gathered into one room, and no one was al lowed to leave the bank on any ex cuse. The first thing the detective did, however, when he saw the man ager was to say: leu everybody to carry on and finish their day's work as quickly as possible, and tell them then they can eo home, he said. As soon as his request had been complied with he said to the mana ger: "Monsieur Benot tells me you sent for him just after he had left the bank with the stolen box. What did you want to see him about?" "I sent for him?" answered the bank manager. "There must be some mistake." "But one of the bank messengers came up and gave me your message himself," cried Benot. "And after wards countermanded it because an important customer had called to see you." "I have seen no customer whatever today," replied the manager. "Send for the messengers," said the detective. "Perhaps Monsieur Benot can identify the one who gave him the message, though I fancy he won't be able to do so." Telltale Pencil. As a matter of fact the bewildered bank official was riite positive at once that none of the messengers who had been called into the room was anything like the one who had spoken to him. "Precisely as I thought," said Bait hazard. "We'll now just stroll through the bank, if you don't mind. By that time the clerks had settled down, eager to finish their work and get away, for the delay had been matter of some hours. Slowly the detective passed through the rooms, apparently talking to the manager but keenly noting every face and every desk as he passed by. On the second floor he entered a room where there were a number of wo men clerks working. Beside one the detective stopped and smiled. "That's a pretty idea," he, said pointing to two pencils, one of which was tied round with red ribbon, an othsr with blue. "You have an artis tic soul, m'amselle," he added gal lantly. The girl blushed. "I like my pencils to look pretty," she answered, 'and so I tie ribbons on them. "Ah, I see you have one tied with yellow ribbon on the window sill," added the detective. "Oh, I must have forgotten that! and the girl made a movement to pick it up, but the detective was quicker. Seizing her wrist with grip of steel he dragged her away from the window. A "Have her taken into a quiet room, and guarded by one of my men," he said, and then as an after-thought, "and see it is a room where there are no windows. Don t let her go anywhere near windows till I come back. I've found all I wanted here, but don t let the staff go after all, I shall be back in a couple of hours at the most. tsetore the astonished manager could say anything further, the de- tective had hurried out of the bank with one of his assistants, after leav ing final instructions that the pencil with the yellow ribbon was not to be touched in any way. Just as it was propped up against the window, so it as left. When Dr. Balthazard returned, accompanied by the chief of the Marseilles police, he was able to give the latter, as well as the bank manager, sufficient information to arrest the murderer of the unfor tunate chauffeur, as well as to trace the missing notes and gold. In an amazingly short time he had not only reconstructed the main out lines of this remarkable crime, but was able to give a description of the authors. "In the first place, I knew as soon as I heard the outlines of the, story that the robbery must have been planned for some considerable time," he began, tor it depended so much upon knowing the exact movements of Benot and the dead chauffeur that it could hardly have been one car ried out on the spur of trie moment. The fact that an exactly similar box was substituted for the original one, and that the clothing of the chauffeur was so closely imitated as to deceive even Benot proved how everything had been carefully planned. "The next thing that struck me was that the day chosen for the rob bery was, as your branch manager informed me, one on which a'larger consignment of notes and gold than usual was being sent. That pointed clearly, to my mind, that those who had planned the robbery had a con federate inside the bank, and tnat was why I immediately told one of my assistants to phone you and keep all your staff and even yourseit m one room till I investigated further." "Why, you even suspected mel cried the manager. "Oh. no." smiled the datective. "I merely knew someone in the bank was a confederate, and that s why i kent all there till I found out which particular person it was. It was, of course, the girl with the pretty De- ribboned pencils. "Well. I think there are five peo ole at least in this affair. First of all there is Santon's double; second ly, there is the bogus messenger; thirdly, there is the polite stranger who knocked Benot down in the snow and spent those valuable min utes detaining him and apologizing profusely while the chauffeur was being killed; fourthly, there is tnc pretty girl with her pretty pencils, who. bv the means of them, gave the signal that everything was fa vorable for the robbery; and, finally, German "Houdini" Plans to Rob Express Car But Nearly Suffocates in Trunk Instead By FRANK E. MASON. Berlin, July 23. "Spectacular me thods in burglary are all right for the movies, but after this. I am going to stick to the safe and sane old fashioned second-story man rules," sighed Max Arndt after his attempt to rob an express car by an amateur Houdini trunk act landed him in jail. Max-and Paul Arndt, burglars, Ltd., conceived the idea of Max per mitting himself to be locked into a good-sized wardrobe trunk, accom panied by a full set of burglars' tools. Brother Paul then shipped Max from the Berlin railroad station to Spandau. It was agreed that during the trip Max was to open the trunk; step out and rob the other trunks i the express car. It might hav worked smooth except that the Arndt brothers for got to take the precaution of boring a couple of holes in the trunk for air. Before Max could liberate him self he had exhausted the air in the trunk and fainted. Railroad officials became suspicious because of the weight of the baggage and forced it open. When Max had been re suscitated he stepped out smilingly and bowed with the announcement that he was a vaudeville artist try ing out a new Houdini trick. He . might have gotten away with (lis sleight-of-hand alibi, but his black magic didn't include a chapter on hiding burglars' kits up his sleeve, and nt was told to tell it to the judge. Max did. So did Paul The judge told them that they might continue their legerdemain with a year's course in tha fcjutentiarj, there is .the man in the other car which drew up beside the bank car. There may have been other confed erates, but there were at least five." Balthazard Explains. "But how did you hit on the eirl so quickly?" asked the bank manag er. "Partly luck, partly detective in stinct," returned Dr. Balthazard. "I knew when you you told everybody as soon as they had finished their work they could go, that all would work quickly and forget for the moment. I staked on that forgetting, for I was on the lookout for some thing unusual, something that would have been forgotten. And surely a pencil standing by a window with a piece of yellow ribbon is unusual! Most people who use pencils throw them down carelessly, and don't bal ance them carefully against a win dow, especially where they can be seen from the outside. "I left orders that the pencil was not to be moved, and I went outside to see from where I could see it best. The only place where I could see it plainly was from the upper windows of the tall building oppo site. I made inquiries there and I found that the only newcomers in the last few months were two men who posed as agents for a South American rubber company. I entered their office, but they were out, as I expected, and there was very lit tle sign of the business they were supposed to be carrying on. How ever, from their window I had an excellent view of the lead pencil with the yellow ribbon. And from the caretaker I have obtained an ex cellent description of the two men, who are now being watched for, un known to themselves, by the police. Doubtless they will be caught be fore the news of the robbery and murder leaks out into the papers even. ( "The car use4 was a big touring car, olive green in color, with a deep scratch on the left hand side, and the running board removed on that side as well. "Good heavens, how did you know that?" "Because the slashboard of the bank car had on it a large shaving of green paint where the other car had scraped against it. lhe length of the wheelbase and the closeness of the wheel tracks to those of the bank car showed me that It was a big. car, and to have got so close must have had its running-board removed. "How was Santon murdered?" asked the bank manager. "He was murdered bv a shoe maker, and with a shoemaker's tool, an awl! came the astounding reply. How did you know that? "That again is simple. I have studied wounds of all kinds for years, and 1 knew as soon as 1 found it that the wound in the top of his head was caused by sqme fine steel instrument like an awl. I de duced it was a shoemaker's awl after an examination of finger prints on the window ot the banks car. Among them was arint of a thumb, showing a 'corn' on the outer part of the first thumb joint. This is a pecularity of a shoemaker's thumbs, a fact well known to anybody who has made a study of finger prints." 1 hanks to the deductions of the detective, the two men who posed as agents for the South American Rubber company were arrested the following day on visiting their rooms m the building opposite the bank. Large green touring cars are not too comon, and from the description of it the police were able to trace it to the ownership of a retired army captain named Boudelot. It transpired that it was Boudelot who had engineered the crime from start to finish. He had spent months planning every detail, and but for the quickness of Dr. Balthazard he would have got clear away with his iooty. vji ine two men arrested in the building opposite, one turned out to be an ex-convict named Charles Le- conte. While serving a previous sen tence he had learned the trade of shoemaker, and he confessed that he had murdered the chauffeur with a shoemaker's awl. He added that he had watched the chauffeur for weeks before the crime was carried out, learning exactly -what route he took, what time he started, what cloth ing he wore, and little mannerisms, so that he could mutate him perfect ly when the occasion arose. Actual ly a confederate had driven up the day of the murder exactly as the detective had said. Leconto had quickly jumped in and murdered the chauffeur before he realized the dan ger, and had then exchanged the bank box for an exactly similar one in the green car. It had all hap pened While a confederate was de taining Benot by knocking him down in the snow and apologizing. Its very daring had made the scheme successful. The wrecked girl confederate in the bank confessed that the ribbons round her pencils were meant as defi nite signs. The red ribbon meant danger, the blue one that the con signment of gold and noes was nothing out of the usual, and the yellow one that the consignment was greater than usual. Her betrayal of the bank's trust brought her no gain, for she died while under arrest. Boudelot, the master brain behind the well-planned robbery, committed suicide before his trial, but his ac complice, Leconte, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. The remaining members of the gang were all captured and convicted. (In our next issue watch for another World s Greatest Detective Case.) 'i y tins Ford for $15 At Legion Carnival Greenwich, Corfn., July 23. In the carnival of Greenwich post, American Legion, just closed, it has been an nounced that the winner cf the Ford edan automobile was William G. Rockefeller, son of William Rocke feller. It was the 13th number rawn which had Mr. Rockefeller's name on the card. The car cost him about $15. By a peculiar coincidence Mrs. Benjamin Strong, daughter of the late E. C. Converse, another prominent resident, was the winner f the Ford commercial car given at the Venetian fete on the estate of the late Commodore E. C. Benedict. Mr. Rockefeller is out of town, but the car has been taken to his ga rage. Just what he will do with his new Henry will not be known until (his .return. Undertaker Swears Off on Taking Checks jfor Coffins Birmingham, Ala., July 23. How ever pitiful a tale of woe may be advanced and regardless of the ur gency of action, T. A. Ridout, under taker, is not going to take anybody's check for a coffin especially when some change is forthcoming. J. W. 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