Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude
places, must all be passed over here. Suffice it to say that the fatal
piece of blotting paper was produced in New York along with many lesser
points of evidence, and after a hard legal fight Mac was finally ordered
to be given up to the English Government to stand his trial for
complicity in the great bank forgery.
The legal proceedings before the commissioner lasted three full months.
The array of counsel on both sides made it a forensic contest between
giants, in which all past history was invoked for precedents. This
extradition case attracted wide attention.
After United States Commissioner Gutman had finally decided to surrender
him to the demand of the British Government, appeal was made to the
United States Circuit Court, Judge Woodruff, then to the Supreme Court,
Judge Barrett, before whom Mac was brought by writs of habeas corpus;
but the commissioner's decision was sustained. Mac was sent to Fort
Columbus for safe-keeping while counsel were vainly arguing on new writs
of habeas corpus and certiorari, but before any conclusion could be
reached, he was hurried away by his custodians. He had scarcely time to
bid good-bye to his counsel, when with a United States officer he was
hurried into a carriage in Chambers street, guarded by Chief Deputy
Marshal Kennedy and Deputies Robinson and Crowley, and driven rapidly
down Broadway to the Battery, so that the large crowd who gathered to
witness his departure from the metropolis had very little time to feast
their eyes.
He was transferred from the Battery to Governor's Island by a tugboat
and subsequently handed over by the deputy marshals to the charge of
Major J. P. Roy, who had him escorted to Fort Columbus.
The following morning United States Marshal Fiske, with Deputies Crowley
and Purvis; Mr. Peter Williams, solicitor of the Bank of England; Sergt.
Edward Hancock, a London detective; Deputy Marshal Colfax and others,
boarded the steam tug P. C. Schultze at the Battery and steamed across
to Governor's Island. At 10.30 o'clock Capt. J. W. Bean, on post at the
fort, received an order to deliver him over.
Capt. J. W. Bean then delivered him over to United States Marshal
Fiske's charge, with whom he descended the steps from the balcony of the
fort, and marched, with a deputy at either side, through tiled pathways
and groved and shaded avenues, to the wharf at the other end of the
island, where the Schultze was awaiting his arrival. A large crowd of
spectators, soldiers and civilians lined the wharf, lingering anxiously
to see him off. But he walked very leisurely, smoked, laughed and
appeared in a state of unaccountable good humor.
It was nearly 11 o'clock when the Schultze steamed away from Governor's
Island wharf and whistled and rattled down the Bay to await the arrival
of the Minnesota, which lay at anchor during the forenoon near Pier 46,
North River, and did not sail until some minutes after 12 o'clock. The
Schultze meantime waited, steaming around the lower bay until the
Minnesota arrived. The steam tug neared the bulky and huge vessel, and
Mac was finally taken on board by United States Marshal Fiske and Deputy
Marshals Robinson, Crowley and Colfax, and given into the custody of the
English detectives, Sergts. Webb and Hancock, who in return gave the
usual receipt to Marshal Fiske.
For the present, I leave Mac on the Atlantic, sailing swiftly eastward,
to meet his terrible doom.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE IRONY OF FATE.
In this chapter I give in his own words George's account of his flight
from London and his arrest.
"Without the remotest suspicion that my right name was known or that
anything had been discovered to show my connection with the fraud, I
resolved to take the steamer Atlantic of the White Star line at
Queenstown for New York. Knowing that all the railway stations in London
were being watched, and that any man buying a ticket for America might
have to give an account of himself, I sent a porter to purchase a ticket
for Dublin via Holyhead. I intended taking the 9 p.m. mail train, and,
as a precaution, I waited until the last moment, after the passengers
were on board, and the waiting-room doors shut. As the mail was being
transferred from the wagons to the train, I took the opportunity to walk
through the big gate unobserved amid the rush and confusion. The car
doors were all locked, but on showing my ticket to a guard (conductor)
he let me into a compartment, no doubt supposing that I had obtained
admission to the station from the waiting-room and had been loitering
about. The same was probably the case with the two or three other men
looking out of the waiting-room window at the platform, whom I judged to
be detectives. The train rolled out of the station, and soon I was
leaving London behind at the rate of fifty miles an hour. After midnight
we took the steamer at Holyhead and arrived at Dublin about 7 a.m. I
should not have felt so comfortable throughout this night's journey had
I known that the telegraph was flashing in all directions five thousand
pounds reward for my capture.
"A whole column regarding myself and my supposed movements was published
in the Dublin papers of that morning. Not suspecting they contained
'news' regarding me, I neglected purchasing one, and, remaining ignorant
of my imminent danger, took the train for Cork, where I arrived about 4
p.m. I had two or three London papers of the previous day in my hand as
I left the station. I had never been in Cork until then, and as I passed
into the street two detectives, who were watching the passengers, turned
and followed me. A few yards from the station one of them stepped up by
my side and said:
"'Have you ever been here before?'
"I slightly turned my head toward him, gave a haughty glance as I
replied: 'Yes,' then looked straight ahead and continued my slow gait,
paying no further attention to him. He continued walking by my side for
a few steps, as if irresolute, then dropped to the rear, rejoining his
companion. I did not dare to look around or make inquiry as to the
location of the wharf from which the tugboat started to convey mail and
passengers to the New York steamers, which waited in the outer harbor.
Therefore I continued my walk along what appeared to be the main
business street, perhaps for a quarter of a mile, then turned into a
druggist's and called for some Spanish licorice. This was done to enable
me to ascertain if the detectives were still following. In a moment they
passed the shop gazing intently in and saw me leaning carelessly against
the counter with my face partially turned to the street. As soon as I
had paid for the licorice I continued my walk in the same direction, but
saw nothing of the men, they having evidently stopped in some place to
let me get ahead once more. In a short time I approached an inclosure
over the gate of which was a sign that informed me I had come by
accident direct to the wharf of the New York steamers. Entering I found
the place crowded and the tugboat ready to convey the passengers to the
steamer Atlantic. Before attempting to step aboard the tug I took a
covert look around and saw my two detectives standing back in one corner
with their eyes fixed upon me, all but their heads being concealed
behind the crowd waiting to see their friends off for America.
Apparently unconscious of their presence, I threw my papers, one by one,
down among the passengers; and as the deck of the boat was eight or ten
feet below, the detectives could not see to whom they were thrown. I
stood leaning on the rail a short time gazing at the scene, then left
the wharf not even glancing in the direction of the detectives. I felt
that any attempt of mine to embark would precipitate their movements,
therefore I at once abandoned all ideas of taking passage from
Queenstown.
"Now mark the irony of fate! That was the last passage ever made by the
magnificent steamer Atlantic! Some magnetic influence deranged her
compass so that she ran twenty miles out of her course, striking on the
coast of Nova Scotia, at Meager's Head, Prospect Harbor, broke in two,
then rolling into deep water sank in a few minutes. Out of 1,002 persons
on board 560 perished, including most of the saloon passengers and all
the women and children. The elegant cabins and staterooms became their
tombs--and one might have been mine. But not for me such favoring fate;
a moment's struggle ended their sufferings, while I was left to undergo
the pangs of a thousand deaths!
"I continued my walk up a hill among the private residences of the city,
and, hailing a cab, told the driver to take me back to the station.
Eager for a job, he asked to drive me a mile beyond on the railway.
Thinking I might elude the detectives at the Queenstown station, I
acceded, and he made his little Irish horse rush along at a pace
which brought us to the stopping place just before the train arrived.
"I purchased a ticket and hastened into a carriage, where, lo and
behold! sat the two detectives. A few minutes brought us to Cork again.
I was not yet aware they were in possession of my right name and the
knowledge that a reward of L5,000 was offered for my capture, nor that
their hesitation was occasioned by doubts as to my identity, which the
first false step on my part might remove. I did not suppose they were
looking especially for me, but for any one in general whose actions and
appearance might indicate that he was one of the operators in the bank
forgery. Under this erroneous belief I crossed to the Dublin station,
which was a quarter of a mile from that of the Cork and Queenstown. As I
entered the waiting room I saw my two detectives standing at the other
side. 'Well,' I thought to myself, 'this is very strange; I left the
Queenstown station ahead of them and here they are again, all alive!' I
walked away into the most thronged streets of the business part of the
city; turning a corner I glanced backward and saw them following at some
distance in the rear. As soon as I had fairly turned the corner I
started at a fast walk, turning the next before they came in view, and
after three or four such turnings I went into a small temperance hotel
and took lodgings for the night. There was but a single commercial
traveler in the sitting room--a special room set apart in every English
hotel, sacred to the 'drummer' fraternity. In the course of the evening
he handed me a small railway map of Ireland, which, in my subsequent
flight through the country, proved of incalculable service to me.
"The next morning I went out and purchased a handbag, a Scotch cap and a
cheap frieze ulster. My night's cogitations had not enabled me to solve
the detective problem, but I felt confident that something was decidedly
wrong. I then hired a covered cab, driving past the postoffice to
recoinnoitre, and saw one of the detectives standing in the doorway.
This sight deterred me from going in to ask for a letter. Dismissing my
cab, I took another and drove to the place where I had made my
purchases, taking them into the cab and going through a by-street which
brought me close to my hotel.
"From the commercial room in the second floor front I looked out and
marked the farthest house I could see to the left on the opposite side.
Stepping to the desk I wrote an order directing the postmaster to
deliver any letters to my address to the bearer. This I gave to a
cabman, instructing him to drive to the postoffice and bring my mail to
the house I had marked, returning myself to the commercial room to
watch. In a few minutes I saw the cabman drive to the house, and seeing
no one waiting there, he turned and drove slowly down the street past