The Executioner: His Pride and His Shame

In 1553, a wood-cutter named Heinrich Schmidt was standing amongst a crowd in the Bavarian town of Hof, listening to the Margrave detail a plot to assassinate him. The Margrave had arrested three men and accused them of the crime. Now it was time to execute them. There was no official executioner handy, so the Margrave invoked a local custom: he pointed at Heinrich and ordered him to do the deed. The wood-cutter was reluctant but was told that if he refused to carry out the order, then he would be executed instead as well as the men standing on either side of him. So Heinrich Schmidt picked up a sword and cut the heads off the three men.

Having killed these men, Schmidt became a social outcast, like a gravedigger or a slaughterhouse worker, the kind of workers that are called burakumin in Japan and shunned to this day. So Schmidt turned to the only job opening available for a man like himself — he became an official executioner. Two years later, his son, Frantz, was born and, when he was old enough, became his father’s apprentice.

“Leonardt Russ of Ceyern, a thief. Executed with the rope at the city of Steinach. Was my first execution.” So begins the diary of Frantz Schmidt which details his life’s work as an executioner and torturer, first under his father, then in Nuremburg. Over the course of forty-five years, Frantz Schmidt executed 361 people and tortured hundreds more. These acts were all noted in his diary. He was proficient in using the noose, the wheel, fire, and drowning besides the sword, which was considered the most merciful of execution methods.

The only known picture of Schmidt. “Execution of Hans Fröschel, 1591″. This drawing was made in the margins of a court record book. Note Schmidt’s collar and curved moustache. [WikiMedia Commons]

Each of the methods required a certain knowledge of the human body and its capacity for injury. Executioners had to know how to break a prisoner’s limbs on the wheel in such a way that he would survive for a time. They had to know how to torture without killing. They had to be able to cut out a tongue or perform other judicial maimings without having the prisoner bleed to death. They had to know the proper angle for a waterboard (yes, they had them then.) Sometimes executioners had to heal their prisoner’s broken limbs or other wounds before they could participate in the ritual of public execution. So Schmidt operated as a healer on the side, a trade he found much more congenial and one that he studied. In order to learn more about the human body, he dissected quite a few. Schmidt later estimated that he had treated over 35,000 patients and he was proud of the fact.

Five years after hanging his first man, Schmidt took up work in Nuremburg. He first served as assistant to Nuremburg’s chief executioner, then succeeded him. He also married his master’s daughter — both husband and wife being tainted by association with one of the nastier trades, they would have had difficulty finding a spouse elsewhere. But the post of chief executioner was well-paid and the Schmidt family lived in an upscale part of the city.

A public execution was staged as a morality play. In the first act, the prisoner — whose guilt had already been determined — was allowed a last meal, including alcohol, then was dressed in a white blouse. The executioner then entered and asked the prisoner’s forgiveness before sharing a traditional drink with him. During this time the executioner would be assessing the prisoner’s state of mind and health, judging when he was ready to proceed.

Dungeon under Nuremburg’s Old City Hall. Here is where prisoners were held before their execution. Now it’s a tourist destination.

Now the prisoner was brought before a “blood court” consisting of a robed judge holding a rod and a sword, and twelve jurors. The judge would read out the death sentence, including the method of execution, then poll the jurors for their assent. “What is legal and just pleases me,” each would reply. Next the judge asked if the prisoner wished to speak. This was an opportunity for the prisoner to forgive those who had condemned him to death and possibly express his thanks, especially if the sentence was for a merciful beheading. Some prisoners might curse the court, others were too dumb with fear or stupefied by drink to make a coherent speech. When the prisoner was finished speaking, the judge would order the executioner to carry out the sentence and snap in two the white rod he was holding.

The second act of this drama was a procession to the place of execution, which might be a mile or two away. The judge led the way, followed by the prisoner, a couple of soldiers, a chaplain or two, and the executioner and his assistants. Sometimes, if the prisoner was violent or was sentenced to be tortured on the way, he would be carried in a cart. Tortures might include having pieces of flesh torn out with red-hot tongs. The number of these “nips” were spelled out in the sentence. Sometimes the prisoner would have a few more drinks along the way.

The procession route would be lined by crowds of people, who might themselves be drunk and unruly and sometimes threw things at the prisoner. If he could, Schmidt would hurry the prisoner along to avoid problems. The prisoner might pray along with the chaplains and bless the crowd or he might curse his audience or break down in tears.

Execution by wheel. The man’s limbs are being broken with heavy wheels. This is opposed to execution on a wheel, where the limbs were broken by a rod or weight after the victim was strapped to a wheel.

The final act was the execution itself. The condemned prisoner would mount a scaffold or a platform. There, it was expected that a final prayer would issue from his lips as the noose was placed around his neck or as he sunk to his knees and awaited the executioner’s sword. The executioner would perform the deed then turn to the judge:

“Lord Judge, have I executed well?”

“You have executed as judgment and law have required.”

“For that I thank God and my master who has taught me such art.”

Then the executioner and his assistants would clean up and dispose of the remains.

The idea of the public execution was to make a statement. On the one hand it was supposed to be reassuring—a reminder that people get caught and punished. On the other hand it was a statement about state authority, because the state’s authority was not unquestioned. One of the things government officials were concerned about was private punishment—like lynch mobs and private justice. So it was meant to establish their authority.

No executioner wanted to make a mistake that would sully the grand pageant of death. Though messy executions were frequent at this time, Frantz Schmidt seldom took more than one stroke of the sword to remove a head. Out of 187 decapitations, only four needed more than a single blow. Schmidt was unforgiving to himself for these four, writing in his diary that he had botched the job and did not try to excuse himself. He was proud to practice his trade well. His headsman skill was at least partly due to the fact that he did not drink — at this time executioners were often as drunk as their prisoners when they wielded their sword.

German executioner’s sword. The inscription: “I have to punish crime as the law and judge tell me”. [Weapons Universe]

Traditionally, the executioner was allowed three sword blows to remove a head. If he needed more, the audience might turn into a mob that attacked him. Only once did Schmidt require three strokes with his sword. This was the execution of a woman who was calm before the blood court and said she was happy to leave this world of woe, but on the way to the place of execution her happiness turned to fear and she had to be restrained. Prisoners who were unable to stand were strapped into chairs before being hanged or beheaded, now this prisoner was carried in the procession strapped to a chair. Instead of holding her head steady, so that her death might be quick, she wobbled it around on her neck making it difficult for Schmidt to properly behead her.

Women were not executed as often as men but repeated offenses might well wind up with a capital sentence. So, Marie Kurschnerin, a prostitute, was pilloried in the stocks and driven out of town. Further offenses brought the punishment of having her ears cropped. Finally, in 1584, Schmidt’s wrote in his diary:

…the thief and whore Marie Kurschnerin, together with thievish youths and fellows, had climbed and broken into citizens’ houses and stole a mighty quantity of things. It was an unheard of thing for a woman to be hanged in this city and it had never happened before. Such a dreadful crowd ran out to see this, that several people were crushed to death.

An entry from Schmidt’s diary for 1617:

November 13th. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately engaged as a carrier of wine. Because he and his brother, with the help of others, practiced coining and counterfeiting money and clipping coins fraudulently. He also had a working knowledge of magic… This miller, who worked in the town mills here three years ago, fell into the town moat on Whitsunday. It would have been better for him if he had been drowned, but it turned out according to the proverb that “What belongs to the gallows cannot drown in water.” This was the last person whom I, Master Frantz, executed.

Frantz Schmidt served the city of Nuremburg for forty years. He successfully petitioned the emperor to allow his children to have the executioner stigma removed from their names so that they could pursue other trades. After his retirement in 1617, Schmidt served as a healer for the last seventeen years of his life. Ironically, during that period most of his children and grand-children, that he had saved from practicing his deadly craft, died. When Frantz Schmidt himself followed them in 1634, Nuremburg honored him with a grand funeral. Social outcast though he was, Schmidt was also well-respected.

Notes:

The main source for all the above is Joel Harrington’s The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century, a really interesting book.

Some odd points were picked up from an interview with Harrington and a few items from this article on medieval executions of women which includes an interesting account of the execution by Schmidt of Elizabeth Aurhaltin, aka Scabby Beth.

Schmidt’s original diary long ago disappeared but at least four copies of it were made. Harrington used the earliest copy known as the basis for his book. A 1928 English translation from another copy is a prime candidate for the Internet Archive or Gutenberg.org. Somebody out there hear me.

Also, in this context, I can’t help recommending Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun tetralogy featuring Severian, apprentice to the Seekers for Truth and Penitence, which is to say, the Torturers’ Guild.

Child Soldiers

President Abraham Lincoln had recently signed the act of Congress creating the Medal of Honor.  Secretary of War William Stanton personally awarded the first medals.  On September 16, 1863, it was received by Willie Johnston,  He was 13 years old and only 5 feet tall.  He had enlisted in the army at the age of 11, and was awarded the highest medal for his bravery during the Peninsula Campaign when he was 12.

Most of us have been shocked by the documentation of Child Soldiers with modern automatic weapons fighting in some of the most bitter and brutal wars on our planet.  The notion that children, who by the legal and ethical standards of our society, could not be held responsible for a crime because of their immaturity, are put in a situation of killing hundreds of fellow humans and making all the moral and ethical decisions we expect soldiers in war to make is very had to digest.  People are shocked, and also ask how did this happen?  What can be done to prevent it?

However, the photographs below give us a historical picture that is surprising to many of us.  The left hand child soldier is typical of what we have seen in the Western media for a few years now.  The Lord’s Resistance Army of Uganda was prototypical of large parts of Africa, Asia, and some of the Arab nations of the Middle East.

The picture to the right–the other young boy with the latest automatic weapon of the time was a Russian boy who fought Germany in WWII.

However an inquiry into the history  of child soldiers provides us with a reality that most of us do not welcome.  Child soldiers have been the norm throughout history and have been accepted in almost all societies until relatively recently.

So many of American norms and perceptions of war have been formed by World War I and II, that we tend to perceive our behavior in these wars as normal and other wars as aberrant.  Perhaps, it was those wars that were the unusual ones and the others more typical.

During the two World Wars, the United States had formal age requirements for military service.  There were instances where these regulations were evaded by youngsters lying about their age, but these were not very frequent.  The American armed forces in the two World Wars was composed of young men, 17 and over with a strong representation of middle-aged men 30-40,  This however was not the case for our other nations.

These German children were captured soldiers who had been fighting fiercely.

The Germans equipped an entire SS Panzer Tank Division and manned it with 16 and 17-year-old boys from the Hitler Youth brigades.  As Germany suffered more casualties, more teenagers volunteered and were accepted, initially as reserve troops but then as regulars.  The German ethic of the boy soldier not only encouraged such service but towards the end of the war, the Germans even drafted boys as young as 12 into military service.  These children saw extensive action and were among the fiercest and effective German defenders in the Battle of Berlin.  American older teens and especially American men were horrified as they fought and killed–and sometimes were killed–by boys who were barely old enough to graduate from elementary school.

Most of the soldiers opposing the German Child Soldiers were Russians.  That Russian invading army had many boy soldiers.  The brutal German invasion of Russia killed 22 million Russians.  Many of the boy soldiers had not only been orphaned but had seen their own parents killed,  Many wanted vengeance; others had nothing else to do; others were excited, as young males have been, by the “glory: of war.

Polish young boys played an important part in the WWII Warsaw Uprising. These boys' facial expression could be the same as before a soccer game. Many child soldiers enjoy their service.

Polish boys fought the Germans as well.  For many of them it was kill or be killed, but others were motivated by patriotism or excitement.

The Europeans were not the only militaries which used boy soldiers in WWII.  The Japanese made extensive use of boy soldiers when their losses started mounting.  Many young boys volunteered to be Kamikaze suicide pilots.  Many of the kamikaze pilots believed their death would pay the debt they owed and show the love they had for their families, friends, and emperor.  The Chinese fighting against them also used boys.  The photo below is a classic of a 10-year-old boy soldier fighting against the Japanese as part of the Nationalist Chinese Forces.

Most Asian armies used young boys throughout history.  Recently, the Tamil Tigers terrorist revolutionaries Sri Lanka used boys. sometimes volunteers and sometimes forced, not only as soldiers but also as suicide bombers,  It was the Tamil Tigers that who were the models for the Palestinian and other Arab terrorist’s using boys (and girls) as suicide bombers and of course, it was the young children that the terrorists sent against the Israeli mature soldiers in the Indefadas.  Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir famously told Anwar Sadat of Egypt, “We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.”  Using boys was a very effective tactic against the Israelis as those mature soldiers were very reluctant to and never did use their major weapons against the children although many were killed even with rubber bullets tear gas grenades.

14 year-old Iranian soldier. He as killed in battle shortly after this picture was taken.

In the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq brutally invaded Iran.  Both sides used boy soldiers.  Iran, to clear minefields for the more mature soldiers to advance, actually send young boys in waves to “martyr” themselves.  In many attacks waves of young children and women were sent in advance of the regular troops.  The Iraqis however, did not have the reluctance of the Israelis to use heavy weapons against the unarmed children.  Machine guns, artillery, hand grenades, and rockets mowed the women and children down but used up ammunition.

The Ancient Roman Army would not knowingly allow boys under 16 to enlist in the army.  They had military and philosophical reasons for this.  The Roman soldiers were not just fighters, but each was also a specialized technician.  A blacksmith, carpenter, concrete specialist, hunter, physician, cook, engineer, etc.  The Roman Army required mature men, educated in the technologies of the times.  However almost all the other armies of the ancient world included male children.  However before them, the Greeks used child soldiers.  The Spartans started military training at age 7 and from then on boys were soldiers.

In Jewish law and tradition, boys of 13 go through the Bar Mitzvah ceremony.  Even today, 13 year old Jewish boys recite the famous statement, “Today I am a man!”  King David started his career as a shepherd and then joined King Saul as a boy soldier which he was serving as when he killed Goliath.  The ritual is just that, and in Israel today, children are not allowed to serve in the Defense Forces.  However there is a strong ancient tradition in modern memory.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire made extensive use of child soldiers who were drafted from all over the empire to form the Sultan’s Personal Elite Corps.  Initially, the children selected were all Christians and Jews.  The theory was that they would be the personal slaves of the Sultan.  Islamic law prohibited enslaving a fellow Moslem, hence only the heathens were brought to Istanbul for training.  They were called the Jannisary Corps and they not only became the elite fighting forces of the empire but they became the managers and administrators for the Sultan’s empire.  The non-Moslems would, it was thought, not be so easy to assist the Sultan’s rivals as they were not related to any by blood or tribe.  Later, Moslems were included in the first military and administrative meritocracy outside of Asia.  However, young boys were always the recruits and they grew up as Jannisaries.  Theoretically, induction was at 14 but there is much documentation of children as young as 8 entering the Corps.

Christianity not only maintained the practice of child soldiers but took it to a new extreme.  Almost every knight had young boys in service as squires and other staff.  There is an unverified tale of a “Children’s Crusade” where European Children went to the Holy Land to fight for Christ.

At the start of the Civil war boys under 18 could enlist with their parents’ consent.  Many however ran away for a variety reasons ranging from ending the evil of slavery to getting away from doing chores on the farm.  There was one young boy who reminisced about his first experience in battle.  Elisha Stockwell, after the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in 1862, said:

“As we lay there and the shells were flying over us, my thoughts went back to my home, and I thought what a foolish boy I was to run away to get into such a mess I was in. I would have been glad to have seen my father coming after me.”

In Africa boys had traditionally been used as soldiers but Shaka, the great Zulu warrior king, organized the practice.  At the age of 6, boys joined Shaka’s army as apprentice soldiers.  Initially they carried spare weapons and did other chores but as their skills developed they took their places as regular soldiers whenever they merited promotion.

So child soldiers has generally been the norm throughout human history,  This is why it is so difficult to stop the practice worldwide.  International law today makes it illegal, but it is very hard to enforce and is considered normal, effective and/or necessary by those who so exploit the children

President George W. Bush in 2007 signed into law the Child Soldiers Accountability Act. The law was approved unanimously by both houses of the U.S. Congress, and makes it a federal crime to recruit or use soldiers under the age of 15 — anyplace in the world.  Any American or foreigner who has recruited child soldiers anywhere in the world are subject to United States justice.  Many other countries have similar laws.

The problem still lies in enforcement.  Probably the most terrible use of child soldiers was made by the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia in the late 1970′s.  They used child soldiers, both boys and girls,  Their genocide executed about 1 million people, but perhaps the worst thing about their crimes was the fact that they used children as executioners, often of their own parents as well as others the adults decided were not fit to live.

Despite the solid documentation of these crimes against humanity, it took over 25 years for anyone to be tried in Cambodia and then it was just a few middle level functionaries.  Khmer Rouge Cambodians had traveled to the United States, Europe, Asia–virtually every continent and yet no country has yet seen fit to bring any to justice.  When Hezbollah sends children out as suicide bombers, the world is preoccupied with whether the attacks on innocent civilians are justified, and the fact that children have been convinced by their elders to blow themselves to bits to achieve some political objectves of the adults gets lost.  In Uganda and neighboring countries, the world knows where the thousands of abducted children of both genders now serving in the Lord’s Resistance Army are.  Yet the crime has not produced sufficient outrage in any country so that the nation will send law enforcement and military forces to free the children and stop the crimes.  Human progress is unfortunately often very slow.  We can only speculate how many more children will suffer before world public opinion can be translated into law enforcement and military action.

There is some progress however.  The picture below shows a young Ugandan boy enjoying his newly developed skill of reading.  At his young age however, he is a already a seasoned military veteran and victim of kidnapping when he was much younger.  He was freed and is in the process of being rehabilitated.  Would that there could be more like him.

Kate Warne Never Sleeps

Kate Warne was the nation’s first female detective. She died at 38 of congestion of the lungs and is buried in the Pinkerton family plot in Graceland Cemetery Chicago.

Kate Warne

Where every October she gets a visitor who comes to say “Thank you.”

I’m Kate.

My last name? The gravestone says Warn. No “e” at the end. But I’ve had lots of names. I can tell you that when the tall, thin man dressed in black with the sad, haunted eyes comes to visit, comes here to Graceland Cemetery in Chicago each October, he just calls me Kate.

I rest now and forever near Mr. Pinkerton. And it should be that way. Without Mr. Pinkerton,

I would never have met the tall sad man. Without Mr. Pinkerton, they would never have said, “Kay Warne, she never sleeps.”

After I came here to Graceland, people wrote, “Kay Warne, the first lady detective.” I never understood why being first was important. What was important, was that I was good.

I was only 23 when I first stepped in to Mr. Pinkerton’s Detective Office in Chicago. But I hadn’t been a little girl in a very long time. My husband had passed. So it was just me, and I needed a job.

I knew I could find out things about people that no one else could. I knew I could find secrets. So, at ten o’clock in the morning of August 23rd, 1856, Mr. Pinkerton gave me the job. I was a detective now.

Wives and girlfriends would tell me the things they would never tell a man. Like Mr. Maroney, in Montgomery Alabama. He embezzled $50,000 from his company, the Adams Express Company. And I got the true story from his wife. The true story and $39,515 back to the company.

Mr. Pinkerton was pleased. He said I was one of the best he’d ever known. Bank robbers and killers. I found their secrets. I stopped their evil deeds. And when I walk these golden brown grounds of autumn, I am pleased with my life’s work. My years were few. I passed soon after the war between the states. I was 38. But I am pleased with my life’s work.

In October, I remember my best work; it’s in October when the sad eyed man who had just been elected to be President comes back to visit me.

My work with the President-elect began with the tips we got out of the secessionist plots in Baltimore. The cry to crack open the Union was echoing across the land in those times. Splitting up what America had become. But it was what I found out next that could have ripped open the very fabric of these United States and left it to bleed and die.

There was a plot to kill the new President. Kill him before he even took office. I pieced together the evildoers plan.

It was to happen when the President-elect changed trains in Baltimore. There was a 1-mile carriage ride between the two train stations. The secessionists would cause a diversion. The President-elect’s guards would respond to the diversion. And a crowd would swarm the unprotected carriage and kill the soon-to-be President. He would never complete  the trip from his home in Springfield, Illinois to the muddy streets of Washington. He would never take office. He would die in Baltimore.

But with Mr. Pinkerton by my side, I was able to make the case for what I had found. I convinced the President-elect that there really was danger. So after the President-elect’s last speech of the evening in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, we changed the travel schedule for the last leg of the trip into Washington DC. Mr. Pinkerton had the telegraph lines interrupted so no one would know of the change. And then we dressed the President elect in the suit of a traveling common man. We put a soft felt hat on his head and told him to carry a shawl as if he was an invalid. When he got on his new train I cried out a greeting as if he were a long lost brother. And throughout that long dark night, as the train pulled into an empty Baltimore at 3:30 a.m., as opposed to the much earlier hour that had been planned, even then, I sat next to him. Kept him safe.

I got him to the White House alive. Because throughout that night I never slept.

He was inaugurated. Became the President. And he saved the union. He kept alive the great American dream.

Which is why he comes to see me each October. He comes to say thanks.

President Abraham Lincoln. The tall, thin man with the haunted sad eyes. He comes here to Graceland. Offers me his arm. And we walk. Through the orange, red and brown scattered leaves of time. He is known by so many as the centuries pass, this President Abraham Lincoln. And few remember my name.

Pinkerton had no trouble being innovative. He'd started the first private detective agency in America, after all, and he knew it was certainly true that women had access to places where men were not allowed. The real issue for him, perhaps, was whether those exclusive areas actually offered substantial potential for developing intelligence. Pinkerton reportedly wrestled with the pros and cons all that day and half the night. His brother, with an investment in the agency (probably a co-founder), was set against it. But Pinkerton had been impressed by the fire he'd seen in Mrs. Warne's eye and had little doubt she'd work hard to prove herself. And if the arrangement didn't work out, he wasn't committed to keeping her. Certainly, hiring a female detective would startle people, perhaps even disturb them including his other operatives. He'd have to convince them as well. But it was his agency; the decision was his, as were the consequences.

The next morning, Pinkerton contacted Kate and offered her a job as an operative-in-training. As the first female detective in America, she'd be paving the way for others, some of whom Pinkerton himself hired within that same decade, but no formal police agency would follow his lead for nearly half a century. New York City's first female investigator would be employed as late as 1903, and policewomen would not become part of the street force until 1920.

It was Pinkerton's opinion that detectives with "considerable intellectual power and knowledge of human nature as will give him a quick insight into character" would do an effective job. Apparently Kate had these qualities, as he once wrote later in life that she had never disappointed him. He'd probably taught her his techniques of shadowing suspects and assuming roles to deceive people and put them off their guard. Much as Pinkerton despised the pretense of friendship in order to eventually betray, he knew that his chosen line of work often called for it. He also developed sources among the criminal underground to facilitate his work, and made many friends among law enforcement. Kate apparently was a natural for the job, able to play both a female and a young male, a society lady and a mystic some even believe she dressed as a Union soldier - and she went to work right away. Unfortunately, she left behind no memoir of her own, not even a letter, so how she liked her work was never made public. However, she stayed with the agency until her death. It appears that she was both competent and satisfied perhaps for more reasons than just the work involved.

A Wife's Best Friend

While the following incident reportedly occurred in 1855, the year before Kate was hired, Mackay (and others) includes her as an operative. Either he did not spot the inconsistency or he was wrong about the date, but here's how he tells it:

As various express mail companies began to form to compete with the U.S. Postal Service, some engaged Pinkerton for security and for the investigation of financial crimes. Adams Express operated out of Chicago. They asked Pinkerton to investigate the theft of $40,000 that had been kept in a pouch, now missing. Pinkerton studied the details provided by one of the company executives and identified the likely culprit as Nathan Maroney, the manager of an office in Alabama. He advised surveillance. Later that year, on the slightest evidence, Maroney was arrested. Since he was a popular figure in the area, he'd easily made the minor bail imposed and it seemed likely the company would lose its case. Desperate about the message this would send to other employees, they asked Pinkerton to assist.

He arrived in Montgomery, Alabama, with Kate and three male operatives, all of whom adopted disguises in order to move freely among the townspeople. One shadowed Maroney's pretty young wife, while Kate posed as the wife of a wealthy businessman and soon got an introduction to Mrs. Maroney. It wasn't long before Kate was able to win her trust and get her to confide that her husband had grown wealthy by forging bank bills. This disclosure put Kate in a good position to learn more.

Another agent turned up an address in New York of a locksmith who had copied a key for Maroney that proved to be the property of Adams Express. Pinkerton advised Adams Express to get Maroney re-arrested for conspiracy, as it was unlikely by this time he'd be able to make bail. Once Maroney was ensconced in a jail cell, Pinkerton sent in an agent to share it, posing as a clever forger. Pinkerton also sent anonymous letters to Maroney to the effect that another man was moving in on his wife (another agent was in fact "courting" her). This pressured Maroney, and when he confronted her she admitted to seeing this man. Maroney was so disturbed he began to confide in his cellmate, who had made a show of having a corrupt lawyer (another agent) who knew how to bribe officials. Maroney requested his help. He then sent word to his wife to get the stolen money ready to hand over.

Mrs. Maroney was uncertain about this move, so she talked it over with her new friend, Kate. As they discussed the matter, Kate agreed that presenting the money to the attorney was probably the best course of action. Mrs. Maroney handed over the Adams Express pouch, which proved to contain all of the stolen money except for $400. That was all the evidence the prosecution team needed.

At the trial, when Maroney saw his former cellmate come in to testify, he realized he'd been set up, so he changed his plea to guilty. He received a ten-year sentence and his wife was arrested as an accomplice (but got a suspended sentence). Pinkerton, in the meantime, received a handsome annual retainer from Adams Express for his professional services. The teamwork had paid off, and its success inspired them to refine their act.

However, the case in which Kate's contribution is most renowned, and for which there are clear records, is the infamous Baltimore Plot. Let's return to that event.

Hotbed of Conspiracy

Barnum Hotel on Howard Street

Pinkerton was the one who developed the first lead about the anti-Lincoln conspiracy from his undercover work at Baltimore's classy Barnum Hotel on Howard Street, says researcher Lynn Levy, also a PI. The Barnum was a hotbed of conspiracy. Using an alias, Pinkerton opened an office, hung out in the bar, and got his hair trimmed in the hotel's barber shop. He talked with many people who came to the hotel to learn what they were saying about Lincoln's scheduled stop in the city. One of the best connections he made was the barber, an Italian who knew quite a lot from his many clients about the secessionist meetings held there. In fact, the barber had the same inclination, with no qualms about stating his certainty that Lincoln would never get the chance to serve as president. Levy indicates that this man cried out, "Lincoln shall die in Baltimore!"

At Pinkerton's request, several more operatives went into the city to gather the details of a possible assassination plot. Kate was among them, dressing as a wealthy Southern woman visiting Baltimore. She infiltrated the hotel's social gatherings, moving easily from one circle to another as she listened for details or confirmed what she'd already heard. Soon she was not only able to report to Pinkerton that a plot was indeed afoot, but she also offered key details as to just how and where it would likely occur.

President-elect Lincoln

Pinkerton now believed that a group of assassins would attack the president-elect in an area of town where he would be most vulnerable: the mile-and-a-half stretch required for changing trains while riding in a carriage. If not there, the ambush would take place at a planned reception where Lincoln would be exposed to thousands of boisterous people. To make matters worse, Lincoln could expect no extra protection from the local police force, as the chief himself sympathized with the South.

Foiled Assassination

Pinkerton requested an interview with Mr. Lincoln to inform him of the risk he was taking with a public appearance. They had met before, when Lincoln was an attorney, so he was familiar with Pinkerton's intensity and reputation. According to Pinkerton, he told Lincoln, "We have come to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there exists a plot to assassinate you." He then explained his supporting evidence.

Lincoln asked many questions until he was satisfied that the risk to his life outweighed the disappointment he'd cause many people by not showing up. He placed himself in Pinkerton's hands, who was so careful as to advise that the telegraph lines out of Harrisburg be severed to prevent messages about Lincoln's departure from passing to his enemies.

Kate was involved in coordinating the operatives' reports and in devising a scheme to get Lincoln safely to Washington. She reserved four sleeping berths close together at the end of a night train out of Philadelphia, under the pretext that she and several family members were escorting her invalid brother, and he'd need them close. She also organized a disguise for Lincoln, wrapping him in a traveling shawl with collar turned up and a Scotch cap, and urging him to stoop to seem ill and to undercut his signature height. Carrying a worn bag, he boarded through a rear door left unlocked for his convenience, with no one the wiser save a close friend, his wife, and the Pinkerton operatives.

Kate, in the next berth, stayed that night between him and the rear door, armed and ready to act. She remained awake until Lincoln was safely in the Capital. Also on board were three other men, Pinkerton among them. He stood on the rear platform, despite the frigid air. In fact, writes Richard Rowan, Pinkerton agents were posted at every crossroad and bridge along the way, using lanterns to signal their presence and to offer a code that all was well...or otherwise.

Lincoln's entourage, which included his family, remained on the original train so that no one would suspect the covert operation. Only when he failed to step off that train in Baltimore as expected did people realize he wasn't going to show. He'd passed through the city that night, with a layover of half an hour for pulling the train to the next depot, but without incident. By the time would-be assassins, mingling with the crowds, were aware that he'd foiled their plan, Lincoln was preparing to accept his new office on March 4.

John Wilkes Booth

Journalists later revealed that the assassination plot had consisted of a plan to derail the train, with a back-up strategy involving a lone shooter. In any event, thanks to Pinkerton and Kate, Lincoln gained four more years before John Wilkes Booth succeeded in ending his life. Those four years involved a pivotal presidency and a great many historic decisions made during the country's darkest era.

James Pierson Beckwourth

James P. Beckwourth, from a daguerreotype c. 1855

Jim Beckwourth was an African American who played a major role in the early exploration and settlement of the American West. Although there were people of many races and nationalities on the frontier, Beckwourth was the only African American who recorded his life story, and his adventures took him from the everglades of Florida to the Pacific Ocean and from southern Canada to northern Mexico.

He dictated his autobiography to Thomas D. Bonner, an itinerant Justice of the Peace in the gold fields of California, in 1854-55. After Bonner "polished up" Beckwourth's rough narrative, The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians was published by Harper and Brothers in 1856. The book apparently achieved a certain amount of popular success, for it was followed by an English edition in the same year, a second printing two years later, and a French translation in 1860.

Beckwourth's role in American history was often dismissed by historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many were quite blatant in their prejudices, refusing to give any credence to a "mongrel of mixed blood." And many of his acquaintances considered the book something of a joke.

But Beckwourth was a man of his times, and for the early fur trappers of the Rockies, the ability to "spin a good yarn" was a skill valued almost as highly as marksmanship or woodsmanship. And while Beckwourth certainly had a tendency to exaggerate numbers or to occasionally make himself the hero of events that happened to other people, later historians have discovered that much of what Beckwourth related in his autobiography actually occurred.

Truth is often something much bigger than merely the accuracy of details. And to discover the truth of what life was like for the fur trappers of the 1820's, the Crow Indians of the 1830's, the pioneers of the Southwest in the 1840's, or the gold miners of California in the 1850's, you can find no better source than the life of Jim Beckwourth.

Beckwourth's Early Years

James Pierson Beckwourth was born in 1798 in Frederick County, Virginia to an African American slave mother and English father, Sir Jennings Beckwith. Although his father raised him as his own son, according to the law, Jim Beckwourth was still legally considered a slave. His father appeared in open court on three separate occasions (in 1824, 1825, and 1826) and "acknowledged the execution of a Deed of Emancipation from him to James, a mulatto boy."

St. Louis, Missouri was the center of fur traffic in the early 1800's.

Beckwourth's family moved to Missouri in the early 1800's, and he was apprenticed to a blacksmith in St. Louis when he was a young man. But Beckwourth was unhappy as an apprentice, and after a dispute with his boss, he left home in 1822 on an expedition to the lead mines in the Fever River area.

After a brief sojourn to New Orleans, Beckwourth returned to his father's home, but was soon struck with wanderlust again, and in the summer of 1824 he signed on with General William Ashley for a trapping expedition to the Rocky Mountains.

Beckwourth the Mountain Man

Ads like this one placed by William Ashley enticed adventurous men into the Rockies.

For a number of years Beckwourth took part in a series of trapping expeditions with the American Fur Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company where he learned the frontiersman skills he would use for the rest of his life. He also met and worked with such well-known mountain men as Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Jim Clyman and Edward Rose. He participated in the first Mountain Man Rendezvous at Henry's Fork on the Green River in 1825. The location of the rendezvous changed every year, and it quickly became the best-known social and business institution of the American mountain men.

If everything in Beckwourth's autobiography can be believed, he played a leading role in virtually every recorded event in the Rocky Mountains in the late 1820's. He seemed to have a bit of a problem with numbers. If 50 trappers were attacked by 50 Blackfeet, Beckwourth might report 10 trappers attacked by 500 Blackfeet. And, of course, it was always Beckwourth's skill and bravery that saved the day.

In spite of his tendency to exaggerate, however, many of Beckwourth's tales have been confirmed from other sources. It is clear that, at the very least, Beckwourth actually witnessed many of the incidents he described. In other cases, his role was confirmed by independent accounts from other mountain men.

During this period of his life, while operating a trading post with the Blackfeet, Beckwourth had the first of what was to become a long string of "affairs of the heart," although pragmatism seemed to be more of a driving force than his heart. His marriage to two Blackfoot women apparently lasted for the duration of the trading post -- about two weeks.

Beckwourth's Life with the Crow

In about 1828, while on a trapping expedition with Jim Bridger, Beckwourth was captured by a party of Crow warriors. By Beckwourth's account, he was mistaken for the long lost son of Big Bowl, one of the tribal chieftans, and adopted into the tribe. Independent accounts make it seem more likely that his time with the Crow nation was prearranged with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company for the purposes of establishing trade.

Whatever the reason, Beckwourth spent the next six to eight years with the Crow, and gained considerable influence with the tribe. There are many documents from his contemporaries which confirm his position of leadership with the Crow. He apparently rose within their ranks to at least the level of War Chief, and by his own account was named head Chief of the Crow Nation upon the death of Arapooish (Rotten Belly).
Beckwourth's tales of his life with the Crow are largely unconfirmed, although some cases which were witnessed by other mountain men can be documentd from other sources. But in terms of getting an accurate account of what Crow society was like, his autobiography is unsurpassed.

Whether we believe all of Beckwourth's tales or not, no mountain man could have lived as a Crow for so long without distinguishing himself in battle. For the Crow, war was a way of life, and a man who was unskilled in war was a "nobody." It was not in Jim Beckwourth's nature (nor any other mountain man's) to remain a "nobody" for long. And Beckwourth's considerable influence with the Crow was (sometimes begrudgingly) acknowledged by his contemporaries and historians alike.

It is clear that Beckwourth's time with the Crow nation were his fondest memories. More than half of his autobiography is spent relating his experiences with them. Perhaps his wanderlust was satisfied for a time by his life with a nomadic tribe. Or maybe he discovered domestic bliss among the Crow. Beckwourth had as many as ten Crow wives at one time -- he had almost as many wives as he did names. By his own account, he was smitten by the young warrior woman, Pine Leaf.

Pine Leaf, the Crow heroine

According to Beckwourth, Pine Leaf was captured from the Gros Ventre (Big Belly) tribe when she was about ten years old and raised as a Crow. She had a twin brother who was killed by the Blackfeet, and she swore that she would take no man as her husband until she killed one hundred enemy warriors with her own hands. Beckwourth admired her greatly:

"Whenever a war party started, Pine Leaf was the first to volunteer to accompany them. Her presence among them caused much amusement to the old veterans; but if she lacked physical strength, she always rode the fleetest horses and none of the warriors could outstrip her . . . . and when I engaged in the fiercest struggles, no one was more promptly at my side than the young heroine. She seemed incapable of fear; and when she arrived at womanhood, could fire a gun without flinching and use the Indian weapons with as great dexterity as the most accomplished warrior."*

Beckwourth wooed Pine Leaf relentlessly, but she always rebuffed him, saying she would marry him "when the pine-leaves turn yellow" or "when you find a red-headed Indian." But his perseverance finally paid off, and when Beckwourth returned to the Crow after a misadventure in which they thought him killed, Pine Leaf renounced the War Path and agreed to marry him.

But for Beckwourth, the pursuit always held more attraction than the goal, and five weeks later he left the Crow. He never saw Pine Leaf again.

Beckwourth Says "Farewell" to the Rockies

By the summer of 1836 a number of factors had combined to put an end to Beckwourth's career with the American Fur Company and the Crow nation.

In the east, changes in fashion had greatly decreased the demand for beaver pelts, and, in any case, after years of heavy trapping, the beaver were becoming scarce.

The incessant Crow wars were prejudicial to the interests of the American Fur Company. Beckwourth often belabored the Crow about "the superior delights of peace," but, "An old warrior despises the sight of a trap; hunting buffalo, even, does not afford him excitement enough. Nothing but war or a horse-raid is a business worth their attending to . . ."  The Company had trading posts with virtually all the tribes the Crow were at war with. Trade had declined considerably.

In addition, Beckwourth himself was becoming restless. He wasn't rich and famous enough. "I had encountered savage beasts and wild men . . . . And what had I to show for so much wasted energy, and such a catalogue of ruthless deeds?"

In July of 1836, still hoping to renew his contract with the American Fur Company, Beckwourth left the Crow and retured to St. Louis. He was lost and out of place. His father had long since left, and had died in Virginia in the previous year. And St. Louis was no longer the wild and primitive place Beckwourth had known growing up.

In the spring of 1837, still hoping to renew his contract with the American Fur Company, Beckwourth made one last visit to the Crow, and in so doing laid himself open to a malicious charge: he has been accused by several authors of deliberately bringing smallpox to the plains Indians.

Beckwourth made many friends among the mountain men, but he made his share of enemies, as well, and once the story was introduced, they quickly picked it up and made it part of the Beckwourth legend. In fact, there is nothing to support the story except the testimony of a few writers with a long history of maligning Beckwourth's character.

The story just doesn't fit what is known about Jim Beckwourth. He had a tremendous respect for all the plains tribes -- even those he considered his enemies. He wouldn't think twice about bashing in an enemy's skull in hand-to-hand combat -- that was an honorable death. But he would have considered the wholesale slaughter of men, women and children by disease as dastardly, cowardly and evil. And most other writers of the time attributed the plague of 1837 to other sources.

However it was introduced, smallpox swept the plains in the summer of 1837 and killed thousands. Inevitably, it affected the fur trade and may have influenced the American Fur Company's decision not to re-hire Jim Beckwourth.

Beckwourth In the Everglades

While briefly back in St. Louis in the fall of 1837, Beckwourth was introduced by William Sublette to General William Gaines, who was recruiting mountain men to serve as muleteers in the Seminole War. in Florida. Sublette recommended that Jim engage. "Florida, he said, was a delightful country, and I should find a wide difference between the cold regions of the Rocky Mountains and the genial and salubrious South." 
But it wasn't balmy climes that drew Beckwourth. Sublette said there was an opportunity there for renown.
The involvement of the Missouri troops in the Seminole War grew out of Senator Thomas Hart Benton's displeasure over the steady drain of resources. By 1837 over $12 million had already been spent with no apparent results. Senator Benton thought that the expertise of the mountain men in tracking and Indian-style warfare was just what was needed for victory. Richard Gentry of Columbia, Missouri was appointed "Colonel of Volunteers" and was directed to recruit 600 men and have them ready for duty by November, 1837.

Beckwourth recruited a number of other mountain men and was engaged as "Express Rider & Sub-Conducter of Muleteers" for the sum of $50/month. His account of his experiences in Florida is, for once, remarkably free of exaggeration.

The men and their horses boarded small boats bound for Tampa Bay on October 26, 1837, but they had no experience with boats, and simply drove their horses into the holds with no attempt to make them secure. The boats were overtaken by severe storms, and many of the horses were killed or maimed. Beckwourth's boat foundered on a reef, and the men and horses were stranded for twelve days before being rescued by a steamer.

Colonel Zachary Taylor (later General and President) ordered all the men now without horses and unwilling to proceed on foot to be dismissed without pay. Thus began a rivalry between the regular army and the Missouri Volunteers that was to last for years, and was even carried to the halls of Congress (by Senator Benton).

Beckwourth's description of the Battle of Okeechobee under Colonel Taylor, which took place on Christmas Day, 1837, jibes perfectly with the military records and other eyewitness accounts, right down to the dates and times and the number of killed and wounded. It was in this battle that Colonel Richard Gentry, much loved by the Missouri Volunteers, was killed.
Beckwourth stayed on in Florida for ten months, doing some scouting and carrying dispatches, but the war settled down into a routine that he found unendurable.

Now we had another long interval of inactivity, and I began to grow tired of Florida . . . . It seemed to me to be a country dear even at the price of the powder to blow the Indians out of it, and certainly a poor field to work in for renown. . . . I wanted excitement of some kind -- I was indifferent of what nature, even if it was no better than borrowing horses of the Black Feet. The Seminoles had no horses worth stealing, or I should certainly have exercised my talents for the benefit of the United States.

In the summer of 1838, Beckwourth found himself back in St. Louis, looking for a job.

Beckwourth on the Santa Fe Trail

The American Fur Company had successfully won a major share of the fur trade on the upper Missouri, while further south Charles and William Bent had almost a monopoly along the Arkansas and clear down into Mexico. But there were still opportunities for independent traders, and so Beckwourth found himself in St. Louis without a job for only five days. Andrew Sublette and Louis Vasquez were trying their luck with the Indians of the Southwest, and they had need of men such as Jim.

Vasquez was an old friend of Beckwourth's and was glad of his services. And Jim longed to put the dullness of Florida and the rigors of city life behind him. Here at last was the chance for "excitement," for he would be dealing with Cheyennes, Arapaho and Sioux -- all traditional enemies of the Crow. They set out on the Santa Fe Trail for the fort Vasquez had established in 1835 on the Platte River in what is now Colorado.
Beckwourth was named "agent-in-charge," and he immediately set out to establish himself among the Cheyenne. Through a Crow interpreter, he put on a display of braggadocio for the astonished Indians, playing on their pride and respect for the brave deeds of enemy warriors.

I have killed a great Crow Chief, and am obliged to run away, or be killed by them. I have come to the Cheyennes, who are the bravest people in the mountains, as I do not wish to be killed by any of the inferior tribes. I have come here to be killed by the Cheyennes, cut up, and thrown out for their dogs to eat, so that they may say they have killed a great Crow Chief.

William Bent, who was trading in the same village, had just one comment for Beckwourth: "You are certainly bereft of your senses. The Indians will make sausage-meat of you."

But the braggadocio worked. (That and two ten gallon kegs of whiskey.) Thanks to Beckwourth's skill, Sublette and Vasquez had a successful fall and winter trade, and made enough to pay off their debts and outfit the next season's trade. But the following winter was disappointing, and they sold out in 1840. Once again, Beckwourth was out of work.

But not for long. The Bent brothers had triumphed once again, and Beckwourth soon found himself in their employ, dealing with the same tribes as before. His friendship with the Cheyenne was cemented and would last for many years. But he soon began to tire of the monotony of his life, and he set out with a companion over the rugged passes and down into Taos, New Mexico, where he formed a partnership with a friend and set out once again to trade with the Cheyenne, this time on his own account.

Their venture was successful enough that they were able to return to Taos and set up as merchants. Jim settled in for a bit to enjoy the fruits of his labors. He also married Luisa Sandoval. In true Beckwourth fashion, she gets very little attention in his memoirs.

In October, 1842, Beckwourth took his wife north to the Arkansas in what is now Colorado, where he built a trading post. They were soon joined by twenty or thirty settler families, and a thriving community was born. They happily named their little settlement "Pueblo."

But the Pueblans weren't popular in Bent country. Charles and William saw the newcomers as competition for their own great trading firm, and they wrote angrily to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, disparaging the "renegade Americans" and "Mexican traders" in Pueblo and begging for a military fort. Their entreaties came to naught, but Beckwourth had made powerful enemies of his old employers.

Meanwhile, sporadic tensions between Mexico and Texas had lessened the welcome that citizens of the United States received below the border. Now that Beckwourth was out of favor both with the Bents and the Mexicans, he was forced to look elsewhere.

Beckwourth and the California Revolt

Beckwourth and twelve others arrived in Pueblo de Angeles in January, 1844, and he proceeded to indulge his "new passion for trade."

With his usual talent for finding "excitement," Beckwourth soon found himself embroiled in the 1845 revolt of the American settlers in California against Mexican control.

In his autobiography he indulged another of his talents -- he got thenames all wrong. Governor Micheltorena becomes "Torrejon," while Rowland, one of the leaders recruiting insurgents, becomes "Roland." Other key leaders aren't even mentioned. And, of course, he becomes the leader and hero of every encounter. But on the essential facts of the battle of Cahuenga, he is substantiated by other accounts.

Then came the news that war had broken out between the United States and Mexico. Beckwourth headed home for Pueblo. But not alone. Along with five others, he

collected eighteen hundred stray horses we found roaming the California ranchos and started with our utmost speed from Pueblo de Angeles. This was a fair capture and our morals justified it, for it was war-time.

Beckwourth and the Mexican-American War

Back in Pueblo, Beckwourth found that things had changed. Luisa had remarried. He claimed her new husband deceived her with a forged document expressing his desire to be free. Luisa was remorseful, Jim claimed, and offered herself back to him. But he didn't pursue the matter, preferring instead to "enjoy once more the sweets of single blessedness."


Beckwourth headed for Santa Fe where, with a partner, he established a successful hotel. While his partner handled the day-to-day operation of the hotel, Beckwourth carried dispatches for the army. And it was to Beckwourth's hotel that Charles Towne brought the news that there had been an insurrection at Taos and all the Americans living there, including his old boss Charles Bent, had been massacred.

The mountain men, friends and employees of Charles and William Bent gathered, anxious for revenge. Beckwourth left the hotel to look after itself and accompanied his friends. He witnessed the defeat of the Indian and Mexican rebels and saw the hangings that brought final revenge for the murders committed in Taos on January 19, 1847.

He lingered on in the southwest for another year or so, then settled his affairs and headed for California once more.

Beckwourth and the "Terrible Tragedy"

One of Jim Beckwourth's most uncanny talents was the knack of showing up somewhere just in time to witness or participate in some historic event. His return to California was no exception, for he arrived in the late fall of 1848, just in time to beat the "rush-hour traffic" heading for the gold fields.

But first there was one other historic event to witness. Beckwourth was the first on the scene of one of the most infamous and brutal atrocities in early California history.

At the time the mail route in California consisted primarily of four legs: San Francisco to Monterey, Monterey to Dana's Ranch in Nipomo (a few miles north of what is now Santa Maria), Dana's Ranch to Pueblo de los Angeles, and from there to San Diego. Beckwourth, with his considerable experience carrying dispatches, signed on to handle the Monterey to Nipomo leg.

One of Beckwourth's favorite rest stops on the route was at the mission at San Miguel, owned by William Reed, for he had taken a liking to Reed's family. Arriving at dusk one day, he had a look around, but was surprised to find no one stirring. Investigating further, he stumbled over the murdered body of a man in the kitchen. He returned to his horse for his pistols, and, lighting a candle, commenced a search.

In going along a passage, I stumbled over the body of a woman; I entered a room, and found another, a murdered Indian woman, who had been a domestic. I was about to enter another room, but I was arrested by some sudden thought which urged me to search no further. It was an opportune admonition, for that very room contained the murderers of the family, who had heard my steps and were sitting at that moment with their pistols pointed at the door, ready to shoot the first person that entered. This they confessed subsequently

Beckwourth rode for help and returned with a posse of about fifteen men. "On again entering the house, we found eleven bodies all thrown together in one pile for the purpose of consuming them; for, on searching further, we found the murderers had set fire to the dwelling, but according to that Providence which exposes such wicked deeds, the fire had died out."

The victims were Reed and his wife (who had just given birth), their infant and a two or three year old son , a midwife and her daughter of fifteen or sixteen and young grandson, Mrs. Reed's brother, an Indian shepherd and his grandson of four or five, and their cook. Reed had been shot in the head, and the rest of the victims had been killed with axes.

The murderers were captured near Santa Barbara and one of the men "turned state's evidence." They were tried and, as Jim put it "we shot them, including the state's evidence." Beckwourth's account puts their number at "two Americans, two Englishmen, and ten Irishmen," but other accounts say there were four, and that one drowned trying to escape capture. Perhaps Bonner misheard "and an Irishman" as "and ten Irishmen."

The Reed murders were much talked about and remembered in California, and with the exception of the number of killers, virtually every account matches Beckwourth's precisely, and many mention him by name. Perhaps the "guady liar" felt that in this case exaggeration was entirely unnecessary.