KING OF SLEUTHS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1921, Page 3

KING OF SLEUTHS

AMERICA’S STAR DETECTIVE. The confidence which the people of the United States have in William J. Burns, the American detective, who ._ took charge of the Wall street explo- „ sion case, remarks the “Daily Express,” ._ amounts almost to a fetish. Burns himj, self loses no opportunity to keep that [ belief alive by methods of advertising and publicity, winch the old conservative school of detectives strongly disapprove. Vet they have proved remarkably successful in Burns’ ease. He is the detective who takes or at i least appears to take, the public into f his confidence when ho is on a, big pub--0 lie case, and through the newspapers, e by means of interviews and statements, s Burns’ progress day by day is fully a j proclaimed. 1 i i .Ho is a perfect film detective. He - employs dictaphones, that weird con- i l.traption of telephone wires that enu aides conversations to he overheard nil- - i i suspected. He has written both films 1 i | and plays about himself, which have ? been produced in America and in Great i t j Britain. . | .Mr Burns is no shrinking violet when i r it comes to talking about himself, but ? i the surprising thing is that he is so ' amazingly successful, and can, without 1 exaggeration, claim to be the foremost 1 f detective in the world to-dav. His us- - ual title in America is “The King of 1 - Detectives.” f There is nothing about his ap- ; I pearanee that betokens the conven- I - tioual idea of a sleuth. Rather short, : . springly built, with a finely-poised head 1 ‘ bristly brown hair, and pointed moo- 1 • stache, there is nothing about him to ' attract attention, unless it he a remark 1 able pair of light hazel eyes that have 1 • the quality of shooting through one I I like a Hash of lightning. f > Afr Burns started in life as a cutter 1 - in a tailor’s shop. His‘first case was 1 when he was 26 years old, and it had 1 to do with an election fraud. His next ’ success.. was in St Louis, where ho sc- 1 * cured the conviction of a gang oi * ■ swindlers, who had defrauded insur- 1 mice companies of hundreds of tliou--1 sands of dollars by fitting up dwellings 1 - with expensive furniture, and then set- 1 1 ting the houses on fire. 1 These achievements brought him to 1 1 the attention of the American Federal . 1 authorities, and ho joined the Secret J Service. His record in the American Secret Service was a succession of sue- , \ nesses, but his big national reputation j 1 did not comic to him until 1903, when ‘ lie unearthed a. series ol extensive land frauds, and secured the conviction of | a United States Senator, a Congress- ' man, and a number of other prominent i ’ t men. , j The city of San Francisco next claimed li is attention. Corruption and “graft” permeated the municipal administration, and the “gang was so strongly entrenched that there was _ I great doubt whether the system could ' be broken up. Burns resigned from ( 1 the Federal Service, and in a short > time had secured evidence which led to the exposure of the whole gang, the conviction of the Mayor, and ol a “boss” of Sail Francisco, and a puri- ) fication of the entire city. ; . Then came the equally spectacular . case where he tracked the perpetrators • of an explosion that destroyed the I .os | t i- | Angeles “Times” building. For this ’ . ’ success lie received a reward ot 80,000 1 dollars. It was well earned, for h* had ! < ! practically the entire labour organise- 1 1 lions of America against him, as the 3 guilty parties were powerful men in ‘ 3 ; the Iniilding trades union. ■ j Burns seems to have a hypnotic qual- 1 - itv in securing confessions, and a sixth 1 * j sense in knowing when a man is telling - | not only the truth, hut the whole i.truth. . j He does not believe in wigs or di.s- J - ! guises, hut in one case when detectives 1 j were endeavouring to arrest him on a - J charge of kidnapping some prisoners, lie 1 f ; walked right by them by simply hunoli- - ! ing one of his shoulders and limping. 1 Since leaving the Federal service, - Burns has been the head of his own - private firm, and is responsible for the protection against fraiql and robbery ol 1 20,000 hanks, forming the American 1 Bankers’ Association. 1 He employs 1400 detectives, t One of his hobbies is to raise the 1 status of detectives. He is a great be- ' liever in specialisation and in the eniploymc.ut ot well-educated men, preler- * ably of the university type. Among 1 his staff are chemists, doctors, lawyers, jewellers; architects, and accountants. Another hobby of his is to think out, 1 his plans of campaign in bed.