Last Stop in Brooklyn (Mary Handley) by Lawrence H. Levy

Author:Lawrence H. Levy [Levy, Lawrence H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780451498441
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2018-01-09T06:00:00+00:00

18

Byrnes had to placate Carnegie and Sage, the former about murder threats and the latter about the Laidlaw suit. Both were incredibly spoiled men who were used to getting their way and expected unreasonably quick service. He decided to focus on the most serious situation first, and though Sage might have viewed a financial threat as equivalent to one on his life, the stack of letters Carnegie had given him took precedence.

In spite of his questionable police tactics and massive ego, Byrnes had excellent detective skills that he had honed over the years. He looked at the stack of letters that Carnegie had given him and determined pretty quickly that, although there was an effort made to make the handwriting look different, they had probably been written by the same person. To be sure, he gave the letters to a handwriting expert who supported his suspicion. Even though they were postmarked mostly from two distinctly different neighborhoods in New York City, he decided to check with Pittsburgh first. It was the center of Carnegie’s steel empire and also the site where two years before he’d had his most infamous confrontation with workers. The Homestead Steel Strike was the result of Carnegie and his partner Henry Clay Frick deciding to lower already low wages. It escalated when they sent in Pinkertons, police, and eventually the militia to break the strike and to destroy the union. Needless to say, violence erupted. No one knew exactly who fired the first shot, but when the dust cleared, besides the wounded, several Pinkertons and workers were dead. The most obvious suspects would be among the workers. Byrnes found the Pittsburgh Police Department to be extremely cooperative. When asked if any of the wounded or families of the deceased had moved to New York City, they could only come up with Pauline Rutter, the wife of George Rutter, a worker who had been shot and killed by Pinkertons as they arrived on their barge and fought their way onto land.

It didn’t take long for Byrnes to find out that Pauline Rutter lived and worked close to the two places where most of the letters had been mailed. He had policemen pick her up, and in no time she was in an interrogation room experiencing Byrnes’s famous third degree. In Pauline Rutter’s case, there were no beatings necessary. After some intense questioning, she exploded with the truth as if it were a cathartic event she welcomed.

“Andrew Carnegie’s a stinkin’ murderer!!” she screamed.

Byrnes moved in closer. “So ya wrote those letters?”

“Arrest him! He killed my husband, George!”

“Ye’ve got it all wrong. Mr. Carnegie wasn’t in Homestead during the strike.”

“His armed thugs were. George didn’t have a weapon and they shot him like a dog!”

“So ya wrote the letters?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Byrnes got right in her face and demanded an answer. “Mrs. Rutter, did ya or did ya not write those letters?”

“I wrote ’em all right! That bastard deserves to die. He killed George!” She broke down and started crying.

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