The Expressman and the Detective | Page 3

ten thousand dollars in bills of the Planters' and Mechanics'
Bank of Charleston, S. C., had been sent to Columbus, Ga., via the
Adams Express, but the person to whom it was directed had not
received it. Inquiries were at once instituted, when it was discovered
that it had been missent, and forwarded to Atlanta, instead of Macon.
At Atlanta it was recollected that this package, together with one for
Montgomery, for four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, had
been received on Sunday, the twenty-fifth of April, and had been sent
on to Montgomery, whence the Columbus package could be forwarded
the next day. Here all trace of the missing package was lost. Maroney
stated positively that he had not received it, and the messenger was
equally positive that the pouch had been delivered to Maroney in the
same order in which he received it from the Atlanta agent.
The officers of the company were completely at a loss. It was
discovered beyond a doubt that the package had been sent from Atlanta.

The messenger who received it bore an excellent character, and the
company could not believe him guilty of the theft. The lock of the
pouch was examined and found in perfect order, so that it evidently had
not been tampered with. The messenger was positive that he had not
left the safe open when he went out of the car, and there was no sign of
the lock's having been forced.
The more the case was investigated, the more directly did suspicion
point to Maroney, but as his integrity had always been unquestioned,
no one now was willing to admit the possibility of his guilt. However,
as no decided action in the matter could be taken, it was determined to
say nothing, but to have the movements of Maroney and other
suspected parties closely watched.
For this purpose various detectives were employed; one a local
detective of Montgomery, named McGibony; others from New Orleans,
Philadelphia, Mobile, and New York. After a long investigation these
parties had to give up the case as hopeless, all concluding that Maroney
was an innocent man. Among the detectives, however was one from
New York, Robert Boyer, by name, an old and favorite officer of Mr.
Matsell when he was chief of the New York police. He had made a
long and tedious examination and finding nothing definite as to what
had become of the money, had turned his attention to discovering the
antecedents of Maroney, but found nothing positively suspicious in his
life previous to his entering the employ of the company. He discovered
that Maroney was the son of a physician, and that he was born in the
town of Rome, Ga.
Here I would remark that the number of titled men one meets in the
South is astonishing. Every man, if he is not a doctor, a lawyer, or a
clergyman, has some military title--nothing lower than captain being
admissible. Of these self-imposed titles they are very jealous, and woe
be to the man who neglects to address them in the proper form. Captain
is the general title, and is applied indiscriminately to the captain of a
steamer, or to the deck hand on his vessel.
Maroney remained in Rome until he became a young man, when he
emigrated to Texas. On the breaking out of the Mexican war he joined

a company of Texan Rangers, and distinguished himself in a number of
battles. At the close of the war he settled in Montgomery, in the year
1851, or 1852, and was employed by Hampton & Co., owners of a line
of stages, to act as their agent. On leaving this position, he was made
treasurer of Johnson & May's circus, remaining with the company until
it was disbanded in consequence of the pecuniary difficulties of the
proprietors--caused, it was alleged, through Maroney's embezzlement
of the funds, though this allegation proved false, and he remained for
many years on terms of intimacy with one of the partners, a resident of
Montgomery. When the company disbanded he obtained a situation as
conductor on a railroad in Tennessee, and was afterwards made
Assistant Superintendent, which position he resigned to take the agency
of the Adams Express Company, in Montgomery. His whole life
seemed spotless up to the time of the mysterious disappearance of the
ten thousand dollars.
In the fall of the year, Maroney obtained leave of absence, and made a
trip to the North, visiting the principal cities of the East, and also of the
Northwest. He was followed on this trip, but nothing was discovered,
with the single exception that his associates were not always such as
were desirable in an employé, to whose keeping very heavy interests
were from time to time necessarily committed. He was lost sight of