JAMES PORTER
Was an Irishman, and a weaver by trade. He had been a robber in his own country. We know not what events induced him to seek a refuge in America, or what were his first adventures on this side of the Atlantic. We first find him in Philadelphia, ostensibly working at his trade, but in reality gaining his livelihood by dishonest practices. He had two accomplices, George Wilson and Abraham Poteet, weavers, who had learned their trade in the penitentiary. The former was but twenty-three years of age; yet, though his days were few, his iniquities were many. Poteet had been convicted at the Baltimore city court of stealing four handkerchiefs, for which he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. For a second theft he was sentenced to imprisonment. He had also been convicted of breaking prison, of attempting a stage robbery and wounding the driver, and of shooting at the keeper of the Baltimore penitentiary. He was a native of Baltimore, and Wilson also was an American. They became acquainted in the penitentiary, and were jointlyconcerned in the attempt to break out, in which the life of the keeper was endangered. Such were James Porter and his associates.
Porter and Poteet became tired of stealingwee things, for so silver spoons were denominated by Porter, and resolved to rob the Reading mail, in order to make their fortune at once. To prepare for this exploit Porter and Wilson crossed the Schuylkill, on the 20th of November, 1829, and broke into the shop ofMr.Watt, a gunsmith. They took thence five pistols and two powder-flasks. After this the three companions repeatedly practised with their pistols to ascertain their qualities.
On the 6th of December, the mail stage started from Philadelphia at two in the morning, driven by one Samuel M’Crea. There were nine passengers inside, and another on the box with the driver. The night was dark and cloudy. When the stage had got two miles from the city and was nearly opposite Turner’s lane, Porter started from the road-side, took the off leading horse by the head and turned him round. At the same time Wilson and Poteet came up, one on each side of the coach, with presented pistols, bidding the driver stop, “or they would blow his d—d brains out.” He struck the horses with his whip, but could not make them go forward. Poteet then ordered the driver and the passenger who sat beside him to come down. The driver obeyed, and the passenger was about descending, when Porter swore at his comrades for not putting out the lamps. Poteet put out the lamp on his side with the butt of his pistol: Wilson merely broke the glass of the lamp next him. Porter then left the horses’ heads, ran up and dashed the light out with his pistol. He asked the passenger if he had any weapons, and being answered in the negative, took his handkerchief and tied his hands with it. The robbers then rifled the passenger and bound the driver. Poteet asked the driver if he did not think this a very rough introduction. He answered that it was. The robber then asked him if he got his living by stage driving, and he replied that he did, and “it was a hard way too.” “Well,” saidthe ruffian, “this is the way we get our living, and ’tis very hard with us sometimes.” While these matters were going on Poteet and Wilson held their pistols in their hands, but Porter, more collected, thrust his into his bosom.
This done, Porter and Poteet went to the doors, while Wilson watched the two bondmen. Porter told the passengers they should receive no injury if they did not resist. AMr.Clarke proposed to attack the robbers, but was overruled by the rest of the passengers. The gentlemen then concealed some of their valuables. Porter asked if any of them were armed, and being answered in the negative, answered sneeringly, that “it was a pity.”
The thieves next compelled the true men to alight, one by one. Porter searched them, and tied their hands with their kerchiefs. As fast as he tied them he turned them over to Poteet, who kept them quiet with his pistol. One of the passengers, after being tied, asked the robbers for a quid of tobacco, which was put into his mouth by Poteet. Another was very reluctant to part with his watch, which he said had been long in his family, and at his urgent entreaty Poteet restored it. From another, who was a physician, Poteet took the seal of a corporation and a case of lancets, but put them back into the doctor’s pockets on being told what they were. The gentleman then asked Porter for half a dollar to pay for his breakfast, and the robber complied. Another of the passengers asked Porter to restore his papers. “O,” said the ruffian, “I dare say all this business will be published, and then I shall know where to direct the papers. I will send you a letter.”
Mr.Clarke was the last but one who came out of the coach. As Porter was plundering him he said, that if the other passengers had followed his advice they would not have been robbed. “Well done!” replied the robber. “I like to see a man of spunk.” After being tied,Mr.Clarke walked up to Poteet, in order to be able to recognise him if they should meet again. The roguebade him stand off. “I hope,” saidMr.Clarke, “you are not afraid of a small man, and he bound too.” “No, sir,” said Poteet, “but I don’t want to be better acquainted with you.” “I hope,” rejoinedMr.Clarke, “that we shall have a longer acquaintance than this yet.” “I hope not, sir,” said Poteet. OnMr.Clarke’s again observing that the passengers would have done better to resist, Porter remarked that if they had, they would have seen the consequences.
After the passengers had all been examined, the robbers took the baggage out of the coach and from before and behind it. They then tried to open the boot in which the mail bags were contained, but finding some difficulty, they compelled the driver to do it.Mr.Clarke now remarked that another stage would soon be along, and this intelligence quickened their proceedings. One of them busied himself in rifling the mails and trunks, while the other two put the passengers into the coach again without untying them. They tied the driver again and lifted him into his seat, after which they tied the leading horses to the fence by the road side. This done, the robbers went off, so softly that neither the driver nor any of the passengers were aware of their departure.
The gentlemen sat still in the coach some minutes after they were gone, till one of them contrived to untie himself, and unbound the rest. After some consultation, it was thought best to return to the city. When they arrived at the post-office a person was despatched to the scene of the robbery, where he found the mail bags cut open and the packages and newspapers scattered around, but the villains had carried away the letters.
On the 16th of December, Wilson carried one of the watches they had taken to Crosswell Holmes, a pawnbroker, and pledged it for twenty dollars. He said he was a carpenter unable to get employment, and was therefore obliged to raise money on his watch. He agreed to payMr.Holmes in — days, with two dollars commission, and signed the obligation “John James, North Second street.”
On the 21st, Porter carried another watch (a golden one) to aMr.Prentiss, a pawnbroker, and asked sixty dollars on it.Mr.Prentiss refused to advance more than forty-five, when Porter left him, saying he could get fifty anywhere. On this occasion he represented himself as a carpenter, who wanted money to repair his house. The next day Wilson called onMr.Prentiss with the same watch, saying the gentleman who owned it had made up his mind to take the forty-five dollars offered, and that he would act as his agent.Mr.Prentiss gave him the money, and wrote a receipt, which Wilson signed “George Brown, for John Keys.”
Nothing occurred to direct suspicion to either of our rogues as the robbers of the mail till the middle of January, when aMr.Jeffers, a police officer of Baltimore, found reason to believe that Poteet and Wilson were the persons who shot at the keeper of the penitentiary and at the stage driver before mentioned. He sought them, and found Wilson first, in a tavern. The robber drew a pistol from his pocket and badeMr.Jeffers stand off, but the latter seized him by the wrist and collar and held him till the landlord came into the room. The landlord took the pistol from Wilson at the request of Jeffers, who then asked the culprit for the other, but he denied having any. However, after the police officer had nearly strangled him he gave up another.Mr.Jeffers thrust him into a chair, when he said, “Let me stand up, and I’ll give it to you.” With the landlord’s assistance,Mr.Jeffers took him to a magistrate’s office. He was committed to prison.
The next dayMr.Jeffers visited him, and told him he had heard that two men had offered to pawn a gold watch, and he believed from the description that he was one of them. At the same time he gave Wilson a description of the other man. Wilson replied that it was Porter, and but for him, he, Wilson, would not have been in this difficulty. He added that Porter had a better right to suffer than himself, and he would therefore disclose the whole matter. His story, as told toMr.Jeffers, was as follows.
He had gone out three several times with Porter to rob the Lancaster mail, but his heart failing him, they returned without effecting their purpose. When Porter and Poteet proposed to rob the Reading mail, he would have had nothing to do with it, had he not feared that Porter would kill him if he refused. He then described the robbery, and the part each had taken in it, pretty much as we have related above. While the pillage was going on, he said, he was very anxious to get away, but Porter declared he would not hurry himself. He added that he was sorry he had ever seen Porter. He was steady at work in Philadelphia till he came and seduced him from his employment. He believed Porter would as lief kill a man as eat his breakfast. All this confession took place without any inducement on the part of Jeffers.
This confession put the police of Baltimore on the look-out for Porter and Poteet. On the ninth of February,Mr.Stewart, a constable, met Porter in the street, and accosted him with a question concerning his health. He added that he had been looking for him all day, and must now take him with him. Porter asked him what he wanted, and on what authority he arrested him. The officer replied that he carried his authority in his face, and then asked if he knew Wilson or Poteet, or could tell where they might be found. He denied all knowledge of them, but followedMr.Stewart quietly to his house. The officer searched him, and took from him a powder-flask and a pair of pistols. Porter asked if he meant to keep them, and the constable replied that he did. Porter very sternly said, “I hope I shall live to buy another pair for somebody.” He admitted before a magistrate that he knew Poteet.
Mr.Stewart conducted Wilson to Philadelphia first, and Porter afterwards. After they got into the stage, Wilson said that he believed his case was hopeless, and that he would plead guilty to every charge brought against him.Mr.Stewart asked him if he were not afraid to undertake to rob a stage so full of passengers. “No,” replied the villain, “three good men could rob a dozen at any time.”
Poteet was also arrested, and consented to save his own life by becoming state’s evidence.
Porter’s demeanor after his arrest was marked by that cool courage that seems to have been the only favorable trait in his character. He spoke freely of his past life, without showing the least compunction, and said that if the passengers had resisted, he would not have scrupled to shed blood.
On the 26th of April, 1830, James Porter and George Wilson were brought before the circuit court, and the grand jury presented six bills of indictment against them.
They pleaded not guilty to all these indictments, and applied for separate trials, which was granted.
On the trial Wilson was identified as one of the robbers, by the evidence of some of the passengers, as well as that of Poteet. The watches taken from the passengers, and pawned by him, were produced in court and sworn to. So were the weapons stolen fromMr.Watt’s shop. The other facts relating to the robbery were proved, in substance, as we have given them.
The jury found a verdict of guilty.
Porter was next arraigned, and found guilty on the same evidence. Sentence of death was passed upon him and Wilson. After sentence Porter showed contrition, but suffered with the same hardihood that he had exhibited throughout. We can accord him no pity. He was the master spirit, the ringleader, the captain of a band of highway robbers. He had collected a gang about him, drilled, marshalled, and equipped them, and led them forth to an unholy warfare against the peace and interest of society.
Wilson was pardoned by president Jackson; for what reason, we cannot pretend to divine. The pardon set forth that certain disclosures were expected from him but we never heard that he made any.