Chicago's Chief of Police William McGarigle was not chipper about making the trip to the Chester Penitentiary.  The prison was across the length of Illinois and the city of Chester boasted none of the amenities of the Windy City.  McGarigle kept telling himself that the hours spent on the train would pay off if the information about Stewart's body was good.  The law man had gotten word from the prison staff that an inmate knew where the body snatchers had taken Stewart's remains and was willing to talk.  Usually, McGarigle would have sent one of his detectives on fishing trips like this.  Information from inmates generally came from bragging cons  in the yard, and was rarely reliable.  When McGarigle found out the snitch was Louis Swegles, he decided to make the trip himself.

Swegles was well known by the Chicago Police.  As a small time crook, Swegles, found out early in his career he was a better snitch than criminal.  The Secret Service had used Swegles to ferret out counterfeiters and the Chicago Police could count on him to rollover if he was ever pinched.  The greatest contribution Swegles made to law enforcement was tipping off the Secret Service to the plot to steal Lincoln's body in 1876.  Swegles had been there the night of the attempt on the President's remains.  With a predetermined signal, Swegles had alerted waiting Secret Service agents and Pinkerton detectives at the precise time to catch the crew red handed.  Lincoln's coffin was halfway out of its sarcophagus when Swegles gave the password, and the lawmen had still managed to botch the arrest.  McGarigle wasn't going to let intelligence from Swegles go to waste again.

When the Police Chief and the crook met, they spent a moment sizing each other up.  Swegles wanted to quickly secure his position with McGarigle.  "I know how you got your job Willie boy", said Swegles.  McGarigle was momentarily taken aback by the comment.  It shouldn't have surprised the Chief that a criminal should know about granting a few favors to politically powerful Michael McDonald.  The position of Chief of Police had been promised to McGarigle if the cops steered clear of McDonald's gambling houses.  The blind eye was a small price to pay for the post, but McGarigle had dealt with this shakedown before.  Evening the playing field, McGarigle fired back, "And I know a few men that could make your time here harder than it should be, so cut to it."

Swegles nodded slightly and told McGarigle that his information leading to the return of A.T. Stewart's body would cost him immediate release from jail and a cash reward.  Getting the money wasn't a concern for Swegles, the Stewart estate was worth slightly less than that of the Morgans or Vanderbilts.  A.T. Stewart had built his wealth around chains of dry good stores and a mail order catalog business.  What is common business practice for retail industry today, was the innovation of Stewart.  Swegles also knew that McGarigle had some folding money of his own.

Through his criminal intelligence network, Swegles had gotten word that McGarigle had secured $10,000 working capital for the investigation.  The funds were to be spread around the criminal underground to shake loose information about Stewart's remains.  The group fronting McGarigle did not do so due to a sense of civic duty, but in the spirit of an investment.  These were the days before there were ethical considerations for law enforcement officers taking privately offered rewards.    The police were free to take reward money, and information leading to the recovery of Stewart's body could have been as much as $100,000.  The consortium who was rumored to finance McGarigle was hoping to get a quick turn on their investment.  While the practice happened with high level law enforcement officers, it was not the type thing McGarigle would want publicized.

McGarigle was beginning to get impatient.  The Stewart case had been in a state of flux for months.  After the body had been stolen on November 7, 1878, the situation could be described as nothing short of a production by P.T. Barnum.  The witness-less crime had baffled the New York police's investigation.  For a period of time there was no indication as to who or why Stewart's body had been taken from New York's Saint Mary's church yard. It was assumed by most that the body snatching was a for ransom scheme, but the Stewart family had not received any random demands.  The crime and the motive were equally as mysterious and attracted the attention of the entire country.  Even author Mark Twain was said to have showed an interest in the Stewart affair, and was said to have done some sleuthing in the matter.

Where was Stewart's body and who had taken it?

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