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Byrne assigned two of his sharpest men to investigate Maria: Robert Watts, a dependable detective whose father had served as a cavalry captain in the War of 1812, and Police Officer Thomas Curtin, another steady hand, currently assigned to special duty at the Third Precinct. Curtin was thirty-six, the son of Irish immigrants. (Police work ran in his blood: His brother John was a detective with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in New York City.)

Thomas Curtin had been an ironworker until he was twenty-five, then switched careers and found work as a clerk in the Buffalo tax receiver’s office. In 1872, he joined the police force, where he developed the reputation of having an “eagle eye” for ferreting out crime; it was said that he could “tell a culprit on sight quicker than any man in America.” He was a big man, just under six feet and weighing two hundred pounds, with a muscular physique, a florid complexion, and brown hair with matching mustache. He was also a politically connected Democrat, and a rising star in the police department.

Cleveland met with Watts and Curtin and told them he had two goals in procuring their services. One was to “divine the woman’s intentions”; the other was to “work some scheme by which she and her child could be separated and removed.”

When Watts and Curtin went to see Maria at her apartment on East Genesee Street, they encountered a woman of culture and determination—not what they had expected. Some civilians might find a dressing-down by two police officers intimidating, but Maria made no concessions and refused to give any ground. Watts and Curtin reported to Cleveland that “they could find nothing out from the woman and could do nothing with her.” Cleveland was disappointed, and was even said to be in a state of “desperation” at the report; but in his mind, he had already begun to formulate the next stage in his campaign to eradicate Maria Halpin from his life.

Cleveland decided to seek the advice of Roswell L. Burrows, a judge whose four-year tenure on the Erie County Court bench had just come to an end. Now in private practice, the fifty-five-year-old Burrows lived on Franklin Street with his wife, Marie; four children; and a maid who went by the peculiar name Thankful Brum. Burrows was the son of a former New York State senator and had served on the Buffalo Sanitation Commission during the great cholera panic that swept the city in the early 1850s. Most significantly for Cleveland, Burrows was also a trustee of the Buffalo Orphan Asylum. Cleveland asked Burrows to see if he could reason with Maria Halpin.

Burrows went to Maria to plead his case. He must have caught her in a vulnerable moment because whatever words he used somehow resonated with her. The former judge was able to persuade Maria that it would be best for everyone if she went away for a while and placed Oscar in a home where he could be looked after. Naturally, he recommended the Buffalo Orphan Asylum. He added that Grover Cleveland had agreed to pay $5 a week for the child’s board at the orphanage. Cleveland would funnel the money to Burrows, who would see to it that the orphanage was paid. That way, the Cleveland name would never have to be associated with the boy. There was something in it for Maria too: Burrows told her that Cleveland was willing to support her in a business start-up—she could open a dress shop in Niagara Falls.

Perhaps Maria was exhausted by the endless conflict with Cleveland. Maybe she truly bought into the accusation that she was neglecting Oscar and endangering his welfare with her drinking. Whatever the reason, to her shame, she agreed to everything. Burrows presented her with legal papers in which she agreed to “surrender” all rights and claims to her son and to turn him over to the custody of the Buffalo Orphan Asylum. In doing so, she had to pledge to not interfere with the child’s “management.” Visitation would be permitted only with the consent of the orphanage. Maria signed the documents.

On March 9, 1876, Oscar Folsom Cleveland, under the name Oscar Halpin, was officially