Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-04-21
Miles, the Barre Bank Robber.
HIS HISTORY AND CHARACTER-H0w lie WA
CAPrURED-AN INTERESTING STORY.

nucss INC bsrrt Dam hOoDtT'
HIS HISTORY AND CHARACTER-How lie WA
- CAPrURED-AN INTERESTING STORY.
l. The Montpelier Freeman gives the fol
o lowing biography of George Miles White
!. sent to Windsor by the Washington Count
: Court. last week for fourteen years, unde
It the name of George Miles
= Miles is one of the most expert burglar
: in the country. Perhaps his invention o
: the method of gagging cashiers. and hI
7 remarkable skill in overcoming the ditfcul
; ties Of combination locks. should give hin
> the bad eminence of standing at the head o
his profession.
;; He is a native, we believe. Of Alstead
! New Hampshire, and is thirty-eight year;
of age. His mother died in Westminster
Vt, few years ago, and White came on
from New York with friends. and made
considerable display at her funeral, he hav-
ing great affection for her. His father is
!, now living in Westminster, infirm in body
who are respectable people. The present
wife of Miles is his second wife.
Soon after coming of age, George White
was a merchant in Westmoreland, n. Ii
where he did quite business but failed
eventually. In 1851 he was keeping a hotel
in Paper Mill Village (Alstead, n. H.
This place be soon left and went to Shore
ham, Mass, where he kept hotel for some
years.
While keeping the Stoneham hotel he, in
company with the burglar, Marx Shinborn,
broke into the Walpole Savings Bank, and
the safe of B. +. Aldrich. treasurer of the
bank, in whose store the bank was, and
made off with fifty or sixty thousand dol
lars worth of bonds. This was in Noyem-
Der, 1864. Shinborn was convicted and
sent to prison. White was tried ut keene,
and the jury stood eleven for conviction
and one for acquittsl. He got away and
afterwards, with one Simms, released Shin
born from prison.
In 1866, White. Simms. Bartlett and Ma
guire committed the celebrated burglary of
the BOwdOinham Bank in Maine. which
was the first instance of the gagging of
cashier, which feature was the invention of
Whites fertile brain. The other three
burglars were caught and are now in pris-
on, but the New Hampshire Yankee was too
shrewd for the law that time.
Not long afterwards he graC uated from
village to metropolitan life, and set up bu-
siness in New York City His next well
known exploit was the Hungerlord Nation
al Bark robbery at Adams, jefferson coun-
tv. New York, on the 18th of March, 1871.
White, then under the name of Albert VIII
liams. Joe Kingsland and Francis Wilson
broke into the liungerford Bank. and not
getting through their work till well along
towards morning. broke into the harm OF
Solon d. Hungerford and stole famous
horse Of his that was worth a round thou
sand dollars. They fed. driving the horse
rapidly, and were closely pursued. Finding
! the pursuit hot. they drove out upon by
road and stopping the team kingsland drew
his revolver and brutally and needlessly
shot the noble horse through the head. This
performance created more feeling against
the robbers on the trial than did the rob
| berry itself
A. Wallace Wheeloek, the then sheriff of
! Jefferson COUNTY, who was here during the
trial last week, ready to testify had there
| been need Of 1t, says these follows gave him
more trouble in jail than all the other pris-
oners he ever had, as they were trying to
blow up his jail or file the bolts all the time
they were there. They were indicted at
Watertown. New York, March 81. ISL took
separate trials and were sentenced April ,.
ISL, to FIVE years for the bank robbery and
five years additional for breaking into Hun
gerf5rd' barn.
Some two years al ter, Albert W llliams, or
White. was pardoned out Of Sing Sing by
GOV. Dix. lie now stands indicted in the |
Supreme Court OF the District of Columbia |
under number of his aliases. Tor having
with one Walter Brown alias William Ben |
ton, on the 23i of April, 1874, broken into |
4 house in Washington, and there having 1
taken quite an assortment of spoons ana /
like stuff. together with two books of en- /
tries Of Geo P. Fisher. ard two books of |
John o. Evans This last exploit. 1t i /
needless to say, was the celebrated larriug
ton safe burglary case. in which, no doubt. /
he was the ehiei professional actor. Ii will .
now be seen whether shoemaking in Wind
sor prison j. a business Vermont officials /
can persuade Mr. George Miles White to
busy himself about
HOW NILEs's CAPTURE WAS BROUGHT ABOUT.
The Montpelier Wafchman says: Miles
owes his present sad plight in a great part
to his own selhshness, and his reluctance OF
the taking care ot,anybody else except
Number One. As Curley himself expresses
il. when the gang went on the Barre expe-
ditiOn, q" George knew | was broke" Miles
got back to New York on the Saturday after
the burglary yet he did not 90 near Mrs
Curley for a week and then said nothing to
her OF Curley's arrest. but merely informed
her that he had fallen off train in Yer
mont. and that he would keep her posted.
He forgot his promise. however, and she
found out through some Of her friends, after
a while, what the trouble really was. All
this time she was utterly destitute OF money,
and Miles not coming near her, she deter
mined to go to him, thinking that she
ought to have her husbands share of the
thirteen hundred dollars in unsigned bills
which were stolen. it nothing else. lie
drew siy dollars from his pocket. and said
y ID har ...Aa h.sN xtfn.l
come to it. She Indignantly refused 1t. and
turning on her heel troubled him no more.
At this very time Miles was flash with mon
ey. lie owned and still owns, two or three
good houses in the upper part OF the city.
the BrOoyert stables. which are now car
red on for him, and considerable personal
property. lie Is estimated by good judges,
well acquainted with him. to be worth more
than one hundred thousand dollars at low
estimate. In spite of all this. he gave
nothing TO Mrs. CuTley in ner strait. nor
would he or knesaud or GOrman contrib
mte one cent towards baiiing Curley out.
Meanwhile poor Pete was lying here in jail
recovering from his bruises. and feeling
very blue indeed. His loyalty u his tel-
lows would not permit his writing home,
for that would give the officers the track,
and his wife could not write to him for she
did not know what alas he had ss-emed.
Meanwhile two Of Petes friends in New
York, one Of them Nike Murray Il famous
" sporting" character there, had eOntribu-
ted the six thousand. the amount fixed IS
his bonds and during the first part of Au-
gust, Mckay, a " man about town IN the
metropolis, came 10 this village with the
money in his hands He stopped at Wind
sOr, where Pete then was, and told him how
meany Miles and the rest had behaved to-
l. -. ~ ~
words ourley had had from home since his
arrest. and it angered him greatly The re-
suit of the baIling is well known. Curley
was rearrested on several writSsagainst him,
and in behalf of Cashier King and others.
and it was evident that no obtainable sum
OF money could release hun. Pete had the
satisfaction of knowing that his partners in
the burglary were enjoying themselves in
New York, caring. nothing for him or his
fate indeed. he was doomed tn ten or
fifteen years imprisonment, and his wife
and child were dependent ON charity.
cuRLEY GIVES THEN AWAY.
While these things we're going on. Sheriff
Bailey. who, since the arrest OF Curey. had
been hard at work discovering traces of the
burglars, had engaged Mr.. Wiggin to aid
him in following up the scent In New York,
where it was believed they were. Virgin
had learned in s)me way of the treatment
Curley had received from his pals, " ard
it occurred to him that perhaps he would be
willing to help the governmental little, since
he certainly owed them nothing. Ii is to
Pete, Mrs Curley and Wiggin that be cred
it of capturing Miles and Kingsland is due,
and had it not been for an enforced delay.
caused by one Of those provoking accidents
for W hich nobody can Justly be made re-
sponsible German would have been caught,
too. Under instructions from her husband,
Mrs Curley. who had visited Montpelier
twice under the name of Mrs. Cook. ac-
companied Wiggin to New York, and, dis
guised. pointed Miles. German and Kings
land out to him, and showed him their
haunts Most OF their walks were taken,
Of cnnrse In the ninhf and the resnlr was |