The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-06-19
AMYsTERY SOLVED.
Arrest Of the Burglars who Robh
ffhe Manhattan Rank In NN~ Xn.l

Arrest Of the Burglars Who Robbed
the Manhattan Bank In New York.
The whole story of the Manhattan Bank
robbery has at last come out through the
of one of the burglars On Sat
urday night last Captain Byrnes and his
of New York, who have work
ed Increasingly on the case, arrested Hen
ry eileen, Patrick Slevin and William
Kelly on a charge of being implicated in
the robbery, whereby money and securi-
ties worth nearly three million dollars
were stolen, ON the night of October 81,
1873. One of them has confessed the
whole plo, to Captain Byrnes. The rob
berry was planned more than three years
ago. A burglar known as Little Tracy"
first concerted the scheme and organized
q band of burglars TO rob the bank 1t
was broken up, however, by the arrest and
conviction of most of the members of the
gang for other crimes. Then he organic
ed a second gang, in which were Jimmy
Hope, George Howard, John Dobbs, Jim
Brady and others. They also had in league
with them n man who was employed as
watchman at odd hours in the bank Two
attempts were made by this gang to rob
the bank, but each failed through the ina
bility of the watchman TO meet his engage
ments.
This gang also broke up. But Hope,
thoroughly convinced of the feasibility of
his scheme, lost no time in reorganizing
his forces. Dobbs, "Big Kid, ,'-who was
on foot again, and others equally skilled
and desperate joined him, and work be-
gan in earnest. One Sunday morning,
when the friendly watchman was on duty
in the bank, Hope was let into the build
ing and used his opportunity TO examine
Thoroughly the vaults. The next Sunday
| he rafnrnaA onA vof lima n,
how to use wax in taking impressions of a
keyhole. The watchman, Patrick Slevin,
was an apt scholar and soon returned a
lump Of wax, which the burglar had
brought, with an impression, from which
the latter was able to make KEY for the
outer street door on Blocker street, which
was found to fit, and was put by for use
This attempt also failed for want of time
but an entrance to the vault containing
the safes was effected. Eight months later
negotiations were again opened with the
put up for Sunday morning, October 81
and in it were Jimmy Hope. Kelly and
Dobbs, together with the night watchman
Slevin. 1t was thought that Slevin would
have charge of the bank on that night, but
an accident frustrated il. The gang re
solved, however, to carry out their plan:
after the night watchman had left anc
when the day watchman came on. How
we'll it has been carried out every ont
knows, and nearly three million dollar
were carried away. Billy Kelly stoot
guard over the manacled janitoE.l He gav,
them the combination to the safe, being il
mortal terror of his life.
Detectives went hard to work and after
long search John Dobbs and the younge
Hope were, arrested. Watchman Slevil
was shadowed early and late and wa
found to be drinking hard and spending
money lavlshly. He was arrested a few
days ago, and finally confessed the who'll
plot to Captain Byrnes, and Billy Kell,
was arrested on his return from the JerOm
Park races. .'l-
| Slevin says that each member of tn,
gang was assessed $500 after getting thei
money share, which was sent to Washing
ton to defeat the bill introduced in Cor
gress to duplicate the stolen bonds, as if j
passed it would be difficult to negotiat
the originals. Meanwhile the variou
town bonds stolen were negotiated, an,
Slevin got $4,000 as his share therefrom
and Jimmy Hope went to Washington +
have the bill stopped. Kelly when arres,
ed denied his guilt, but when confronte
with Slevin he burst out into fit of sweal
ing and said 'the bank had to pay div
dend on June l, and to do it would hav
to come to terms and settle with us.
There are three more members of tn
gang yet at large, but they are known, an
will soon be arrested.