The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-09-10
ANDREW FREEMAN.
A Talk With This Noted House.
Breaker His Manifold Methods Of
Doing Work
How the Strongest Building May be Easily
Administrations and Exploits in This
Celebrated CRIMINALS Career.
boston Globs.1


boston GIobs]
"Good morning, Andrew, how are you
getting along7"
"Ah, how do yeu do, Mr.. Reporter? Oh, |
feel comfortable enough, although l should
like to be out from behind these bars"
The above conversation took place, as the
Globe representative halted before the cell of
Andrew Freeman, the well-known bouse-
breaker.
"You have no objection to giving me mat
srial for an article?"
.sNot the slightest"
"Give me little insight into the house
breaking business; your mode of work and
the dangers you must necessarily encounter"
"Well, to begin with, HOUSEKEEPING is not
pleasant avocation to follow, neither is it
the safest business in the world. Men in my
line Of work take their lives in their hands,
and we have many narrow escapes.
show do you go to work to crack housef"
81 generally make myself perfectly famil-
lar with the house and its occupants in the
first place, being particular to locate the
sleeping rooms, and if possible, ascertain
who occupies them. Then look over the
house and determine the best place to make
the 'sbreak" This is immaterial, however,
for men in my line of work can get into
anything in the shape of building. The
window is the easiest mode, and is the one
generally tried first. We carry a little steel
jimmy about IA inches in length, pointed at
This bend gives US powerful pressure, and
W I1snallv q window tearing
off catch gradually, SO that no noise is
made. Should this fail thin case knife can
be run up between the sashes, and in nine
cases out of ten the catch can be moved.
Sometimes, on windy night, we break the
glass, but this is seldom found necessary.
Sometimes we cut a panel in the door, by
means of bit stock and little knife blades
set in it; but by far the easiest mode is to
take our nippers and, by turning the key in
the lock, open the door; this, of course, pro-
viding that there are no bolts upon the door.
In forcing heavy doors we sometimes use a
powerful jack, which never fails. Skeleton
keys also play no small part in our work.
On entering we look about leisurely and
generally regale ourselves with a cold lunch
if we find any in the closet or refrigerator.
We
sPACK UP ALL THE SOLID sILvERwARE
to be found, and sometimes are not too proud
to carry away a little of the plated article.
If there is little or none of this in the house
we pack up any good clothing we may find,
and if the weather is cool, slip into an over
coat or other warming garment. In our
journey upstairs we enter every room posi-
BILE, and most always are rewarded for our
trouble by watch and chain, money or
jewelry ANY small article of value that we
can conveniently carry away in our pockets
stairs and make up our bundle and 'skedad-
de-
"How do you dispose of the stolen prop
erty?"
1--WE have what is called a fence, a man
to whom we carry all our swag, and who
buys it of US, of course, at a comparatively
low figure, but then as it costs us nothing,
we don't complain. The solid silver goes
into the melting pot, and is thus unrecogniza-
BILE, while the rest of the stuff is disposed of
in different ways"
ssAre you ever disturbed in your nocturnal
wanderings7"
every often, and we sometimes have mar
row escapes, often resulting in our getting
eollared; but generally the parties are too
much frighted to make any trouble. This is
particularly so with the females. / remem-
Der once that 1 got into house, and had
made my way into the sleeping room, in
which a man and his wife were slumbering.
I had picked up some stuff, when something
awoke her. and she at once screamed for her
husband. He awoke with start, and seeing
me, was about to get up when his wife grab
bed him and said he shouldn't move !
guess he didn't care to, particularly, for
walked of and took my stuff with me. As
an illustration of what a woman can do,
remember / once cracked house and was
L
me and came out into the entry. / was
directly under the stairs, and she did not see
me, but / guess she knew 1 was
there, for she yelled to her husband to get up
for there were robbers in the house. He said
he'd be id if he was going to go out there
and get shot, and they might take what they
wanted. Then he locked his chamber door
and l made off, chuckling to myself When
/ turned the corner of the house l saw thai
he mad lit the gas in the room. think about
the bravest act ever met was one cold win
ter's night, when me and my partner went
to crack a house in the suburbs of certain
city. l tried several ways to get in, and fin
ally, being chilled with the cold, 1 raised my
jimmy and
CLEARED OUT WHOLE PANE OF GLASS.
81 put my head into the room and listened
but hearing no noise concluded that no on,
was disturbed. Telling my 'pard' to ge
behind a tree and not to bulge till came ou
raised the sash and stepped into the room
1t evidently was the sitting-room, and from
it passed into the dining-room, although boil
rooms could be entered from the entry.
listened, but heard no noise, and then wen
to work Out went lot of silver to MI
1pard,' and back I went for more .swag.
had just got my arms loaded down witt
coats, shawls, ETC., when heard the sound o
woman's voice, evidently talking with som,
one. made tracks and put into the dining
room, and ran bump into man standing il
front of the broken window. He had com
down stairs SO quietly that / did not hea
him, and, passing sthrough the entry, ha,
reached the dining-rosm, where he com
menced to talk with his wife out of the win
Z dow.
What do you want in my house?" h
y asked