The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1883-06-27
CRIME In THE BLOOD.
Whole Fn1iies Who Have Becn Raised 10
Crime.

"1s there such thing as hereditary
criminal instinct p asked st. Louis re-
porter Of the force of detectives who con-
gregatcd at headquarters to "sign mp for
the day" with view of getting most in.
formation from their unanimous opinion.
"Such thing rs crime running in
families?' repeated Detective Lawler.
eyes, there is, and there is no better
proof of it than we can show right here
in st. Louis, where there are several
families, nearly every member Of which
has been convicted Of crime. In one OF
the murder cases now before the Criminal
Court a defense Of hereditary love and
yearning for strong drink is to be intro
duccd as defense, and on just as good
grounds some Of the criminals locked up
in our Jail and in jefferson City Peniten.
tiary might set up defense of heredi-
tary inclination to be criminals. 1t is
not an extremely uncommon thing to find
whole families participating in and living
10y crime. Only few days ago we had a
case in the jail. The sheriff of st. Fran
co.'s County, Mo-, on his way to the Pcni-
tertiary, had five prisoners in charge
going up on sentences Of from two to
six years. They had been detected i'll
burglary Of farmhouse i'll st. Francois
County, and it was supposed that this
was not the first job of this description
in which they had taken a part. The
principal prisoner was under six-year
sentence. His wife was going to the pen
for four years, and his brother and sis
ter for three and two years respectively.
The father and mother were dead or they
would probably have had place in this
family group. This however, is rather an
instance of family uniting efforts in the
preparation of single felony"
"Have we any families OF this descrip-
ton in st. LOUISE"
eyes; only they are astronger proof OF
the fact that tendency 10 commit crime
is transmitted from father 20 son and per-
vadcs whole family. There is one
family here named Mcclure. The old
man has been in the pen, and two of his
sons are making tall efforts to follow in
the footprints of their respected father.
There is another family here. all the
members of which are not criminals, and
rs the two respectable persons in it bear
the family name, it would be wrong to
implicatc them by n publication. They
will be readily identified by any officer
on the force and many OF their victims
when You state that the most daring OF
the batch are Tommy Ms and his
sister Kate. There were five boys and
two girls. Three of the boys turned out
to be thieves and the two girls as bad.
The girls are living with two men enjoy
ing the reputation of thieves, and dock
rtcd in the Rogucs' Gallery as pals of
their three worthy brothcrs-in-law. This
batch has been repeatedly crested, but
we have never succeeded in getting more
than one of them ont of harms way.
Another family named Bryland worked
st. Louis for long time. There were
iour boys in this gang, but all died of
consumption, brought on by the night
work done by them in bad weather and
dissipation"
"These are not bloodcd crooks from
their birth, are they?"
"Well, you would think they wcrcifyou
knew them, orthey have arcgularTowth.
The little ones begin at petty thcfts from
hawkers' and farmers wagons, market
stalls and grocery store exhibits andrail-
road freight cars, for which, on account
of the smallncss of the offcnse and Of
fender, they escape punishment. The
next step is pulling hampers; that is,
tapping tills of small shops. Picking
pockets, which requires little moro
science, is the next step, and about this
stage they are taken in tow by their elder
brothers and serve as kids, to be lifted
in window, to open a door, or perform
similar functions. After this they are
full-hedged and capable of performing
Jobs for themselves"