The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-27
CRIMINALS.
THEIR WAYS DESCRIBED BY
A CHIEF OF DETECTIVES.
Extracts From Inspector Byrnes's
Book-Methods of Bank Bur.
GIars-RobbIn& Country
Banks-Hotel Thieves.


Inspector Byrnes, chief of the New
York detectives, says in his new book,
professional Criminals of America"
"Some burglars make their own out
fit, but almost any blacksmith will make
any tool he is called upon for, if its con-
structlon is within his capacity, without
asking any questions about the uses
TO which it is to be put, provided he gets
his price for it. 1t is, Of course, more
th1n probable that he gucsses the use for
which it is intended, but that, he thinks,
is not his business. The making of
sIch implements is, as q rule, confined to
those mechanics who are actually in
league with the criminals who expect to
usc them. The heavy and unwieldy
tools of years ago have been abandoned
ty the modern bank robber with his new
inventions. While some bank thieves
USE the spirit lamp and blow pipe to
soften the hardened metals and take the
temper out of the steel vault doors or
cases, others use only small diamond
pointed drill. Then again, others, who
tic not care to spend time manipulating
The intricate combination, use Il simple
sort of mechanics, technically called the
drag" and ''jackscrew The former,
simple as it looks. is extremely powerful
and so quiet. BY means of bit hole
is bored through safe door; nut is set
inside; the point of the screw passes
through the nut, which rests inside the
surface that has been bored; then the
screw is turned by long handle, which
two men can operate. AS the screw
turns, the nut is forced forward further
and further. 1t is power that hardly
any construction of safe can resist
Either the back or the front must give
way:
"The jackscrew is rugged so that by
/ turning it will noisclessly force into the
crack Of a safe door a succession of steel
wedges; first, one as thin as knife
blade; soon, one as thick as your hand /;
and they increase in size until the hinges
give way. Where the size or the loca-
tion of the safe or vault to be forced pre-
cludcs the use of these machines, and
explosion becomes necessary, dynamite
, and o.glycerine are used with the
greatest skill, and with such art in the
deadening of sound that sometimes an
explosion which rends asunder a huge
safe cannot be heard twenty yards away
from the room in which it takes place.
1.-THE patient safe robber is aware of
several ingenious ways of picking COM
binaton locks. In following their nefa-
r.ous calling these men attain delicacy
of feeling by which they are able to de-
termine to a nicely the exact distance
necessary to raise each tumbler Of the
lock. The burglar masters combina-
tion with almost mathematical accuracy,
and manipulates its complex machinery
with the same dexterity and precis-
ion that q music-teacher touches the
keys of o piano. He is trained
to detect one false note in a
swelling chorus prod ced BY the click
of revcrberating ratchets within the
lock, and marks the period and duration
of the drops When they come across
some new kind of lock, they will man.
age to get possession of one, whatever its
cost, and whatever round about means
may be necessary to get hold of it, and,
taking it apart, will study its construc-
tion until they know its strong and weak
points, and how to master it, Just as well
as its inventor or maker could. They
are always on the alert to utilize for
their purposes every new appliance of
power"
The Inspectors chapter on bank sneak
thieves will probably have mournful
interest to the cashier or the paying
teller of many country bank, and there
are some bank employees in the cities
who will profit by careful perusal of
, the methods of these slippery gentry.
The Inspector says:
s'In robbing country banks, where the
clerks are few, and generally during the
dinner hour the cashier or paying teller
is the only man left in the institution,
sneaks have a simple and easy scheme
for plundering. One first enters the
bank and engages the cashier or teller in
conversation upon subject in which the
latter becomes deeply interested: While
this is going on carriage halts at the
door, and the driver is sent in to tell the
official inside that a gentleman who
has hurt his leg and is unable to walk
desires to speak to him outside. The
unsuspecting cashier or teller excuses
himself to his first visitor and goes out
to speak to the injured man, and in his
absence the bank is ransacked. Rob.
berries of this kind are committed quite
frequently, and gangs of sneaks travel
all over the country with a circus OF
wild beast show, In tn, towns and small
cities the parade of the performer:
creates considerable excitement, and
when the cavalcade happens to pass a
bank, the clerks, cashiers and paying
tellers seem to forget themselves and run
to the windows to look out. The
sneak thieves take advantage
of the opportunity and quietly
slip into the Institution. In twinkling
their work is complete, and before the
procession has passed they have escaped
with whatever they could lay hands on.
eff, while watching about bank, a
large check is cashed and the customer
turns aside to desk to count the money,
the rogues generally succeed in getting
q portion of the cash. The thief will
d;op bill upon the floor, and as the
man has arranged his pile of notes, the
criminal will politely tell him that he
has dropped some of his money. When
the former stoops down to pick up the
greenback, tn; sneak will steal q portion
Of the cash upon the desk, and walk oil
unqucstioned. They are not greedy IN
ventures of that sort, but they secure
enough, with almost comparative safety,