St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-23
TAPPED THE WIRES.
Pool Rooms F1eeced out of Five
Thousand Dollars.

FOOi Rooms FIeeceu out or Five
Thousand Dollars.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, Feb. ga
scheme has just been brought into the
light sof day by pure accident, show
ing how every pool room In this city,
and there are several of them, have
been Systematically robbed for over
three months past of coin running far
up into the thousands. and this is how
Chief of Detectives Lees and his men
say it was done. On the top floor of the
Safe Deposit building, on Che corner of
California and Montgomery streets, a
little room was rented by the schemers,
none OF whom have as yet been arrest
ed. Last Saturday a Western Union
inspector, who had business with the
great network of wires which hum good
and bad tunes on the top of the above
mentioned building, discovered a wee
wire which had no business there. At
the same time he found that one end
OF this wire was attached to a
special wire maintained for pool-sell-
erS and bookmakerS. over which
they get Geographic information as to
how the horses ran in the various races
on Eastern tracks. and on the basis of
which all bets are paid. The inspector
traced the other end of the wire through
hole In the roof. wnere it was lost to
sight. His superiors were Immediately
Informed of the discovery. and later
the police found room with a complete
Geographic outfit. but no one came to
claim the little ticker, etc. The bookies
went nearly wild with joy at the dis
coVery, and many are now celebrating
the event. This little wire in the safe
deposit building had cost them no
less than $4,000 in the past three
months, and there was reason in their
feeling of joy. The method of opera
ton OF the smooth telegraphers and
their allies was doubtless as follows: 1t
was connected with their special wire
at spot that was most convenient to
the operator in the room, who
could dise0nnect the pool rooms
with the telegraph office and
receive the messages himself. The OBJ
orator intercepted the messages as they
came from the Eastern tracks and held
them In his possession. Other men
who were in the conspiracy would
hasten to the pool rooms and buy tick
cts on the winners. Ten minutes later
the operator in the room would transmit
the horses at the post, the message fol-
lowed about five minutes later by the
winner of the race. to its proper desti-
nation. and the bOOk-makerS, none the
wiser, would pay the bets of the con-
spirators. Suspicion that something
was wrong was aroused in the minds
Of booksellers G. H. Kingsley, S. b.
Whitehead, Henry Schwartz. and others
because of the large number of
winning tickets that were sold just be-
fore the dispatches from the tracks
were received. Complaint was made to
the telegraph company, who concluded
that some one in its employ was
dlvulging the purport of the book
makers messages to outsiders. or
else its wires were being tapped. A
searching investigation was instituted,
but without result. No faithless en-
pOye could be found, and neither was it
ascertained where the wire was being
tampered with, until the discovery was
made accidentally.
Besides the regular officers, Harry
MOrSe'S detectives were engaged to
solve the mystery, and several individ-
ualS who We're regarded with suspicion
were watched. They were the Fallon
brothers, Austin Fitzgerald and Billy
Boyd. the latter being the uncOnvicted
tratficker in fraudulent Chinese GER
tlhcates. These men haunted the pool
rooms, AMI it was noticed that they
generally laid in a large supply of
winning tickets shortly before the re-
suits OF the races were announced.
They were Swallowed by detectives,
who were unable, however, to con-
meet them with the little room in the
Safe Deposit building. The penal code
makes overlapping misdemeanor, the
maximum punishment of which is
fine of 800 and six months imprison-
meut,