The morning call., 1890-07-28
LOCAL " FENCES"
Some Information About Those
Who Buy Stolen Goods.
The Nefarious Business Carried On in This
City in Petty Way-Encouraging
Youthful Thieves.

"Are there many fences in this city?"
quered CALL reporter of one of the men,
bers OF Chief Crowley'S detective depart
ment.
"WeIl, that's rather a curious question.
l suppose nearly every house has fence
attachment" said the keen one with mer-
ry twinkle in his eye, which. however, died
away as he added, "But | know what you
mean. What you refer to is class of per-
sons who purchase stolen goods and are
called in criminal vernacular fences do
you not?"
Exactly" was the reporters reply.
"Well, it is not difficult to answer the
question. There are. undoubtedly, large
number of petty fences here, but they carry
on their nefarious business in sly and I'M
derhand way. so that it is almost next to
impossible to catch them, much less convict
them after they are arrested. Even under
ordinary circumstances and with good evil
dence it is hard to get fence convicted.
A PLAUSIBLE EXCUSE.
There are score or more places in this
city under constant surveillance by the
police. and often stolen stuff has been
found in them, but the proprietor has
plausible excuse to give as to how he came
in possession of the goods, and as we can
not get conclusive evidence against him,
what is there to be done? We can convict
the thief on the evidence. maybe. but have
to rest content with that"
But if it is easy to convict the thief
Why is it not just as easy to get proof
against the purchaser of the stolen goods?"
because" replied the detective. thieves
have to be used as witnesses. We can't get
any other, because only thieves sell him
stolen stuff. The fence usually has an el0-
quent and shrewd attorney who under
stands his business. He will get witness
to acknowledge having been in San Queu-
tin or Folsom, and then the attorney will
appeal to the jury aud Will succeed In in
fueucing at least one juror to give his
client the benefit of the doubt, telling them
that no one ought to be convicted of crime
on the evidence of a self-confessed convict.
The appeal is usually effective, and the
fence goes clear
81 do not wish to say that this happens in
every case, but it is tine rule. Mother Man.
delbaun, the notorious New \ ork fence,
was caught by a stoOl-pigeon hired by In
spectOr Byrnes. She was arrested and
jumped her bail, ana is now, believe, in
Canada.
THE JEWELER FENCE.
"Sasch, the Sixth-avenue jeweler. was
convicted in New YORK on the testimony Of
three professional burglars. They testified
as to what they had sold to Saisch. aud their
stories were believed by the jurors notwith-
standing the effort of Saiseh'S attorney to
impeach their testimony. In this city we
have had very few convictions"
"Where are the fences of this city To-
cated?"
That's poser, now. You mean places
which are suspected of being fences. They
IRE scattered all over the lower part Of the
city, from Telegraph Hill TO the Mail
Dock. But their business as fences is, as |
said before, very poor one. They have
been watched so closely by the police that
they are afraid to buy.
Again. the business could not be carried
on on large scale as there is no material
for them to handle. For city of its size
san Francisco has very few burglarieS of
any consequence. The criminals of this
city are content with petty work, and have
not the brains or energy to plan any con-
-lderable Job.
"Whenever a large burglary has been
committed here an investigation has shown
THAI it was the work of Eastern or imported
crooks. Opium and morphine have too
strong hold on oar criminals for them to
lie really dangerous through cunning such
AS the Chicago and New York thieves.
IN THIS CITY.
notwithstanding, though, there is n
great deal of stolen property disposed of In
this city during the course of year. The
shops where such work is carried on are
generally located near the water front,
though there are few suspected places in
The Latin quarter.
Their ostensible business is buying and
selling old clothes and secondhand articles.
Others deal in junk. and others still carry
ON an alleged pawn-broking business.
Tine profits which the fences make on
articles which they purchase are very
large, as, indeed, considering the risks
which they take, they should be. Go to one
of these suspected places and express a de-
sire to purchase plane, a saw or any
other article hich, when new might cost
you couple of dollars, you can get it for
30 cents, or, probably, if you do not work
the trade properly, You will have to pay 70
cents. The article has been purchased
from some petty thief for maybe 10 or Is
cents-all the thief wants-enough to buy
opium with.
The fences are very particular in pur-
chasing, too. Each article is carefully in
spected for marks which would lead to its
Identification by the owner. If these
marks are found and can be obliterated,
well and good il they cannot be re-
moved, the fence don't want the article as
a gift. II is a 'hOOdOO' IL him. The thief
must then take chances on selling the
| article to some person on the street.
ALWAYS IN DEMAND.
Carpenters tools are staple articles
with Tue ItUCts. IIttS are 50 easily SloItU,
and so hard to identify. They are always
in demand, and bring good price from
purchasers. Clothing is another staple
article with the fences. The thief who
steals Il coat or suit, II 1t is not worn
| much, can easily get fair price for it
that is, so cents for a coat aud 81 90 for a
suit.
zone would think that the buying of
clothing would be dangerous for the fence,
as 1t can be so readily identified. Not so.
The fence is wary creature and knows
what he is about. The clothing, if of good
quality, is cleaned and dyed, the buttons
are changed and new binding sewed on the
| coat and vest. He then places it on his
| shelves for few months and only brings it
| out occasionally to show customers. After
three or four months the suit is exposed for
| sale. he does not take such care with
cheaper clothing. 1t is usually Of the ready
made sUrt and comes out in carload lots
This clothing is brushed down and cleaned
and is ready for sale the very next day after
it was purchased
WATCHES AND JEWELRY.
1.-THE fence objects strongly to purchasing
watches or pieces of iew4iry. III lie does,
the metal is melted down and sold in a
lump, but even then his profits are rather
small. As a rule the pckpOcket who has
taken watch does not look for profess
sional fence
He sells it to some barkeeper or man in
Il Suldll UuSlutSS, anu StlS much uluI6 tudu
the fence would give him. The purchaser
thinks he has bargain, and possibly be-
leves the plausible story which the thief
tells him. Nothing but accident would be
likely to bring sucn transaction to light,
| and even if it did come out it would be diff
ficult to prove guilty knowledge ON the part
of the purchaser.
''Do the fences work together. or is there
competition between them?"
well, for obvious reasons there could
not be much heated competition in their
trade. Each one works on his own hook
generally Sometimes one will have two or
more stores, and goods bought at one are
quickly removed to another place. Then
again some Of them have secret places for
hiding things which they have purchased.
IN FEAR OF A PRISONER
If fence has purchased goods from a
thief and the latter gets caught by the po-