The Portland daily press., 1891-06-16
BIG CRIMINALS CONE.
Inspector Byrnes tells why they
left New York.
New York SUM-

left New York.
New York SUM-
If Inspector Byrnes is to be believed,
high class professional criminals are q
passing generation. The inspector does
not mean by this that high class crimes
have ceased, nor that they are any less
numerous than heretofore, but that the
professional who had the skill to plan
great crimes and the daring to execute
them is no longer distinguished feature
of city life.
"Twelve years ago." said the inspector,
"there were bold, defiant and skillful
bands of criminals in this city. They
followed crime as profession. They
lived by stealing large sums of money in
the lower part of New York. They were
to be seen daily on Broadway, parading
their Ill gotten gains in diamonds, in fine
clothes, and in lavish expenditures of
money. They scarcely took the trouble
to conceal their method of gaining
living. In fact, there was little neces-
sity for concealment. In many cases
they SO carefully covered their tracks
that the law was not able to fasten crime
upon any one of them. In other cases,
and these were the more numerous, they
avoided the consequences of their acts
by compromise.
'"The person who was robbed preferred
to get back some part of his money
rather than to take high moral ground
and punish the thief. So they made New
York their headquarters and their chief
field of operation. These men were,
many of them, well educated, and all of
them clever. Their plans and their OBJ
ject were on the most extensive scale.
In this way millions upon millions of
dollars were stolen. They worked in
gangs of from four to six. Each gang
formed close corporation, and there
was no fear of betrayal.
BREAKING UP THE PROFESSION.
"About twelve years ago this began to
change, and has continued to change
ever since. The police officials began to
pursue new methods with the criminals,
and the new methods were successful.
These professionals were brought in and
photographed, and their photographs
were spread abroad, so that their faces
became pretty well known. They were
sent up to the penitentiary whenever
there was chance for conviction, and
an impression became prevalent among
them that the old time Honor among
thieves existed no longer. They began
to suspect that there were traitors.
Whenever four men came together to do
a job each looked askance at the three
others and each feared that one of the
others might be leaking to the police.
When their confidence was gone the
stampede began. They soon were con-
WINGED that New York was not the place
for them to operate. They still made
New York their headquarters, however.
"With this city as base of operations
they worked the inland towns and Balti-
more and Boston and such cities along
the coast. My business then became the
work of following them up there. When
ever crime was reported from another
city, and the criminals were thought to
be New York thieves, our force helped
to hunt them down. In this way MANY
OF the high class criminals were arrested
here and sent to other cities, where they
were convicted and sentenced to good
long terms.
"Another field which they could work
with New York as base was Europe.
When they no longer found it profitable
to work in New York some of the best
of them crossed over and forged and
robbed in England and Germany and
France. l have known these men to
make two trips year, and to return
each time with the spoils they had gained
somewhere or other.
THE THIEVES OF TODAY.
"We did not lose sight of them, how
ever, but opened communication with
the authorities over there. Sometimes
we got information that a raid was to
be made, and forewarned the officials
over there, SO that the thieves were cap
tured. or the attempt thwarted at least.
$50 it has come to pass that the great
professionals. SO notorious fifteen years
ago, are no longer heard of. They are
in other parts of this country or in Eu-
rope. Many of them are in peniten-
tiaries. Nor have they left any sue
cessors behind them. The men of the
present generation who are criminals at
heart do not pursue professional methods.
There have been few graduates of late
years into the high class stealing bust
ness, and there will be fewer still. No
one should infer from this that there are
no more professional criminals. There
are thousands of them-hundreds in New
York-and they are breeding all the time.
But the new criminals are all young.
They are not nearly so dangerous as the
old generation, because they have neither
the intelligence nor the adroitness.
"The professional thieves of New York
are today an insignificant set, stealers Of
small things, clothing, few bits of
jewelry, the contents of a sidewalk
showcase. When they commit highway
robbery it is upon poor man walking
through the darker parts of the city.
But it must be said for them that in
these little thefts and crimes they are
more daring than were the big thieves
in their great crimes. For the big thieves
were wary as well as bold, and knew the
consequences and feared to take desper-
ate risks. But these young small thieves
know nothing of the consequences of
crime and so do not care"