Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-24
Roger O'Mara's Record.


hustle. His broad shoulders, strong arms ano
sharp eyes are as powerful in their way a:
his brains and moral vigor. ,.
Roger O'Mara's Record.
EVERY man on the detective force has had
| a ticklish experience OF two, a narrow shave
of sudden death, and most of them from the
veteran chief, Roger MARA, to the rawest
recruit have known what it is to lay hand:
on men who regard murder as nothing more
than necessity that their calling imposes
| Roger O'Mara probably knows more desper
| ate criminals by actual acquaintance, and
has had the nippers on a large percentage Of
His hair-breadth escapes would fii a book
and they have filled innumerable pages Of
newspapers, court records and police his
tories already. The stories below are taken
| at random from a big -sheaf gathered from
the actors lips:
Fitzgerald Under Fire.
"WHEN was police lieutenant in the
Fifth ward, about Christmas time 1856,
said Detective Pat Fitzgerald, commonly
called Lucky Fitzgerald, 'I had some of the
| toughest experiences i have ever known
| The closest call of my life, l. guess, came
about that time. The liquor store of Mrs
| Nichols at 2s90 Penn avenue was broken into
and lot of jewelry and money stolen be
tween and 2 o'clock in the morning. The
news of the burglary reachedlthe Twelfth
|
Pat Pender, George Wagner and I started
out at once to find the men we suspected.
We found two of them about 4 O'Clock in a
saloon at Thirty-third street and Penn. 1t
| was one of the benefits of the alEnight
saloons that we could often find
! thieves there; every burglar drinks al
most, and I could rely upon a good
many saloonkeepers and bartenders to keep
me posted ON the movements of professional
| thieves and thugs The man l was after,
Dan Young, and his pal McCaffrey, were
taken by surprise and offered no resistance.
took Dan Young, and as we were about to
| leave the saloon Dan asked me to let up on his
| left arm, saying: Il want ter get a chew er
| cut an dryr Iloosened my hold on his left
| for the tobacco. If I hadn't been watching
him closely 1 should not have seen him
| draw gun with his right hand and aim at
me under his arm for he meant to attract
| bacco. 1 grabbed for the pistol, and got it
| just in time to send the bullet into the floor
instead of my body. 1t was no time for half
measures, and struck out for my life, and
| succeeded in flooring Dan before he
could fire another shot at me. By that
time McCaffrey had got away from Pender
and Wagner and he had a revolver1eveled at
my head. He fired but missed me, and then
running to the bar he began to throw beer
| glasses at us. There we had it about as hot
| as ever saw it for ten minutes, but Young
and McCaffrey got the worst of it, and we
dragged them off to the station. They had
some of the plunder in their pockets still.
"After we'd locked them up, went out to
find the third man of the gang, Campbell.
He was in Giles saloon when 1 entered,
combing his hair before the glass. didn't
care about taking any more chances that
night, so when l said: Il want you, Camp
hands in a threatening way, just let him
| have one for luck in the middle of the fore
head with my billy, and he fell like an OK.
of the swag from Mrs. Nichols place; some
| diamond jewelry and 5000 in bills in his
clothes. That ended the toughest nights
work ia had for many a year It was q
quick job, too, that arrest, and trial and
conviction followed without delay. When
Dan Young was asked by District Attorney
Porter if he was professional. thief, he
His professional pride cost him dear, for he
got five years in the pen, while his pals
escaped with Is months. It's kind of singu-
time before he fell into my hands again. 4
short time ago he went into Heck's saloon
and demanded glass of beer. He was
pretty drunk and the bartender declined to
serve him. You won't give me glass of
beer,' said Dan, then take that, and he
blazed away at the bartender with his gun.
The bartender Juked and the shot hit a
clock. That was Dams idea of killing time.
He won't have a chance to be playful for
some time, as l and Detective Robinson ar
rested him, and he's now serving three and
a half years in the pen."
Chal Dick to the Rescue.
'THE tighest place ever was in was up at
Johnstown after the food" said Detective
John P McTighe. "Bob Robinson and had
arrested a great big hulking Westerner, the
toughest-looking wretch 1 ever saw, as
suspicious character. Our prisoner was one
of those desperate ruffians who fioclxed into
Johnstown that May looking for plunder
and quite equal to committing murder to get
it. We first took him down to the Cambria
City lookup, but there were three or four
feet of oozy mud in the cells so we couldn't
secure him there. Then we started back
with him toward the Cambria City depot
where we meant to cage him in a freight car.
As we went a crowd gathered about US and a
lot of toughs began to swear at us. The
crowd was swelled by the people who were
waiting to be fed at the Commisariat depart.
time we neared the track there
were several hundred men around us,
threatening violence if we did not
let our man go. The toughs understood
what we were doing and wanted the prisoner
released, and the decent people didn't
understand what the noise was about and
pushed into the crowd to find out. Conse-
Quently there was lOts OF confusion and
things began to look ugly, when a man on q
gray horse came down the hill, to where we
stood, at gallop The crowd gave way and
Chal Dick, the Cambria county Sheriff, who
was such terror to evil doers in Johnstown
in those days. He carried carbine, and as
soon as he'd discovered from us who our
shoulder, and would have shot the man had
not Robinson and interfcred.
"'Then, I'll give the wretch two minutes
to leave town. said Chal Dick, still keeping
the gun to his shoulder We let our prisoner
loose and you ought to have seen the gait
he struck down the track toward Sang
Hollow. You could have played checkers on
the tail of his coat, and was never more re-
lieved to be rid of a prisoner, for the crowd
that cheered Chal Dick would have just as
lief jumped on u.s."
Bob Robinson's Hard Knocks.
'I NEVER hit man so hard with so little
effect" said Detective Bob Robinson in his
quiet way, as he sympathetically rubbed his
head, "as I did that day last summer when
Fitzgerald and 1 were bringing back that
negro who killed man at picnic out on the
Castle shannon road. Forawhfle in that car
it looked as if we were bound to get done up
had the alleged murderer in tine seat be-
side me with the nippers on. He kept quiet
enough, but there were u score of colored
toughs in the car from Washington, ID. c.,
Baltimore and other places at u distance,
who didn't care what they. did since they
were aware they weren't known here and
could easily make their escape. There were
four of us officers, but what were
we against two or three car
loads Of drunken negroes armed with