Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-27
FAG|N IS 0UTD0NE.
A Very Clever Gang of Crooks
Modelled on His Plan
Brought to Light.
ONE MEMBER is ARRESTED
And $4,000 Worth of Stolen Booty
Recovered by the Police.
RICH LACES ARE FOUND IN A LOFT.
How Girl Paved the Way for Crooks to
Get in Their Work.
RICH LACES ARE FOUND INA LOFT.
How a Girl Paved the Way for Crooks to
Get in Their Work.
STEELE AND JoHNSoN:MAKEARICH FIND

A cleW 10 q gang OF tfueVes that Will TiNdl
the famous one operated by thatphilanthro
pist, ''Fagin,'' of romance, has been found
in Allegheny. From $1,000 TO S.. 600 worth
of stolen booty has been recovered and is
now under guard of police, and the
detective and police officials of Allegheny
are wild over the affair. Mary Reiswick, a
member and possibly the leader Of the gang,
is under arrest and now in Allegheny Cen
tral station. She is plain, ordinary look
ing girl, but very bright one. She is only
% wears old, and has been in clutches of the
law before, but the officers were not able TO
prove much against her. Her latest game
was doing housewcrk by the day, and the
store of valuables in the rickety old shanty
which she called her home, proves how well
she succeeded.
Modelled After Fagin's Famous Gang.
The amount of the plunder leads the
police TO believe she had 4 number of peo-
pie working with her and that possibly they
were not all women. The theory is that
there are several men in the gang and that
possibly it is constructed much on the same
plan as that pursued by Charles Dickens
famous leader of thieves. There is no talk,
however, of blasting the memory of that
great novelist for giving so many excellent
pointers to people with criminal inten-
tions
The police, at least, believe the girl and
her accomplices can tell much o. the many
robberies that have occurred on the North
side during the last wear or more. Miss
Reiswick has a sister, but there is no proof
vet that she is connected with the rcbberes.
Her plan of late has been almost perfect.
She has been working at cleaning houses,
busting stores and doing other similar work
by the dav. In this way she got into a
large number of houses. OF course what
stuck to her was hers. Her idea was that it
was better to take care of things herself
than let them lay around fer anybody to
steal or for the children TO lose.
Mary Spotted Houses for Crooks to Work.
It was through this habit that she fell. A
woman very closely answering her descrip-
tion did cleaning in a number of houses,
which were very shortly afterward robbed
This link has not vet been clearly estab-
lished. but the theory in it is
that. while she did expert shop
lifting she paved the way for her pals in
trousers TO do the heavier work. While pre-
home work, she was in reality getting
complete plan OF the house, with the exact
location Of the silverw2re and other valu-
ablcs as well as incidentally figuring out the
easiest method of entrance and
the quickest route for escape.
She occasionally cleaned stores and this
NAV in part explain the existence of the
webs OF silk and other valuable materials in
her shautv home. 1t also brings out the
idea that they were there through carefully
planned burglaries. In her role of paving
the way she was ali right and probably
would never have yeen discovered if she
had not Welded to an innate desire to steal
irdiscriminately. Her success in the other
line led her to houses where there were
good pickings for herself, but not enough to
Justify a regular after-night Job.
How She Fell Into the Trap.
She worked her little game at the home
of Mrs B. B. Brown, IS Arch street, Ale
gheny. That lady missed breast pin, a
fine watch, some other jewelry and a shawl
As each of the articles disappeared after a
visit from the German girl, she became
suspicious of her and later several
rings and some silverware were missed by
people in the house. Mrs. Brown called in
tile police and Detectives Steele and John
sou. After working on the case for awhile
the detectives found the girl had been
arrested before for stealing and had war
rant sworn out for her. She was followed,
and led the detectives to her home in
the rear of No. IL Green street, in
the Third ward. The place is little more
than shanty and has loft in it. The next
move was TO get a search warrant, and last
night the arrest was made and the woman
sent down to the station.
Then they started on a search, and in an
OLD shoe partly covered with mildew was
,4.l Il
rags were found several rings. In other
odd places they found the other stuff stolen
from Mr.. Browns residence. Having sue
ceeded so well they thought there might be
something worth looking at in the loft and
crawled up through hole in the ceiling.
Wealth Hidden Away in a Loft
Ranged up in a row were half dozen big
trunks, every one packed full and very
heavy. One was broken open and in among
a mass of rich old laces and silks they
found lot of solid silverware marked with
the initials, 81. G.
The trunk was filled with silks, velvets,
satues laces, ribbons bits of jewelry and
pieces of silyerware. Some had been used
and some were brand new. The detectives
did not know the value of the laces and
other stuff, but it WAS nearly all of very
fine quality and at a verJ low estimate they
think the plunder is worth about s., 900 and
may amount to much more.
Another trunk was broken open and in it
were found more laces, together with fine
napkins from which the embroidered initial
had been picked out There were also
MANY other fine materials in this
trunk. The others were not opened last
night, as the detectives were afraid they
might get themselves into trouble if they
took the stuff away and were unable to pro-
duce owners for all of it, so it was left at
the shanty under guard until they are ad-
vised what to do by their superiors The
detectives, however, expect to locate the
ownership of much of the stuff to-day and
tomorrow.
Irt>-osti.,sr Exexaf LII IaiI