Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-25
A SMOOTH CRIMINAL BAGGED,
VIM. McGrotty Commits Two
Burglaries.
Arrested with the Evidence of His
Crimes.
The Festive Career of a Crook With a
Remarkable History, Checked Sud-
denly while RobbIng a House
on the East Side.

VIM. McGrotty, who was arrested b.
Officer Dave Craig and landed in tn
city Jail by Officer Romans, of the Eas
Side police, on two charges of burglary
McGrotty is an insinuating rascal VIII,
arrived here several months ago from
San Francisco, leaving crooked trai
behind at every town on the Southern
Pacific route, between the Golden Gatt
and the City of the Angels.
He is young man of good address
fairly we'll educated, and writes beau
tiful hand, but if he was not born 6
thief, he has educated the acquisitive
propensity 80 assiduously that he car
not see anything belonging to any one
else without making an attempt to be.
come possessed of it by stealth. He
cannot be said to be kleptomaniac be.
cause everything that he has thus fal
stolen has had some commercial value
and has been turned by him into cash
at the pawn brokers'.
Among the many people here with
whom McGrotty ingratiated himself was
J. L. Blackman of the East Side, real
estate dealer, who, with his family re-
sides at 129 Hancock street. The lead.
ing point in the prisoners moral make
up being ingratitude, it is only persons
who have treated him well that he
wrongs, and that only after they have
done him acts of kindness.
McGrotty having proved himself enter
tanning to the Blackmans, was received
in hearty manner at their house and
made much of. On the 18th of this
month he escorted the Misses Blackman
to dance at Illinois hall, where, after
lingering little, he excused himself and
disappeared. Later in the evening he
returned, danced with the ladies and
finally escorted them to their residence
on Hancock street.
Upon their return they discovered
that the house had been entered, and a
trunk showed signs of having been
burglarized. 1t had, as an open face
gold watch and Smith & Wesson pistol
that were missing from their resting
place evidenced. The festive McGrotty
was not suspected at first, but later
when Mr.. Blackman went to pour out
his tale to the police detectives, Chief
Glass concluded that the distinguished
young man ought to know where those
valuables were.
The unsuspecting McGrotty from that
moment on was placed under police sur
veillance, and came near being arrested
once or twice when it was feared that he
was about to unceremoniously take his
departure for pastures new.
1t has been the habit of the Black
mans to hide the key of the house door
in certain place where it could be
found by the members of the family
when needed-a practice that will now
be eschewed-and Mr.. McGrotty was
spry enough to discover that spot about
as soon as his scent had informed him
that there was Doodle in the Blackman
mansion that would yield up cash at the
pawnhroker's.
After stealing the watch and revolver,
he had by no means dropped his friends,
but met them regularly with his wonted
urbanity, and, in consequence, he
learned on Saturday that the entire
Blackman family was going to spend
Sunday at the seaside. He did not know
that the theft had been discovered and
traced to him, nor that the proposed
absence of the Blackmans was for the
purpose of trapping him.
McGrotty being hard up yesterday
morning, as usual, proceeded to the
Blackmans', found the key, entered the
marked 25-cent piece, which had con-
veniently been left, easy of access, for
the young man to take away, without
up the furniture. When he came out
with his plunder he walked straight into
the custody of Officer Dave Craig, who
had been watching the premises.
At the East Side station, when
tfut ofc olad
the diamond pin, the marked quarter
and the ticket for the watch, which had
been pawned on the 14th with L. B.
Cohn of the Main-street collateral loan
Office, for SO SO. The evidence against him
being thus furnished completely by him
self, conviction is inevitable, and large
term in the penitentiary stares him in
the face. His father is a government
official at Washington, d. c., and the
blow which now falls upon him, al
though not unexpected, will neverthe-
less fall heavy.
Ever since his advent on the Pacific
coast, in the latter part of last year,
McGrotty has lived by criminal expedi-
ente. In San Francisco, while on the
local staff of the Chronicle, he was de-
tected by an eastern excursion conduc-
tor named Oliver in stealing a watch at
the house of people where Oliver had
taken him to call. When he was dis
charged from the Chronicle an overcoat
belonging to Reporter Simpson disap,
peared, and since then reports have
come in from Fresno, Bakersfield and
other places of his crooked transactions
In Los Angeles he has been guilty oi
large number OF criminal operations
from petty larceny to embezzlement
and he would long ago have been be.
hind the bars had it not been that the
persons he despoiled hated the notoriety
OF the courts. The police had been or
to him for some time, and it was but a
question of giving him little rope to
allow him to hang himself squarely
that prevented his arrest until yester
day. lraaf, ,J3-s
McGrotty's history before he came te
California was replete with remarkable
incidents. He is, as stated above, the
son of a government official at Wash
ington, and was the black sheep of the
family. On account of questionable &C
tions he was compelled to leave th'
capital, and in the first months OF 1897
he reached Denver, Colo. With hi
characteristic prediction for the 80
ciety OF women, he got himself mixet
up in several scrapes not II
his credit. Some time in May o
last year he met one ELL
Richardson, alias Ella Hays, alias Mel
lie Hays, who had come to Denver from
Chester, ILL.,, and had started sselectri
aud massage batha' on Champa street