The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1893-11-11

he did. He fought cunning with cunning
He set the 'coney men against each other
He granted immunity TO some after getting
them dead to rights, on condition that they
turned traitors to their associates There
was not a gang in the country that did not
have his agents as members Il was a des-
perate case that required a desperate rem
edy. The money turned out in those days
by such gangs as that Of Ballard and Nc
Cartney was Of such superior workmanship
that it readily sold to the showers at to
l. That is, it required 81 900 good money
TO buy s., 900 Of the queer The finest coun.
terfeiters in all ages have been Italians.
Whiteley soon had some Italians ON his
staff The counterfeiters had wealth in
abundance and the power and influence
that money will buy. The government
bad, however, the largest purse, and of
course 1t won One by one the masters of
the profession were taken In, but there was
much bloodshed and treasure spent before
the backbone of the conspiracy was broken
But broken 1t was and eounterfeiting is
dead today.
"Another class of crime that requires ex-
ecutive ability of high order, coolness and
courage was what we call bank cracking
The robbery Of the Manhattan bank of New
q
dozen others IN tue east and New England
OF hundreds of thousands of dollars need
not be mentioned IN detail Banks were
tunneled into and circumvented In dozen
ways.
1.-THE same tactics were never employed
twice. In self defense the banks met the
skill Of the cracksmen with the skill of the
Eafemaker. There Is not q bank safe In
any big bank Of the country today that safe
blowers could open II given T2 hours unin.
terrupted work at il. When the safes be-
gan to get too strong for the craoksmen,
they were equal to the emergency. In the
dead OF night the robbers entered the home
OF the cashier and with pistol at his head
he was marched 10 the bank and forced TO
| open the safe of which be knew the combl-
nation.
''The robbery Of the Northampton bank
was the most striking instance of this phase
Of crime. The result was the invention OF
| the time lock. From this time the banks
were safe from every source Of attack ex-
cept dishonest cashiers and TO meet even
this an extradition treaty with Canada has
been negotiated. In the subtreasury In this
| city the time lock combination can only be
operated when the hour of opening arrives
by two men, each Of whom is acquainted
| with but one half the com moination.
"FoT every dollar that the express COM
| panies have had stolen by train robbers.
they have had $l00 taken by dishonest EN-.
| ployees, The history Of conspiracies against
| express companies would ill large vol
ume, and II would certainly be the most
! interesting contribution 20 the criminal
| history Of the world that could be written.
/ In nine cases out Of ten, and the cases mum.
\ bered into the hundreds, messenger or
trusted employee was implicated generally
/ In connection with some former employee
Of the company Messengers were found
gagged aud bound, drugged or beaten into
insensibility and bleeding from dozen
wounds. 1t did not rake long, however, "a
adopt the rule of suspeCtiug che messenger
That eleW was marked FIRST OF all The
circumstances surrounding the robbery 0i
Messenger Fotheripgham by Fred Witt
rock were 40 closely on the lines Of the old
time express robberies that the express Off.
cials and the detectives IA charge Of the
case were m0re than warranted Ia their un-
just suspicion of the messenger. They re-
luotanty gave up their theory Of his guilt,
and not until his innocence was manifest 70
the world So perfect is the system OF sur
yeillance now of express company em-
ployees that they cannot hope TO elude po-
lice vigilance should they join in crnnt
egainst the company ,N