The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-03
PETER PLAYERS DARK DEEDS.
he Practioed the Most Despicable
Known Methods of Robbery.
rom the Philadelphia Times.

From the Philadelphia ines.
The local police authoril les have be-
come alarmed over the increase in the
number of that most despicable of crimi-
nals-the "knockerout." Day after day
the newspapers contain accounts of men
who have been drurged and robbed by
the harroom aCquain tanCes with whom
they nave drunk, and despite the vigil
lance Of The guardians OF the public safety
ana the severity of the judges when one
OF the wretches is apprehended, no dimin-
luton IN the number Of complaints is
noticed.
/ The operators in this deadly drug are
ranked as being the lowest grade of
crooks. y self-respecting sneak-thief
would refuse To associate with one of that
class. The essentially cowardly nature
OF their crime, requiring neither skill nor
daring, places them beneath all other
enemies of society. They ire the most
/ dangerous, also, because of the deleterious
effects OF the drug on the subject, and the
/ hardest TO break up. because of the dini-
Guilty in detecting and conyicting them.
Their operations are not, as would be
/ supposed, confined 10 the lower grade OF
saloons, but the most prominent and welt
/ regulated bars are used with equal readi-
ness. Other grades of criminals may be
/ broken up and driven away. but the
| "knockers-out" will continue TO flourish
| as long as choral hydrate is easily pro-
! durable and intoxicated men will continue
/ to drink with strangers.
KNOWN AS PETER PLAYERS"
Knockers-out are more generally known
among themselves and the police as
! Peter players" taking the name from
! Peter Sawyer, a desperate, old-time thief,
| who introduced the crime into this part
| of the country. He has long been dead,
| but the ranks of his disciples are con-
| stantly augmented by those who, lacking
| the ability TO execute less ignoble crimes,
| greedily avail themselves of this of this
method of poisoning and robbing man
There Is no recognized resort in this city
for kuockers-out. nor is there any organ
| lied band of them. They hunt in couples
as rule, however, the better to engage a
| marked victim in the conversation that
will lead to his undoing. They loiter
] around after nightfall along the Travelled
4 streets, always on the watch for some
one sufficiently Convivial not to be choice
in the matter of his associates, and fasten
| 10 him like harnies.
They will lead him either to a much
frequented saloon where the crowd dis
| tracts the attention Of the watchful bar
| tender, or else to a private room, where,
| while one engages the intoxicated man
the other puts in his liquor few drops of
the sleeping draught. After that round Of
drinks the plucked one remembers moth
ing until he comes TO in a police station
where he has been registered as name
less, homeless, drunk and broke or at
a hospital if the policeman who finds him
on the street is sufficiently observant to
discover that something else than whisky
is the cause of the trouble.
DESTROYING THE EVIDENCE.
Those Peter players arrested in this
city every month, on whose person the
drug is found, are necessarily convicted
and get no mercy from the courts Most
of them manage to destroy in part the
evidence against them by smashing the
vial, carried in the vest pocket, contain
| ing the knockout A slight tap reduces
the fragile vessel to splinters and tho
only trace of the liquid left is a damp
ness of the lining of the pocket.
For long time il was matter OF doubt
to chemists as TO just what drug was used
by the knockers out. Every time that
some Of the Supplying material was Sc
cured from an operator it was analysed,
but no two experts could agree on what
it was. The reason for this was that the
more skilful Of the Peter players mix in
other drugs with the main Ingredient OF
the knock out in order to render the
poison obscure. The larger part of the
men who use the stuff do not know what
it is composed of, buying it from men
who make business Of supplying ii at a
large profit to themselves. What they do
know, however, is how to administer 1t in
proper quantities, as an overdose Of
choral would result in unpleasant conse-
quences.