Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1894-11-01
A DETECTIVES YARN.

A DETECTIVES YARN.
''It is not very often, said Detective
Riley, 'tthat detective is forced to as
sumo disguise to get information, but
sometimes it is absolutely necessary.
The last time that 1 had to go into a
den of thieves in bogus character was
good many years ago, and 1 had q
rather lively experience and enough OF
excitement to stand me until the end OF
my days.
I'VE received report of the escape
of crook from the Charlestown prison,
and from what the authorities there
had been able to gather it was supposed
that the convict had come to this city.
They sent description Of the man, and
the only thing that l saw was Of any
use was that on the mans right arm
were the initials "A. T., with a flag
above and anchor below them in india
ink. looked over our records and found
that we had there the pedigree of Abe
Taylor, and he had the same marks on
his right arm. The rest of the descrip-
ton that we had did not tally very
closely with the one sent from Charles.
town, but l thought thai there was
good ground for the belief that the es.
capped convict was Taylor, who was one
of the most successful Jail breakers in
the country. itUH utlHtf
In order to be certain of the identi.
ty of the convict went to Charlestown.
found that the man had been convict
ed under the name of John Smith fo1
the robbery of the Pittsfield bank, and
the Style Of the work was in line with
the business usually touched off by Tay.
lor. I took run over over to Pittsfeld,
got description of the two men who
had done the bank out of $3.50, 900 and
became convinced that the man who
had been shot and arrested and who
escaped was Abe Taylor, and that his
partner was Jerry Connors.
II knew that was up against stiff
game. and on the train from Boston
laid out plan which / thought would
give me show to get on the track Of
the men. Abe and Jerry / knew were
partners with Petey Slade, who ran
notorious fence and dive in Washington
street, near Canal, and made up my
mind that some time or other the pain
Of them would land in SHADES place. ]
decided that my strongest hold would
be to get In with Slade and his gang on
their own terms. knew the risk was
taking, for the gang were about the
toughest set of thugs and assassins in
the city and would not hesitate tc
slit mans wien in a second upon the
slightest proyocation. put up scheme
which thought would beat their game,
and it worked to the queens tatse
when reached the city, had my.
self arrested for a fictitious crime and
was tried and sent to the BIackwell's
island penitentiary In perfectly regu9
lar way, with the assistance, of course,
of Recorder Hackett. The warden in
the penitentiary knew my game and
aided me in carrying out the business.
After ! had been locked up few days
] made my escape from the island after
dark. The next day the newspapers con.
tanned thrilling account of my escape,
and the story was that dug my way
out Of my cell and swan across the
river to this city. must have had
terrible time, as the papers told it, but
as matter of fact crossed the river
in a boat, and the story was given out
to make me solid in the work 1 had
laid out to do.
"When reached the city, it was
dark, and / walked down to Shades
dive in my convict's rig, which had
been soaked with water to carry out my
scheme. / sent boy into the dive tc
get Slade to come to me, and told him
the story of my escape and said that
thief who had started to get away with
me, but had lost his nerve when it came
to taking the swim, had told me that
when we reached the city we could &c
to Slade's and put up until the thin
blew over.
'Slade was very cautious. He felt
my clothing and took me in back room
in the den and carefully examined the
CLOTHES and shoes to see if they were the
genuine convict's outfit. He was salts.
fed on that point, but was suspicious
when / could not give him the name OF
my partner. did not dare to fake
nam% for Slade knew where every thiet
was who had beon sent away that he
ever did any business with. l told him
that the man was known to me as Jack,
and as Jack Mccarthy. one of Shades
gang. happened to be on the island at
the time my story was taken as being
straight, and I was given aroom on the
second floor to bunk in. The next day
Slade saw the story Of my escape in the
papers and became my friend at once.
II must admit that Inever got better
treatment from any one than did from
Slade and the gang He told them that
] was all right, and they were glad to
know fellow who had the nerve to
swim across the East river, where the
tide runs like mill race. Ihad to keep
in the house all the time, and in case
the police got on to me in any way /
was shown way that could escape BY
getting into an underground passage,
which led to a sewer in the street /
was fed like fighting cock, and moth
ing turned up for about three weeks.
Then early one morning, while'I 7 was
sleeping, some one came into my room,
and / heard q whispered consultation
There was dim light in an adjoining
room, and could see four figures. MY
hair stood up on end, for naturally
thought that they were talking about
me, and that had been found out.
made up my mind to give them as good
q fight as there was in me, but after
awhile the men went into the next room,
and ! heard them get into bed. In the
morning my heart gave big thump
when saw that the new arrivals were
Abe Taylor, Jerry Connors and Andy
Cummings, the men was after. \
MY first idea was to connect with
the outside and have the place pulled.
and j would have done this if had not
learned that scheme had been put up
to turn of a savings bank in Newark.
Cv,,,,x,,{x, &c as,d 4TavIrr had hear, a xvcaL