The Irish standard., 1895-06-22

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kept a corps Of stool igeons cons antly
'in the enlploym tent Of his depar rtment..sto
make the acquaintance Of and to betray
thieves, and the thieves themselves were
pensioners of his. q
There newer was a thief broke, s. said
Byrnes, and came tome but a gave him
money. Not a week passes but one
asks me for money, and he gets It and
I always get my mon US. worth back " ten q
fold" Z 4 /. 5ss # 3S
1t was to keep track Of all the: different
kinds of professional criminals who in-
fest this city and it's neighborh rhood that
Byrnes organized his force. One lot Of
men loked after one class Of criminals
and other lots Of the other sorts, each lot
Of detectives having Its speciality in crime
and criminals. Between Byrnes and his
feeling NOT unlike friendship.
III They know what their business is.''
said Byrues. @'They speak to me with, g.
term of endearment which would net look
well in print but they usual add that
am square with them 'Byrnes wants
to send somebody to JAIL they say, but
as long as we don't steal in New York, he
don't bother us, and he don't take what
We've got except by process Of law '@
"A professional thief had few rights
left in #Byrnes' eye. 1t was upon this
principle that he acted upon each of the
occasions of great gatherings in this city
sicne the funeral day of Gen. Grant. Up.
on each occasion he issued a proclamation
warning criminals that if they were seen
upon the streets on any oi these days
they would he sumnnarily arrested and
kept locked up until the show was over.
If magistrates discharged the prisoners
after he had kept them the time allowed
by law before arraignment. which is any
thing less than "a hours, he threatened to
rearest the men at once on the sidewalk
outside the court houses.
In his method there was nothing Of the
vodocq. His own story Of how he got the
evidence to convict McGloin Of the mur-
der of Frenchnlan in Twenty seventh
street shows it was perfectly easy for any
one who knew anything Of the doings Of
the McGloin gang, to guess who had done
the deed. ...
II knew he comitted it, said Byrnes,
but how to prove it was the question. I
even hired woman to keep his company
Tor SIX weeks: and she would have lost
81
away ii she had known what l wanted
him for. Eut all she had to do was to
keep me posted S to what he was doing,
where he went and whom be associated
with. AT last, in desperation, I played
my last card. had him arrested and I
arrested his three acconplices, each be-
ing taken separated and all kept apart L
took Mc;3loin into q little room looking
out OIL the central court Of the headuuar-
ters building, and I seated him so that
he was facing the window and could SEQ
what went on in the court yard. I sat
facing him, with my back toward the
window. AL around the room were
nooses Of hangnan's ropes, black Jacks
and other things associated with crime
and punishments. | kept him there Is
minutes and at the end Of each Is miar-
tes one after another Of his acconlplices
was taken across the courtyard, as il he
haa just been arrested. Not a word was
said to ms. EIe kept asking me what 4
wanted OF him and what he had done.
AS each OF the two first OF his accoruplices
was brought in + could see him start.
Then a paWnbrojsel came into the room
and handed me a. pistol with which the
murder was DONE The pawnbroker went
out and sat there playing with the pis-
toi. Just then Ba1lfleld the last of his
accompiaces, was brought through the
YARD handcuffed to a detective. McGloin
dropped to his knees in an agony of ter
Tor and begged NE to save him from the
gallows.'' , ,,-, -
T. Such methods, were. efreative against
professional criminals, and few cities in
the world have such a record Of freedom
from the operations of this class as New
York has had since Byrnes became a
power. But for the detection Of sporadic
crime they fail, and this city has long
record OF unsolved murder mysteries.
The exclusion OF crooks from Wall
street was one OF the inspectors earliest
acts of Importance. About IL o'clock
on the same day that he was appointed
TO take charge OF the detective bureau
ne went down town and hired a room
at has own expense at No. II Wall street.
The next morning he selected nine of
lis best men and sent them to his new Of
fee, to cover that section Of the city. He
gave specific orders to his men to arrest
any thief who might be found within the
district who could not give a good ac-
count OF himself as being there for a le-
gitfmate purpose, 1t was not long. be-.
fore the president of the stock exchange
invited Inspector Byrnes to take possess
sion Of and establish his business in. a.
room of the exchange. This invitation
WIS accepted, and 10 detectives are con
stantly on hand In that building, Con-
nections to this Office were made by te1e-
phone and telegraph with every large
banking house in the city So complete
is the system established that on recent
OF call a detective can be sent from the
office to almost any place in the lower
part of the city In three minutes. There
Is, in fact, no more perfect system of
detective supervision In any part Of the
world, and as a consequence thieves have
since given Wall street wide berth.