Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-03

Remarkable Career or 'Dlamonu 1soD,'
 Who Preyed Only on tho shrewd Money
 Lenders-M Making High Priced Stones For
 a Few Dollars-The Watch swindIe.
 From a brief dispatch dated San Fran cisco, received in this city, the police and others learned of the suicide of famous character iE criminal circles known as Diamond Bob. His proper name was Rob- ert Ashmead, and he spent all but 20 years of his life swindling pawnbrokers in the big cities of this country and Europe. So. successful was he, strange as 1t may seem to those who have had dealings with tho willy money lenders, that at one time ho was roputed to be worth $200,000. Dur ing the 30 years he was engaged in his operations he was arrested but once, and then he was in custody only few hours in this city. The pawnbroker who had been swindlod failed to prosecute Diamond Bob, for he believed it would injure him if it became known he had been success fully imposed upon in lending money on diamonds. nt 3sdj
 In searching about for some ono who knew Diamond Bob we'll found the very man who caused his arrest for tho only time at the Vanderbilt hotel j.,
 tSo Diamond Bob is dead, you say, tho detective said when I preached tho subject Well, of all the queer and pecul- far criminals this land ever gave birth to, that fellow Ashmead was the queerest and slickest Peculiar cuss he was too. Had heart as big as an OK. What do you think? The man could never get it through his head that he was committing crime by swindling pawnbrokers. No, sirl And he was honest In his belief too. I don't believe he ever willfully wronged or stole from any one but money lender. No, there was no sentiment connected with his selecting and pursuing pawnbrokers. He was a smart crook and believed he was smarter than nine-tenths of the money lenders, and he proved it. There isn't pawnbroker in this country or in any of tho big cities of Europe who doesn't know Diamond Bob He has been q sort of Nemesis to the money lenders for quar- ter of century at least. Pawnbrokers' associations have been after him for years, but they never caught him, and his name used to be rung into the prayers of every good pawnbroker's family every night in the year.
 And tho poor fellow committed sui eide, eh? Well, welll How some people will rejoice'
 "How did he get the name Diamond BobP" asked.
 "Well, it was just like this: Some years ago he put up one of the most artistic swindles imaginable on all the money lenders of the eastern cities. He met a poor diamond cutter one day who was in tho hardest kind of luck, through nobody's fault but his own. Diamond Bob saw Q fortune in this fellow if he could only get him to do as he wished, and there was lit tic difficulty encountered, I assure you. The diamond cutter had got so far down he was ready to commit almost any crime to get rum. So, when he was we'll paid for filling diamond shells with opal In an ar tistio manner he didn't ask any questions as to whether they were to be used in swindling
 By taking the shells of diamonds left by the cutters in the big jewelry establish ments and deftly placing opal in the mid dle of them and sealing the cavity with paste diamonds Diamond Bob had a gem apparently of the first water that shone with wonderful briHiancy. He pawned this fake diamond at night, when it was in it's highest state of brilliancy The money lender could apply all of tho tests, as the shell was the genuine article. It would cut glass the same as good dia- IDOQu. httl, DOD UuEHCn OuU hundreds of these bogus gems and pawned them in all the pawnshops of the eastern cities for sums ranging from $25 to $250 before the-swindle was detected. As the stones cost him only few dollars apiece it can be readily seen how great was his profit. It is no exaggeration to say he swindled the money lenders out of cool $100, 900 on his novel game, and when the other smart swindlers heard of it they christened Ashmead Diamond Bob.
 Ut was Diamond Bob who took about $S0,000 from the pawnbrokers of this country few years ago on what the po- lice knew as the watch swindle' It was an exceedingly ingenious scheme to beat the moneylender. It is pretty well known that a man can secure a loan of at least $150, and oftentimes as high as S300 on Q certain make of watches. A pawnbroker will take the watch of such mako as quickly as he will take diamonds, the name that is on the works of the watch be- ing the guarantee of it's genuineness. Ono of these firms places it's name on the in- side of tho cover in letters that are cut into the case and enamelod over inswhite. Dia- mond Bob secured the services of a skill full watchmaker and set him to work. First they bought n nun Der of the watches of genuine make. These can't be had for less than $400 apiece. They then took out the movements, which can be sold back to tho manufacturer for three -fourths of the value of the watch, or about $500. They returned the works, only retaining one of them to copy from. Next they bought a lot of ordinary watch works that cost them about $25 apiece, which were fitted into the genuine cases. The name of the man. ufacturer was forged on the movements, so that it couldn't be told from the ori ginal. After this was done the doctored watches were circulated among the money lenders, who took the bait without the least sus- picion. Hundreds of these watches were pawned almost simultaneously in all tho big cities east and west. Diamond Bob and his companion, whom he had taken into copartnership, visiting one money lender after the other as fast as they could travel. "-New York Herald.