The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-04-10
HoWCrOOk Operators Swim
die BOOkmakerS.
Close ImitatOrs of Regular
TelegrapherS' Style.
Proficiency Is Needed to Carry Out
Fraudulent Scheme.


fascinates every expert telegraph operator
who has q weak conscience. After all,
they think, it is like roDbing a bunco
man. The scheme by which book
makers were fieeced out OF more than
$l50,00 on the Royal Nettie race few
days ago is one of the most daring and
successful swindles ever perpetrateu in this
country. The oexterous manner in which
the wire tapping fraud is planned and
carried out is something to challenge
the admiration of all who know anything
about the mysteries of the telegraph.
Very few outsiders have anything more
than the haziest ideas about wire tap
ping. They hsve vague notion that 1t
consists OF stealing from the wire the
name OF the winning horse in race and
putting down big bet on him before
the bookmakers find out who has won.
Really the operation OF wire tapping Is
q very complex thing. The thieves who
resort TO 1t are always expert telegraphers
That there are very few OF them speaks
volumes for the honesty of the men at the
keys. There are not more than eight or
10 wire tappsrs in all thS country, al
though there are thousands of operators
The tappers are known to all the leading
men In the telegraph business, but as no
one ever knows they are up to
new swindle until after they have made
their try, they are never molested except
when they are actually engaged in wire
tapping.
by bookmakers is supplied to them by
the Western Union Telegraph Company.
When man wants to open book,
whether 1t be in this city, Hoboken, Chi
cago, Pittsburg or Long Island city, he
applies to the racing bureau OF the West
ern Union company. That bureau runs
wires to his room supplies him with
operators and furnishes him daily with
the entries, jockeys, state OF the track the
track odds and all the varied official in
formation q bookmaker needs. The
moment the horses are at the post the tel
egraph instrument in the bookmakers'
room notifies him. In the same way he
learns OF the progress of the race, and
finally the names of the winner and sec
ond and third horses. Upon receipt OF
this last news the bookmaker pays the
winning bets All the news is telegraphed
direct from the track of the Western
Union Facing Bureau in New York city.
From there 1t is repeated to all the book
makers who get the bureau service.
rAPPERs IMPERsoNArE REGULAR OPERA
TORS
The aim of the wire Taper is either to
cut in on the line between the race track
and the racing bureau or to cut in be-
tween the bureau and the bookmaker to
whom the news Is sent. In the former, he
cuts on the race track operator, and
initiating the cut OF mans style OF send
ing, gives the bureau the name of the
horse he and his confederates have agreed
to back.
II the latter pan.is used he initiates the
style OF the sender In the racing bureau
and gives the bookmaker's operator the
uvp1u M ks<1h h<,xa hx.x a.
former plan has not been successfully used
In many years. Indeed, 1t may be said
TO have Como out OF fashion. The risk of
detection is too great, In the Royal
Nettie swindle there was no wire tapping.
The operators at New Orleans simply sent
the name of Royal Nettie as the winner,
when Plug actually won the event. The
Western Union Company has suspended
Conway and Mcguire, operators, from
duty at New Orleans. but, of course, that
won't bring back the money of the BOOK
makers, who paid out thousands on
Royal Nettie before the mistake was cor
rected. The thoroughness with which
from the fact that the confederates of the
swindlers had put down big bets in New
York, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Brook
lyn, Pittsburg and Chicago. Most of the
wise men who make hand books in New
York have q custom Of not paying bets
until the day after tbs race, so they lost
very little money, but all the others were
hit hard. There was not bit of suspi-
cion that tbe--betters on Royal Nettie were
MP to any crooked work, for they had ali
been playing small bets and losing with
painful regularity FOR q week or more be-
fore the fatal day. The bookriakers
looked on them as "good things" and
they had no trouble in getting their
money ON In big Jumps.
To send confederafes out In this wav.
'piking' along for days or weeks to
prevent suspicion, is a regular part of the |
wire tapper's plan of operations.
Then when the time comes to make the |
killing the big and fraudulent bets are |
accepted with delight
Old time telegraphers know that IL used |
TO be impossible TO cut in on duplex |
llne--one in which two currents are con-
stantly travelling in opposite directions
but some latter day genius has made this |
once impossible feat easy OF accomplisb- |
ment Tapping !: very difficult business
In this city, for the wires run in cables |
uuder ground or along the elevated rail- |
road structure. Yet, when pool rooms
fiourished here men were often caught |
tapping even these hidden race wires |
that ran along with hun 1reds of Others |
In the same conduit. whensthe worxmen
were tearing down the old walls of the |
Hoffman House not many months ago |
ah'y btVht AZ bpou tWO wire taDDora whO II
were busy with their pliers and wires i'm |
p vsult under the sidewalk.
EXPERT LISEMEN CUT THE WIRES.
OF course none but an expert lineman
could do this work. Another gang was |
found In the top floor OF an APARTMENT |
house at 125th street and Eight ayeuue a
few years ago. They had tapped a cable
on the "L' road, picked out the wIre
they wanted, and splicing fine conner
wires to it, carried the line up 10 Their
room. The peculiar thing about wire
tapping I'm this city Is that the thieves
are almost invariably caught before thew
do any business. A couple OF smart rss.
Gals did succeed few years ago i'm ian.
ping Charley" Steinmetz's pool room
wire from sidewalk vault under New
street. They sent HIM false report and
gathered in all the money i'm his book
What added aggravation 10 the robbery
was tkat Stei1metz himself is one of tbe
best teiegraphers In this country.
The great difficulty in wire tappjng ia
10 initiate the style of the operator who
sends the racing repcsts. TIE laymap
thinks that the Morse code OF telegram
signals must always sound the same no
matter who makes IT, This Is a great