Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-03-30

pausing in the middle of an entry. you
have been discharged.
Ask the president" replied the new
cashier. settling down to work again.
He'll tell you all about it,
worked diligentIy. Then he got up ana
walked out. With him went $4,000 When
the shortage was discovered johnson was
arrested. but nothing could be proved
!against him. Very similar was the plan
which resulted in the loss of $4,000 to
the Adams Express Company. when the
cashier went out to lunch Johnson
sneaked in. put on his coat, and went TO
his book that his face was not visible to
the other men, and only one of them
spoke to HIM. He made a gesture for 81
turbed The work which the bogus cash
Ter was doing was that of going through
1.-THE drawer. from which he extracted Sio- :
900 and went out He wasn't dentihed on
. long afterward he walked into August
Belmon's private office. took $4,000 OF
government bonds and walked out again.
Again he was arrested and again sc. uis.
charged Tor lack of evidence. 1t was
supposed that Johnson was responsive
for the disappearance of a IN box, con-
tanning about 100000 in bonds; from tne
bank. The tin box mysteriously disap-
peared. Johnson paid all his debts. which
We're many. and lost vast sums OF money
in gambling. for he was an inveteratee
gambler, and but for that vice he might
have reaped the benefit of his crimes and
have fulfilled his ambition of becoming
"a millionaire. In one game of poker he
lost $4,000.
The beginning of the downfall came
when he was caught in the act of robbng
the safe in the Fifth Avenue hotel in
package, telling him that it was of great
value, which remark was overheard by
Johnson. The crook quietly went around
behind the desk where the clerk was
standing, took the packa sc and several
other packages from the open safe where
the day clerk had put them. and started
out. On the way. he collided with waste
paper basket. tripped oyer il and was
caught. Ten years in Sing Sing was his
portion. He came out, old and weak. his
nerve gone only to find that his friends
could not fall back on his old refuge OF
borrowing. The man who had gained
booty amounting to hundreds of thou
sands of dollars wandered hungry on the
streets. In desperation he snatched Il
woman's purse but was too weak to run.
and he was sent back to Sing Sing for
four years.
I'm about done now" said he when he
heard his sentence. They needn't be
afraid of the old man any more. Good
for nothing but little penny work. l sup
pose ii uIe III pTlSOH.
Thereafter his record is that of a man
stealing for the necessities of life. In
1853 1t was a package of $3.50 stolen from
a Philadelphia barber shop. for which he
get three years. Then came the snatch
ing of a handbag from a woman. two
years and six months: and next the steal
ing of an overcoat in Boston. six months.
A three months term in Philadelphia as
year in Clinton prison for the attempted
theft of $25 in Troy There he solemnly
assured the judge that it was his first
crime and would be his last. but he was
identified. On getting out he tried shop
lifting; stole an umbrella from an AL
bany store and was sentenced to one
year. Going to Philadelphia he was sent
up for three months as a vagrant. 1nen
he came to this city and was arrested
half a dozen times as a suspicious per-
son. only to be discharged for lack of
be let alone.
I'm out of the ring he said. MY
m pretty near gone myself"
That was in 1894. and consumption was
rlcking him then 1t seemed that he
could not live much longer but three
years later. having been sent out of town
a number of times by the police. he
turned up as the prisoner in a robbery
case at the Hotel Bartholdi. AS usual,
there was insufficient proof and he was
discharged. Two weeks later he was ar
rested for picking a woman's pocket in a
store. and here came in his final joke on
tn" police which he enjoyed to the day
Of his death. He was locked up in the
West Thirteth street sta ion for three
nights and arraigned three times in JEFF
fe1 son market court as George w. Brown
an old and respectable man. driven by
hu lger to steal Capt. Chapman saw him
and Capt. Chapman's ward detective saw
him at the station house. Capt Stephen
o Brien's S sleuths looked him over through
their opera glasses at jefferson Market
court. None of them recognized the
nest famous crook in his line of this
gel Grafton. The blow almost killed John
ssor. When he got back to his cell he
laughed so that he brought on a fit of
coughing and almost died. At the sta
ton house they thought it was hysteria
Not until he was arraigned in general
sessions was he recognized. anu then by
De ective, Cuff, formerly of Byrnes'
force. and now attached to the district
attorneys office. When johnson found
he was discovered he wrote note to his
lawyers. exulting in having "one more
good laugh on the cops.
Johnson was sent to the Island for
year on a charge of petty larceny He
told the justice that he was penniless and
that the starvation part of his George
w. Brown fiction was fact. He had ten
months still to serve.