El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-21
Specialists In ThieVery
An Chief of New York Detectives Re
Thieves and Burglars of Every Kind Their
Ways and Woes

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people who are absent most of the day,
and other points. He usually has false
keys and other psrephernalis, and at
the right time uses them to get at the
property which he has planned to con-
fiscate. In most instances he ia dis
guised as gentleman. and is quiet in
his manners and in general appearance
desirable guest.
"But there are exceptions, as shown
in the case of MIC Moran. who could
not write his name, and always brought
some one who registered a name for
him. He gained notoriety some years
ago by taking q large sum of money
out OF room in q Saratoga hotel.
This class of thieves ts always busy,
but the real busy season is during the
times when there are great crowds at
the hotels because of holidays, public
festivities or great shows.
s'There are divisions and subdivisions
in the class of criminals who devote
themselves to the burglary branch,
and in the days when New York was
more profitable field than it is now
there were second story men, safe
crackers, house-breakers, bank experts
and numerous other experts, who all
worked in their chosen calling with
various degrees of profit. The burglar
must b ave in addition to his thief dis
and the safe burglar must be mech
snic. Tools and their uses must be
we'll known to him, and while many
crooks of that class have had expe-
rience in machine shops and factories,
there are also many who have never
done honest work with mechanics
tools.
"The same men work in gangs of two
or tn rec, and their plans are carefully
and system atically laid. They are US
ually careful fellows. and in many in
stances the safes are cracked and the
Doodle is taken in their minds weeks
before the actual act is committed.
They know how they will make an en-
trance to the store. and they 60 through
all the motions except going in. They
know how long it will take to open the
safe-or to beat it, as they say-snd
while they allow themselves time for
all this the outpost is doing his job OF
'rubbering' AMI being prepared to give
the signal if anything should turn up.
This pantomime is performed several
times in some instances before the ac
tual job is undertaken.
1.-THE bank burglar has to use all these
and many more, and his
arrangements require
more time, and often make necessary
the expenditure of large sums of mon
considers himself on q higher level
than his companions in the store bust
ness, and he is looked upon by the low
er thieves with awe and admiration.
But the bank burglar has ceased to ex-
ist as such in the large cities. The
precautionary measures are 60 perfect
that he has been driven out of bust
ness. Those who are not doing time
are looked upon as has beens' by the
criminal world. They are unified for
other branches of the thieving profess
sion; they are past the age when they
can learn new tricks, and many of
them have been forced, against their
will, to reform. Almost any day one
may see few of these ex-bank pro-
fessionals at the races, but no one
would suspect that the respectable,
elderly men had beaten banks in their
younger days"
Captain McClusky has in his depart.
ment great lists showing the names of
the famous specialists in crime all over
the country, their homes, criminal re-
cords and complete personal descrip-
tiOns, and when crime is committed
and the culprit is unknown these lists
are consulted, with q view to locating
the offender.
Thus the public was protected last
year on such occasions as the CONNER
,ial Travellers Fair. the Military
aud Horse show held at
the Madison Square garden. the depar- |
ture and the homecoming of the troops, |
5he great gatherings at the newspaper |
bulletin boards, the naval parade and !
the athletic shows by the arrest of |
and professional thieves in !
general. In his report Captain Nc
Clusky said:
Induced by these large gatherings, |
criminals of all classes and from all |
parts of the country, and especially |
,ly their vocations, but the prompt &C
ion of this bureau in arresting them
q almost every instance upon their ar
ival precluded the possibility of any
uccess in their operations. Investi-
.atiOns showed that mum Der of these
hieves were fugitives from the justice
# other states and in the regular
curse we're sent thereto to be tried for
rimes committed by them.
beside the bank burglars" said
captain McClusky, there are other
pecialists for whom there is no bust
ess in New York at the present time.
afe burglars, scuttle burglars and
ogus gas men have been driven out
t business. 1 lay this to the arrest
nd conviction of the most noted
hieves who made this class of crime
heir specislties. Among those who
vere arrested and are now. in prison
he following are conspicuous because
# the high rank which they took;
ames Murray. alias Big Jim: James
dcCann, alias John Cody; William
Jason. elias Wright, alias Big Bill;
frank Spencer, alias Red Spencer;