Evening star., 1899-04-01
CROOKEDER THAN A CROOK

police court one morning last week. when
| a seedy, euaciated. palsied old man was
| 'vagged by the magistrate for begging on
| the Streets, said a long-service New York
| detective who was in Washington on a still
| hun the other day. II hadn't seen this man
| for thirty years, but I thought that I rec
| ognized him he stood leaning on the rail
in front of the magistrates desk, and when
he went down for thirty days and stepped
back l spoke to him and found that
| wasn't mistaken in his identity The sight
| of him took me back to the old days when
| Boss Tweed was It in New York, and
| when the situation in the big town was such
| that police officials had good deal more in
| innate knowledge of the doings of profess
| sional criminals than they have nowadays.
Here's the story that the sight of the old
vag recalled to me-
| 'One day in the autumn of 1870 Little
Johnny Hope, probably the most finished
| and successful bank burglar who ever
worked drill in this country, was walking
along 9th avenue enjoying his parole and
the mellow sunshine. There were whole
| lot of indictments hanging over him, of
course, but the indictments didn't worry
| Little Johnny for he happened to be on
pretty fair terms with the municipal ad-
| ministration at that time. AS he swung
| along, he was accosted by prosperous
| looking man whom he did not know, al
| though the man addressed him as Mr..
Hope. Little Johnny took the stranger
| into a cafe and asked him things.
" In the first place. how did you know
me- he inquired of the stranger.
well, it appeared that Little Johnny
had been pointed out to the stranger by
detective who was so shady that he after
| ward did time for secretly extending aid
and succor to the enemy'-i. e., a famous
band of New York crooks.
"'Well, said Little Johnny to the strang-
er, I don't suppose you're seeking my
quaintanceship for the sake of being intro
duced into society or for the enjoyment of
WA w
| Then the stranger up and told him what
/ his graft was
| I'm the cashier of bank up in West
chester county, said he to Little Johnny
| Hope The directors don't know anything
| about it. but I'm short in my accounts,
! There's only one way out of it. The bank'll
| have to be robbed by professional cracks
men. That will let me out. and in addition
| I'll get my rake-off from the robbery.
| want you to rob the bank Youth find
$4,000 in cash in it on the night you ar
| range the job-T'n attend to that. Of course,
| l want my bit out of that-S10, 900 at least.
I've always heard that you are square in
| these divisions, and therefore I'll trust you
| to hand me my share after you've done the
| job for putting you onto tt
| =" This sounds good enough to eat, re-
| piled Little Johnny who wasn't born next
| week, and who could see man trap as
| far as a twe1ve-inch gun will shoot. Fact
| is. It's so sweet that it's almost cloying.
Now, I've heard your proposition. You
! give me couple Of days to investigate you
"They appointed another meeting at the
| same place two days later. and in the mean
| time Hope looked into the job. He found
| that his man really was the cashier of
| prominent Westchester county bank in
town not more than half an hours run
| from New York So when the cashier call
| ed upon him at the appointed time he was
| ready to talk business.
you'll have hard nights work. said
| the cashier, for in order to avert suspicion
| I'll have to leave the vaults and safe all
| locked up tightern drum, usual. You'll
| need several assistants
| "'You just pass those details up to me,
replied Hope. Every man to his trade
They don't make 'em so strong that can't
| get into en-
Then all of the details were arranged,
| and the robbery was fixed for certain
| night in the following week. The cashier
| was especially solicitous that he should
| get his share of the proceeds of the crib
| cracking. Hope assured him that if there
was $4,000 in the job $4,000 would be
enough for himself and his assistants, and
the cashier would get the rest.
"On the night fixed Little Johnny and
! three of his best men went up to the town
| in Weschester county and pulled off the
| job. 1t was a matter of four hours before
| the gang. after overpowering and tying
| and gagging the night watchman, got into
! the main safe. They found it empty. They
| then tackled the smaller safes. These too,
were empty. Little Johnny was mad, as
can be readily imagined
at was the first and last time I ever
| played the part OF q g000 tnlng In a JOD
| like that, he said afterward.
| Now, that was pretty clever work on
| the part of the cashier wasn't it? He had
| simply looted the bank himself, and the
| robbery which he had arranged was SIM
| ply to cover UP his own trail. There have
| been 'Napoleons of finance without num-
| Der developed from the ranks of bank CASH
| iers, but / never heard of cleaner bit OF
| work than that. 1t was, l think, bit or
| absolute genius.
| .'Of course, Little Johnny and his as
| sistants had only to pack their tools and
| get back to New York. They weren't in a
position to say anything about how they
| had been fooled. Little Johnny had to
| read in the afternoon papers the account
| of how the bank had been robbed of cash
| and securities 'approximating 100000 in
| amount, and grind his teeth. The bank .
| failure was announced a few days later.
Two months after that it fell to my lot
to take him up to Sing Sing on New York
| Central train One of the indictments
| against him was pressed for some reason
| or other and he got five-year stunt. The
| train we took for the Sing Sing prison was
a local affair, and it stopped at all the little
| stations. Little Johnny who sat next to
| the window, looked idly out at the loungers
| around the stations. At one of the sta
tions not far from Sing Sing 1 noticed his
| face suddenly darken with rage, and L
| asked him what was up. He pointed out
| a slick-looking man who was sitting in a
| dogcart beside the station, and he cursed
| him in a blood-curdlng way for two min
utes before he was able to tell me the story
I've told you. The man in the dogcart
| was the cashier who had been crafty
| enough to put it all over Little Johnny
| Hope, probably the most willy criminal in
| his particular line who ever operated in
| this country. The failure of the bank
| hadn't hurt the cashier at all in the esti-
| nation of his townsmen-bank was robbed
by cracksmen. y see. and how could the
cashier help it? oh, that cashier was
| good. all right.
well, it wasn't up to me to say any
| thing about what Little Johnny had told
me, although / frequently saw the cashier
| flying high in New York after that. I lost
| track of him after couple of years. how
| ever and concluded that he had struck out
| for the west or somewhere or another
| with his beautifully contrived rakedown
| from the Westchester County Bank.
| He was the emaciated, palsied old vag
! I saw in Jefferson Market police court last
| week"
| Turtle Scares a Family.
From the Baltimore Sun.
| A pet turtle belonging to a youthful men,
i bar 81 70, Iso1,,