Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-08
TRICKS OF CRIMINALS.

'In my study of crime and crimi- nals," said the budding criminologist, II have observed one thing which has not been given so much importance by the men who claim to be expert in such matters, and it has afforded food for some rather interesting reflections so far as any personal taste is con- cerned. The criminal is an icono- clast. The iconoclasm of crime is one of the most interesting things I have found during the time l have been studying the question. By refecting a moment we can see the destructive, tearing down element of flowers and pick away the petals with utter reck- lessness, or it would hammer dainty piece of sculpture into smith ereens, or besmear one of Raphaefs or Angelo's pictures with extrava- gant indifference. But to come back to the criminal class, crime is essen tially icoDoclastic in that it seeks the destruction of some other persons rights by the theft of property, or take the burning of building, or the talk ing of life, or the mutilation of of hu- man bodies, as in the case of Jack the Ripper. However, had in my mind another class of iconoclasm, the dis position among imprisoned criminals to deface and destroy things about them. They will smash water buck cts, cut and carve the walls, tear up the bed clothing and do other things of this kind. They are not doing it out of spite, or for the purpose of escape, but just simply to destroy something. I know of one instance where man set fire to his bed clothing, and then yelled to the jailer to extinguish the i, r.I-.N1 1,.N T s.l said he just wanted to destroy the bed, he halloed simply to keep the in- mates of the jail from being burned to death. 1 recall another case of young woman who had been arrested on a serious charge. She was born criminal. Some time during the night she had torn her clothes into shreds, and when the desk sergeant went to her cell he found her perfectly naked. At her feet he noticed bundle of rags, the torn and tattered remnants of what she had worn. The ser geant thought she had been mad and committed the act while in an un- happy mood. But she smilingly told him she was in the best of humor, but that she just wanted to tear something to pieces, and really got great deal of pleasure out of it. The prisons of y amples of the iconoclasm of crime in this limited sense, and the public off cials who are charged with the en- forcement of the criminal law have many opportunities of observing it.
 Crime has made considerable prog reSs in these latter days" remarked an old police officer, sbuts one thing has been impressed on me more than any other thing in connection with the lives of hardened criminals. Of course, all offenders make an effort to escape detection and arrest. This is the first necessary thing with them, and they do all they can to throw the officers of the law off of the right trail. But the greatest talent shown by crooked men has been along diff ferent lines. The thing they study most is the matter of escaping after resort to very clever schemes to get they are arrested. Occasionally they out of jail, and occasionally they work them, too. 1 remember the case of very shrewd crook whom female aid- ed. She was in the habit of visiting the jail every day or so and handing the fellow bas- ,ket dwith lunchs7ih it. The Sunday ,services4int the jailSwePe generally con- tlueted hyoa4man Who Fhad white side whiskers, and he wore long coat and slough hat. While services were still going on one Sunday in the jail, the door which opened into the main body of the jail was rattled as usual when some person wanted to pass out. The turnkey responded and found a gentleman with white side whiskers, a long black coat and slouch hat standing at the door. I want to pass out for just a moment he said, with an ecclesiastical air, and the turnkey let him out. Shortly after this the jail services were brought to a close and the real preacher appeared at the door of the jail. The turnkey was paralyzed. At first he refused to let the real preacher out, but when he found that he was the real article he let him pass through the door. The preacher remained to clear up the mystery, and to find out who his dou- ble was. The truth was quickly learned The shrewd crook had es- caped. Several days afterward 1t was found that the woman who had been bringing the apparently harm less dinner pail to the jail was snug gling things to the crook, and in this way she had furnished him with the white side whiskers, the long coat and the slouch hat. The woman had left town with the man she had liberated, and so far as know they were never apprehended. It was a clever ruse, but by no means new, except in the imitation of a preacher, and this new feature of the matter probably dis armed the turnkey and caused him to fail to scrutinize the man closely enough to detect the scheme"
 "I have known of other cases equal ly as remarkable" the officer contin-