The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-21
OLD SAYING A MYTH.
NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES. SAYS
A DETECTIVE.

burglars Who Robbed Three
Others-CrOoIS SwindIcs CrooL-One
Diamond Snatcher Who Was Swim
died by Another.
From the New York Sun.
when that trio of strong-arm men
stuck up one of their pals the other
night for a parcel of swag he possessed,
some of the newspaper accounts, no.
tice, somewhat mournfully suggested that
the incident presaged the passing of the
proverbial honor among thieves" remark
ed retired detective sergeant
of the Byrnes regime to reporter. Now,
that's misleading stuff. There never
was any honor among thieves. never
knew a crook yet that wouldn't do his
pal as quick as he'd eat plate of ham
and eggs.
"a little more than twenty years ago
three class A cracksmen of this town
framed UP a promising bank job over in
Paterson. The thing went through in
bully shape. They put the Waterman
under the gun when he stepped to the
banks front door to get a breath of air
and they had him cordaged up and gag
ged in the basement before he knew where
he was at.
THE vault was an ordinary comblna-
ton affair without any double or time
lock contrivances, and 1t was dead easy
for men who knew how to handle the
blow-pipe and the nitro. They got her
open after an hours work, and 1t just
looked like a world was their'n, 50 to
speak, for there was $4,000 in new cur
rency in plain sight They let the heavy
gilt stuff alone and made a leisurely job
of dividing the loot into thre equal parts
of $4,000 for each man.
1.-THE lookout or outside man abandon
ed his post in front of the door to be
in at the division when he knew the safe
was hanging from its hinges. The three
were sitting inside the vaule, stufflng the
currency into their clothes and planning
for their different hiding places when
two cops suddenly appeared at the en-
trance of the vault and covered the three
of them. 1t was all so sudden that the
fins of the three went straight up.
while one of the cops kept the three
covered by the simple gun-fanning pro
cess, the other went behind 'em and deity
removed their shooting tools. Then he
quite as deftly distracted the bundles OF
currency from the pockets of each. This
done, MaTCn! Salu LHe Two cups " hhS
three craftsman. The cops marched the
three down to the basement where the
Waterman was still tied up Then they
executed a walking backward move, still
covering the three, got out the iron door
at the back leading into the alley. slam
med the door which closed with spring
lock, and the three cracksmen were neatly
hobbled.
''They hadn't any tools, and so they
couldn't get out OF that basement. They
united the Waterman and ordered him to
turn them loose, but they had collared
the watchman's keys upstairs before
dragging him to the cellar and the keys
were stin upstairs. So the three cracks
men and the watchmen were found to-
gether in the basement on the following
day.
1.-THE cracksmen's story that they them
selves had been stuck up by a couple of
cops was secuted, and when The watch
man chimed in and stated that the story
was true, he was Immediately under sus-
picion of having been in cahoots with
the nitro men. The Waterman had hard
time in squaring himself, and came neal
doing his bit over the road. He stuck to
the COP story so persistently, that the
COP on the bank beat and the man on the
adjoining beat had to make all kinds OF
explanatio as to their whereabouts on
the night of the robbery. To square
themselves both had to own that they had
been taking maps and produce witnesses
to that effect, and both lost their badges.
The three cracksmen got ten-year stretch
es in Trenton.
Now, these two cadets in the rigouts
of cops were Chicago bank burglars
They'd come East to wait for the graft
to pick M a bit in their home town, and
L., fbautA
about the details of this Paterson Job.
1t looked like ready money and no work,
and so they went to one of the cellar
costumers in this town and had their
measures taken for policemen's suits.
Then they went to Paterson on the APP
pointed night and just stood by until their
time came. Then they made Their play,
and 1t sure was q neat and profitable
one.
"They got away with the goods and the
story didn't get Ground for three or four
years afterward Then one of the Chi
cago putty blowers got glibly drunk one
night and spun the yarn. Now, II there
was ever anything in this honor among
thieves pipe-dream you would naturally
suppose that these two 'ud have been os-
tracised by their pals who heard of their
profitable masquerade as cops in Pater-
son. Nothing of the sort happened. The
gang patted 'em on the back and ha-ha'd
over the picture OF the three Eastern
nitro men locked up in the basement with
the watchmen.
"These two are still in business in Chi
cago, but they're strong arm men now.
One of them was kicked almost over the
edge Of the Big Divide by two of the
Eastern cracksmen after the latter got
out Of Trenton, but he probably didn't
mind little thing like that. remember
ing all the fun he'd had with his end Of
that $4,000 that had been picked up with
so little trouble.
"Spark- grafters-lhat Is to say diamond