The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-13
Treasures of MOneyed Con-
Germs Are Now Pretty
Safe From Thieves
VAULTS ARE PERFECT
Petty PilferePs Have Taken the Place
OF Old-Time Crooks - Famous
Hauls That Startled the
Financial World.

The modern burglar alarm not only
renders 1T utterly impossible for one
TO disturb vault protected with it
without detection, but it also gives a
signal at the first attempt to raise a
window, file a bar or enter q door 60
thoroughly does it protect the depos-
ltorles of great wealth that it has de-
ned all of the wonderful skill of the
craftsman, until today the few liv-
ing experts of that class of crooks are
found either in abject poverty or de-
voting the genius which brought them
InlIllons twenty years ago to the prac-
ice OF crime of the most petty char
acter One can scarcely fail to notice
the utter absence of great bank rob-
berleS during the past five or ten
years. A few have successfully per-
formed in that time, put with one
single exception the money was OBJ
tanned during banking hours from the
cashier as he glanced down the barrel
OF siX-shooter. The exception was
when stranger engaged a bank cash
Ter in conversation while he hooked
out roll Of bills with the aid of a
piece of wire from under the officials
nose.
The electrical burglar alarm of to-
day. the great modern safes, which
Will even resist dynamite, are the re-
suit of series of bank robberies ex-
tending over period of twenty or
thirty years, which were conceived and
successfully carried out by a band of
criminals, many of whom are alive to-
DAY. Strange as it may SEEM these
men have driven themselves out of
business. The almost fabulous wealth
which they stole made the invention of
mechanical devices which would out
wit their skill necessary, and they
came in the course of time, until to-
day robbery like that of the Man
Of ha
ocean bank. of New York city, where
over $1,0O0,000 in money and securi-
ues were carried away, is wholly i'm
possible without collision with the
custodians of the vaults.
Talent Was Required.
Twenty years ago a bank robbery
with proceeds up in the hundreds of
thousands was possible but could only
ne carried out by men of brains and
skill, who had the patience to study
their enterprise Well before entering
upon it. Bank officials were not one
whit less vigilant in those days than
they are now, but the brain of the
crook had gone ahead of the brain of
the honest man, a condition hard to
understand today, when the very re-
verse is the fact. Few people have any
IDEA OF the amount of study put into
job by the cracksmen before any
real attempt to realize is made One
or the best living Illustrations of the
old school of crooks is Macmillan
Schoenbein, better known to the police
or the world as Count Max Shin
Durn. After defying the vault and safe
makers or the world and looting banks
IN this country and abroad for an ag-
gregate gain of $4,000 this great
criminal fell a victim to modern sci
ence. He was released not long ago
from the CLINTON N. Y, prison, after
a lVe years, term for robbing the Mid
QleDurg bank, pennileSS, gray with age
broken in health and spirit. The story
or the mans life is like a romance and
IS tull of chapters which one finds it
hard TO believe. In his prime he was
truly the greatest criminal in the world.
Ruloff, the butcher, who fought his
way to freedom scores of times over
the bodies of his own victims, ex-
celled him in daring, perhaps, but no
criminal that ever lived had his me-
chanical genius.
Sh1nburn is a German, was taught
the trade of machinist and Iocksmith
by his father, came to this country be-
fore he was seventeen years old, and
had launched on his career of crime
before he was eighteen. He had Won
derful skill as a locksmith and was
taken up by two noted criminals.
George Bliss and Fairy Mcclure,
whom he met in a New York gambling
ALOuSS+ AHey uSeu MIN IN rODD1ng a
New Jersey bank, and the success of
the venture was due primarily to his
skill. He progressed rapidly, and as
his ability became known in the
crook" world his services were in
constant demand. He probably engage
ed In twenty robberies before his name
became known to the authorities. He
had scarcely attained his majority
when he was planning out big rob-
berries for himself. At that time the
only safe in general use in banks and
business houses in this country was
that made by the Lilly company. Shin
burn figured that a man who could
master the secret of the Lilly com
bination could loot every Lilly safe in
the country
Learned the Secrets.
He decided to go to work for the
Lilly company Bliss and Mcclure
agreed to keep in funds while he stud-
led. Such an expert machinist as Shin
burn had no difficulty in getting the
Job he wanted. 1t took him over a
year to obtain all the knowledge he
needed for the successful consumma-
ton of the series or robberies he had
Planned, but he kept at the work with
patience. The most important discov-
cry ne made at the time was that a.
person with acute hearing could. bv
putting his ear near the lock of a J,ilIv
safe and turning the dial, discover at
what numbers the tumblers dropned
into place. He made a careful studv
of difficult combinations and is cred
tied with a discovery that is alleged to
have driven the Lilly safe out of the
market
He removed the combination from q
SAFE and then placed an impressionable