The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-02
TACTICS OF JEWEL THIEVES.
HAULs MADE BY SERVANTS AND
SKILLED wORkMEN.

Most Robberies Committed Now
from the Inside-Three Thefts by
the Peerless CInrisse-A fearful
English Thief - Complaints
Against Decorator.
From the New York Sun.
Nearly all of these big jewel rob-
berries nowadays are inside jobs-that
is, they're framed up and put through
by lags of REGARD, who wax the lay of
establishments while employed as
high class servants or as skilled work
men during the progress of repairs or
refurnishing" said an old-time head
quarters man, an exmember of Byrnes'
staff, Fewer of these inside jobs have
been turned off in New York of late
years than in some of the other big
cities of the country, notably Chicago
and San Francisco, for the reason that
the mistress of big New York estab-
lishments learned the lesson of inves-
tigating servants references some time
ago.
'As a matetr of fact, there are plen-
ty of jewel robberies happening in rich
houses in New York right along that
never get into the papers owing to the
disinclination of the victims to stand
for the notoriety involved Few of these
of course, are on such big scale as
that recent job that started me off on
this line of talk, but some of them are
pretty sizeables
"A French girl who. came to this
country in 1889 with highly, commen-
datory and perfectly genuine letter of
recommendations took her pick of the
stuff in the jewel boxes of three
wealthy New York families inside of
two years and got away without ever
seeing the tint of the rust on New
| York cell grating, The girl had been
employed as maid for four years by a
French woman, and had always. been
on the level a
| But while she was still in that em-
| ploy she met up with a French crook,
went daft on him and married him. 1t
| didn't take her crook husband long to
Svengali her, and, although he couldn't
get her to pinch the jewelry of her
| French mistress, she announced her
readiness to join him on other jobs of
the kind.
"She withdrew from the service of
| her French mistress on the, plea of do
mestic duties, and got her fine letter
of refernce. Then she and her husband
| drilled for the states, where he, hav-
ing operated similarly here before with
another woman, knew where the pick
! ing were to be had.
The girl caught on right away as
maid for a rlch- Madison avenue
widow, and inside of a couple of
| months the widow and her only
daughter thought that Clarisse was
about the only black-eyed young wo-
man that had ever crossed the seas.
Then it happened.
"One evening the widow and her
daughter returned from a tea or some
thing like that and found that they
were ABOUT $4,000 to the wrong in the
| matter of jewelry. When they told
Clarisse about it she promptly and
sklllfully tainted, and when she came
10 she was hysterical, for had not she
peen in madame's apartments nearly
! all the afternoon, with the exception
OIL perhaps the half-hour she had spent
in the kitchen with the cook?
The widow and her daughter COM
| Iorted Clarisse and let her use their
smelling salts and gave her quietine
powder. They didn't suspect Clarisse
nor dream of such thing.
They came to Headquarters. How.
ever, strictly stipulating that the re-
| port OF the robbery shouldn't be made
| public, and they further tied the hands
| or the two Headquarters men who were
assigned to the case by absolutely de-
! Ginning to permit them even to uues-
tlon any of the servants. That was
about as good as calling 1t off. If
| "A telephone repairer who happened
| 10 visit the house to fix the phone on
| the afternoon of the robbery was nut
under the gun, but he didn't have any
trouble in squaring himself The de-
tectlves hadn't at the windup of their
investigation, even seen any of the
house. servants except the doorman.
They had their line of thinks on that
subject when they were compelled to
turn in their reports of nothing do
ing, but the widow who was the loser
had will of her own and she STAYED
with her foolish defense of her SER
wants. ....
About month later yCfarisse. in
| great grief, showed her mistress a let
| ter from her sister in France, begging
| her to return to Paris to visit the bed
side of their mother, who, the latter
stated, was dying of cancer. The
widow was so sorry for Clarisse in her
trouble that she paid her a couple of
| months extra wages and dug up for
her her fare to France.
But she didn't see Clarisse off on
| the boat. Clarisse didn't take any
boat She got another job, this time
| as maid for the daughter of a mil
| lionaire iron man, residence on upper
Fifth avenue.
"You don't have to be able TO lool,
through a stone wall to see what an
edge Clarisse had for operations in her
| second job-she hadn't even been seen
by any of the headquarters men when
the first robbery was pulled off. II
didn't take her long to fimfam her
second mistress into believing that she.
Clarisse. was worth her weight in -u-
! bies and more, and when, after Clarisse
had been holding down her second lob
for about ten weeks, the young lady's
| jewel box went on the minus side to
the extent of about $4,000 one night.
Clarisse wasn't dreamed of as being in
on the job.
"The Headquarters men got all of the
servants, including the sad-eyed Cla-
risse, under the nozzle, but the job was
| too deep. For two or three reasons a
! footman of the household was placed
in the headquarters chambers of great
est temperature, but he came out all to
the good. and the case slumped. It
hadn't been given to the papers at all.
Clarisse worked another letter about
her cancerous mother not long after
the robbery and left her mistress in
tears to take the big boat fo- Gaul.
1.-THE girl switched her name to Fiji
and landed in another swagger berth
with New York family. Fiji knew
| that the game was about all up, and so
| this time she went right after the goods.
She pinched about $4,000 worth of the
shiny ones a week after she took the
job, and drilled.
"She was, of course. known to be the