Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-10-08
GERMAN THIEVES WHO KILL.
Many Here NOw-Their Readiness 4
Slay Attributed to Atheism.

Many Here NOw-Thefr ReRu1ness to
Slay Attributed to Atheism.
There is reason, in the opinion of ex-
pert thief catchers, to believe tnat
most of the acts Of violence committed
by burglars in and about New YORK IN
the last few weeks have been the work
of one class of criminals. This class
is known to the police as German
thieves.
The American thief is like the Eng
lish thief and the Irish crook in that
he hesitates to use violence save in case
of great danger to himself. Most
thieves, especially housebreakers, car
ry pistols when engaged on job, but
the pistol is more for the purpose OF
intimidation than anything else.
The German thief Is entirely differ-
ent from the others. He carries gun
for the purpose of using it on any one
who puts his life or his liberty, espe-
cially the latter, in danger. He Will
use the gun on the slightest provoca-
ton, and invariably shoots to kill.
Almost all German thieves are house.
breakers. Detectives in this city say
that 60 per cent. Of the house bur-
glaries that occur here are the work OF
German thieves. ManpEflat robberies
are the work of Negroes, who belong
especially in the class known to the
police as sneaks.
There is hardly police detective OF
experience in this city who does not be-
lieve that the Latimer killing In Brook
lyn was the work of a German crook.
The job bore all the earmarks. 1t was
similar to many other shootings COM
mitted under the same conditions by
German crooks.
Fritz Meyer, the murderer of the old
church bell ringer in Brooklyn; the
murderer Of Policeman Smith, who
caught him robbing the poorbox of
Catholic church in Manhattan, and
probably the murderer of a number Of
other persons, was a true type of the
German crook. Greenwall, hanged
years ago in Raymond Street Jail in
Brooklyn for a murder similar to that
Of Latimer, were others of the same
stripe.
They were men who would shoot
man, woman or child without a mo-
ment's hesitation If caught in rob-
berry. They were men who shot to kill,
and after killing they faced death
themselves with amazing Indifference
when the law condemned them.
Many detectives find in this latter
characteristic an explanation of the
willingness Of German thieves to shoot
and kill without hesitation. They say
that these men are all atheists, that
they kill others with the same indif-
ference that they face death them
selves.
They point to the murder Of German
suicides as proof of this. The Ger
man thieves will hold to life as long as
they can, killing others in order to
lengthen their own days, but once they
see the end has come, they are stoical
and fearless. thoroughly believeing that
it is the end Of all things for them.
Detectives find that German crooks
prefer death to Imprisonment. and are
not deferred from killing people who
corner them by the fear of execution.
as thieves Of all other classes are.
A detective on the staff of Captain
Titus of this city told a reporter the
other day that there were more German
crooks along the Bowery now than
there had been for years.
You can find dozens of them around
the lodging houses" he said, many
of them young men Of rs and 80. They
hang together because thieves of other
nationalities will not work with them.
american thieves are not fond of
hanging and the Germans proneness to
shoot is well known to them. A Ger
man will kill rather than be captured
and risk n term in prison.
IAN American thief, in fact any 9TH
er kind of thief, will take a dozen terms
rather than face a charge of murder.
That is because away down deep in him
is the fear of God which doesn't exist
i'm the German at all.'-New York Sun.