Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-06
HOME OF BIG CROOKS
New York Seems to Offer
Them Immunity.
FEW EVER PUNISHED
USUALLY INCRIMINATE VICTIMS
IN NEFARIoUs SCHEMES.
Other Large Cities Get Rid Of Such by
Simply Warning Them
Away.
FEW EVER PUNISHED
cial Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

NEW YORK, December ), 1902.
The almost absolute immunity from pun
ishment by the New York authorities of the
very highest class Of crooks-if SO paradox
ical phrase may be employed-is dim-
cult matter to explain, except upon the
theory that the punitive authorities OF New
York regard the aristocracy of crookdom
as rather desirable element In the society
| Of community. At the present hour
there are residing in this town something
| like 300 thirty-third degree crooks. fellows
whose portraits are not only on file In the
| rogues' gallery of the New York police
| department. but many Of them adorn the
| rogues' books OF most of the major cities
|. of the world.
In none Of the other large cities are these
men allowed any sort of rope whatever.
| They are no sooner recognized by the police
| than they are ordered to depart. There Is
| scarcely an exception to this latter rule
among the big cities. Even Chicago. a
| city that Is quite unique for disorderliness
| that seems almost fneradicable, has its pc
riodical roundups of the crooks of 'emi-
nence" in their peculiar fields. The pain.
| everyday thugs are apparently permitted
| to operate there with little or no restraint,
| but the dangerous swindlers and schemers
and confidence men, and the burglars ana
thieves Of renown, find Chicago no snug
harbor.
The notorious ones come pretty near being
recognized within the space of an hour in
Washington. When he is recognized, out
Of Washington he has got to go, whether
he has actually committed any offense In
Washington or not The simple fact that
he Is known enemy Of society, and that
he is liable at any moment to raise his
| hand against society, is considered enough
Rob Their Best Home.
Now. it would be extraordinary enough If
these several hundred of skillful crooks who
make their usual headquarters In New
York, were simply permitted to remain here
as upon a bit of neutral territory, enjoying
the fruits of forays in other communities.
But that is not their status in New York
at ALL They work here, a good many Of
them. most of the time, and yet how often
does one hear of one Of the top-notcners
among the professional crooks being con-
victed in New York? True, one of them Is
occasionally arrested for big operation,
often involving thousands of dollars, but
when one makes it his particular business,
for the purpose of studying the situation,
Of watching the progress Of this arrested
| crooks case, he almost invariably finds that
the arrested chap slips out of his scrape
somehow-in nine cases out of ten, strange
to say, before his little matter ever reaches
a trial
The confidence men. fake wire tappers and
all-around persuasive grafters ins particular
have wonderful success in patching up what
might almost be called compositions with
the autnOTlIleS alter pulling Ol CoupS, tiic
details of which fill columns Of the news
papers For example. there Is very
famous swindler over here whose boast Is
that the smallest amount he has extracted
from any of his carefully worked good
things since he began business" is $1,000
| and from what one knows of his marvellous
| record as a deluder of weak humankind it
| is certain that his boast Is well based Only
a couple of months ago he contrived to de-
plete the exchequer of wealthy old New
York woman by $2o,eOO.
How He Worked the Game.
His method was. as usual with him,
highly scientific. He made exhaustive ad-
vance Investigations as to the old lady's
family including all of the younger
branches thereof and in the course of this
task he discovered the fact that she had a
nephew who had mysteriously disappeared
In his boyhood and had never been heard
of afterward. The confidence man, ascer-
tanning this useful fact Immediately pre-
scented himself to the rich woman as her
long-lost nephew. He had found out SO
much about her family that he had little
difficulty in convincing her, and her delight
was so extreme that she Immediately Of
fered to adopt him. However, it wasn't his
graft as the term Is, to be adopted by an
old aunt and be provided with moder-
ate allowance of pocket change. He wanted
big money, and he wanted 1t quick. So he
framed up his little scheme and put II
through without the least trouble. He in
tered the profession of electricity, and he
told her in q persuasive whisper that he
had devised a system Of wireless telegra-
ply that would force Marconi to sell all
of his paraphernalia for junk. In proof
whereof he exhibited to her certain simple
electrical apparatus, with spark attach
ment that looked extremely mysterious,
and therefore wonderful, to the old lady,
and he even took her over to one OF the
suburbs to show her where he wanted to
erect one of the stations of his wireless
IL
detail In connection with this station, how
ever, he told her, that was bothering him
he was required by the owners OF the prop
erty to purchase it outright-the purchasing
price being the mere bagatelle Of $4,000.
She gave her eloquent and ingenious neph-
ew" the sos 900. That was all. She had him
arrested. He stuck to the nephew part OF
the story, executed an injured innocence
act that caused the court attaches who
had known him well for years to smile in
their mustaches, reduced the old lady to
tears by his protestations that his eiectri-
cal scheme, while it had promised we'll in
his view had proven failure-and the old
lady withdrew her complaint The swim
dler. whose portrait Is stuck In every rogues
gallery rack from here to Vienna and far
tner could hardly repress his grins he
walked out of the court room.
A Saloon Keeper Swindled.
A very few days after this case was so
neatly disposed of the most famous of the
New York gang Of fake wire tappers cap
tured the confidence Of saloon keeper, In
credible as it may seem, to the tune of
$12. GOETHE rum sellers savings Of life
time. The saloon man. in a state of col
lapse in the magistrates court over the loss
Of his money, told his simple, fearful story.
The magistrates reply was a sneer. II.
however, was a justifable sheer, for was
t. the effect that the saloon keeper had
proven himself as much of a crook as the
professional In that he had devoted his s12,-
600 toward the furtherance of a swindling
scheme. The swindler was discharged and
the saloon man Jared forth weeping so
strenuously that the court cops virtually
threw him out Of the room for creating a
disturbance.
And 1t is thus that the great majority OF
these professional crook cases come out In
New York. The thieves do not have to
stand for one conviction In ten. 1t Is true
that the majority of the schemes they oper-
ate leaving out OF consideration the work
Of the out-and-out bank burglars, forgers
and crooks, so arrange their plans as to in
volve their victims in equal criminaiity
with them In most cases. but In most places
even the crooks who are crafty enough to
do this get their punishment. And so It
comes to pass that in that short Broadway
stretch that lies between 33d street and
Long Acre square. one may see any after
noon some hundreds of well-fed. we'll
groomed crooks Of International reputation.
standing in front of the garish groggeries