Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-08-25
sAFE.BREAKING so EASY NOW.
Pinkerton Man Says There Are Few

Clever Burglars left.
"Any safe in the world that has a
square door can be opened in half an
hour, and all of the materials needed
are a half pint of nitro-glycerine,
cake of laundry soap and a five-cent
fuse"
This was the opinion expressed re-
Gently by T. H. Tollotson, western d.
vision chief Of the Pinkerton agency
who has run to earth many supposedly
clever bank burglars in the last ten
years. Mr.. Tollotson does not possess
a very high opinion of the modern bank
burglar.
1T no longer requires intelligence and
executive ability to crack SAFE said
he. There was a time when the safe
was the aristocrat Of theft
DOM Nowadays he is as likely to be
tramp as not. have picked them off
brakebeams with enough nitro-glycer-
inc in a bottle in their pockets to have
blown the coach to atoms If 1t had fall
len to the track.
I'm the old days bank burglars kit
of tools was large and heavy. 1t con-
sisted of steel wedges, drills. sledge
hammers and screw jacks. The door
of a safe had to be literally torn off in
sections, with a powder explosion now
and then to assist the operation. 1t
was an all-night job for three or four
men and they went after vaults that
had big money inside them.
"They have no counterparts nova
days. The bank burglar Of modern
times is content with small returns.
Isolated country banks where there is
no police protection and pursuit can
not be organized for hours are his chief
prey. Then big guns Of a quarter Of
a century ago would never kill. Adam
Worth, whom the Pinkerton agency
respects as the greatest thief of the
century, never carried a revolver and
would not associate with any crook
who carried one. He did not care to
face a murder charge. The safe blower
of today goes armed to the teeth and
shoots to kill.
I'm the last three years we have
caught thirty safe blowers in this Sec
tion and only two of them had police
records. This is because a new method
Of cracking has been invented and
every tramp in the country knows how
it is done. 1t is so simple a process
that hundreds of hoboes go into the
business every year.
"They travel in pairs or trios, and af-
ter-spotting a crib gain all the infor-
nation they can about the habits of the
town marshal. They plan to pull off
the burglary just before a freight train
is due to start, or often they steal a
horse and buggy and have the team
ready to drive across country and catch
q train. A tramp hangout, such as is
found close to every western town, Is
headquarters, and this is far enough
away to keep out of sight Of officers.
Stormy nights are most favored, when
the wind is banging shutters and 9TH
erwise making noise.
tro-glycerine is not for sale IN
stores, but dynamite is. The burglar
buys a stick or two, unwraps 1t and puts
it in a can Of boiling water. After 1t
SINNERS for a few hours he has a neat
batch of the dope nitro-glycerine.
This, being heavier than water, sinks
to the bottom. The water is drained
off and the nitro poured into a bottle.
1T is necessary that the bottle must
be filled to the cork. If even a small
space is left for the mass to slosh
around it might blow up its possessor.
The stuff Is highly explosive, so much
so that if you stand a bottle of it on
a table and shoot off gun in the next
room there will be something doin'
right away.
when the chap goes to town he
hangs this bottle in little bag tied
to a string and hung next his chest, so
that if arrested the stuff will not be
found. The remainder Of his kit con-
sists of a cake Of soap, a piece or
soft putty, fuse and some matches.
"One man only enters. The others
stand guard and block off inquisitiVe
citizens reused by the noise. The man
inside works in the dark and with rap
idity. He pastes the soap or putty all
around the safe door, closing the crack
Here he forms the soap or putty into
a little cup and pours the liquid nitro
into it. This seeps down and into the
space between the door and safe, and
the burglar keeps pouring until the safe
is full.
Then he takes his fuse, black
string the length of lead pencil, with
a detonating cap on the end, puts this
cap into the putty cap at the top OF
the door and lights the other end. He
crouches behind the safe or on one side
of it and awaits the explosion. II the
man understands his business 1t is not
a loud one. In our Investigations we
have found that about one in ten Is
heard by people outside of the bank,
t en- by those living upstairs.
But it makes a terrific racket in
side. One fellow told me he was as
deaf as post for days after each
wrecking. The nitro-glycerine simply
rips the door to pieces and opens a
place for the burglar TO reach in. He
lights a piece Of candle, overhauls the
contents as swiftly as he can, makes
bundle Of them and lights out
1.-The trick is so simple and quickly
done that not once in ten times are the
thieves caught. Before daylight comes
they are miles away, hidden in some
wooded place. If the haul is big one
they divide 1t and separate. Western
banks to the number of 300 have been
looted I'm the last five or six years. un-
til it has become necessary to band to-
gether organize d mutual protection
society and turn the Pinkertons loose
on every case. This has lessened the
thing for u time but there are periodic
Recently l rounded up three men
who had served terms for bank break
ing. On each we found half Il pint of
nitro -glycerine. They had fifty pieces
Of fuse, two revolvers apiece, Il shot
gun i'm box. bar of yellow soap. thir-
ty rounds of cartridges and three doZ-
Ell sandwiches. Their leader told me
the sandwiches were to eat while they
were making their escape across coun-
try from Il bank they had spotted to
rob that night.
1.-The only WAY to prevent these rob-