Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-12-29
CRIME CROWDS CRIME
CHICAGO SWEPT BY A vERITABLE
REIGN OF TERROR.
No 7Ian's Life or Property Seems to
Be Secure-EiGht Murders and ia
Robberies Is the Startling Record
for Sixty Days.


for Sixty Days.
Eight murders and ia holdups and
burglaries in the last sixty days is the
appalling record of crime in Chicago.
The community is under a reign of ter
ror, and conservative. men declare that
vigilance committees must be organized
and one or more murderers or thugs
lynched in order to check the despera-
does. Under present conditions LIE and
property are unsafe.
Thousands of peaceable citizens who
never carried a weapon before are car
rying arms to-day for self protection. In
many sections of the city women are
afraid to venture out after nightfall.
There has been a startling increase in
the sale of firearms lately. That the sale
has not been altogether to men of good
character is unquestionaly true.
Usually a determined and systematic
move by the police of cope with the Grim
inals of big city has the effect of driv-
ing the vicious element TO cover and to
a period of inactivity. Ever since the
fight with and capture of the car barn
bandits-Ean Dine, Niedermeier and
Roeski-fhere has been an epidemic of
robberieS murders and attempts at muir
der and robbery.
Before the inquests were held on the
detective who was killed by the bandits
at the Indiana dugout and the railway
brakeman who defended his train against
seizure by the outlaws and lost his life,
highwaymen waylaid and mortally
wounded a prominent lawyer who was
on his way to his home in an aristocratlc
residence district. This was James A.
Fullenwider, the attorney IN Chicago of
the Standard Oil Company, who, when
ordered by three highwaymen to throw
up his hands, did SO, but, thinking he
might escape, started to run to his home,
block distant. He received huitss IN
his back, which caused his death next
day. His murderers fed, and the police
are as yet without any clew to them.
The same night Albin Fox, wealthy
horse dealer of Rockford, H., who had
but just arrived in the city, was accosted
in the Northwestern Railroad station by
a stranger, who represented himself as
registered guide of the city. Fox en-
ployed the man, and in paying HIM dis
played a large roll of bills. AS they
were cNssing a bridge near the station
the guide suddenly turned upon the
horse dealer, beat him into insensibility
with a revolver, took $1,000 and fed.
Fox was found unconscious and sent to
the hospital.
These were only the chief crimes by
the local banditti for one night, for more
than a score of robberies were commit
ted that night.
The next night at late hour an ex-
pressman driving in the northwestern
part of the city discovered buggy with
out horse drawn across the street car
track He got off his wagon and pulled
the obstruction away from the rails. AS
he did so three men who were hiding IN
the shadows dashed upon him, and, ours
ing him for removing the buggy, beat him
almost to death and then took from his
pockets large sum, his days collec-
tions. The bandits had put the ostruc-
ton on the tracks intending to hold up
the next car and rob the conductor.
A robber holder than the average Chi
cagO highwayman operated at the same
time in territory a little east OF the
would-be ear holdup men. He mas
queraded with a poiiceman's star and
burglars black mask, using one or the
other as occasion required for his pur-
pose holding up and robbing six men
that night. He was captured, however,
and it is now ascertained that he IS guilty
of thirty robberies.
A bartender pursuing two burglars
who smashed the show window of a big
jewelry store early in the morning. and
who threatened to shoot if they did not
stop. got a bullet in the breast. be is
in the hospital. Two nights later the
postoffice at Winnetka, populous sub
urb. was entered by thieves, who blew
open the safe and got away with $1,OOO.
There is no clew to them.
A couple of nights later two robbers
visited haywood and burglarized seven
business places. On successive nights
several saloonkeepers, tailor, a grocer
and two Chinese laundrymen were held
ND and robbed in their places of business,
the bandits in each case obtaining large
sums Of money.
A movement is now taking place for
the formation of citizens protective com
mittees throughout the city. 1t is admit
ted that no man, woman or child is safe
after dark. Ones life may be taken by
a thieving thug at dusk within a stones
throw of the police station or public
building, with crowds passing almost at
arms length. What effect the wave OF
crime is having upon the minds of the
young is evidenced by recent arrests of
truants throughout the city. On most
of those arrested, and they were all IN
der 10 years, were found pistols, knives,
blackiacks and other dangerous weapons