The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-08-07
CODES AND SIGNALS
USED BY CRIMINALS.
Transmission of News and In
structiOn.

Great Difficulties in the Way of Safe
Transmission of News and In
structiOn.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.
So elaborate and ingenious as to
appear almost incredible are the meth
DDS by which professional criminals
communicate with their accomplices
| Nobody knows better than the rogues
themselves that by sending their mes
sages through the ordinary channels
| they place both their liberty and their
plans in jeopardy. But 1t is so import
ant that they communicate with each
other swiftly and secretly, to elabo-
rate some scheme of rascality or to
give warning of danger from the au-
thorities, that the clever criminals set
up peculiar postoffices that are dis
tinctly their own.
The United States secret service
agents and the United States Postal
Inspectors run across a large number
of varied systems of this kind. From
the stories they tell of "Postoff1cesf
they have discovered, 1t appears that
nothing is too audacious for men play
ing a game the loss of which means
for them a term in stripes behind the
bars.
"Out in Iowa a few months ago."
said a secret service man who was
transferred recently to an Eastern sta
tion. myself and four of my asso-
ciates were detailed on a battling case
of counterfeiting. The state had been
flooded with spurious coins and some
less cleverly made banknotes, and later
it appeared that the same stuff was
going into all parts of the country.
We couldn't locate the plant, and it
was evident that the work of manu-
facture and distribution was being d.
rected by a master mind that was
wise enough never to go near the
plant.
There was a suspicious newcomer
in a small town on the Mississippi
river, who attracted our attention. He
was a man of some education and very
reserved. He lived in fine style in one
of the best houses in the place. We
watched him for nearly a month. There
was nothing to give any force to our
suspicion, but we kept him under eye.
He never got a letter at the town
postoffice that he was not willing that
any one should see. In fact, he very
frequently red them on his way home,
and then threw them carelessly into
the street. They were innocent APP
pearing notes, all of them, containing
not a clue.
Every morning at about O'Clock a
young milkman went to the mans
house and left a quart tin of milk.
The milkman was a newcomer, too.
He had arrived about a week before
the other fellow, and had bought out
a small dairy with money which he
said had been left him by his father
A stout cook at the fine strangers kit
chen always took the can of milk
and handed the young milkman the
can that had been left the day prev
ious.
These cans, as we learned after
ward, had false bottoms In which let
ters were placed-letters to and from
the fine appearing newcomer. The
letters were from the men who were
operating the plant (Which we SUISSE
quently uncovered in a town so
miles away and from agents in vari-
ious cities who were Showing the
queer The answers were the master
minds instructions. The milkman and
The milkman had been set up in bus
mess there for the sole purpose of
delivering the correspondence that d.
rected the whole works."
The operator of a notorious get-rich-
quick concern eluded the police when
a raid was made recently upon his
establishment upon complaints Of a
score or more of persons in several
states that they had lost many thou
sand dollars. He secreted himself UNI
der certain plain DISCUSSES In a tene-
ment house in a street in New York
not more than a dozen blocks from
police headquarters. Several postof-