The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-01
CuIcAGo,s BOY BANDITS.

CHlCAOOS HOY BANDAISs
Boys who are inclined to hang
breathlessly over hair raising stories of
the Jesse James" and "Wild Bill' va
riety ought to be interested in the mar
rative of the careers of Van Dine,
Neidermeier, Marx and Roeski, the
youthful car barn" murderers of
Chicago; and they ought to follow it
to the concluding chapter. The end
is not far away, and it will contain a
lesson that most stories of the careers
of outlaws lack. Ordinarily the blood
and-thunder story leaves its outlaw
hero free, roaming where he will, the
terror and admiration of all beholders.
But in real life things do not turn
out that way. The four boys whose
names have been mentioned started out
to be story book bandits. For long
time they had been absorbing the dan
gerous trash telling of the exploits of
the James boys in Missouri, of wild
Bill" and Texas Jack" and host of
other such characters. From reading
these stories, they desired to initiate
the leading men in them.
And to an extent they succeeded
They became the most heartless, cruel
villains of the period, killing sometimes
for money and sometimes for the mere
lust of shedding blood. On one oc-
casion they killed man and got $2.37
off his body. Another time they kill
ed a man and got Sc off his body.
THE value of human life was going
up with us them" said one of the muir
derers. And after that they went
for bigger game" never hesitating to
murder xhoTnsoever might stand in the
way of the accomplishment of their
designs. In their confessions-and one
OF them has asserted that he commit
ted murders and robberies for which
innocent people are being punished
these boys have evinced not the slight
est trace of repentance or regret. Dead
to all moral sensibilities, they have
rather gloried in their bloody deeds.
But the time for them to reflect Is
at hand. They have nothing to do
now but contemplate the moose and
ignominious death on the gallows at
the end of few short weeks. In the
solitude of their cells. with the GER
tainty of death constantly staring them
in the face, they will be apt to realize,
IL never before, that the way of the
transgressor is hard, and that their
adoption of the lives of boy bandits
was a terrible error.
These youths cannot claim that they
never had a chance" With possibly
one exception, their parents were re-
spectacle and fairly well-to-do persons,
earning honest livings and enjoying
the esteem of their neighbors. The
boys received grammar school educa-
tions, and one of them studied in
highI school after graduating from
the grammar school. They were taught
trades, in which they became prof.
Client. There was an abundance of
work offering for them, at good wages,
so that there was no necessity for them
to become criminals. But from their
evil reading they developed abnormal
desires, and seeking vicious companions
they fell into vicious ways. When their
moral natures had been dulled they de-
ternined to quit working and look for
easy money" The means of secur-
ing 'easy money they thought they
had found in the systematic series of
hold-ups, murders and robberies which
they so successfully pursued for a
year or more. During that time, ac-
cording to their own confessions, they
killed not less than six people,
while It is likely that the deaths Of
others will be traced to their murderous
hands.
But the outraged law was on their
track and they will meet the fate they
SO richly deserve. Meanwhile in sew
eral homes there are mothers, sisters
and sweethearts of these hoy bandits"
who are weeping out their broken
hearts on their pillows.
-S-o-~---