Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-22
"Yeggmen" Are the Most
Dangerous of Criminals.
USE HIGH EXPLOSIVES
ARE GETTING MORE AND MORE
DARING EVERY YEAR.
Ever Ready to Commit Murder If
Necessary-More Stringent Laws
Needed to Suppress Them.

The roundup In Baltimore of more than
| q score of alleged 'yeggmen" has revived
interest in that particular class of crooks.
1t is admitted by the police departments
and federal officers that the ''yeggmen"
form the most dangerous class of crooks of
the present day. Too much attention can
not be given this class OF offenders. the po
lice say. because their work Is of a nature
that Is likely to cause death and destruc-
ton Of property every time they make an
effort to commit a robbery. Capt. William
A. Pinkerton. who is at the head OF the
noted detective agency. has given much
thought and attention to the ''yeggs" and
has done his best to impress upon the police
departments the necessity for running
down the criminals every time they commit
a depreciation. Some police officials go so
far as to advance the theory that ''yegg-
men" are not much short of being murder
ers and that the penalty for their crimes
should be death.
When a man a deadly explosive"
said a local detective to a Star reporter,
''he cannot tell what the outcome Will be.
The explosive Is just likely to cause
death as 1t is to stop at the blowing open
of the door of a safe and exposing the con-
tents of the iron steel structure
He reasoned that a man who is so re-
gardess of human life is really a murderer
at heart and should be punished according
ly. The detective recalled the days when
the ''yeggmen" fourished in a place nearer
this city than Baltimore To start with,
he said the term ''yeggmen" came from the
slang expression 'legmen." This latter
term. he said, was applied to those who
tramped over the roads. There are as
many as twenty or more men In some OF
these bands. he said. and each band or
mob" has leader or captain who Is
known as John Yegg." Many of those who
belong to such bands sell shoestrngs. writ
ing paper or novelties about the streets,
while occasionally cripple will carry cards
with him which contain an appeal for as
sistance and give a sad history of the one
who has them. They resort to all sorts of
means to throw the police off the track
and lead the average person to believe that
they are trying to do the right thing.
Active in Alexandria.
Several years ago. the detective explained.
when crowd of alleged "yeggmen" had
"hang-out'' in Alexandria, they COM
mitted a number of depredations in this
city. Two of their number finally met with
an accident while handling an explosive,
and were killed a short distance below the
city. After that affair happened most of
the members of the mob made their head
quarters in Baltimore, and II has been
common talk since then that they We're to
be found about certain places in the latter
city. During the time they are said to have
had their headquarters in Baltimore a num-
Der of safes in Maryland and Virginia have
been attacked and robbed. 1t seems that
| the efforts of the Baltimore police are to
be crowned with success and that this one
! dangerous crowd Is to be broken up.
THE men who actually do the work."
| the detective stated, keep In the back
| ground, and kept advised of what Is
| going on where jobs are to be done. They
| put up I'm cheap lodging houses and mis-
SiOnS. rush the RrOwler' and discuss their
plans among themselves where they think
there is no danger of being overheard. The
most dangerous ones to deal with are the
men who carry the explosives. Some of
them carry the glycerine mixture in bottles
and others carry it in rubber water pouches
about their waists. They are constantly
in danger and so are those who come In
contact with them 1t is hard to believe
that a man will carry a quantity of the
explosive about with him, ride in street
cars and go to places where an accident is
likely to happen that will send him into
eternity. 1t was probably just such an ac-
cident that sent the two men to the next
world at the time the explosion occurred
below Alexandria.
Cooking the Soup"
THE preparation of the explosive is called
cooking, and the preparation itself is
known to the 'yeggmen' as soup Be-
cause of the frequency with which it is
handled, the men become experts and nat
| urally get careless. 1t is because Of this
carelessness that the lives of others are
constantly endangered. and this alone is q
sufficient reason why the lawmakers should
provide severe penalties for such people.
These men are perhaps more dangerous
than any other class of crooks. In almost
every instance where they have aroused
policemen or civilians and an attempt has
been made to capture them they have put
up hight and used reyolvers. 1t is well
known in police circles that they have
Killed many officers in this way.
1T is the custom of these men," said the
detective, Ito send man to a town to act
as Hinder, in order to determine the man.
ner in which the town is protected and to
learn something of the habits of the off,
GERS. In the vernacular of the 'yeggs' he
is called a gay cat He is usually an In
nocent-looking youth. who has been In COM
pany with tramps, and who knows enough
to keep out of trouble. After his report has
been made arrangements made for the
attack, which usually occurs IN time to
catch freight train and escape. Some
times the men steal teams from stables and
abandon them after their job is finished.
Tools are frequently taken from blacksmith
shops. and nothing is left behind which can
be used to fix the Identity of the burglars.
Until a short time ago the 'yeggs' confined
their operations to the west, and they usu-
ally attacked post Offices and railroad sta
tons, but during recent years they have
attacked banks. They are like other crooks.
One big haul at bank spoiled them and
amount from country post office or rail-
road station
To Remedy the Evil.
In a paper read before the International
Association of Police Chiefs held at St
Louis this year Capt. Pinkerton said OF
this class of criminals: Altogether they
are a lawless, murderous class, and the
sooner steps are taken to entirely extermf-
nate them by making the penalty for their
crimes most severe the better 1T will be
for the community at large. To remedy
this growing evil an effort should be made
to have the Legislature of each state enact
law making the penalty most severe, even
with life Imprisonment for burglars who
attack, with a high explosive. bank vault
or safe in a building. especially where 1t Is
proven people occupied the building at the
time the attack was made, or where the
attacking parties made free use of fire.
arms with intent to kill.
"A law of this kind he said, would,
believe. ultimately stamp out the 'yegg-
men, "
An Archbishop's Joke.