Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-11
HONOR AMONG THIEV Els

Some time ago I saw story in the
| Star which sought to puncture the erro-
neous notion that there Is any such a thing
| as 'squareness among gamblers. re-
| marked a detective. attached to q private
| agency. who has operated in many cities.
| TT is time that fall should be taken out
| Of another one of these bogus maxins.
namely, that there exists any such thing
| as honor among thieves
II never yet knew a crook who wouldn't
! do fellow crook with as little compunction
| as he'd partake Of a plate of ham and
| eggs I'll go over story or two to prove
| this.
IA few years ago three class A cracksmen
| Of New York framed up a promising bank
Job over In Newark, N. ]. The job went
| through on creased skids-up to a certain
Waterman under the gun when he stepped
| to the banks front grating to get breath
| Of air. He had to let them in. and they
had him cordaged up and gagged In the
basement before he knew where he was
THE vault safe was an ordinary combina-
| ton affair without any timelock contrlv-
| nitro and the blowpipe. They got her open
| after an hours work. and then it looked
| pretty soft for them, for there was 100000
| in new currency in plain sight. They let
the metal money alone and made leisurely
job of dividing the loot into three equal
| parts of $4,000 each.
| The lookout or outside man abandoned
| his post in front Of the grating to be In
| at the division when he knew that the
safe was hanging from its hinges The
three cracksmen were sitting inside the
| vault, stuffing the currency into their
| clothing and planning for their different
hiding places. when two cops suddenly ap,
peared at the entrance to the vault and
covered the three of them. 1t was all so
I bat ha han da of three
men went straight up.
while one of the cops kept the three
covered by the gun tanning process the
| other went behind 'em and deftly removed
| their shooting tools Then he quite as
| deftly distracted the bundles of currency
| from the pockets Of each. This done,
| disarmed cracksmen. The three were
| marched to the basement, where the watch
| man was still cordaged UP. Then the two
| cops executed a walking backward move
| ment. still covering the three, got out OF
the steel door at the back leading into the
alley. slammed the door. which closed with
| a spring lock, and the three cracksmen
| were neatly imprisoned.
THE imprisoned cracksmen had no tools,
and so they couldn't pry their way out.
| They united the Waterman and ordered him
| to turn them loose. but they had collared
| the watchman's keys upstairs before drag
| ging him to the basement and the keys
| were still upstairs. So the three cracks
men and the Waterman were found together
| at Opening-up time.
1.-The cracksmen's story that they them
| selves had been stuck up by couple of
| cops was secuted. and when the Waterman
| chimed in and stated that the story was
| true he was Immediately suspected himself
! of having been in cahoots with the blow
| pipe men. The Waterman had hard time
| to square himself and came perllously close
| to going to prison. He stuck to the cop
| story so persistently however, that the po-
| liceman on the bank beat and the one on
| the adjoining beat had to make all KINDS Oh
| explanations to where they had been
| while the robbery was in progress. 10
| square themselves both has eventually TO
| own up that they had been taking maps, and
| both of them lost their badges The three
| cracksmen got ten-year stretches in Tren-
| ton prison.
| Now those two chaps in the rig-out of
| cops were Chicago bank burglars. They
| come east to wait for the graft to pick up
| bit in their headquarters town of Chi, as
| the crooks call it. and in some mysterious
| way they'd learned of the details OF TINS
| proposed Newark job. 1t looked like ready
| money and no work worth mentioning, and
| so they went to one of the cellar costumerS
| of New York and had their measures taken
| for policemen's suits. Then they went 10
| Newark the appointed night and just
waited around until their moment arrived.
! Then they made their play, and 1t was a
| neat and profitable one.
| s.They got away with the goods. and the
| story didn't get around for three or four
| years afterward. Then one of the Chicago
blow-pipers got gibly drunk one night and
spun the yarn. Now if there ever was any
| thing In this honor among thieves maxim
you'd naturally suppose that these two
| would have been ostracized by their pals
who heard of their profitable masquerade
as cops in Newark. Nothing of the sort
! happened. The gang patted EN- on the
| back and ha-ha'd over the picture OF the
three eastern nitro men locked up in the
| bank basement with the Waterman.
| Spark grafters-that is to say, diamond
| tnla
| level with each other, even when they're
| working a team l recall one case o!
| this sort particularly well, because one or
| the crooks involved told me OF the lncluenl
| most picturesquely.
"A pair of top-notch Philadelphia spark
| grafters got onto the fact that the pro-
! prietor of a certain Chestnut street restau-
/ rant started for his home on Chestnut
| street car every night about. IL o'clock.
| They had sized up this man because he al
| ways wore in his fourth hand tie huge,
| fashy four-stone diamond pin. The stones
were the white boys as the crooks say,
/ and each of them looked to weigh about
| four karats.
..,rhe old restaurant man was generally
| pretty well lit up when he took the car
| to go home and he looked good to the pair
| Of spark gra fters So they arranged
| night to get that pin. They boarded Inc
| car in which the restaurant man sat oo2-
| ing in the enjoyment of his regular gong
| home jag, and waited for the car to HI UP
| with folks from the theaters
| 1.-The old restaurant man, very gallant,
| got I'D to give a lady his seat. Then one
Of the spark-grafters gave him the elbow
| in the small of the back, and when he
| turned to put up growl the other one
| neatly annexed the four-stone pin.
| "It looked like a good two thousands
| worth anyhow, to the crook who had done
! the elbowing. They got off the car and
| made directly for the plant of the fence.
| The crook who had the pin handed it over
| to the fence, and named his smallest figure
| with a confident grin. The fence took the
| pin looked a it just once, and remarked:
| "'Nothin' dom in the rock candy line
| just now. Stop your kiddin.
! 1.-The crook who hadn't collared the pin
| locked tremendously surprised, and the
| crook who had collared the pin simulated
| a look of tremendous surprise.
| Do you fellers mean t tell me that you
| don't know that this is a phony?' said
| the fence to them, holding up the pin.
| "Well, sure enough, the pin was a bogus
| just fairly well sawed Brazil brilliants.
| The crook who hadn't swiped the pin look
| ed disappointed and gloomy. and said that
| his eyesight must be failing-that he d
| Eever been twisted before in piping off the
| real thing in rocks. The other crook
| chiIned ill., and added that he'd never felt
| CO nhaan in his Then the two spark