Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-09-07
P OLICE ADVERTISE

ONE OF THE coMMoNEsT METH
obs OF CATCHING FuGlTIVEs
FROM JUSTICE
Use of Circulars a Most Effective Sys-
TEN With Police Department-Jo.
ham Hoch Arrested AS Result of
This Method.
Advertising for criminals is one Of
the commonest and most effective
methods of the police in capturing
fugitives from Justice. If an Ottum-
wa citizen should pick up a newspaper
and read the advertisement, Wanted,
criminal he would probably be very
much surprised. Or if he should see
the more detailed statement in the
want column, sWanted-John Smith,
suspected of murder, apply at the Of
fee of the chief Of police" he would
probably be even more dumfounded.
Yet every day at the Ottumwa' po-
lice station circulars are received
from all parts of the United States
advertising for criminals. The style Of
the circular varies with the nature of
the crime for which the man is want
ed and the Importance of the case.
The scarehead usually names the re-
ward that will be given together with
the crime which the hunted man has
committed.
A good likeness, full-face and pro-
file is published and they include also
good description of his general ap-
pearance as can be furnished and his
Bertillion measurements when they
have been obtained.
Any striking peculiarities like
lisp, stammer, a trick of biting the
nails, or any other little mannerism
are added, and a hint is given as to
the nature Of the employment which
the criminal is likely to seek.
In Olden Times.
In the good old days in Merry Eng
land when Robin Hood and his fol-
lowers laughed at the efforts of the
country sheriffs to stop their sensa.
tional exploits, the heralds throughout
the land proclaimed the doings of the
murderers and the rewards offered for
their capture. They were advertising
for criminals, but the gallant follow
ers of the green-vested hunter and his
merry men sat beneath their native
forest trees and laughed lawmakers to
scorn.
So when Jack Sheppard was escap-
ing from every place of confinement
into which the representatives of such
law and order as there was had cast
him, and when Dick Turpin and his
faithful Black Bess were still famil-
lar and dangerous figures on old
Hounslow Heath, the crossroads
were used as advertising stands. On
the posts that held the signs, placards
were posted offering ten pounds for
the malefactor, dead or alive.
This cheerful offer was also placed
at public houses along the way, at
the gates of towns and everywhere
else that it might attract attention.
The old highwaymen, however, as
brutal in their way as the announce
ments were in theirs, could laugh at
the signs though they threatened
them with disgraceful and painful
death. The bold robbers of the by
gone age, even tore down the threat
ening placards in the very faces of
the public
Not so very many years ago, bills
and posters were often seen in the ho-
tells and public places Offering re-
wards for escaped convicts and in the
slave days this was the common
method Of capturing a fugitive slave.
Gro1, ,oii !, al
been recorded where the outlaws
themselves would shoot these notices
full of holes, slash them to pieces with
their knife, or, in the presence of ter
ror-stricken onlookers, deluge the
sheet with flood of tobacco juice in
utter defiance of the law.
Results and Effects of System.
Like many other kinds Of advertis-
ing, the effects of the present system
Of circulars are not always immediate,
but they are cumulative The circu-
lars come from all over the world and
there are thousands of them.
Foreign countries well know the
value OF such system and since the |
formation of an association of police
officials of the United States its use
in America has become very much
more general. 1t is interesting to note
that the circulars from foreign coun-
tries are not SO definite in their state
ments as are those issued in America.
Scotland Yard, for example, often fur
nishes totally useless biographies of
criminals and occasionally the only
thing shown in a circular from France
or Italy is an illustration of the wea-
pom with which the crime was com
mitted
Clever Detective Work.
Clever bits of detective work are Of |
ten shown in the get-up of the circu-
lars. When a mysterious killing was
reported from Colorado some time ago
the department at Colorado Springs
furnished a circular containing a re-