The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-05
Made and Lost Millions.


 O'Brien was one of the most famous and successful of the bunco men and he made and lost millions of dollars during his whole career In fact, his success was so phenomenal that he was called by his business associates the king of bunco men," Among criminals he was desig- mated as a frst-class operator, and he had a large circle of friends. He is also known to the police in almost every large city in this country. However, as is usual with bunco and confidence men, he has never served many terms As a class they are more secure from inn prisonment than any other kind of crimi- naIs because of the difficulty of obtaining sufficient evidence for conviction. Usu- ally the victim of slick confidence oper- ator Is glad to keep quiet to avoid the humiliation of confessing to his careless lack of worldly wisdom which allowed him to be fleeced.
 OBrien was product of the west. He was born in Chicago in 1851 and that city was also the scene of the first part of his criminal career. Early in his eventful life he became an accomplished swindler. Firing of tke western field he came east ward and made New York his headquar- ters Here he fell in with another expert swindler, known to the police as Hun gry Joe,' and this pair formed a crim- nal partnership that lasted for several years They attempted every form of swindling known 10 the fraternity and. besides. originated a number of new methods of separating a prosperous Vic- tim from his money. Finally, O Briens ungovernable temper got the better Of him and a quarrel cnsued. The swinding firm of "Bunco O Brien and Hungry Joe was then dissolved by mutual consent and both partners hunted up a new field for their criminal talents
 OBrens next pal was Reed, Waddell, a gambler and confidence man, whom he met in New York The latter is usually credited with being the originator of the famous gold brick swindle and they Jointly made an immense sum out Of this idea alone. In addition they had other profitable schemes that were quite as successful and the most remarkable feature of their criminal careers was that they were seldom captured by the police Waddell was the more skillful man and relied on his natural ability to keep out of the clutches of the law. But O'Brien got into trouble occasionally, and when he did, it took great deal of money and the powerful assistance of his po- litical friends to get him out. In 1892 he was arrested on the charge of swim ding an Albany man out of s10,00O. He was released on $6C0O bail. but as the evidence in the case was decidedly against him, O'Brien thought it more advisable to jump the bail, which he consequently did.
 Getting Out of Tight Place.
 He went to Paris to keep under cover but finally the French police succeeded in locating him, and he was sent back to New York, where he received a term in the Clinton prison. His friends spent a large sum of money to legally save him, but they were unsuccessful. There fore they resorted to illegal means to effect his release For this purpose a daring plot was planned and success fully carried out. To finance the project a sum of $2OOO0 was raised. Reed Wad- dell alone contributing s15,000. writ was issued at Utica, and, by the order of the court Brien was taken to that city for the hearing. He was in charge of an inexperienced keeper who had only been appointed a week or so prior to the escape, and tue party also included two friends of O'Brien. It was said that some of the money raised by his friends was used to urge the appointment of the in- experienced keeper, but this charge could never be substantiated. However, 1t is a well known fact that the prisoner was R\ceDI1Undilt well tlSdttd. Nli tiit SOS~ ond day of the hearing the keeper moved to a hotel with his prisoner and the next night the keeper became so intoxicated that O'Brien had no difficulty in walking away. He made his way to Paris, where he was arrested, but by masterly bluff he was released. The prefeet of the pc lice was profuse in his apologies and ac- companied O'Brien back to his hotel to further explain how the police had made the regretable mistake. He remained in Paris busily negotiating gold bricks, until he went to South America in 1892. There he participated in revolution, and finally drifted back to Paris. where he remained until he killed his pal, Wad- dell, in 1895
 O'Brien had a double personality, some what similar to the Dr. Jekyll and Mir | Hyde character. When on his swindling | tours he was a cultured educated busi- ness man and could associate with the