The San Francisco call., 1905-04-06
GRUDGE AGAINST CHURCHES.

Like a leaf from some romance of
crime this reads, but it is the actual
constitution of this extraordinary
league OF robbers which is now broken
up. Under Jacobs astute leadership il
proved most effective in binding them
tosether and insuring the success of
thelr operations. Members were Sc
lected with the utmost care Most of
them were specialists.
Pellssard. an eX-member Of the staff
OF an anarchist paper and a skilled
mecnanic, made the burglary tools
needed by the gang and they are of
superb workmanship. Santarel be-
sides taking his turn as a cracksman
melted down the gold stolen by his
coleagues. Ferre, good all-around
thief, was the concierge of a house in
Paris, and at his rooms the board of
directors held their meetings. Claren-
son played the role of swell and was
clever card sharper as well as an ac-
complished burglar
The fact that for years the existence
OF the band was not even suspected by
the police shows with what consum-
mate skill its operations were con-
Quoted. Everything was done in the
most business-like fashion and no
needless risks were taken. The thieves
worked all over France, from Able
Vile and Amiens to distant Marseilles.
They robbed town mansions, country
houses. officers quarters, hospitals, and
even churches and cathedrals. AT
Rennes they pillaged the house of the
Justice of the Peace; at Mans they
appropriated jewels and objects of art
to the value of $1,000 from the residence
OF the Judge of the Assize Court; and
at Beziers Narbonne. Rheims and Rou-
en- they despoiled the cathedrals of
their sacred vessels and jeweled vest
ments.
Against houses of worship they
seemed to cherish a special grudge
and played the part of vandals as we'll
as robbers, destroying what they could
not carry off. After looting the ca
thedrsl at Tours they cut up the FIVE
world-famed pieces of tapestry depict
ing scriptural scenes and valued at
$250.0oo.
ACCOUNTS IN A LEDGER
Jacob kept ledger. in which every
operation or transaction of the band
and the profits accruing therefrom were
entered. From the head office in Paris
two travelling inspectors were sent out
to investigate and report on houses
named by local agents as Offering good
opportunities for a safe job They were
paid a salary of 500 month each, all
their expenses and a share of the
profits obtained from the business done
a result of their efforts. If any one
of the forty members of the trust was
unfortunate enough to be caught the
committee of five undertook to support
his family while he served his SEN
tence.
1t was chance and not detective skill
that ultimately led to the discovery of
the gang and the arrest of its princi-
pal members. If the landlord of a cafe
at Abbeville had not been troubled
with toothache one night It is probable
that Ali Baba Jacob would still be
bossing his forty thieves. The tooth
ache kept the cafe proprietor awake
when he ought to have been asleep,
and glancing out of a window he saw
lights in a villa opposite, the occu-
pants of which he knew were absent.
Suspecting something to b wrong he
slipped out of the house and aroused
the police. BY the time the minions
of the law arrived Jacob and several
of his assistants who were engaged