The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-03
BURGLAR JIMMY HOPE DEAD.
ROBIN HOOD or CRACkSMEN
STOLE 4 MILLION DOLLARS.

Manhattan Bank Robbery His Most Famous
Expioit-Operatcd and did Time" In
.. Many States-Neyer Killed Any One
Y --Despised Amateurs-!A Wine Buyer.
Jimmy Hope Ia dead. Fifteen or twenty
wears ago this announcement would have
brought great relief to bankers and the men
Who protec. banks from robbers. just now
I, doesn't make any difference except TO his
family, to whom Mr.. Hope has always been
n generous and thoughtful husband and
father. Jimmy Hope was ready to die.
He had seen his profession, which he re-
parded fully as dignified as that Of life
insurance or banking or the law, sink into
the hands of disciples of brute force and
obvious deceit. Burglary, as he was wont
to say in the company of trusted friends.
had fallen to such state that he was almost
ashamed to acknowledge that he had ever
blown a safe.
Jimmy Hope was the Robin Hood of his
burelarious generation. He never robbed
a poor bank, he used to tell his folks with
a grin. OF course his most famous feat
was the robbery Of the Manhattan Bank,
at Broadway and Blocker street. in Oc-
,ober, 1878. The janitor, Louis Wercke,
was Caught III IOOlliS III tiio
and, with his wife, was bound aud shackled
and threatened with death until they led
the robbers to the safes. Specie and Sc
curies worth $?,747 700 were taken out OF
the bank, but most of the lot was not ne
gotable. Some Of the bonds have turned
UP in these later years. and there have been
mysterious offers of restitution OF all Of
them. Some of these have come through
Pat Sheedy, who is on terms Of intimate
friendship with more thieves and black
legs than any other man who ever dared
carry the nickname of Honest" Mr..
Sheedy was prominent about the be-
reaved house of Hope yesterday.
The police were never able to prove
that Jimmy Hope was the chief Of the band
that pundered the Manhattan Bank. 1t
was in Inspector Byrnes's time. Byrnes
always got prisoner for every crime and
a conviction. Perhaps Johnny Hope,
Jlmmys son, will tell, now that the old man
is dead, how it happened that Johnny stood
for the old mans share OF the RESPONSE
bitv for the robbery. More likely he
won't But Johnny went to Jail for twenty
wears and the old man got off scot free and
forever after praised Johnny as model
There is hotel a little off Broadly way where
Jimmy Hope used to sit in the cafe until he
got too i'll to 60 out and tell with pride OF
his exploits in his sturdier If not his better
DAYS. In these talks he always insisted that
Johnny was as innocent of the Manhattan
Bank robbery as though he had not yet
been born.
But Johnny says to me-" he would say I.
Johnny says to me: See here. father,
III take what's coming to you for this;
You're getting old and bit In prison will
do Van min v the that Vol
either for getting out or for standing the
drill while you're in. Let me go, III still!
be young man when come out, and you'll
be better able to take care OF mother and
the family than would be-
And what more could a father ask OF a
SOM" old Jimmy would say, choking with
honest feeling.
This seemed all the more touching a case
of fa devotion to Jimmy because Johnny
had always kept clear Of criminal ASSOCIATE s
and was then, as he is now, earning an hon.
est living inconspicuously II Jimmy Hope
was active professionally within the last
ten years he was ENTHUSIASTICALLY
modest about it. His method OF living IN
avenue did not suggest that he was at all
active Of late. He was good deal OF an
invalid. His heart was weak and he died
Thursday night in fit which was but
more severe repetition Of those which OF lat Q
ly. He died in his wife's arms. =,
II there was anything Jimmy Hope had
q wholesouled contempt for it was the
gentleman burglar of fiction. He had no
respect for the diettante.
did YOU ever hear OF a man asking
credit" he would say playfully, for being
gentleman lawyer, or gentleman
preacher or a gentleman railroad president?
A man who attends to his business and
carries it on with as little annoyance to
other people as possible-he is the man who
is credit to his profession, and not the
man who is running around trying to cove r
false and hypocritical shame for his own
way of earning living by playing that he
does it more like gentleman than other
Mr.. Hope was fond Of telling how he got
into the vaults Of the South kensington
National Bank in Philadelphia in 1871 and
got 100000 Of the money kept there: He
dressed himself in noig hnm ts Uniform .ba
night Waterman that robbery was con-
templated and it had been thought wise to
put policeman in the vaults. The watch
man took him down to the vaults. Hope
tapped him on the head with billy,
boxes at his leisure. 1t wasn't straight
burglary. that; he was willing to concede
as much; but he said it varied the monotony
OF plain sneak work.
Jimmy Hope was 90 years Old. He was
a iourneyman machinst before he began
applying his talents and education to safe
breaking He was big fellow in his prime,
almost @ feet tall and weighing 1 10 pounds
Usually he wore bushy red brown beard.
When in the exigencies Of his profession
1t was necessary for him to be clean shaven
there was disclosed a long scar at the cor
ner of his mouth. The history OF the scar
was not told to any of his friends.
Among the burglaries which we're written
against Hopes name in the books of the
bank protectors of the country were those
of Smiths bank at Perry, n. T., in the late
eos, He was caught and served five years
in jail. He got the credit never the penalty,
for robbing the United States Navy Pay
masters Office in Philadelphia earlier in the
same year.
He escaped from prison in 1873 and robbed
the First National Bank at Wilmington,
Del. In this case Jimmy had hired house
next to the bank and used it as q prison
for the cashier and his family while the
robbery was going on. One of the, victims
got another ten year sentence. He was
he Ny< <Nv,Hca forn re a