The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-05
HAUL or POST OFFICE YEGGS.
SUFFERN POLICE CHIEF GETS
FIVE OF THEN IN A BUNCH.

SuPPERN, n. Y, March 4.-ln five yegg-
men lodged on a technical charge of va
Rrancy In the Rockland county jail at New
City the postal inspectors of New York
and New Jersey believe they have bagged
one Of the most daring and expert gangs OF
yegg burglars that has ever operated In
the East. This gang, cay the Inspectors, Is
responsible for the recent scare among
postmasters in small towns on both sides
Of the New York-New Jersey line. In the
last four months sixteen post offices have
been broken into, the safes cracked and
thousands of dollars in money and stamps
carried away Inspectors Joseph f. Jacobs
and Thomas Meyer of the New York Office
lay the whole series OF crimes to the bunch
lodged here, and point significantly to the
lack Of post Office burglaries since the ar
rest Of the men on February 10.
The men give their names as Patrick
Burke, James Broderick, James l. Clarke,
James Haokett and James O'Brien. In
spector Jacobs, who has had thirty years
acquaintance with the yegg fraternity,
saws that Clarke, Burke and Broderick bear
a remarkable resemblance to throe Of the
best known crooks in the East, wanted in
hall a dozen States for various crimes.
lneY arc hIO"H " Nlp uhLCi nOiie 90
Amboy Red, Little Falls Billy and the
Brooklyn Kid, and are aristoorats Of yegg
society.
The gang is known to have bad Its head
quarters in Paterson, where it was part of
a large criminal organization headed by
a yegg who Is one of the generals Of the
craft and Ia deliberately sheltered by politi-
cal friends as we'll as by relatives who have
influence.
The gang was nabbed after an exoit-
ing chase by Chief OF Police W. n. Smith
Of this place and two assistants. The
particulars Of the attempt at blowing up
the safe in the SufTern post office were
then withheld to help Post Office Inspectors
Jacobs, Meyer and Cortelyou work up the
case.
The yeggs broke into the post Office
here shortly after midnight and got to
work on the safe. The soap funnel to hold
the nitroglyoerine and allow it to drip
into the crack of the door had been pre-
pared, the fuse was attached, rugs we're
heaped up to muff1e the sound, and all was
ready for touching of the soup, when
a step was heard outside, The dark Ian
tern was doused and work was stopped.
, One Bill Travers, a brakeman on the
Erie, ended his run at SuHern about 1870
that morning. On his way home he no.
tioed that the door Of the post office was
open. He just thought he'd stroll over
and have a look in. He put his nose in
side the door and looked into the muZ2le
of a forty-four. In five minutes he had
and nearly his whole weeks wages, and
was trotting along toward home in the
custody of two Of the gang. They lib
Grated him with a kick a block from his
house, adjuring him to go straight home
or he'd nave ais head blown off.
.Travers turned into his front yard,
I skipped around the house, and went across
( lots 10 a telephone. He reused Chief Smith
oyqr,the wire and told him what was up,
aihief Smith got his clothes and a couple
ORIGINS, phoned his force of one man to
meet him quick at the post Office, and sal
lied forth. Two blocks away from the
Office he saw the men come out and run
toward him, Smith stepped behind a
hand. He heard them talking pretty
loud about killing somebody, and was wait
ing for the first shot, when he heard them
turn and double into the fields:
A moment later Smiths force came
pp and the two men began to beat up for
Inc yeggs. The post Office safe had been
left with soap and fuse all prepared for
the nitro that never was poured.
Not finding the men, Smith jumped the
next freight through Suffern. Watch was
kept at the siding two miles out of the town,
and just as the freight was getting under
way againt the five men ran out OF the woods
and climbed through the open door Of an
empty box car, which they closed after
them. At the next stop Smith put a few
shots through the roof of the car and the
men came out. Travers's property was,
found in the car. Travers also identified
them as the men who had held him up.
Chief Smith lodged them in the New CITY
jail.
Postal Inspectors Jacobs, Meyer and Cor
telyou think there is little doubt of their
being the same men who nave been crack
ing safes all through that neck of woods.
The plan Of this crowd was to crack a safe
in a small country town. jump to another
in 1.-THE next county, and crack that In another
day or two. and then lie low for two or three
weeks. The gang would dispense in this
time, one man usually taking the swag to
Paterson, where the fences that flourish
in that town converted 1t into money.
Then at the appointed time aqd place they
would meet again and pull Gf'two or three
more Jobs.
In this way, says Inspector Jacobs, the
gang cracked a safe at Campbell Ha IL,
near Goshen, Orange county, on Decem Der
10. Immediately jumping to Cold Spring,
Putnam county, on the night OF December
Fl, and getting away with stamps and money
to the tune OF over 81, 500 altogether. On
January 8 the safe at Marlboro, Ulster
county, was broken open, and on January
IA the yeggs made a good haul by blowing
tllV CNl va ~ -
county. In quick succession came the
cracking of safes at Ridgewood. in Bergen
county, New Jersey, early in February; at
. Pearl River in Rockland county ,on February
= 10, and the attempt at Suffern on February
10. Enougl other burglaries were got in
at odd moments in New Jersey, say In
spectors Jacobs and Meyer, to raise the
total number to an average Of one a week
for -four months.
One of the remarkable incidents attendant
on three of these b%urglaries was the APP
pearance of a man with a big red beard
in the nefghborhood just before the event.
Clarke has a shaggy red beard, a feature
which gained for the yegg to whom he
bears 80 remarkable a resemblance the
name Of Amboy Red. A man answering his
description had a fight with an Italian in a
saloon at Cold Spring the night Of the burg
larry there. The red bearded man was also
seen buying tobacco in a little store at
Pearl River the day before that crib was
cracked. Clarke has been identified as the
mar who struck an Erie section hand in a
saloon at SutIern an hour before the at
tempt there.
If Clarke is Amboy Red there is enough
against him in this region to keep him in