The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-15
CROOKS IN POOL PARLOR RAID.
BRACE GAME INTERRUPTED AND
STRANGERS MONEY SAVED.
Rogues' Gallery Man Invetgies q ~scOtchman.
Just Over. Into a Pool ParI0r suggests
q scheme which Causes the stranger
to Get Drafts for %, Cashed.

q Schfme Wnlcn causes tne ctrhnscr
TO Get Drafts for $4,000 Cashed.
A week ago Willie Hoppe, the billiard
expert. sold his pool parlor at SO West
Thirtieth street to Charles Miller. Hopes
place was opened on his return from France
last winter and was fitted out deliberately.
When Miller bought the place the De-
tective Bureau toe notice because Miller's
picture adorns the rogues' gallery.
Late yesterday afternoon Detective
Sergeants Peabody, Clark and O'FarreIl
we're strolling down Broadway when they
saw a man enter Mller's place accom-
panied by two men whose pictures also
are in the photograph collection at 800
Mulberry street. Peabody loafed into the
place and watched the stranger play pool
against the two who had brought him there.
The stranger won at first but shortly lost
eighteen five pound notes and two gold
sovereigns. The detective also saw several
other familiar faces at the tables. These
men were playing against strangers who
were steady losers.
The stranger Peabody had followed in
left the place and, accompanied by Arthur
Edwa rds, who said he was a salesman and
lived at 142 East Twenty-second street,
took a car downtown to the Citizens Central
National Bank at $40 Broadway. He pro-
duced two drafts for $4,000 on the British
Bank of North America Of Montreal and
asked to have them cashed. The clerk
asked him What he wanted the money for
and the man, who said he was John Bohan,
a merchant on a trip here from Scotland
and stopping at the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
said hat he and Edwards we're going to
win money at playing pool. The bank
clerk old Bohan he was being swindled
and Bohan Immediately started back to
Thirtieth street with Edwards to investi-
gate. Peabody beat them back and sent
in a hurry call for patrol agons from the
Tenderloin and West Twentieth street
precincts.
The police surrounded the place and the
three detectives went upstairs.
You're all under arrest" shouted Pea
body. There were about fifty men in the
place at ohe time and a scramble began.
The sight Of uniformed policemen and the
patrol wagons drew a large crowd from
Broadway and the reserves were called out.
There is a large plate glass n on the
Thirtieth street sid e Of the room which
opens on a fire esca pc. This window was
broken and the men scrambled for the fire
escape. Policemen o n the street grabbed
oil they could as they ca me down. The
crowd in the street made a sudden forward
movement, which swept the police of their
feet and allowed most of the men on the fire
escape to get away. Not until the Reserves
from the Tenderloin arrived were the police
able to force the crowd back.
The detectives upstairs we're having
trouble in holding their prisoners. In a
corner of the room furthest from the stair
way they herded a dozen men. Those who
didn't use the fire escape to get away broke
a 81 ylight and scrambled to the roof. From
there they got 10 the roof of the Haymarket
dance hall and out through some of the
buildings on Sixth avenue.
Nine prisoners were finally secured and
brought to Police Headquarters. Edwards
was charged with grand lar ceny. Miller
was entered on the biotter as the proprietor
Of the place and charged with aiding and
abetting larceny. Edward Is. Durham, 1913
West Forty-eight street: Alfred Mines, 20
West Fifty-sixth street; John Reynolds,
l44 West Forty-siXth street; Robert Hayes,
2l5 West Forty-ffth street; Joseph Wagner,
l27 West Forty-fifth street; Benjamin
Afford, s4 Third avenue. and Joseph
Perkins, l91 Seventeenth street, Brooklyn,
were held IA suspicious persons. Besides
Bohau. those who made complaint Of being
swindled were Henry Drury of i1e West
Twenty-second street, Ernest LibboN of
Liverpool. England, and Walter T.. Of
Mineola, l.. /.
Bohan said ne had met Edwards in the
lobby of the Fifth Avenue Hotel and that
after a drink and some talk Edwards pro-
posed that they play pool. incidentally
telling Bohan that they could win some
money by getting a third man., not a good
player. 70 play, betting against him and
then, defeating him by leaving easy shots
for each other. The three other complain
ants all told practically the same story.
The police said that some of those arrested
had their pictures in the roQueS' gallery
and were well known to the police, The
police also say that since the closing Of the
racing season here and the closing Of the
poolrooms those who live by their
wits nave turned their attention TO the
pool places. where there are always men
ready 20 lose money.
Detectives will be assigned TO keep a
careful eye on certain of these places for
the remainder Of the winter and TO arrest
any one who Is known to them as a crook.