Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-05
NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES.
Crooks Ready to Rob Crooks Says a
Detective

Some time ago L Saw Sloly III
the Sun which sought to puncture the
erroneous notion that there is any
such thing as 'squareness among gam
blers,'" said a detective of extensive
experience. II thought then that 1t
was about time a fall should be taken
out of another one of those bogus
maxims-the maxim that there exists
such a thing as honor among thieves
II never yet knew a crook who
wouldn't do a fellow crook with as lit
tie compunction as he'd eat plate of
ham and eggs, and I'll just run over
story or two to prove this.
Five or six years ago three class A
cracksmen of New York framed up
promising bank job in Trenton, n. j.
The job went through on creased
skids-up to a certain point. The
cracksmen put the banks watchman
under the gun when he stepped to the
! banks front grating to get a. breath
of fresh ART was In the summer
time. He had to let them In and they
had him cordaged up and gagged be-
fore he knew where he was.
1.-The vault safe was an ordinary
combination affair, without any time
lock contrivances, and it was easy for
experts with the nitro and the blow
pipe They got her open after an
hours work Then 1t looked pretty
soft for them. for there was about
$40, 600 in new currency in plain sight
They let the metal money alone and
made a leisurely job of dividing the
swag into three equal parts.
1.-The lookout or outside man aban-
doned his post in front Of the grating
of the small bank to be in at the di-
vision of the loot. The three cracks
men were sitting inside. stufting the
currency into their kicks and plan
ming for their different hiding places,
when two cops suddenly appeared at
the entrance to the vault and covered
the three Of them. 1t was all so sud-
den that the hands of the three
cracksmen went straight up.
while one Of the cops kept the
three covered by the gun tanning pro-
cess the other went behind them and
deftly removed their shooting tools.
Then he quite as deftly distracted
their bundles of swag. This done,
March, said two of the cops to the
disarmed cracksmen. The three were
marched to the basement, where the
| watchman was still cordaged up.
Then the two cops executed walking
| backward stunt, still covering the
three cracksmen, got out of the steel
door at the back leading into the al
ley, slammed the door, which closed
with a spring lock and the three
cracksmen were neatly imprisoned.
1.-The imprisoned cracksmen had no
tools and so they couldn't pry their
way out. They united the watchman
and ordered him to turn them loose,
but they had collared the watchman's
keys upstairs before dragging him to
the basement and the keys were still
upstairs. So the three cracksmen and
the watchmen were found together In
the basement at opening up time the
following morning.
| THE cracksmen's story that they
| themselves had been stuck UP by a
pair of cops was secuted, and when the
watchman chimed In and stated that
the story was true he was Immediately
suspected of being himself in cahoot
with the blowpipe men. The watch
man had a hard time to square him
self and came mighty close to going to
prison. He stuck to the cop story so
persistently, however, that the police
man on the bank beat and the one on
the adjoining beat had to get to the
front with all sorts of explanations as
to where they had been while the rob-
berry was in progress. To square them
selves both of the cops had eventually
to own up that they had been taking
maps at the time and they lost their
badges. The three cracksmen got
their bits in Trenton prison.
Now, those two chaps in the rigout
of cops were Chicago bank burglars.
They'd sailed east to wait for their
graft to pick up a bit in their head
quarters town of Chicago and in some
mysterious way they'd learned Of the
details of this proposed Trenton job
1t looked like ready money and no
work worth mentioning, and so they
went to one of the fence costumers of
New York and got themselves diked
out in cops rigs.
"Then they went to Trenton on the
appointed night and just waited around
til their moment arrived. Then they
made their play, and it was a neat and
profitable one at that. They got away
with the goods and the story didn't get
out for four years afterward. Then
one of the Chicago cracksmen got
drunk one night and blew the yarn
Now if there was ever anything in this
honor among thieves fake you'd nat
urally have supposed that these two
Chicago cracksmen would have been
ostracized by their pals who heard OF
| lHell pIOllldplS llidSqueI duS iS cups III
Trenton. Nothing of the sort happen
ed. Their pals patted them on the
back and called them smart fellows and
ha-ha'd over the picture of the three
trapped cracksmen locked i'm the bank
basement with the watchman.
Spark grafters are very rarely on
the level with each other, even when
they're working as a team. l recall
one case of this sort particularly we'll
because one of the crooks involved told
me of the incident most picturesquely.
"A pair of topnotch Philadelphia
spark grafters got on to the fact that
the proprietor of a certain Walnut
street restaurant started for his home
on a Walnut street car every night
about IL o'clock and that he generally
had a souse on him at this time They
l..