The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-02

cracksmen. The three were marched
to the basement, where the Waterman
was still cordaged up. Then the two
cops executed a walking backward
stunt, still covering the three cracks
men, got out of the steel door at the
back of the leading into the alley, slam
med the door, which closed with a
spring clock and the three cracksmen
were neatly imprisoned.
THE imprisoned cracksmen had no
tools and so they couldn't pry their
way out. They united the Waterman
and ordered him to turn them loose,
but they had collared the watchmans
keys upstairs before dragging him to
the basement and the keys were still
upstairs. So the three cracksmen and
the Waterman 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
Waterman chimed in and stated that
the story was true he was was immedi-
ately suspected of being himself in ca
boots with the blowpipe men. The
Waterman had a hard time to square
himself and came mighty close to go
| ing to prison. He stuck to the cop
story so persistently, however, that the
policeman 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
robbery was in progress. To square
themselves both of the cops had even
tually 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.
Nov, 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 Chi. and in some my
sterious way they'd learned Of the de-
tails 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
4 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 af-
terwards 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 naturally have supposed
THAT these two Chicago cracksmen
would have been ostracized by their
pals who heard of their profitable mas
querade as cops in Trenton. Nothing of
the sort happened. Their pals patted
them on the back and called them
smart fellows and ha-ha'd over the
picture of the thre trapped cracksmen
locked in the bank basement with the
Waterman.
Spark grafters are very rarely on
the level with each other, even when
they're working as a team. recall one
case Of this sort particularly well, be-
cause one of the crooks involved told
me of the incident most picturesquely.
"a parrot 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 II o'clock, and that he generally
had a souce on him at this time. They
lhad sized this restaurant man up be-
cause he always wore in his four in
lhand tie a huge, iashy four stone dia-
Imond pin.
The stones were the white boys, as the
crooks call them, and each of them
looked to weigh about four karats.
"The old restaurant man, as they no.
ticed, was usually pretty well lit up
when he took the car to go home, and
The looked good to the pair Of spaB
grafters. So they arranged night to
get that pin. They boarded the car In
which the restaurant man sat hall
doing, in the enjoyment Of his regu-
liar going home bun and waited for the
car to fill up with folks from the thea
tres
THE old restaurant man, very gal"
liant, got up to give a lady his seat
Then one Of the spark grafters gave
him the elbow in the small Of the
back, and when he turned to put up a
growl the other one neatly copied the
diamond pin.
TT looked like good two thousands
| worth, anyhow, to the crook who had
done the elbowing. They got off the
car and made directly for the plant of
the fence with whom they did business.
The crook who had the pin handed it
over to the fence and named his small
est figure with a confident grin. The
fence took the pin, looked at 1t just
once and remarked:
'Nothin' doing in the ice line just
now. Stop your kiddin'.
1.-THE crook who hadn't collared the
pin looked tremendously surprised, and
tbo orooly who bad co11arad ~ etfr1r-