The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-04
A GOOD CROOK FOR 80 YEARS
eHAT'S NJ. SAYS IN N'LEtN, IN
4 mon CLASS Nan.

Hut n lOu Want To know the Particulars
y0u'n Nave 10 Paw High just Now Hes
working Honestly for hIls Passage
Money to England. Mich East Him Out.
I'd Mclean. the veteran crook, who got
hare last week from London on u ticket OF
leava considers that he WAS shanGhaied
from England. with the assistance OF his
wife. and Is going back there to have il out
With Herbert Gladstone. the Home Secre-
taxy. who signed tho order expelling him
from England ON the ground that he IL "A
rogue and a vagabond." Mclean says that
no oan easily explain the evidence against
him. but amt get back to England until
he can raise the price Of at least a second
ulAss passage. He promises that he will
earn this money honestly. n has given
ASSURANCES TO the police that they needn't
bother watching him while he is in town.
Within the last week Mclean has made
offers to newspapers To tell them the COM
plete story of his life. which. he says, will
reveal a career of crime that will be sstound-
ing. He declares that for at least half of his
sixty-two years Of life he has been a crook.
and a good one. too. but has carried IN his
work on entirely different lines from those
of other criminals
Dut 4 WOuluh I eA post Myself TOT d
small amount of money" says Mclean.
Fl don't care what anybody thinks OF me,
n am not afraid to confess to the crimes
In which | have been implicated. because
] have been arrested for most of them and
was discharged for lack of evidence. The
only men who have really got anything
OH me are Billy Mclaughlin and Tom
Byrnes. and they are both out Of the Police
Department. ] have got an, old mother.
80 years past. who lives here in New York.
and thinks ] have always been on the level.
but I guess | could keep the story away
from her."
Maybe you think | am not the high class
mon ! claim TO be-" he continued While
telling about himself in his room in West
Nhirty-fourth street. Then he showed
o suits Of evening dress, several OF which
had never been worn. two expensive mel
ton overcoats, a stack of white kid gloves.
several dinner coats and two dozen pairs
OF trousers. all nearly new. And I've
got more than twice as much more over in
England that the police wouldn't give re
time to bring along. A good man at this
business has to change his clothes three or
four times a day. and there wasn't one Of
them logged out better than | was"
Mclean said he never could understand
how he came 10 be 4 thief. He never turns
a trick until he is strapped. he said. He
was sbou 10 years old when the civil war
commenced and went to the front as a drum
mer boy with the engineer corps of the old
Seventh Regiment. The h~appiest memory
of his wartime days, he says. is Of his meet
ing with President Lincoln when the Seventh
Regiment stopped in Washington at the
close of the war. He says hat in some
way he attracted the President while he
was reviewing the regiment and that the
President came up to him, put his hand
on his head and said:
You're a fine looking young man.
1T has been said of me that | turned in
former for Chief Byrnes and in that way
escaped doing q long prison sentence my
false, for ] never knew anything about
other crooks that woul make me OF any
value as an informer. In all my life / nave
avoided the company OF other thieves. II
i had any job on hand. or was on the look
out for one. | went on my way alone, pick
Ing my own company and studiously avoid
ing men like myself. When | turned a
trick no one knew anything about il but
myself. and ! stood in no danger OF
having some one else peach on me.
II am one of the lew crooks who had
sense enough TO keep all his doings from
his wife. Up TO a short time ago my wife
and were the most intimate Of chums.
A1d Rad not been constantly on my guard,
] would have told her enough to enable her
90 send me up in England alone for ten
years. When the break between us came
she turned against me 30 bitterly that she
would Rave gone 10 Scotland Yard with
every speck OF evidence she had.
-She has turned against me. notwith-
standing that ] have always been most
considerate OF her. For years she has
been the manager OF one Of the leading
dressmakinging establishments in London
and has been earning not less than S35 a
week. Out of regard for her feelings |
have always occupied a separate room in
cur house there, knowing very well that
the police would have no cause to search
her apartment If we were living in different
rooms.
This is how she repaid me. had given
her upward of $500 to put in the bank.
with full permission to draw on 1t il she
needed i: Up to about a year & she had
been wiling to 20 to any part of England
ne when | was arrested. and did il fire.
quently. At that time ! asked for some
Of the money / had given her and she re-
fused me. Then | told her that il she would
give me ElOO | would go away and never
see her again. Then at her request | signed
o paper to that effect.
my wife's physician was DR.. Wood,
one Of the court physicians. She went
10 MIN WIFI. Jne lttueT anu eAplalneu 10 MIN
that she had always been obliged I'd support
NE and would like TO have me sent out of
England under the alien act, which was
PASSED in order to deal with the class OF
men in London who live of the earnings of
womerf DIR. Wood e to Home Secre-
tary Gladstone with my wife's story and
the result was that | was sent out of the
country before I had even the opportunity
20 collect E35 l had on deposit in a bank
there. IL is only now hat ! appreciate
what my wife would have been able TO do
with me IL she had known all about my
career.
when I landed in New York l had no
fear Of the police, because l knew they had
nothing on me. In all my criminal career
! have done but two jobs in this country.
One was a $50 900 theft in Sixteenth street,
opposite Tifany's old place, for which ]
was arrested, but was released for lack of
evidence. Another was a $50, 900 theft in
Boston. where I also beat the case. / was
arrested two years ago and got three months
In Jail in Brooklyn for trying cabin doors
on a steamship, but the police had no case
against me and the small sentence l got
v meet that they didn't have me right.