The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-11

nabbed wanted man in far Japan
through some moving picture films. The
man was a real estate swindler who
had cleaned up handsomely by selling
poor people swampy lots on the shore of
the Delaware for 500 a crack. The
poor folks who bought the lots We're led
to suppose that the property they paid
for was in quite a different spot. The
cuss took something like 100000 with
him when he made his gallOp. His
getaway was swell one. He managed
to leave a deposit of salt on every foot
print of his trail. The whole world was
circularized, but there was no spring
ing him.
After he'd been gone for two years
some Japanese moving pictures were
tossed on the screen of a Philadelphia
vaudeville house last spring. One of
the pictures showed an immense mob
of people on the main street of Toxic.
doing the banzai thing in celebration
! Of news of Japanese victories in Man
churia against the Russians. couple
of Philadelphia sleuths dropped into
the vaudeville house one afternoon and
got neat view of the real estate
swindler, in white duck, leaning against
| theside of Toxic tea house. with his
! hands in his pockets, watching the par
aiding and listening to the bansais. They
had a close look at that film in it's I'M
screened state few minutes afterward
/ and two days later a detective was on
| his way to Japan. He found his man
easily enough, living in suburb of
Toxic. and the man is now doing his
ten speaker.
IF you're a nOticer you have Observ-
ed that detectives detailed on general
! duty have a great habit of stopping at
photographers display show cases and
scanning the pictures. They develop a
| sort of instinct for photographed mugs
after they've been sleuthng for long
while. There is something in the
scheme, too. Detectives find out among
other things that the great majority of
crooks are very vain people and in spite
of their rogues gallery experiences
they are forever having their pictures
taken.
1T may be that it's because of their
rogues' gallery experiences that they do
this. Few of them look pretty in their
police mugged pictures and their vanity
incites them to have photographs taken
that look like them when they're in the
unsnagged state. These pictures are
often innocently put on view by photo
igraphers and many a crook is picked up
in this way. 1 got noted woman gem
litter that way twelve years ago. Shed
turned two big Maiden Lane tricks and
the jewelers. Protective association
her a whole lot
"A job that was a good deal like her
work was pulled off in a Denver gem
house three or four months after her
getaway from New York and l was
sent out there to prowl some. 1t looked
poor to me after I'd been on the job in
Denver for a week. l knew number of
stool pouters out there, but they
couldn't give me anything about her.
The Denver flies weren't hep to any
body that looked at all like her.
81 was just about to flag the job and
crawl in with the poor mouth and the
tale of nix nix, when one afternoon /
stopped at a Denver photographers
show case to rubber at the pictures, a
new display which had only been tack
ed up couple of days or so. The mid
die picture resting against the black
velvet was big boudoir size thing,
and it was my woman, in a fine clean
lace dress, full figure, with fan in her
hand and looking like somebody host
ess receiving her guests for pink tea.
Il made the photographers upstairs
plant in three jumps and had no trou-
BILE in showing him that had right to
ask him where the woman of the
boudoir size picture was. The photo
graph had only been taken month or
so before, and he had only to turn over
a few pages of his book to find the
name and address of the sitter. The
name was phony, of course, but the
address was all right. She was living
at Manitou Springs. l went there and
found her in her fiat, pretty snug, with
coin to toss at the brier birds. She
clawed me up quite a few with her nails
when told her she was the one, but
brought her back all right.
But a sure enough billion to one
| chance was pulled off by Chicago fly
a couple of years ago. He was sent up
to Minneapolis to bring back yegg
who'd been grabbed up there. He had
to wait in Minneapolis couple of days
| for the eXtraditiOn thing. On the first
day he was standing in front of his
hotel watching the crowd slide by
when the postman came along. The
postman slipped on a little patch of ice
| in front of the hotel, and down he went
| the mail from his bag fluttering all over
| the sidewalk The sleuth stopped and
began to help the letter carrier pick
his mail truck up. One of the pieces
| of scattered mail was a photograph
postal card. 1t had been taken in Cal
lao, Peru, and it was addressed to a
| woman StODDing at the hotel where the