The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-21
washington Start

was In town the other day were talk
ing Of how pure luck often aids the
crackers of criminals. One of the Wash
ington detectives mentioned the case of
Frank Funk, who was hanged here a
few years ago for the murder Of an
old man. Funk had been loose for
nearly TWO years after committing the
crime, and had spent lot of that time
playing the races around the New York
tracks. Then, when the Washington
police began to fill ,the country with
Funk descriptions; he Jumped for a lit
tie place called Columbia, in Missouri.
One day the country constable came
along and saw Funk at work as a car
penter, with his sleeves rolled up. The
constable put Funk under the gun and
gathered him right in. Funk had
crueifixion tattcoed on one forearm
and Venus on the other. as the cir
cular, of which the constable had seen
copy, duly set forth. When Funk
was brought TO Washington he told the
detective who related the incident that
the day on which the Columbia cOnSta-
bic had nailed him was the very first
day on which he had rolled up his
sleeves while working, and that he had
rolled them up that day through abb
ent-mindedness.
i've had several bits of pure luck in
tracking wanted people" said the Chi
cago detective. Once / cOrralled a
Chicago crook who had what is called
the number bug. That is to say he
believed that the number II was
packed away by the fates and stars for
his peculiar lucky use.
HE cleaned 'em UP in Chicago, most
ly trusting women, for nearly $50, 900 on
a phOny wildcat gold mining scheme,
and then made his jump. 1t was to
toss a die TO find out which way he
went, but when / got the assignment
1 braced the clerk of the lake front
hotel at which the swindler had been
stopping i'm order to get some intimate
details about the chap.
The clerk mentioned in an off-hand
way that the crook had the number
bug, and that the number in his case
was il. Said that the man had insisted
on getting room No. IL before moving
in and had waited for several days for
the occupant of room IL to move out
before fetching along his traps. The
clerk said thaE if the mans bar bill
or any other bill. was $3.50, OF some
thing like that, the fellow would insist
upon the bookKeeper making it pat
81. Then the clerk told me, in chat
ting, that the crook had referred TO
Honduras as a place where there was
money TO be made. and with this slen-
der stock of information / concluded
that New Orleans, as the port OF outgo
for Honduras, would be as good a place
to make for as any.
81 put up at the ST. Charles when I
got there, sa1d, without really expecting
any results, / asked the clerk in an off,
hand way who was occupying room II.
The clerk laughed and told me that a
man with the number bug had the
n 1,aN =
drifted along and given me the cordial
hand. The mans key was i'm box IL,
showing that he was out. I strolled
down to the office of the company that
runs the steamers plying between New
Orleans and Honduranian ports, and
the first man / saw outside the rail in
the steamship office was the man whose
picture had in my pocket.
He was insisting upon being given
stateroon II on the vessel leaving New
Orleans for Honduras on the follow
ing day, when 1 gave him the affec-
tomato shoulder clap and told him he
was mine. He did ten-specker. with
time off for good behavior, but he'd
be slipping tall ones down in Tegucigal-
pa or some other place yet if he hadn't
been possessed of that number bug.
Another time 1 picked up famous
hotel sneak just because he was too
busy drinking wine TO get himself
shaved. He wasn't famous at that
time, but he is now, and his picture
ornaments all of the big albums
throughout the country. This fellow
had plucked a French diplomat for S.
600 worth of jewels in Chicago. He had
registered at the hotel at the same
time the French diplomat and his wife
had stopped off there on their way
across the continent to take steamer at
New York He had a room on the
same floor close to the Frenchman's
suite SO that he had his chance to do
the rubbering. He got into the French
mans rooms while they were out driv-
ing. Cid the divtning rod act for the
Jewel chest-which he undoubtedly
knew all about in advanCe-gOt it, and
then Just dropped away from there.
1.-THE reason why suspicion attachec
to this fellow was because he left his
two grips behind in his room In his
hurry to leave. The proprietor OF the
hotel described the crook to me as
man with the peculiar DISTINGUISHING
mark OF a mustache one-half black
and the other half snow white. The
hotel proprietor thought that this would
be about all; that the man surely
ought to be aDprehended in no time, |
but the mustache popularity was quite
yalueless. for, of course, the man would
have sense enough to whip 1t OFF with
a razor at the nTSI opportunity
There was nothing in his grips by
which he could be traced. The French
dipIomat set up an awful roar. but he
had neglected to deposit his val1ables
in the hotel safe, and it was up to him.
I wasn't put on this case at all, but
about three weeks after the robbery
occurred / went to New York to trans
act my business, and then couple of
the sleuths from Mulberry street took
me out to have fun with me, and VIC
wound up in an uptown Turkish bath.
I'VE were reclining in the hot room
when a chap with sundrv and divers
indications of a protracted jag came in,
acting pretty skittish. He wanted US
all to drink wine with him right then
and there in the hot ROOM He had
a lot of fine rocks on The fingers OF
both his hands, but what caught my
eve was the fact that thu stCbble on
the right side of his upper lip was as
black as ink, while the other side OF
his upper lip was as white as frost.
woke up then and got next to one Of
the bath rubbers.
THAT bug!' said the rubber in re-
piy TO my inquiry. oh, he's been hz-
gigging around for a week. He's spent
nearly all of his time here, and when
I.agc dsy,er