Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-13


The high noted criminals. the fel-
lows who pull OF big Jobs and have 70
make big Jumps. are complaining more
ard more q how small the world Is
growing. said an old headquarters de-
tectlve the other day. commenting on
the case ~ e missing Washington Jew
eler who was reported to Be IN China By
another Washington man who chanced
70 meet him face TO face. yet there
are stiil plenty of hiding places. The
element q chance constantly figures in
the Apprehension of wanted men. Only
a couple of weeks ago a badly wanted
Chicago stickup man was snagged at
Pasadena. Cal, through some moving
pictures
The stickup man put a bail in the
shoulder % a Chicago merchant who
refused 10 be frisked with his eyes wide
open. This happened last winter. The
whole country was circulated. and Chi
cagO flies had been doing the dragnet
thing 70 pick up the stickup mans trail
for nearly a year
Three weeks ago the moving pictures
of the Jack O'Brien-Tommy Burns
fight, which took place at Los Angeles.
reached Chicago. A party OF the Chi
cago flies went to the place where they
were shown to have a look. Before the
pictures showing the fight were thrown
on the screen there were a lot OF the
moving films showing scenes in the
training camps OF the two scrappers.
One OF them represented O'Brien gallop-
ing along the sea beach. taking his
daily five-mile run. with knots OF people
looking on at various points along the
route. At the finish Of the run a big
crowd OF men and women waiting for
the pug 20 come in was shown. And at
this stage Of It one of the flies gave his
companions an elbow dig.
In the forefront Of one OF the films
stood the stick man. perfectly unmis-
taxable The natural vanity Of all hu-
mans causes them to face moving pic
ture machines when the pictures are
being taken and the stickup man away
In front. and magnified two or three
times in size, was grinning straight at
the detectives When the exhibition
was over the detectives had a look at
the film in which the stickup man ap-
peared, and found that they were dead
right. One Of them Immediately hoped
out TO Los Angeles. The stickup man
had seen the fight pictures himself. and
he figured that there might be some
thing doing when the Chicago detect
ives had their peek a Z them. So he quit
playing the Los Angeles races and laid
low In Pasadena. where he lived for a
while. But the Chicago detective got
on the trail in Los Angeles. and last
week we heard that he'd nailed his man
at Pasadena.
Last spring the Philadelphia police
nabbed q 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 800 a crack. The poor
folks who bought the lots were led to
suppose that the property they paid
for was in quite a different spot. The
cuss took something like 800 900 with
him when he made his gallop. His get
away was A swell one. He managed 10
leave a deposit Of salt on every foot
print Of his trail. The whole world was
circularized, but there was no springing
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 Manchu- |
ria against the Russians. A couple of
Philadelphia sleuths dropped into the
vaudeville house one afternoon and got
a neat view of the real estate swindler,
in white duck, leaning against the side
of a Toxic tea house. with his hands in
his pockets, watching the parading and
listening 10 the banzais. They had a
close look at the film in its unscreened
state a few minutes later, and two days
afterward a detective was on his way
TO Japan. He found his man easily |
enough, living in a suburb of Toxic |
and the man is now in the Pennsylvania |
stir doing his ten-specker.
eff you're noticer you have observed |
that detectives detailed on general duty !
have great habit Of stopping at photo |
graphers' display show cases and scan |
ming the pictures They develop a sort !
Of instinct for photographed mugs after
they've been sleuthing for a 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 for /
ever having their pictures taken.
1T may be that it's because of their !
rogues' gallery experience that they do
this. Few Of them look pretty in their /
police mugged pictures and their vanity |
incites them to have photographs taken |
in the unsnagged state. These pictures |
are often innocently put on view by