The sun., 1909-12-29
AFTER CROOKS WITH BURNS
CAMERA EYE MAN REALLY RE-
TIRES, BUT NOT FAR.
Lieut.. Billy sheridan, VINO Has Regues'
Gallery In HIS Head. Quits the Police
on an Oculist's Certificate and Joins
the New Burns Detective Agency.

Lieut.. Billy sheridan, VINO Has IR0gues'
Gallery In HIS Head. Quits the Police
on an Oculist's CertIicate and Joins
the New Burns Detective Agency,
Lieut. Bill Sheridan would have hard
time to convince any OF the yeggs. guns
| bank sneaks. dips and molls who have
lived in fear OF him for twenty-three
years that his eyesight Is bad. None
OF them locked up at Police Headquarters
recently has had any reason TO complain
about the poor condition OF the lieuten-
ants eyes. He seemed to spot them
through DISCUSSES and bogus names as
well as he ever did. He still is known
to the bad men of the underworld from
one coast to the other as the Camera
Eye"
Yet defective vision is the ground on
which the lieutenant has obtained his
retirement from the force. His sight
is still good enough. however. to allow
him to accept half interest in the new
detective agency which William j. Burns.
the secret service agent who uncovered
the land frauds and fought the grafters
in San Francisco. has opened in this city.
Sheridan thus will be associated with
Burns in protecting the l4.000 banks
throughout the country that make up the
American Bankers Protective Associa-
ton. That association recently trans
ferred it's business from the Pinkertons
to Burns.
It is doubtful 10 there is another man
in the United States who inspired more
fear than did Sheridan in the hearts Of
criminals with records, His retirement
from the Police Department will be hailed
with joy by crooks all over the country
who are masquerading with phony whis-
kers and under half a dozen aliases. No
man in the history of the New York Po-
lice Department has been so quick to
see through a disguise and to identify
prisoners with pictures that had been
taken five. ten and even twenty years
before.
Sheridan has a wonderful memory for
faces. and this gift put him in demand all
over the United States. Many a city. as
far west even as San Francisco. came 70
learn that the appearance Of Sheridan in
a crowd was the surest means OF Kidding
the city Of a band Of itinerant crooks.
The New York Police Department was i'm
portuned time and again to send him out
just as scarecrow for crooks when big
..
AS soon as they caught sight Of Sheridan
it was all OF.
The department is sorry TO lose Sheri-
dan. Commissioner Baker said yester-
day, 49,,
man TO lose his eyesight by working under
me when his eyesight has become Inn
paired. and as the surgeons have ap-
proved his application for retirement
there Is nothing for me to do but let him
60.
Sheridan has been In charge of the
Identification bureau at Police Head
quarters for many years. He was the
man to whom the department turned when
all others failed &c. identify prisoner.
II Sheridan passed prisoner IL was
taken for granted that his picture was not
among the 100000 OF more in the rogues
gallery.
Sheridan got his start in lsss-the day
Of Inspector Tom Byrnes; Sheridan had
been on the force only q few weeks when
Byrnes had him siyed up.
$50 down into the jewelry district, :
was his order to the detective, and for FIVE
years Sheridan and Bob Mcknight made
life miserable for the thieves that bleed
fThe National Park Bank case was the
first big one Sheridan had. inspector
Byrnes showed a clipping from a news
paper at him. The clipping told how an
assistant cashier had got away with
SIo5, 900.
Now" said Byrnee, Il want you TO get
that man. and don't you show up here
until you find him.
Six months later Inspector Byrnes re-
ceived a telegram from a little town called
Stanstead In Canada notifying him that
Sheridan was coming back to work-with
the prisoner.
Ten years later Sheridan and his wife
walked into hotel in Washington. Sheri-
dan stepped up to the desk to register
Why. hello he exclaimed, looking at
the clerk.
The clerk didn't recognize Sheridan.
but the detective asked him il he had
visited Stanstead recently.
Another case they recall at Police
Headquarters Is that OF a bank sneak
who was arrested in Brooklyn i'm 1908 and
who gave the name OF William Murphy.
Murphy's picture was taken in Brooklyn
and sent over to Mulberry street for
identification.
why said Sheridan. that's Bob
eight in Brussels, two in Sing Sing He
was arrested twenty-one years ago by
Tom Mulvey on Reynolds's star
Inspector Titus sent Tom Mulvey over
to the Raymond street Jail in Brooklyn to
identify the prisoner. Mulvey took
look at him and reported that he never
had arrested him. never had seen him.
Sheridan himself had never seen Bob
Suffrage. All that he had in mind were
the pictures that had passed through his
hands-two or three out Of a total of
2O0, 900 in the gallery. Sheridan still in
sisted that the Brooklyn sneak thief was
the notorious Bob.
Finally the prisoner was arraigned
before Judge Aspinall and pleaded guilty
The Judge said to him:
Now am going to ask you some ques-
tions. and il you tell the truth I'll take
that into consideration in sentencing Won
Is your name Bob Suffrage?"
-Yes.' said the prisoner, and then he
went on TO tell the terms he had served
just as Sheridan had done from memory
several weeks before.
San Francisco was one Of the cities
that asked for Sheridan's aid. That was
when the big crowd was gathering TO
welcome the round the world feet. On
his first day in the city Sheridan spotted
John o'Keefe OF Chicago and Billy Miles
of Pittsburg. pickpockets. John and Billy
spotted him too and the word was passed
along through the crowd of crooks that
had journeyed to the Pacific Coast that
the Camera Eye" was on the Job. There
was a hurried exit from the city.