The Washington herald., 1911-11-05
SUCCESS or REFORMED CRIMINALS
~ AFTER BLOTTING OUT THE PAST e@{8
AMnwZ Has Been 1gd nAd

dreaming what wealth Of interesting
and convincing anecdote it would evoke.
expected the time honored cynical reply something
n the effect of "once thief always a thief" But
was disappointed-agreeably disappointed. For my
answer was quick, emphatic, earnest Yes
And the man who said Yes" was William A. Pink
erton and he knows
Probably no living man knows more intimate de-
tails about the individual members Of the under
world those who active criminals to-day, as well
as the notorious crooks of the past than the head Of
the Pinkerton Detective Agency. And every crook
will tell you what every honest who knows Mr.
Pinkerton will tell you, that when he says Yes"
there is no possibility that the correct answer should
be mo"
"I know what the average man thinks-that real
crook never turns straight. But it isn't so. Thou
sands of crooks-and don't mean one time offenders.
but men in the class we call hardened criminals
have become honest to my knowledge 1t is
not true as some recent writer said that many
crooks turn honest as there are honest turn
crooked but believe Of the reasons is that so
few willing to lend helping hand don't
mean that every crook is ready to reform If he Is
encouraged but do that society makes it hard
for any man who has once been a criminal to lead an
honest life.
And I'll tell you another thing" continued Mr..
Pinkerton; prouder of the fact that have helped
few criminals to become honest than Of all the
work I have done in putting criminals behind the
bars Pm proud Of the fact that every crook knows
that Pinkerton will deal squarey with him If he will
important to keep faith with bank thief as with
bank president
81 know a score Of business in Chicago-not
saloonkeepers, but reputable merchants-who have
criminal records. These men have done time and
have paid their debt to society for their crimes.
cannot tell you their Names for it would be unfair to
them and to their wives and families, many Of whom
have no suspicion that there is anything wrong in the
pass of their husbands and fathers. Besides. when
society discovers that is former criminal 1t is
not content to cancel the debt matter how much
Imprisonment at hard labor the former crook may
have given in expiation of his sin.
81 know men in trusted positions in New York who
were convicts. In many cases only the man himself
and his employer know the secret, and sometimes
the employer does not know it. l know men scat
tered all over the West-business men, professional
men, many of them wealthy and prominent citizens
who have seen the inside Joliet Moyamensing Sing
Sing Leavenworth They have and daughters
who never have suspected and never will suspect the
truth.
These are good men-as good men as any living
They have turned away from their old ways in many
cases have changed their names, and who shall say
they not much to be respected as the honest
man who never was tempted, never was forced into
crime? I'll tell you about some Of them.
when 1 was boy in Chicago there were two
brothers, neghbors, about the age of myself and my
younger brother, and friends. When the civil
broke out went into the army secret service at
the age Of fifteen, and the older Of these two boys
John, enlisted in an Illinois regiment Jerry, the
younger not old enough, but little later when
the government began Offering bounty for soldiers
he became bounty jumper. He would enlist get the
bounty money, then desert and enlist over again
under another name. He with a band of young
fellows who engaged in that way getting easy
money, and who found easy that they turned to
other kinds of crime.
when the war over John came back to Chi
mechanic. He tried to get Jerry to straighten out
but the younger brother along on the road
to prison.
"In those days the Northwestern Railroad used
wood for fuel and the wood agent of the road was
Amos Snell-the same Smell who was later murdered
by Willie Tascott He lived in a suburb of Chicago
and one night Jerry and his crowd went out there
md stuck up the whole family-robbed them of
everything they had. John was along with them,
ying in the bottom Of the hack. The police got
clew through the hack driver and rounded ND the
whole band. All Of them including John, were SEN
fenced to five years each except Jerry. When he came
INTO the hands Of the police citizen who had been
held up on the street some time before identified him
Is the hold-up man. and the strength Of that the
Judge him fifteen years. 1t was an unjust SEN
ence, for Jerry had not committed the hold-up-that
was found out later
well. Johns old Colonel and some other army
men and my father got together and got pardon
or John, who had merely gone along with the crowd