New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-04-15
|ND|cT 8 IN THEFT CASE
Two Crooks and Former Gus.
toner of Bancrofts Named.
O'REILLY HELD IN $4,000
Young Criminal Lawyer Gives
Himself Up-His Counsel
Refuses Statement.

The grand jury has row indicted all Of
The men concerned ir the theft of $500 IN
securities from Aaron Bancroft. of George
Bancroft a. Co. operators on the Consoli-
dated Exchange on March 2. The first in
dIctment was that Of Frank J. Plass. who
said he was a jeweller. living at No. al West
14th street Next came Dan" O'Reilly,
the yourg criminal lawyer. who was once
connected with the defence Of Harry X.
Thaw. and the last indictments were or
two professional crooks and a former Gus
toner Of the Bancrotts.
As told exclusively by The Tribune the
robbery was planned by customer OF the
Pancrofts who knew. through his intimacy
With George Bancroft. the son OF Aaron
Psncroft and the head Of the firm. thar
Aaron Bancroft was to deposit tie securi-
tics IN the vaults Of the Produce Exchange
Safo Deposit Company on March : Inc
work Of knocking down Aaron Bancroft
and substituting the bogus envelope Tor the
one containing the securities was per
formed by the two crooks. who had been
taken into the scheme for that purpose.
They we're Chester Yates, alias George
Wright. alias "Sy" Yates. and CharleS
Murphy. alias Charles Ross Yates served
four years for robbery in the Hotter 'u"-
berland in 1907. committed when ne was
rineteen years old The charge was mat
he he'd stolen $500 in jewelry from MIS-
Carmen G. Campbell. Of St LOUIS oN en-
terine her room and taking the JeWeis from
beneath her pillow. He was then a oellooE
.r the hotel. He was parolod rom ol"s
Sing on August (. 1910
Nurphv was arrested i'm 1900 for entering
the store OF August Eckhoff' at NO -''-
Broadway. and taking thirty-four FOUNTAIN
mems His LAWYER entered plea OF gun'S'
90 ,tur1,bv was sentenced on September
"a 1909 TO one year i'm Sing Sing. Accord
.ng 10 Plass's confession 10 the plstrlC' A.
,ornev. when Yates and Murphy were re-
leased from Sing sing they went TO ilasS
bo.rding house. in West 15th street Two
weeks before the Bancroft robbery tpeE
sid they wanted TO lead honest lives ou'
+bcv needed ono more big haul TO SET tnenl
Up in business
The last man indicted was tho customer
o. tho Rancrofts who planned the roooeIE
and prepared the envelope which was sun
stiti;ted for the one containing the SecuiI
ties when Yates and Murphy Knocked tH'
Old man down. He has not vet peeh al
rested. and the police have not diNCIgeu i'S
name as they say they do not want W
rarn him that be Is suspected
O'Reily gave himself up yesterday morn.
ing. and George Considine gave $0'W' nan
for him. giving as security the Hotei Met
ronole. which he said was worth ABOUT
S175na Martin Engel an old frlehd oi
G'Reillv. was on the scene. ready to go OH
.he hond in case Considine did not quslIIS q
OReilly retained Abraham Levy as MS
LAWYER. All that Levy would say was thdt
he could not make a statement untl al'ei
he had a chance to 20 over the lhulc'-
ments.
Il, * evident that my client IS innocent
he added. "or he would have escaped tie
was informed of the indictments last nieh''
but instead of trying 10 get away ne came
down here from sick bed and gave nm
self up
Mr. Levy reiterated last night that ne ndd
ROT had time 10 study the indictments ana
make a statement for his client.
According TO the confession of Pass
o'ReilIy was the third man In the cab Wheh
. w NJ. sullivan. the lawyer Tor the BAN
crofts psssed over the 5000 and received
hack the stolen securities. Pass shd ne
lad brought OReilly into the case ana
that the lawyer had conducted the negoua-
lions for the return of the securities Flass
said O Reilly had passed the SECURITIES W
him. and he had passed them on to Sul'i-
,sn. and the money had returned by the
same route lie said he supposed ne was
rsssing along the entire $500 in securities
and that it WAS not until after the trans
action was completed that he learned that
only $500 in securities had been returned
de declared that he had been double
crossed" in the return Of the securities
II was the holding out of $4,000 worth OF
emelters stock that resulted in the arrest
Of plass and his confession, which was
followed by the indictment of O'Rcilly ana
the three other men in the case. "A quar-
rel among thieves was the way the police
characterized the case yesterday II is un-
derstood that IL the entire amount or the
stolen securities had been returned the
Eancrofts would have accepted their loss
of 5000. and nothing more would nave
been done.
The Pinkertons were employed by the