Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1912-09-13
BOB FUREYs STORY.

"The touch-off on the Red Star Elk
press? Do / recall It? Well should
smile. That was one Of the biggest
and neatest Jobs ever put up in New
York. 1t was hair-raiser from start
to finish. A job like that ought to
have been worth a million. 1t would
have been but for one Of the unex-
pected things that come around to
crooks as well as to other people.
tumbled on the business by acci-
dent one afternoon as / was going
from Washington TO New York. was
sitting in the smoker putting away on
a bit Of Havana, when a couple OF
gents dropped in and took the seat
in front. l did not pay any attention
to them until overheard them talking
about money bags and gold coin. l
picked up from their conversation that
they were agents for an express COM
pany that had q contract for hauling
money for the government, and had
charge of the stuff while 1t was In
transit from Washington to the mint
In Philadelphia or to other eastern cit
ies.
This of itself did not specially in
terest me, but when heard them talk
about how carelessly the coin was
handled by the agents east Of Chi
cago, a territory in which the cars
were believed to be perfectly safe,
began thinking q bit Before reach
ed New York / had made up my mind
to pick up q few additional facts on
this subject. II 1t turned out as rosy
as these fellows indicated / would
teach some Of them a lesson In the
art of performing their duty. ! learn
cd from them incidentally that the
Red Star Express, on the Erie, car
ried more money than any other COM
pany, and that the agents guarded
8, o0o, 900 about as closely as the or
binary citizen would q nickel.
/ gave these citizens a silent vote
of thanks when we parted. Imme-
diately afterward I began an oficial
investigation. / had learned the trade
Of machinist when / was a young fel-
low, so the first thing did was to
make application for Job in the Erie
railroad repair shops in Jersey City.
While working on the car got &C
quainted with Pop Thompson. He was
called Pop because of his general good
nature, and not because he was old. !
made myself as friendly with him as
I could. l found out where he lived
in Lafayette, N. Y, little station up
the line q ways. hired room in q
boarding house near him. We met
very often, and he seemed to take
fancy to me. After q while he talk
cd quite freely about his business.
though 1t was always about trips that
he had made and never about trips
that he was going to take.
When l got this far into the scheme
called in Johnny Dobbs, Big Jim
Brady, Walt. Herrick and Pete Dur.
and, four OF the wisest crooks that
ever lived, and put them onto Pop and
his car, with the idea that one OF
them would stick to him every day and
60 away with him on every trip to get
the run Of the business. In this way
Johnny Dobbs picked up in Chicago
that Pop had q weak side. In short
he was leading double Life. Nothing
could have suited me better. for that
gave me q chance to pull him into the
traces.
There was no longer any use Of my
working In the shop 50 / quit and
went to chicago to wait for Pop tc
turn up. II was some weeks before hs
landed there, but l fixed 1t so that
would meet him coming out of hii
home No. In Chicago, which gave
me q chance to call him down. HI
was not as much surprised az
thought he would be, and 1t was no
until he got ready to return home tina
he suggested that 1t would be well Il
keep quiet what / had seen.
l promised never to mention it, and
returned with Pop. It was the frs
show that / had to throw out an,
feelers. / gently. rather playfully
limited that Pop was carrying a larg,
amount of money for other people. an,
II was a wonder to me that none Of /
had ever stuck to his fingers. Pol
manifested more interest In this tall
than / had ever hoped for. He sal,
he was tired of working for nothing
He limited that II / could suggest an,
plan TO make q big roll of money b,
was willing to listen. Then / CAV
him the idea. cold and plain, Of hittinl
rap at the Red Star car.
Pop drank in all that said like
very thirsty man, agreed to meet m
the next day and give me his views
He was on deck at the appointed time
and promised to furnish me with tn
information about the car and it's loa,
Of coin, IL / would do the rest Of tn
work and tx 1t up so nothing woul
point to him. This seemed all righi
II the thing was pulled on he coul
get his share OF the Doodle and qul
his Job when be felt like IT, He wa