Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1912-10-03
MADE CRIME A STUDY
YOUNG MAN PROVES HIMSELF
APT PUPIL OF LIGHT
FINGERED KIND.
But Unlike Heroes Of His Books He
Could Not Match Skill Of Detectives
and Lands Into Hands Of the Po-
lice.

New York.-A ~good-looking, easy
talking young man whose only o
wore hooks on crooks was arraigned
recently in the Fifth avenue police
court in Brooklyn. The prisoner, Hen
ry Melting, was held without bail by
Magistrate Geismer for he grand
Jury. Three women whose houses a
been robbed appeared as complain
ants against him. When he was ar
rested the sleuths found three shelves
of books In his home and every vol
ume had to do with some phase or
crime. Complaints from householders
who had been robbed began to come
into the Fourth avenue police station
in the midle of March and Detectives
Dittman, Dryer, Hyland and De Mar
TIM were told to snoop around Bay
Ridge and find what they could nnd.
The pilfering and the complaints
went right on, howeer, until about
ten days ago, when Dittmann met a
woman who told him something that
interested him. She said a man had
driven up to her house and k her
If she wanted any oil. She had seen
him selling oil around the neighbor-
hood. She told him tina she didn't
need any oil and went back to the
kitchen. She came to the front part
of the house a little later and found
him standing in the hall. She asked
him what he was doing and he told
her that he had made a mistake and
withdrew, murmuring apologies.
Dittmann went around to the retail
oil company that supplies that section
of Bay Ridge and got the names Of
their drivers. He watched them and
last week he learned that Melting,
who was one of them, was spending
money pretty freely and working IT.
regularly.
The sleuths ven to Nelling's home
on Friday afternoon. and while two OF
them talked to Nelling's wife. telling
her that they were tenement-house in
spectors, the other two walked into
Nelling's room. The first thing Dit
man noticed was a fancy handker-
chief that bulged atop a bureau. He
opened the handkerchief and there
fell out a miscellaneous collection of
jewelry. 1t took the sleuth but a mo-
ment to recognize that most of the
stuff fitted the description of the
things that had been taken from sew
eral houses In the ~neighborhood. He
put the handkerchief back and then
his glance fell on a bookcase.
These are some Of the authors that
Melting had been reading: Gaboriau.
Conan Doyle. Hornung, Katherine &C.
ell Thurston. lie Blanc, Frederick Ire
vor Hill and a host of writer's who tell
of clever crooks and their captors.
The oil driver, known to his employ
ers as steady and hard working when
he did work, had apparently saturated
himself with stories of the lightin-
gered kind and then put his book
learning to practical purposes.
The detectives waited until he came
home and arrested him. He broke
down and confessed when he saw that
they had found the handkerchief and
other things about the house. In
court the ext morning he said he
had taken the things to help support
his wife and 3-year-old son, but the
detectives say they are a bit skeptical
about this, as Melting came near be-
ing sent away a few years ago for
beating his wife.