The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1912-08-23
BOB FUREY's STORY.

1.-THE touch-off on the Red Star En-
press? Do l recall It? Well should
smile. That was one Of the biggest
and neatest jobs ever put up in New
York. It was a hair-raiser from start
to finish. A job like that ought to
have been worth a million. It would
have been but for one of the unex-
pected things that come around to
crooks as we'll as to other people.
l tumbled on the business by acc1-
dent one afternoon as 1 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. did not pay any attention
to them until overheard them talking
about money bags and gold coin.
picked up from their conversation that
they were agents for an express COM
pany that had a 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
les.
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, q territory In which the cars
were believed to be perfectly safe,
began thinking a bit. Before I reach
ed New York had made up my mind
to pick up few additional facts on
this subject. If it turned out as rosy
as these fellows indicated would
teach some Of them a lesson in the
art Of performing their duty. learn
ed from them incidentally that the
Red Star Express, on the Erie. car
ried more money than any other CON-
pany, and that the agents guarded
$1,000,00O about as closely as the Or
binary citizen would a nickel.
l gave these citizens a silent vote
Of thanks when we parted. Imme-
diately afterward began an official
investigation. had learned the trade
VI ndCAlAlSL "AO0 wa q yOuA6 ACA-
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 I got &C.
quainted with Pop Thompson. He was
called Pop because Of his general good
nature, and not because he was old. l
made myself as friendly with him as
could. l found out where he lived
in Lafayette, N. Y, little station up
the line a ways l hired room in a
boarding house near him. We met
very often, and he seemed to take
a fancy to me. After a while he talk
ed 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
l 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
go 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 weak side. In short,
he was leading double life. Nothing
gave me a chance to pull him into the
traces.
There was no longer any use Of my
working in the shop, so l quit and
went to chicago to wait for Pop to
turn up. It was some weeks before he
landed there, but l fixed it 80 that
would meet him coming out of his
home No. 2 in Chicago, which gave
me a chance to call him down. He
was not az much surprised as
thought he would be, and it was not
until he got ready to return home that
he suggested that it would be we'll to
keep quiet what l had seen.
promised never to mention it, and
returned with Pop. It was the first
show that had to throw out any
feelers. l gently, rather playfully,
limited that Pop was carrying large
amount of money for other people, and
It was a wonder to me that none Of it
had ever stuck to his fingers. Pop
manifested more interest in this talk
than had ever hoped for. He said
he was tired Of working for nothing
He limited that il I could suggest any
plan to make big roll Of money he
was willing to listen. Then I gave
him the idea, cold and plain, Of hitting
q rap at the Red Star car.
Pop drank in all that I said like q
very thirsty man, agreed to meet me
the next day and give me his views.
He was on deck at the appointed time,
and promised to furnish mo with the
information about the car and it's load
OF coin, II l would do the rest Of t6e
work and AZ it up so nothing would
point to him. This seemed all right
II tho thing was pulled on he could
got his share Of tho Doodle ald out
his job when hs felt like 1t. He WAS