The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-03-11
ARSON TRUST IS
The LATEST FIND
Hid0OuS Form Of Crime In New
York City.
FIREBUGS WORK FOR So FEE

acy by WhIoh insurance AdJuSter, In
League With lnoendiaries, Robs Com
panies of Great Sums on False
Claims-Lives Sacrificed.
"a f1rebug can be bought for a five
dollar bill and 10 per cent of the in
surance collected to set fire to furni-
ture, with no regard for human life
whatever" was one Of the allegations
in statement issued at the district at
torney's Office, in New York city,
short time ago, following the arrest Of
an insurance agent, who was arraigned
in the Harlem court on a charge Of ar
son in the second degree and locked up
in default of $4,000 bail.
The arrest was one Of the develop
| ments of the confession Of Samuel
Gold, who pleaded guilty to arson be-
fore Judge Grain in the court of gen
| eral sessions. After his plea Gold made
statement to Assistant District At
torney Weller, in which it is stated he
laid bare the most astounding revela-
tions with reference to crooked insur
ance brokers and adJusterS.
Evidence reached the district attor-
neys office that lives have been lost
through the operations of the gang of
| firebugs besides the money losses of
insurance companies in the last two or
| three years.
Inexperience of the fatal velocity
with which excelsior and kerosene can
work destruction has entrapped the in
| cendiaries several times. In these in.
| stances the ones to suffer have been the
youngest in large families of children
The flames burst out with too sudden
strength, and in the scramble some one
occasionally was left behind.
Agent Helps PIotters.
The charge to which Gold pleaded
guilty was that of hiring one Isidor
Stein, better known as "Izzy the Paint
err" to set fire to his furniture in an
apartment upon which Gold had $1,000
insurance. Stein was tried last month
and convicted and is at present in
Sing Sing prison, serving a sentence
of from twelve to twenty-four years.
| 1t was learned also that on Dec. l,
| 1910, Gold had another fire in which
his insured furniture was slightly
burned. At that time Gold lived at
574 East One Hundred and Thirty
eighth street, in the Bronx.
From the investigation of the Office
of District Attorney Whitman it ap-
pears that an agent posing as a life as
well as a fire insurance broker has
| figured in the adjustment of many fire
losses 1t is stated that he was able
to go to one or two fire insurance COM
panies with which he transacted most
of his business and after filing sched-
ule for a total loss, say, of $1,000 for
damages to furniture by fire would Of
| fer and was able to effect a settle
ment on a 80 or 60 per cent basis. In
these cases, it is charged, the compa-
MES representative would make an ex-
animation and ascertain that the fire
was of a suspicious origin, report the
matter to Fire Marshal John p. Prial,
take less than the schedule called for,
would be quick to procure a settle.
ment and take up and cancel the pol.
icy of insurance and call it good set.
| tlement
Human life was held cheap. The
| fires are most numerous in the thickly
congested tenement houses on the east
side, where there are six to eight fam
| lilies living on one floor 1t is not in
tended that the incendiary should do
! anybody else the favor of starting a
dre except to make a fire of the furni-
ture of the man who employs him.
District Attorneys Statement.
The formal report is as follows
investigations by the fire marshaps
Office show that great many of these
fires are confined to the rooms of one
apartment; that $10O worth of damage
to furniture, clothing and bedding is
swelled into a $500 or a $1,000 claim.
The insurance companies do not con
slider that this claim is large enough to
fight through the courts, either to take
the matter up with the authorities or
to contest the claim in the civil courts.
Not infrequently is life lost, but the
firebug never thinks of others. He
touches a match to a clothes closet fill
ed with rags and old clothing saturated
with benzine or gasoline, opens one of
the windows slightly from the top,
slips out OF the apartment quietly and
quickly and then crosses over to the
other side of the street, lights a ciga-
rette and waits to see the horses of the
fire department come racing down the