The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-04-15
SAYS ARSON GANG
is nation wide
Chicago Prosecutor Explains
lis Grimes.
INCENDIARIES GET MILLIONS

GVOGNSC dN VI ElOW
conspirators Operate on Great Scale
In Many Cities, Sending Agents
Back and Forth Setting Fires and
Collecting Insurance Money.
The workings of so called national
arson syndicate were explained re-
Gently by Charles Furthman, deputy
states attorney of Cook county, ILL.,,
while in New York with extradition
papers for John Danies, a roadhouse
keeper in the Bronx, against whom
six indictments for arson are stand
ing in Chicago
Danies was arrested Feb. % by De-
tective Flood of District Attorney
Whitman's staff upon representations
from Chicago.
Mr.. Furthman said he had evidence
gang of incendiaries who have been
operating throughout the country. 1t
is asserted Danies is known in other
cities as John Kabizak, 1.-The chief"
and the captain" He has been ar
rested three times in New York, but
succeeded every time in convincing u
jury he was innocent.
Furthman said he could prove that
every time Danies left New York on a
trip a trail of fires followed him. Big
blazes in Seattle, Chicago, st. Louis,
Buffalo, San Francisco and Minneapo-
| lis were coincident with Danies' pres
ence in those cities, the prosecutor
said.
New York Bugs" Look Cheap.
AS described by Furthman the
methods of the nation wide ring of
firebugs and the amount Of their earn
ings make Isidor Stein and the other
members of the arson ring in New
York look cheap. Where Stein set
fire in closet for q few hundred dol
lars insurance it is said the SO called
Danies crowd would fire a store or
factory and enable the owner to col
lect thousands.
"In every town where the gang oper-
ated," said Mr.. Furthman, "a repre-
sentative looked out for likely cases.
He would go to a manufacturer or
large storekeeper who was losing mon
ey. A fire would be suggested as an
easy method of escaping bankruptcy,
If the storekeeper followed the sug-
gestion he would lay in big stock of
almost worthless goods.
"Then he would give the key to the
local agent of the fire gang. The
worker who might live in a city a
thousand miles away, would be noti-
fed. He would slip into the town, get
the key to the store or factory, do the
job in an hour and get out on the next
train"
Millions Have Been Reaped.
Furthman said that if the testimony
of the informers could be believed, the
arson syndicate had got millions of
dollars from the insurance companies.
Mr.. Furthman and Detective Sheehan
started with Danies for Chicago.
Henry G. Freeman, known as wire
less" Freeman because of the rapidity
with which he learned of fires of
which he later became the adjuster,
was placed on trial before Judge
Swami in general sessions charged
with arson in the second degree.
Assistant District Attorney Weller
said he would prove that Freeman had
entered into conspiracy with Isidore
Stein and a broker named Goldman
now fugitive from justice, to go into
the business Of incendiarism. Gold
man was to sell the policies, Stein
was to build the fires and Freeman
was to adjust the losses.
Stein testified that on Dec. Z, 1911
at the suggestion of Freeman he built
fire in the fiat of a man named
Abraham Schlicten in New York.