The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-11-23
HOTEL RAT IS
CAUGHT At LAST
For Twenty-Five Year. He Had Lived
Double Life and oper-
ated Extern
slvely
JEWELER BY PROFESSION
Wore Snow White Beard and Hair
and Even His Wife Did
Not Suspect
Him.
TBy William Philip Simms, Paris cor
respondent of the United Press.1

respondent Of the United Press.l
PARIS, Nov. 22.-After chase
lasting twenty-five years in which
joined the police of every large city
on the continent and in the British
Isles, Urban Thaust, the king of
] Hotel Rats" has just been captured
here by secret service men.
The French police declare they
have never known a more complete
example Of double life than Thaust's.
He has a wife and four children, some
of the latter being grown up, yet none
of them ever had the least suspicion
that husband and father was anything
but the jeweler he pretended to be.
He was frequently away from home
at night but business engagements
and trips out of town. explained
these absences we'll enough to an I'M
suspicious family.
{. The hotel thief lived in beautiful-
lily furnished villa in the Bois-Col-
!. ombes, suburb of Paris, his income
being. according to the now dumb
founded wife, from $4,000 to $4,000 q
year. With snow white hair and a
! long, and equally white beard, detec
t Etives say they have caught real
Z "Raffles'' at last.
y The capture was made by four de
a tectives in large hotel near the
L Saint-Lazarre railway station. Fol
months they had been working on the
clue but had never been able to gel
the slightest evidence against Thaust
{ On the afternoon of the day of the
l arrest, Thaust left his pretty home
= looking the we'll groomed elderly
business man everyone thought hin
). to be. He had given his wife checl
: for s1O0 to defray certain expenses o
. his son and daughter, both Of them il
: college, the former studying engineer
\ ing.
= Thaust first took a taxicab. Thi
: he abandoned for the subway half al
hour later Then he took a surfac'
, car and again an omnibus. Back IL
the subway again, he emerged at I
railway station where he presented
the check for small suit case whicl
he had previously left at the parce
s room. He now took taxi for tn
Hotel Terminus. When he walked Vi
# to the desk to register the white
bearded, distinguished lookinl
stranger was wearing the decora
ton of foreign power. He signe,
n his name: ~. Ralle, Lugane, Swift
n erland,, jewel merchant French lay
IT requiring guests TO register profes
IT sions. He left call for 8 a. m
Midnight found two detectives Il
). the rooms on either side Of that OF
II cupied by the King of Hotel Rats.
d One was in bed, pretending to sleel
the other was under it. watching.
le About 1 o'clock there was nois
- at the door of one of the rooms. TIL
le detective in bed snored his best. TIL
= enc under it watched the door. Their
~ was a light at the keyhole--eviden
10 ly an electric dark lantern. The
y came scarcely audible grating SCUM
~ then all was still Nothing furthe
10 was heard for half an hour. The d
- tectives thought they had been foole
:. again.
= But Thaust had seemingly taken
:. wax impression of the lock and r
:, tired to his room to get skeletc
: key to fit, thus avoiding unnecessal
:, noise and too much time in the da
:, gerous hallway, for he returned ar
- opened the door without the slishte
- trouble.
~ Then came noise from the outsit
IN which scared Thaust away just as
IS was entering the room. But the
NJ. tectives decided to risk an arrest.
ed So, waiting until Thaust was lea
an ing after his 5 O'Clock call, thu
nabbed him at the door He was indi
b. nant, outraged and furious by tur1
Id but they found on him about $500
hy bank notes. the numbers of which Il
Mt hotel cashier had taken the night +
of fore prior to giving them in change
, ~