Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-05-28

kSS\SNASUh0 Mccarthy, alias West
~>AS=aE>@aN> Philadelphia Johnny"
had been captured, convicted and
sentenced to a good long term in the
Vermont penitentiary on charges of
looting post offices and banks every
post office inspector in the Federal
service, as well as hundreds Of po-
lice chiefs and constables through
out the United States, heaved sighs
of relief. In the capture and incar-
ceration of "Johnny" they believed
they had the arch conspirator and
the master hand that had directed
the hundreds OF post Office and bank
jobs of the last five years. As these
operations covered range Of terri
tory taking in the entire country, it
was little wonder that so many thief
takers breathed easier when they
heard OF the conviction Of this all
around bad man.
The very best men at the disposal
of the chief post Office inspector at
Washington had been detailed to
round up the band of yeggs that was
running riot over the country and
leaving a trail of wrecked post office
and bank safes in it's wake. The
chase had extended from coast to
coast and from Maine to Texas, and
whereas all who were enlisted in the
pursuit Of the burglar band knew
precisely who was directing its ope-
rations yet a relentless fate con-
spired to handicap the pursuers. But
this same fate smiled broadly upon
the yeggmen whom Johnny" gov
erned with an iron hand. His word
was law and all in the clan followed
his lead without question. That
they were well paid for their trou-
BILE, allegiance and daring there
never was doubt.
But it wa2 ony natural to suppose
that one as ninble witted as West
Philadelphia Johnny would not sit
idly in his cell and resign himself to
a future whose horizon consisted Of
iron bars surrounded by gray stone
walls. His reputation as a gun man
was so well established that his
callers knew that he would stop at
nothing should an opportunity to
escape present itself. They further
realized their prisoner was man
of such vast resource that iron bars
and stone walls held no terrors for
him once he made up his mind to
make break for freedom and re-
turn to the wild life he had plunged
into when he burned his bridges be-
mind him and deserted the respecta-
BILE and law-abiding environment in
which he had been reared. Those
who had traced his criminal career
step by step, as has been done in
these columns, could hardly recon-
cile themselves to the belief that
West Philadelphia Johnny" came
OF a good family and that he had
once held the post OF chief auditor
in one OF the biggest department
stores in the Quaker City. Yet a
love OF adventure, born Of too in
innate knowledge of crime and vio-
lence gained from the pages Of dime
novels, had brought him to the
turning point in his life, a point
from which he leaped at single
bound into an abyss Of crime rarely
paralleled in the criminal annals Of
this country.
After due deliberation Johnny"
came to the conclusion that it would
be useless to attempt to break Jail.
That he could do this, once he made
up his mind, he never doubted, but
he reasoned from another angle. If
he escaped he knew he would be a
marked man, that every agent of the
law in the United States would be
enlisted in his pursuit and that he
would never be able to show his face
in the old haunts he loved so well
The bright lights OF Broadway and
the prettily gowned women that f"e-
quent the "all-night" cafes and pub
lie places composed lure that was
all but irresistible as he sat brooding
in his cell. He must devise ways
and means by which he could walk |
forth free man from the prison |
that held him, and, further, In or
der to enjoy to the fullest the life he |
Craved, he must have the confidence
Of the men who had brought about |
his Incarceration rather than their
enmity. At best he knew he would
be watched, but Johnny" figured