Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-15

often stood me IN BOOu stead anu
which enabled my comrades and
me to get our hands on hundreds
of thousands of dollars that didn't
belongs to us. 49,
Early IN my career ! conceived
the idea of furthering my dishonest
plans by posing as a wealthy old 10
widow. so crippled that she had ma
to transact whatever business she and
had with the bank from her seat
in her carriage. This plan sue
ceeded beyond my fondest expectations
and | ,am ashamed to think how many
thousands of dollars | stole through this
simple but extremely effective little ex-
pedient.
This ruse proved its merits the first time
we tried tin the daylight robbery of
Brooklyn, New York, bank, where one Of
my two companions walked away with
$4,000 while | sat outside in my carriage
listening to the old cashiers advise about
investing the money my lamented hus
band had left me.
But let me go back to the very Begin
ming and show you just how this bold
robbery was planned and carried out
We had had our eyes on this bank for a
week-Iohnny Meaney, Tom BigelOw and
l. Between the hours of 10 and I each
day we found there we're few customers
in the bank and the institution was left
in charge of the old cashier and young
bookkeeper
But the cashier although over sixty
years old, was a keen-eyed. nervous man,
whose suspicious were apt to be easily
aroused And besides the window in the
wire cage where he did business with the
banks customers was so situated that he
could always see out OF the corner of his
eye the vault and the long counter where
the money was piled
We all agreed that it was not safe To
attempt the robbery while the cashier was
I'm his usual place. II | could only devise
some way Of getting him outside the bank
for a few minutes It would be easy for
one of the men TO hold the young book
keeper in conversation at the paying
teler's window which was so placed that
while he stood there his back was toward
the vault That would give Just the Oppor-
tunity we needed for the third member of
the party to step unnoticed through a
convenient side door and get the plumber.
But how TO lure the cashier out of the
bank? That was the question, and 1t was
while ! was racking my brains for some
solution of the difficulty that I Numbered
upon the idea of posing as wealthy widow
who was too lame to leave her carriage
when she called at the bank.
During my stay in this city ! had heard
OF the death in Europe of a rich and prom
inent Brooklyn man He had been living
abroad for the last ten years and had mar
ried there an English woman who had
never visited Brooklyn and was entirely
unknown there except by name.
Nothing could have suited my purpose
better. I would pose as this wealthy
Brooklyn mans widow, and in this guise
would induce the bank cashier TO come
out to my carriage and talk with me.
You may be sure that I laid my plans
with the greatest care. for | knew what
a bold undertaking this was and that the
least oversight on my part would spoil
everything.
First I bought silver gray wig to cover
my chestnut hair II was a beautitul
specimen of the wigmaker's art and cost
me siNty-fve dollars.
Then I made up my plump, rosy cheeks
TO look as pale and wrinkled as an in
valid womans should at the age of seventy
and dressed myself in the glOomiest. most
expensive widows weeds could find
pair of hideous blue goggles and two
crutches completed my disguise. The
glasses were to hide my bright eyes whose
habit of roaming necessarily from side to
side 7 had an idea often made people sus
picioUs of me; and the crutches were to
bear out my story Of the paralyzed limbs
which made my leaving my carriage eX-
cept when absolutely necessary out OF the
question
Ny costume was not the only detail
which had TO be arranged TO make my
plan complete 7 must have some visiting
cards-csrds with a heavy mourning Dor
der and the name Of the Brooklyn mans
widow engraved on them.
7 also didn't forget to place with these
cards in my handbag some worthless min
ing stock which had been my share OF
western bank robbery. and which even
Ellen Pecks shrewd magic couldn't turn
into cash. This would be useful, thought
in holding the old cashiers attention.
Then there were my horses and car
riage BETTING my wealth which the men
hired from a livery stable J called on
two Young thieves whom I knew over IN
New York, and by promising them small