The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-11-08
WILLINGLY TELL STORY
Detective Jeffrey and Policeman Rock
Deluged With Confessions Of Youth
full Criminals Grown-Ups Act as
Fence and Are Implicated in Deal.

A real gang of Kenosha boy bandits
seven in all--found their dreams of
sudden wealth sadly shattered Tuesday
afternoon, when they were arrested
and brought into police court to answer
charges of w. j. Jeffrey, detective for
the Chicago and North-W estern Rafl-
way, and Policeman Rock for stealing
more than three hundred dollars worth
of copper and brass from the box cars
carrying consignment to the Ameri-
can Brass Company. The thefts were
committed on Sunday, October 28th,
and on Thursday, November LIST, and
were made up Of twenty-six rolls of
brass and six copper ingots, all Of
which were recovered and made up the
exact shortage in the cars. The boys,
all of whom confess to being members
Of the "gang" are: Floyd Smith,
Joe Mangan, August Lishka Hugo
Klemm, Walter Quardokus, Richard
Plew and Roy Plew. Carney Plew, the
father of two of the boys, is also I'M
der arrest for receiving stolen goods,
as are also Joe and Lewis Elfman, two
Kenosha junk dealers who are charged
with receiving stolen copper and brass
Boys Talk Willingly.
AS soon as Detective Jeffrey and
Policeman Rock got hold of the boys,
ch Al Hal 10 50 80 I, -
crime. There were no tears of repent
ance and the dignity Of the law did
not abash the Juvenile criminals. They
literally "fell over each other" in
making clean breast of the story and
it is possible for this reason that
leniency will be. dealt out to them by
the court. Tuesday they were kept in
Jail but allowed to go home for the
night and this morning they all turned
up promptly to face Judge Randall
and repeat the interesting story of
their two weeks of evading Justice.
All seemed agreed that Floyd Smith
was the leader of the gang as
indicated in the following story Of
the theft as told by Joe Mangus,
of Superior street:
"We boys about six O'Clock that
Sunday afternoon, started to look into
the box cars on the K. D. tracks and
when we came to "a car loaded with
brass, Floyd - that s Smit- ic said
let's break in and get some of it and
sell it for junk Then he took a pin
from under the car and pried the seal
open and the rest of us showed the
door open. Smith reached in and got
six ingots and told us to take them
over and hide them in the weeds and
then we went home. Two or three
days later we spied car marked brass
and Smith broke open the seal with a
Ratchet and he and Lishka went in the
car, broke open barrel of brass with
the Ratchet and threw out twenty six
rolls of brass which he told us to hide
in the weeds. Then we went out in
the country for walk and when we
came back we took all of the stuff over
to the Plew's house. Then when
Smithie told us that we couldn t sell
it without breaking it up, we broke up
this roll and meant to come back some
other time to break up the rest -
Boys Waiting to Confess.
GAS soon as we found that we could
not sell the copper" said one of the
boy bandits, ''we knew that we would
get caught sooner or later. ;" When
asked why they did not confess, they
declared that "black ey9 was wait
ing for the first guy that squealed, y
but now that they have all told of the
crime, they seem to be less worrie l.
The boys admit that they had no idea
of the worth of their plumber and
were astonished when TOLD that it
amounted to more than three hundred
dollars. The detection of the thieves
and their immediate confession was
due to the efficient work &C Detective
Jeffrey and Policeman Rock, who
traced the stolen goods from one of
the junk dealers back to the boys who
were all too ready to assist them. One
of the interesting affairs of the trail
was that under the guidance of the
boys the officers were taken to house
on Hamilton avenue and Avery street
where by digging in the cellar there
was found the stolen goods, care
fully hidden away to avoid detection
The boYas while they are not unknown