Omaha daily bee., 1917-08-12

had all the money. the man was
anxious TO reassure him. And at
length, in order to do so, he confessed
To the murder Of the little girl. A
dictaphone in the next room took
down the confession, and the Ger
man-American was the first man to
be electrocuted in the state of New
Jersey.
Two Classes of Criminals.
Mr.. Kron believes that criminals
are distinctly separable into two
classes-those who are born criminals
and those who are made so. The
born criminal is the man who care
fully plans his crime; the made Grim
inal is one who commits it in a
moment of passion. Mr.. Kron has
no sympathy with the former, al
though he occasionally permits him
self to feel sorry for the latter. He
is particularly vindictive towards
thieves.
New York department stores. he
estimates, lose between fifty and six
ty thousand dollars a year on account
of thieves. Rugs, parasols, furniture
lingerie, gloves, wearing apparel and
other valuable articles disappear by
the hundreds in the hands of shop
lifting gangs. 1t is hard to imagine
oneself running away with a good
sized rug, but it is not hard for the
experienced shop-lifter, who has been
known to appear without hat, note
book in hand, and walk out with an
expensive Persian rug under arm,
leaving the impression that she is
salesgirl.
Moreov, n. the shop-lifting habit is
not confined to professionals. The
wealthy have been known to amuse
themselves with this fascinating
habit Mr.. Kron says that he once
followed and observed New York
society woman, accompanied bv her
lover, steal several articles in de-
partment store when she wore
ytwelry worth thousand dollars and
carried checking account of thou
sands. The couple were subsequently,
arrested by the store detective, but
they were acquitted upon returning
the goods, the man claiming that he
was the woman's physician and had
taken the shopping tour in order to
study her.
House Thieves His Quarry.
Mr.. Kron has also made a spe-
cialty of arresting house thieves.
which he says are the cleverest and
craftiest in the criminal world of
New York. This type of thief we are
familiar with on the stage. He or
she usually gets position as butler
or governess in a wealthy household
and then proceeds to rob it of its dia-
monds. Such case as this was one
Jane Kenyon, who was ladies' maid to
one of the wealthiest society women
of New York. Jewelry to the extent
of $4,000 was stolen in this house
hold, but no one thought of suspect
ing Jane. When Mr.. Kron arrived
as the agent of prominent insurance
company and asked to speak 70 Jane,
her mistress became indignant and in
sisted that she would not have her
maid insulted, that she would trust
her with her life itself. Nevertheless,
Mr.. Kron did not trust Jane. He
made some inquiries and found that,
although it was the usual practice OF
the girl to 60 out with her friends on
her day out, for four weeks following
the robbery she had not left the house.
He therefore stationed himself op-
posite the house and waited for Jane
to appear. She did at last, late one
night, running hurriedly down the
steps to the, mail box where she
mailed letter, and then running
back again.
As it happened James letter was
the first to go in the box after the
mail had been collected, so Mr.. Kron
left one of his assistants to guard the
box while he went to the nearest
postoffice for assistance. The letter
proved to be addressed to James
sweetheart, with whom she arranged
a meeting place the following day:
At noon the next day Jane drove. off
in taxi. followed by Mr.. Kron. After
riding two blocks, she discharged the
taxi and boarded downtown street
car which she soon changed for an
uptown one, and then took down
town subway. Thus she led the de-
tective a difficult chase, but when
she entered a cafe or the Bowery
he was not far behind her Ten min
utes later he was rewarded by being
able to arrest Jane and her partner
just as she handed him $4,000 worth
of jewelry.