Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1919-10-30
CROOKS ARE COMING
TO FLORIDA EARL Y
BIG CHIEF HAS ALREADY Wis.
TIED DAYTONA
Head of Wire Tapping Gang Has
Visited Several of the Tourist
Towns

According to reports from man
E OF the tourist towns in the stat
, FLORIDA may expect to be plague
again this year by crooks operatin
the old wire tapping game on unsus
pecting visitors. Daytona was tn
east coast headquarters for thi
gang last year, and of their comm,
The Daytona News says
"The big boss of the wire tanner
has already been to Daytona to max,
arrangements for opening up theii
various places of business for thu
coming season.
THE plan of this gang of film.
Hammers consists of renting a mum.
Der OF houses, where they install par.
aphernalia to fool their victims into
the belief that the place is broker
age office where stock transactions
are transmitted to the New York
Stock Exchange, or else it purports
to be an office where reports on
horse races are received and bets ac-
cepted on the various supposed races.
THE victim is always someone
who is not wise on either the stock
market or horse races, and having an
avaricous greed, the victim makes
what he believes to be stock trans
action on tips of a quick advance,
or else bets on purported horse
race on information believed to be
received from a dsgruntled emplove
of the concern, who claims that he
cuts the wires and holds back the in
until after bet can be
placed.
The amount of money this bunch
II flm-flammers take away from vic
inns on the east coast of Florida
very winter is enormous, the esti-
mates running as high as a million
ollars some seasons.
There is one thing they do not
IKE, and that is publicity. The
'lre-tapping business is different
rom every other line of business"
is the only business in which it
oes not pay to advertise. The meth
d of the gang in promoting and
ostering their business is entirely
ltferent from any other line in other
aspects. They build up an organi
alton that eclipses in fnesse the or
anlzation of the United States Steel
'rporation. The intricacies of the G
rganization of the overlapping G
lslness are generally perfect, and l.
lie fine state of perfectian is t
arvel thought of master mind.
bout which revolves the brains of p
sser lights. t.
The wire-tappers do not tap wires f
1T only the coin of their victims. D
ne process seems to be easy, but it o
because of the fine state of almost
of the organization of Q.
e overlapping gang. Calling these !,
ngs of fiim-fammers 'wire-tappers' q
really misnomer They call them !
Ives by this term and naturally. in .
eaking of them every one else y
es likewise. "
1.-THE wire-tappers are divided into -
rious gangs, all under the head of o'
e dictator, who assumes the same Id
sition with the wire-tappers as u
litical boss does in a State, or ca
y. 1t is presumed that the ordinary 10
oper has not sufficient grey mat et
: to keep off the shoals of trouble. al
st as the common or average voter
not supposed to know enough
out politics to think out his own
stiny. Because of the political pi
ss' assumption that the voted don't IN
ow how to properly cast a ballot .I''
: political boss seems a necessity,
least in the supcrhuman mind of &
! political boss So it is with the
'ss' wire-tapper-he thinks he is a
2essity to the welfare of the COM
n sheep of his gang"