The sun., 1919-06-23
YATES, NOTORIOUS
CRIMINAL, CAUGHT
Bandit Who Escaped From
Sing Sing Captured
in West.
HE STOLE $4,000 HERE
Broke Out of. Prison During
Heavy Fog in Deem
Der, 1912.

Chester Yates. daring bank. robher.
bandit and chronic Jail breaker, who
vanished from Sing Sing Prison six
yearc ago. owing the state more than
twenty years on his twenty-one year
sentence, is once more in custody. Yates
Is best remembered in police and fnan-
ciai circles as the desperate who bowled
over aged Aaron Bancroft, broker,
and walked of with $4,000 of his
money and securities at the entrance
to the Produce Exchange vaults in Man
haitian seven years ago. OF all the
getaways in Sing Sings history none
was so mysterious or quickly done as
Yatess.
Warden Edward v Brophy received
| telegram yesterday at Sing Sing from
r. L Phelan. chief Of detectives at Kan
| sas City, Mo-, informing him that Yates
is under arrest there. Phelan asked
| trat a prison officer be sent for the fugi-
| tive at once. Warden Brophy accord
! insiy arranged to despatch the most
careful guard In the prison service.
Yates was arrested in Kansas City
fer arother crime under the name Of
| Charles Shaw. From a Sing Sing photo
snd Bertillon card sent out by former
Warden John $. Kennedy the police
! recognized the prisoner as Yates. for
| whom Sing Sing authorities and police
| have been securing the country since he
| broke out December is, 1912.
Yates is a past master in the art Of
\ getting out OF handouts. cells and pris-
oLs.> He trained with Reynolds Fors-
bvey. the desperate who escaped from
the Tcmbs, Sing Sing. Clinton and last
ly from Auburn Prison. In the Tombs
Yateg and Forsbrey had adjoining cells.
| The day Forsbrey sawed the bars there
and made a sensational jump to free
dem he also had sawed the bars 10
liberate Yates. The guards. however.
| discovered the plot before Yates could
| follow his accomplish.
Fog Aided Escape.
4 heavy fog enveloped the prison the
morning Yates fed Sing Sing 1t was
| an IDEAL opportunity for an escape and
tie late Principal Keeper Connaughton
had posted extra guards outside the
| river front fence for Just such an emer-
gency. While Keeper Barnes was TAX
ing Yates's company to the mess hall
| fo.' breakfast Yates Just disappeared.
| Nobody saw him go. 1t was as though
he had evaporated. He did not scale
the fence, the guards outside were posi-
| tive.
! Big Ben" the prison siren. roared
! out to the countryside the news that
a convict had broken away.
| Yates was missed but three minutes
when armed guards and posses of citi-
zens. warned by the blasts OF the big
whistle were searching everywhere for
| him. But not a clue did they pick up.
Warden Kennedy's theory was that
Yate;, had managed to get outside by
| shining over the walls
lie had then been in prison only
| four months for the Bancroft robbery.
| His escape recalled what Yates said
when a deputy sheriff was taking him
| to the prison to start his long sentence
| Believe me-" said Yates" Sing Sing
wont hold me for long. Ill be out be-
fore Christmas" So he was.
| The next heard from the escaped con-
Wet was on October al. 1915. Warden
| Thomas Mott Osborne received a teIe-
gram from Superintendent OF Police
| Reynolds OF New Orleans stating that
Votes had been captured there. He was
| arrested for plotting a bank robbery
| and identified as the escaped convict
He owned TO escaping two Louisiana
| lockups. However, he denied ever hav-
! ing seen Sing Sing until shown his
prison photo and number, Il 626I5.
Yates wept copiously. confessed his
! identity and pretended he was resigned
! TO go back to Sing Sing But he didn't
go. Twelve days later he made most
| from ab fatl
Feigning Illness, he got transferred from
| cell to the prison hospital. He had a
| visit from Dorothy Gray who had been
| arrested, but was out on bail. She is
believed to have smuggled a saw TO him.
Anyway he sawed away a window bar
and squeezed through an opening only
six by thirteen inches. He dropped 20
| tho coping of the prison wall two stories
| below. ran along the top. leaped TO the
| sidewalk and bounded into a waiting
| tsxicsb. 1t sped on and nothing more
was seen of Yates by the authorities
until the police In Kansas city got him
What is worrying Sing Sing attendants
| now is that Le may escape the Kansas
City lookup or while he IS in transit
| East en- route to his old quarters.
! The Bancroft Robbery.
| The Bancroft robbery on March . 1912
| created DiR sensation. Ihe old man
was walking through the dlmly lighted
| passageway to the Produce Exchange
| vaults TO deposit his large envelope with
| the money and securities contained
| therein late that afternoon. Yates and
| companion. Charles Ross. bumped into
| the old man with such force he sprawled
out on the floor. his cane flying in one
direction, the envelope in another.
With profuse apologies Yates bent
| over and helped Bancroft to his feet
! Then the slippery criminal handed the
| cid man his cane and the envelope. Still.
apologizing. Yates and his companion
| bowed their way out.
BY a quick move Yates had tossed the
| brokers' envelope under his own overcoat
4 and given him another. which resem-
bled It. but was stuffed with newspa per
| clippings. The old man never noticed
| the substitution.
| Two days later he went to the vault
and was astounded to discover the apollo
! getic strangers he had been in collision
| with had robbed him.
The robbery PUZZLED the entire New
| York police force. What CALLED the cops
was that II had been turned off below
the so-called dead line" below which
no crook Is allowed TO go. But police
! lines made no difference to "Cy' Yates,
| as he Is best known.
Not until Dan OReilly. a we'll known
| criminal lawyer, offered n reward TO
! get the stolen property back did