Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-11-23
REIGN OF TERROR
CAUSED BY MANY.
CRIMES IN CITY
Highwaymen, Burglars and
"Highjackers" Get Loot
Worth Thousands While
Ringer Is Out of Town.

While Police Commissioner ].
Dean Ringer is attending an inter-
national gathering of Y. M. c. A.
workers in Detroit, highwaymen,
burglars, sneal. thieves and high
jackers" are terrorizing defenseless
women and children and unguarded
men in Omaha, and thousands of
dollars worth of jewelry, clothing
and other valuables have been
stolen In the past two days.
The largest haul made during the
past several days by burglars was
in the home of c. R. Jewell, 3l5
South Fifty-seventh street. Friday
night. Jeyelry valued at $4,000 was
stolen by two men, who made good
their escape. The same two men, or
men answering in detail their de-
scriptions, prowled around several
houses in the west end of the city
last night. They are still at large.
Hospital Is Robbed.
Burglars Friday night entered the
basement of Nicholas Sem hos
pital and executed what is believed
by the police to have been a care
fully planned robbery, using an au-
tomobile in hauling away the loot
which included three trunks.
Jens Knudsk and Anton P. Jen-
sen engineers, were covered with
revolvers and a watch and $40 taken
from the former. .-..
Telephone wires to the basement
were cut and the light fixtures put
out of commission.
Miss E. M. Carl. nurse, lost trunk
which contained her clothing. Two
other trunks were taken. One of
the burglars held a revolver on the
engineers while the other ransack-
ed the nurses sleeping quarters and
class room. They were deliberate
in their movements and before they
departed, told the engineers to re-
main in bed for five minutes under
penalty of death.
"Highjackers" Make Haul.
The basement Of the home OF
DR.. E. w. Powell, 3225 Woolworth
avenue, was entered Friday night by
"high jackers' who stole two bot
ties of brandy, six bottles of gin,
six bottles of champagne and 50
bottles of cordials.
The home of DR.. ]. E. Summers,
1924 Dewey avenue, was entered by
the same class of intruders, who
stole lot of champagne and beer.
Mrs. A. L. Mellner, 2l24 Pinkney
akrnat ,e ,rafIer ,r,prr tho Scn-ac
of victims who have reported to the
Central police station in the last
two days that her house was
prowled.
H. Peterson, 1924 Capitol avenue;
Jack Carter, l717 California street,
and Joe Lepinski, St. Joseph, Mo,
were arrested yesterday and are
being held at the police station for
investigation. According to the po-
lice, Lepinski possessed at the time
of his apprehension a revolver, jim
my and other burglar tools.
Criminals Flock Here.
In the opinion of Omaha's Oldest
police officers, and in the belief of
those in position to know, never in
the history of the city has it been so
completely overrun by a larger
horde of criminals of almost every
character.
Without fear of the city's demon
allied police department, midnight
prowlers and 'highjackers" are
working in organized gangs, accord
ing to reports received daily at po-
lice headquarters.
Criminals, including thieves from
every part of the country, profess
sional gamblers and confidence men
are said to be focking to Omaha,
following word sent out from this
city pursuant to the court house
riot, to the effect that the local po-
lice department was totally unable
to handle the situation.
Chief Eberstein is exasperated by
the food of daily reports of crime
received at the station. He is max
ing a desperate effort to cope with
the situation, but attention has been
called to the fact, that his attempts
to curtail the wholesale plunderlng
of homes and holdups on the streets
has been marked by the same hope
less failure which characterized the
handling of the mob on the night
of September %.
w. Wixon, Council Bluffs, and
J. A. Hendricks, Clairmont, Mo-,
were arrested yesterday in the
Merchants hotel by Detectives Do
Ian and Hagerman, and are being
h.1d for Investigation
Police declare they found two
loaded revolvers, a Jimmy" and
pair of wire cutters in the room
where the men were found.