The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-29
TWO es'K .s'K BANDITS l, ;s,,D THEIR WIVES
 ARE IN CUSTODY
Are Also Believed Implicated in Murder and Robbery of Fifth Avenue JeWeIer
 December 16
By Associated Press

New York, December 2S.-rwo
 men charged with being members
 of the bands that held up and
 robbed the First National bank of
 MiIItOwn, \. J., December 20, escap-,
 ing with $s0.000, and believed to
 have been implicated in the mur-
 der and robbery December i6 If
 Edwin NJ. Andrews, Fifth avenue
 jeweler. were arrested here tonight
 with their wives.
 Liberty bonds valued at $1S,000, said to be part of the Mslltown robbery le ot, were found in suitcase carried by the women, police said and added that all four carried firearms.
 Coincident with these arrests came an announcement that Police Comnis sioner Enrights latest measure to curb lawlessness-the calling out of more than 700 new policemen for training had been dealt a knockout blow when the board of aldermen failed to ote necessary funds for their pay.
 The Appropriation. s1,360,361 passed recently by. the board of aldermen was submitted to the aldsr- manic body for final sanction in the form of authorization for a spe cial bond issue. In denying the app"o- priation, the aldermen promised 70 e. consider it at future meeting. The men taken in custody toni ght said t!ey were Jerome B. Chaffee, 2S. and iIarry Bitzerger, 30. They were halted when they alighted from an automobile at Seventy-sec street and Broadway Resisting arrest, they fought for sew eral minutes before being subdue1.
 WOMEN SURRENDER
 The women, who followed closely in taxicab, surrendered.
 Fifth avenue was crowded with shop pers when two men entered the jew elry shop of Andrews on the Eighth floor of a building in the center of the fashionable shopping district. An- sfrtsN & MaS alU8e TIe fs Esa ts.ss,tl tts have been sfrot in an attempt 10 frus- trate the robbery Two Iewelry ales- men who entered while the safe vas being rifled we're bound and gagged the men escaped with gems valued at $100000 Chaffee and Bitzberger will be confronted tomorrow with the two salesmen.
 The night of December 20 four ban. dits entered the bank at Milltown, bound and gagged the watchman, placed the loot in handbags and fled. Releasing himself from his bonds, the watchman sounded an alarm. A posse was formed and after a long hase through the Jersey marshes two men were captured.
 During their trial they are said to have given information regarding the identity of their confederates.
 The prisoners are accused by She po- lice of having taken part in many 4cn- sational holdups throughout the coun- try. They have been connected the police assert, with recent Philadel- phia bank robbery, and served five year sentences in Leavenworth prison. They are said to have escaped from the prison at Bedford, Mass, where they were serving terms for burglary.
 ADMIT ROBBERY
 The prisoners were grilled by the uo- lice, and were said tonight to have con- fessed that they were members of the band that perpetrated the Millrown robbery third man. who accolnpa- nied them today, was charged with be- ing a fugitive from justice. He said he was Chester J. Levine. A charge of acting in concert with Bitzberger and Chaffee in receiving stolen bonds V i'll be preferred against him later, police said.
 Frank Flanagan, p, who after spond- ing Is months in the death house ct Sing Sing prison, was granted re- trial and acquitted of a murder charge in october, was arrested tonight On suspicion of being involved in the sob bery of $60, 900 in diamonds from a mes senger November 27.
 While police followed underworld clues to the identity of the slayer of Monk" Eastman. notorious gang lead CT. arrangements were being made to- night for his burial tomorrow after noon,
 Eastman's sisters failed to appear st the morgue to claim the body. but no- tified authorities they would defray ex- penses. and requested that the rlain gangster be given a respectable fu-