The New York herald., 1921-11-15
CRACKERS LURE BOY
FROM RIVER TO CELL
Joseph Farrell, Who Swan
Hell Gate to Escape Work
house, Is Recaptured.
WANTED FOR BURGLARIES
Eluded Cops in Exciting Chase
Few Days Ago-Kept Free
dom Since Last June.

Joseph Farrell. the seventeen-year-o
prisoner who escaped from the Work.
house last June by swimming He'll Gate
and who has risked his life score of
times since then evading arrest. was re-
captured yesterday as he stood in a
grocery store at Eleventh avenue and
Fiftieth street munching animal crack
ers. Animal crackers, say the police,
lured him from hiding place under the
Hudson River wharves, where he was
safe.
Farrell. whose fame as a swimmer is
from The Bronx clear around the Bat
terry and up the Hudson to Fort WASH
ington Point. was made prisoner by De-
tectiyes Nancy and Cordes of the West
Forty-seventh street station--the same
two men who tried for almost three hours
last Friday to catch him as he lodged
among the piles of the docks just across
Eleventh avenue from the store In which
he finally was arrested. On Friday,
they said. he was In water his favorite
element, and he dived and fetched" and
wriggled about so successfully that the
Two detectives were nearly exhausted at
the end Of an hour.
The charges against Farrell are for
burglary. He Is alleged to have had a
busy time of it since he' got free and
came back to Manhattan and the west
side from the workhouse. According to
the police, he and a gang of boys of his
age, Of which he Is the leader, have
taken part in five burglaries and hold
ups since November s.. One of the burg
laries of which they accuse him cost
Capt. Frank Ferdon, who is in charge
of barge anchored near West Fiftieth
street, more than $500. Pedlers and
proprietors Of small stores on the west
side were the victims of the holdups.
Farrell, according to Nancy, says he
took chance on swimming He'll Gate
because he didn't like the keepers" at
Randalls Island. He was missed one
afternoon last March. and investigation
proved he went through the treacherous
waters of the Gate in record time
The search that ended yesterday be-
gan the day following his escape. Not
until last Friday did the detectives ever
catch a glimpse of him. Nancy and
Cordes surprised him then as he sat
summing himself on the Fiftieth street
recreation pier. He saw them at the
same instant and as they advanced to-
ward him, cornering him between them,
he took quick glance at two barges
moored nearby and at the proper mo-
ment, when the swells separated them
few feet. leaped into the water be-
tween them.
At 80 o'clock. when the space be-
meath the dock began to grow too dark
for pursuit Nancy padded raft to
within a few feet Of Farrell.
Farrell" he shouted, ''if you don't
surrender I'm going to shoot you"
go to hell" called Farrell, and then
Nancy heard a choking sound that con-
vinced him the boy had committed
suicide by letting himself sink
Saturday afternoon the police were
told that Farrell was alive and not even
suffering from cold and that he had
outwitted the detectives by crawling to
the end Of the Fiftieth street dock and
swimming under water most of the way
to the foot Of Forty-seventh street. A
watch was set on the waterfront then
and yesterday. when what the police say
is an inordinate craving for animal
crackers overcame his caution and led
him to the grocery store where he was
captured.