New-York tribune., 1921-11-20
Bandit Holds Up
6 i'm Park Row
Came for 5000
Daring Robbery Occurs Next
Door to Department of
Justice, Where Two De-
tectivcs We're on Duty
Lined Up Against Wall
ssShell Quit" Is Command
Of Intruder at the Rooms
of Neptune Association

A short, stocky man, whose face was
masked with handkerchief and who
carried blue steel revolver, held up
six members of the Neptune Associa-
tion about 10 p. M. yesterday as they
sat playing cards in their rooms on the
fourteenth floor OF the Park Row Build
ing, next door to the headquarters of
the Department of Justice, where two
Federal detectives sat waiting for
something to turn up.
He got about 5000. He worked fast
and obviously was nervous. His voice
trembled somewhas and so did his
hands, to the trepidation of those with
IN the radius of his revolver swing. 1t
was his nervousness which most i'm
pressed the six nautical officers as they
looked up from their cards at the sound
of the opening door and saw the masked
figure confronting them.
Line up there" said the intruder,
waving his revolver toward the rear
wall and stammering little in his
opening speech. Lime up and she'll
out."
No Time for Trash
The card players lined up and began
shelling out. One of them, Louis Sny-
der, began to get nervous himself when
he saw how the bandits trigger finger
was twitching. DESTROYS of avoiding
otfense at any cost, Snyder began
methodically to strip himself of valu-
ables, starting with his scarfpin.
Don't want that" said the rob-
Der curt,y Keep it, I got no time to
fuss with trash. Keep it. What |
wants the jack
The officers threw down their wallets
and at the command of the intruder
kicked them tAward him.
Careful now," he rasped out once
during the process. you make q
wrong move and I'll shoot. | need the
dough"
Pockefing the proceeds of his raid,
he stepped to the door.
Don't try to follow me-" he advised.
"You wait here. Any one that pokes
his head out is going to get it blown
of"
Police Surround Building
He stepped out into the hall and
closed the door gently behind him.
That was the last seen OF him. Ru-
pert Baird, the elevator operator on
night duty, was positive that the man
had not passed him and could not have
reached the street floor without doing
so.
About ten minutes passed before any
Of the victims decided it would be
healthy to spread an alarm. Then they
emerged in a body and pressed the
button on the side OF the elevator shaft
until Baird came up with a rush in
his car.
The police were informed of the
robbery, and within twenty minutes
after the hold-up man departed the
building was surrounded by uniformed
men from the Oak Street police station
and detectives were searching every
floor in the belief that he still might
be concealed somewhere in the build
ing.
Rode Up in Elevator
Baird saw him. it is thought, when
he entered the building, and so did Ed
win Jordan, a member of the Neptune
Association. The hold-up man, or one
of about the same build and about
equally nervous, rode up in the elc-
vator with Baird just before Jordan,
who had been playing cards, stepped
out to get a package Of cigarettes.
Jordan passed the newcomer in the
hall and the stocky stranger asked him
if they were still playing inside. Jor-
dan said that the game was still on
and the stranger turned to the elevator
operator.
"You come right back" he said, "as
soon as you have taken this man down.
III want you right away"
This request was ignored by Baird.
That fella's got nerve" said he to
Jordan as they started down. "He
thinks | got nothin' to do but park my
car up at the fourteenth floor waitin'
fer him, suppose. Nothin' doin'."
That's why Baird wasn't in on the