The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1921-09-07
SHERIFF ROOF
RECEIVES NOTICE
OF MANY REWARDS

Lexington county and South Caro-
! lima are not the only places in the
United States in which crime appears
to be on the increase. 4 look through
the rogue's gallery on file in the Of
flee of Sheriff E. Austin Roof reveals
the fact that more than the usual
, number of criminals appear to be at
Large at the present time. Rewards
ranging from $50 to $4,000 are Of
fered for the arrest Of criminals OF
every description and guilty of every
known crime on the calendar. Many
Of the placards advertising the re-
wards display photographs, and, in
1.-the case of some criminals escaped
from various penitentiaries through
|, out the country, Bertilion measure
ments, thumb prints and other means
of Identification are sent along to aid
in the detection. Murder, rape, for
gerry, embezzlement, and other like
crimes constitute the chief charges
against the wanted men.
The pictures on file in the sheriff's
office afford a wonderful study in
human nature. From the low-brow,
ignorant and apparently brutal type
Of countenance one can run the whole
.gamut Of physiogmony. Among the
rest is a photo of one especially hand
some young man, whose face might
indicate that he was a leader in the
Y. NJ. c.. A. or one who might take
| an active part in any kind of good
work. So far as his face betrays his
I character he appears to be a young
man of high ideals. He is wanted for
embezzlement. The advertisement:
says he is hard drinker and an all
round sport.
Looking over the collection and
gazing upon some Of the mugs pre-
sented it is not hard to visualize the
gunman, the second story man, OF
porch climber, or the more desper-
ate and dangerous yeggman' who op
crates where the danger is greater
but the lure Of gold shines brighter,
! The wayward boy who starts by tax
ing little to cover up the obligations
incurred in frolics beyond his means
! and winds up by being a defaulter On
more or less large scale is represent
ed, along with the back alley bum,
who is ready to use lead pipe or knife
upon any victim that promises hope
Of reward. The Camora, that oath
bound Italian secret society, which
has a dark and mysterious way o.
silencing by means Of the deadly sti-
letto the victims whom it has marked
for slaughter, is readily recalled when
reading the names of some Of the
criminals who have put themselves
without the law.
Most of the literature which goes
to make up the rogue's gallery IS
from Northern states, and a good
bunch of the recent additions to it
appears from penitentiaries in other
Estates, which would seem to have
had numerous escapes of late.
Recently Sheriff Roof believed that
he had one Of these suspected men,
wanted in Greensboro, \. c. for muir
} der, and officers from the North
Carolina city came to Lexington to
look the suspect over, but they were
unable to identity him. At that the
man did claim to have an acquain-
tance with the alleged murderer from
the old North State, and though he
claimed never to have been in Green's
boro he wore a CAP bearing the mark
of firm in that town, claiming that
it had been given to him by the man
who was wanted.
If all Of the bad men whose pic
lures are now going the rounds Tor
Identification are headed this way we
are in for an increase in the crime
wave which will make our already bad
record worse. II the sheriff manages
to capture only few Of the higher
vacation.