The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-03-23


say. it is evolution. the evolution of
brain power.
Three years ago when the cracks
man first started to work as a day
light hold-up man, he had absolutely
no Underworld competition. The
| hold-up of a bank in broad daylight
! had become rare thing since the
day of the Western outlaws. 1t was
called a new thing in the crime world,
and elaborately featured by the press
of the country. 1t was great news,
rare meat for the city editor, and
how they did play it up! Nothing
but the front page, column after
column right across the sheet.
Little did the press realize that it
was unconsciously assisting in the
creating of a new type of bank hold
up mana type that is far more
dangerous than the cracksman.
I am speaking of the yellow, un-
stable, drug-crazed gangster, the
numbering cowardly thug that dares
not go out unless his system is
charged with dope, and who shoots
to kill at the least provocation. He
reads of the success Of the cracks
man as a hold-up man, day in and
day out. He reads of few arrests;
and it is natural consequence for
him to create in his mind mental
| picture of how easily the hold-up is
done. He reasons: "Others are doing
| it successfully, why not II" And he
is out on the highroad holding up
banks, sticking up bank messengers,
payroll messengers, and jeWelry
stores, and numbering his victims in
cold blood at the least indication Of
resistance.
The cracksman uses gun only as
last resort. 1t is is sort of un-
written law among clever crooks that
a gun should be pulled only in self
defense. 1 know many high-class
providers (house burglars) that never
carried gun.
l read in the paper an account of
a hold-up, and nine times out of ten,
l can tell you what caliber crook pull
ed the job. Let me illustrate with
some episodes out of my own career.
l have probably participated in at
least seventy-five bank burglaries. l
dare say that I never fired over
| twenty shots in all my career. I've
stuck up fifty night policemen. Hun
dreds of persons have passed banks
while I was at work, and yet never a
shot from my gun or the guns of my
pals has ever penetrated the skin of
man, woman or child.
The only black mark on my rec
ord is that of an experience with a
colored gentleman who refused to
| obey my command to put up his
hands one night while we were rob-
| bing a bank at Mullins, South. Caro-
lima. Instead of obeying, he turned
and ran, yelling at the top of his
voice. I followed, shooting in the
air to scare him, and thinking he
would STOP. He ran into a stable.
got into stall with mule, and
was kicked almost to death! pick
ed him up unconscious, laid him on
the steps of a doctors house, and
went on my way.
Bank hold-ups have been easy for
two years. Organized gangs have
been looting steamship piers and
railroad yards, In 1919-20, trans
portation companies lost over $780,
100000 worth of goods. In some
cases trucks were driven into the
yards, loaded with goods, and driven
away again, the looters acting right
under the nose of the authorities. III
several instances a barge was run
up alongside of piers and the entire
contents of freight cars moved to
the barge.
The success of these thefts is evi-
dence that the mentality of the Un-
derworld has improved. Contrrily,
that of the officials who are paid to
protect the lives and property of law
abiding citizens from criminals, has
stood still-if it has not deteriorat-
ed. l am perfectly astounded at the
stupidity of our detectives, bankers,
and society in general.
Everybody seems to be cropping
helplessly in the dark, shaking their
heads, and talking about how this
problem of the crime wave may
be solved. Personally, I can see no
problem. The stupid, asinine meth
DDS that society has employed to COM
bat the crime wave only makes it ap-
pear to be problem. Nobody seems
TO realize that the old Underworld