Evening star., 1922-06-04

~ take up your newspaper you
| ~ will find further adventures
a of the booze burglars. The
cellar of conspicuous millionaire
has been broken into and couple
of hundred thousand dollars worth
| of fine wines has been carted off. Mr..
Somebody has returned from Europe
to find the liquor vaults at his coun-
try home sadly empty. A warehouse
has been entered in the night and
| many barrels of choice red liquor are
somewhere, but not there.
The melancholy part about it all
| is that there seems TO be no satis-
| factory defense. If man has his
wife's jewels insured he is reason
| ably protected. If the gems are
| stolen he can buy others as good with
! the proceeds of his policies. But if
| will do him much good or greatly
solace his palate. Fine wines can
not be replaced today even if one is
| willing % go to the bootleggers, vio-
| late the law and pay the extortionate
| prices. Again. insurance on drink
ables is high priced, not easy to get
and never issued in sufficient amount
to cover the replacement value of
! stocks in hand.
| Yet the companies which do issue
| insurance policies on liquors have
their side of the story to tell. They
! have paid losses of $4,000, 900 within
the single year 1921. they assert, and
| they estimate that this figure covers
probably only one-third of the actual
thefts in wet goods.
was confined to bartenders but
| lers and maidservants. The stun that
| dreams are made of wasn't valuable
| enough to take a risk for. When a
| man could go round the corner and
| buy good champagne for $50 q case
| and fine rye for s1l, who would bother
| to steal it? But when doubtful spark
| ling wines bring from 500 to $3.50 a
! dozen quarts. and fair whiskies as
| much, that's different matter. A
whole new criminal population has
! been created by these exorbitant
| values, just as happened when silks
went skyrocketing during the war.
New York city and the outlying
country places of its residents have
| been the special victims Of one set
| of booze burglars. There has been
! some talk. because Of the similarity
| ir technique displayed by these fell
lows. of master mind and a CEN
! tralized traffic in burglarized liquors,
| but there is no real foundation for
this theory. Jewel robbers always
! operate in very much the same man
ner. but no one supposes that they
are all working under one guiding
| intelligence. Yet there is certain
loose Capitalization to the booze bur-
glar business. 1t was not created by
| them. but existed ready made
another of the children Of prohibit
ton. Bootlegged liquor in New York
! is distributed today, more or less ex-
| clusively. through certain definite
| channels. The independent bootleg
| ger has to go to these people and
make an arrangement with them or
he is soon out of business and prob
| ably in Jail. Thus stolen drinkables
also pass through this central organi-
zation, at least in large part. but the
big fellows don't direct the steal
\ ing. They simply ask no questions.
| take their part of the graft and allow
the stolen goods to be sold without
! much risk to the seller, who is either
| the thief or his agent.
X X X X
WHO the booze burglars are and
how they opeSate is one of the
most interesting features of the un-
| derworld story of prohibition In
parts these people are old offenders.
Some were house burglars and jewel
robbers before prohibition made life
simpler for them. Others were pre-
| viously honest and respectable peo-
| pie who have been corrupted by op-
portunity and temptation.
| The house burglar and jewel rob-
! Der saw at the beginning of things
| that liquor provided kind of loot
| for which there was an existing
| highly organized and safely protected
| distribution organization catering to
e. large and constant demand. 1t was
not like stealing the silver or jew
elry of a rich family and then being
| forced to dispose of the stun to a
| fence at a cut-throat price. the fence
| taking the risks of disposal. Liquor
was and is constantly being dealt in
largely and quasi openly. In most
| cases the man whose drinkables are
| stolen has also been guilty of some
| technical violation Of the prohibition
| law and is in no position to raise
much Of row. So. why not steal
liquor. dispose of it at high price
and make a fortune? Safer, saner
and more lucrative than any other
! form of crime.
| To operate this game successfully
the housebreaker and jewel robber
needed to do nothing new in their
professions. This type Of criminal
has always operated through cor
rupted servants. Each gang has
always had in it's employ buffers and
woman servants who were got into
the houses of wealthy people by one
subterfuge or the other. The crooked
servants surveyed the house, found
| out where the valuables were hidden
and how they might pc reached. This
done, the actual burglar or jewel rob-
| Der appeared on the scene and did
his stuff" Where there was no
chance Of introducing member of
| the gang into the house, the burglars
set about Turing and corrupting one
of the servants. It was often possi-
| Bile to find chauffeurs, buffers, Wallets
and other man servants who would