New-York tribune., 1922-03-04
PayRollBandits
Get $4,000 il,
Day ofHold.UPs
1iffin Co. Treasurer Am
bushed in Factory 200 Ft.
From Police Gordon; Is
Slugged and Shot in Back
Rob Jeweler of $4,000
Scores See Plumbing Co.
Cashier and Guard At
tackled at Taxi Door

Hold-up men were on the prowl yes
terday. A lone robber in yellow
mask shot an officer Of the Tiftin Com
pany, Inc, in Long Island City, at noon
and escaped with the pay roll of $4,000.
Three others without masks knocked
down the cashier of the Wells & New
ton Company, at Avenue B and Seven
tcenth Street, and got away with $4,000.
A manufacturer was robbed of S275 as
he left his Office at 513 West Fiftieth
Street.
The exploit of the Long Island City
freebooter was within a block Of the
banking center of that community,
which is under heavy police guard Fri
days and Saturdays, when business
houses draw hundreds of thousands of
dollars for their pay rolls. The man
who was shot is Primm England, as
sstant treasurer of the Tif1in Com
pany, Inc. The bullet went through
his shoulder and he probably will be
able to leave the hospital to-day.
His assaiant ambushed him in
Jackson and Second aveucs. Two hun
dred feet away was the Gordon Of po-
lice guarding Skillman Place at the
Greensboro Bridge Plaza with it's five
banks.
Ambushcd in Corridor
Altho hough the bank was just around
the corner, England motorcd to the
Long Island City branch of the Title
went for the pay roll cash, feeling more
secure in the automo lie, which was
driven by Ernest Siffein, superintcnd-
ent Of the company's garages.
Siffelin dropped his passenger at a
rear basement entrance to the factory
on his return and drove on with the
car down an incline leading to the
garage. England opened the door and
walked down corridor toward the
elevator. AS he turned to enter
cross passage leading to the elevator
he heard steps behind him.
He swung around and got glimpse
of the man in the yellow mask. Then
a fist reached his jaw and England
fell, the bag containing the $4,000 be-
meath him. The masked man jumped
on him, thrust an automatic pistol into
his back and fred. Stunned by the
blow in the face, England did not real
ize he had been shot, though he remem-
bered afterward that he heard the re-
port.
The money bag was clasped in his
arms and he clung to it. His assailant
seized his shoulder, rolled him over and
snatched the bag. Hundreds of per-
sons were at work on the floors above.
Many Of them heard the shot, but be-
lieved it was an automobile backfire.
The man in the yellow mask had ample
time to escape and made the most of
it.
Throws Pistol Away
His pistol, an automatic, was found
near the automobile runway down
which Siffclin had driven few minutes
before. thanking his stars that another
pay roll delivery had been safely ac-
complished.
No further trace of him was found,
though Captain Van Dieszelski, of the
Hunters Point Detective Bureau, thinks
the unusual tint of his mask may have
significance. He had learned, he said,
that similar yellow masks were worn at
a dance givc0 by employees of the Tiffin
Company, Inc, in the factory, recently.
England was unable to give any ade-
quate description of the robber. He
was taken to St. Johns Hospital. The
bullet entered his back at the left
shoulder and drilled the back muscles,
emerging at the right shoulder.
The hold-up on Avenue B took place
at 1920 p. M. and was seen by several
score Theodore Valentine, cashier Of
the Wells & Newton Co., plumbing con-
tractors, had driven to the Office, at
Seventeenth Street, from the Colonial
Bank, Eighty-frst Street and Columbus
Avenue, in taxicab. He had the cash
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