The Washington times., 1925-04-23
MASTER BANDIT
TRAPPED BY
WOMAN
Youthful Chicago bad Man.,
Made Intensive Study OF
Science of Crime

CHICAGO, ILL.,, April %. - Para
doxically it was love, tenderest OF
all the human emotions that started
Henry j. Fernekes. the midget
bandit, at the age of eighteen, on
coldly calculated career OF crime
that led him through four murders,
un-numbered street corner hold-ups
and fourteen bank robberies 90
cell in the detective bureau.
With application, that might have
taken him far in any legitimate line
Of endeavor he studied mechanics,
chemistry, finger printing, wire tap
ping, photography, metallurgy-any-
thing and everything that might de-
velop him as master criminal
heading q new departure in Grim
inology by that ingenuity and APP
piled Silence might throw off the
law.
Strangely enough it was a tapped
wire, and his thirst for new knowl.
edge, coupled with the inevitable
angle that no human can weigh =
an angry woman-that led to
Fernekes arrest.
Meets School Beauty.
Pete" Fernekes, one-time West
Henry. But Henry travelled his
own trails. and at one time was i'm
| Valparaiso, Ind, for a time. There
he met sixteen-year-old Lulu Wood
ward. and fell madly in love with
her
II want to marry you. Lulu" he
told her, but I don't want you to
have to pinch and scrapes and
worry about money. I'm going
back to Chicago and make my pile
and then I'll send for yeu. Well
fix up fiat. and have a car and
good clothes, and everything"
That was in June. A week later
he had job, but 1t paid only SIC
a week and the boy chafed undcy
the thought Of the long pull. nj
that wage, between him and "the
flat, and the car and clothes"
big Joe" Moran, safe blower, was
one of the men Henry met through
his divekeeper father. And big
Joe" saw in the boy great posi-.
bilities. He showed him how to
make soup" how to place charges
to blow open safe doors, how to
make drills, and jimmies, and the
different tools of the burglars and
'peteman's" trade. The boy was
an apt pupil.
Ahead he saw visions of quick
money and the fork in the road.
So in August. this letter went 70
Valparaiso, to the girl:
Did 1t For Her Sake.
Dearest Lulu, a few words be-
fore go on this errand, ungodly,
| though knigntly in purpose. II |
am caught, which will only be at
MY death, as that is much prefera-
Bile, learn to forgive and forget, as
my sincere love for you prompted
this action. / wanted to give you
comfort and happiness in legiti-
mate way, but. alas. the best laid
plans of mice and men aft gang
aglee.
ct know am unworthy. A low.
ing kiss"
1t was signed Henry"
But the girl read the Robinhood
between the lines and determined
to save him." She came on to
Chicago, two days later, and mar
ried him. She hoped, she said later
to bring him back from the easier
way and put him on the straight
] and narrow path, even IL 1t meant
privation and sorrow.
Promised To Go Straight
| Fernekes, the girl said. promised
to go straight, and did get job
a job at ten dollars a week.
| Three weeks of that, and then:
|. A rosy faced boy, a pistol in each
hand, dashed into an office on the
| tenth floor of the First National
Bank, and held up the office force
While he was there policemen fol
lowed and it developed that he had
robbed two other offices before he
came in. He was disarmed and
taken to the detective bureau.