Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-07-02

He had taken a dozen revolvers. He
told Williams that he never carried a
gun on job, but two OF them were
found in his bureau fully loaded.
Police Of No. 8 worked all day packing
the stuff. 1t filled 10 stolen suit cases
was completely filled when it started
back for the station house, where police
sat up nights for a week entering the
articles
Mitchell was completely cooperative
during the week he spent at the station
house in helping people recover their
property from the pile of valuables he
had amassed. He demonstrated re-
markable memory as to which house
things had come from, Williams said.
He asked police not to reveal his identity
to his victims, and he functioned as a
sort of property clerk.
mo, madame" he said to Miss Mary
Chew, whose former residence in the
5000 block of Ordway street NV, had
been ransacked, that didn't come from
your house. Here's the one from your
place"
Young man. she said sharply. "how
do you know so much about it,"
mo one knows more about all this
than do" he replied. She went away
not knowing that she had been talking
to the burglar.
He could not conceal his pride in his
methods as he showed police how an
alert, systematic and go-getting modern
burglar operates. He showed them his
two ledgers. In one, he had entered
names and addresses cleaned from the
society columns, the date the people
were departing from the city and the
date they were expected back. The FIRST
ledger was chronological for follow-up
purposes. In the second he listed the
names Alphabetically with the date of
entry mot the bookkeeping entry. the
date of each burglary. This was his
stop" file. He explained that he had
expected to work here steadily. and the
second ledger was to keep him from
making repeat calls. Faced with the
record of the home of DR.. Fred Hess,
1920 Forty ninth street NV, which was
entered twice. he denied the second
entry. But it was a typical Mitchell job.
according to Williams, except he was
evidently frightened away and didn't
get anything.
Weakness for Elegance
He told the detectives that, sometimes.
he would merely throw stone through
the window Of an empty house and then
wait behind bushes to see If lights would
60 on in the adjoining homes. They
were the ones he was afraid of. He be-
came an expert in backing out windows
so neighbors would not see lights during
the absence of the family. He carried
three sizes of flashlights in his kit, one
no larger than physicians use when peer
ing down throat. He spent two sue
cessive nights ransacking the Appleby
place. He hung sign. wet Paint"
over the hole in the door and went
home to sleep by day. He gave his
occupation as house painter" when he
was booked. Williams said this was the
only indication of his having ever
worked at that trade.
When he got into house, he told the
police, the first thing he did was to
examine the clocks to see if they were
run down. He also checked on the re-
frigerator to see If it had been turned
of and the food removed Then he
took his time.
If he found whisky, he would pour
some In three or four highball glasses
and then throw 1t in the sink He would
sometimes smear little ipstick on the
rim of glass. He would do the same
with coffee cups. He never drank, he
told the police. But If his victims
had champagne, he would carry it
away-he had a weakness for elegance.
Mitchell had two close calls. Once
he tripped burglar alarm in cutting a
hole through door in the 2100 block of
r street NV. The private guards work.
ing for the burglar alarm company beat
the squad car out. Mitchell saw their
lights turning in the driveway and fed.
He wore rubber-soled shoes which
helped him surmount back fences when
that was necessary. He left his burglar
kit behind, but he evidently soon re-
placed 1t.
The other scare came when he had
just finished ransacking the home of
Anthony r. G. Lucas, 450l Twenty
ninth street NV, his last job. He had
just brought two suitcases full Of loot to
the side door when the lights Of the
house went on. He jumped. He saw
that man and woman were coming
up the walk from the garage. There
was switch in the garage which turned
on the lights in the house. Mitchell
grabbed the suitcases and ran for 1t.
Mr.. Lucas told the police that he had q
feeling that some one was in the house
when he came home. He was right.
Despite his perusal Of the society
columns and his 9ollow.up ledesr, thsre
vWs 1i0hA whn AiteAaN taased ths