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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #53145 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53145)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Taxicab Robbery, by James H. Collins
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Great Taxicab Robbery
- A True Detective Story
-
-Author: James H. Collins
-
-Release Date: September 25, 2016 [EBook #53145]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT TAXICAB ROBBERY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by ellinora and The Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Transcriber’s Note
-
- Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected.
-
- Spelling variations have been kept as in the original.
-
- Italic text is indicated by underscores surrounding the _italic text_.
-
- Small capitals in the original have been converted to ALL CAPS.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- THE GREAT
- TAXICAB ROBBERY
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
- RHINELANDER WALDO
- Commissioner of Police, New York City
-]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- THE GREAT
- TAXICAB ROBBERY
-
- _A True Detective Story_
-
- BY
- JAMES H. COLLINS
-
- WRITTEN FROM RECORDS AND PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
- OF THE CASE FURNISHED BY THE NEW
- YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT
-
-
- NEW YORK
- JOHN LANE COMPANY
- MCMXII
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
- JOHN LANE COMPANY
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- This book has something to say about practical
- results of wiser police administration in New
- York. It is respectfully dedicated to
-
- HON. WILLIAM J. GAYNOR
-
- MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY
-
- the official who took the initiative in improving
- conditions
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- PREFACE
-
-
-There are several reasons for this little book, but the best of all is
-the main reason—that it is a cracking good story, and right out of life.
-The characters will be found interesting, and they are real people,
-every one of them. The incidents are full of action and color. The plot
-has mystery, surprise, interplay of mind and motive—had a novelist
-invented it, the reader might declare it improbable. This is the kind of
-story that is fundamental—the kind Mr. Chesterton says is so necessary
-to plain people that, when writers do not happen to write it, plain
-people invent it for themselves in the form of folk-lore.
-
-But apart from the story interest there are other reasons.
-
-When the New York police department had run down all the threads of the
-plot, and accounted for most of the characters by locking them up, they
-had become so absorbed in the story themselves, as a story, that they
-thought the public would enjoy following it from the inside.
-
-While the crime was being dealt with, the police were subjected to
-pretty severe criticism. They felt that the facts would make it clear
-that they knew their trade and had been working at it diligently.
-
-The story gives an insight into real police methods. These are very
-different from the methods of the fiction detective, and also from the
-average citizen’s idea of police work. They ought to be better known.
-When the public understands that there is nothing secret, tyrannical or
-dangerous in good police practice, and that our laws safeguard even the
-guilty against abuses, there will be helpful public opinion behind
-officers of the law, and we shall have a higher degree of order and
-security.
-
-The directing mind in this case was that of Commissioner George
-Dougherty, executive head of the detectives of the New York Police
-Department. Thousands of clean, ambitious young fellows are constantly
-putting on the policeman’s uniform all over the country, and rising to
-places as detectives and officials. The manufacturer or merchant may
-find himself in the police commissioner’s chair. Even the suburbanite,
-with his bundles, may be, out at Lonesomehurst, a member of the village
-council, and thus responsible for the supervision of a police force
-that, though it be only two patrolmen and a chief, is important in its
-place. So in writing the story there has been an effort to show how a
-first-rate man like Commissioner Dougherty works. His methods are plain
-business methods. Most of his life he has earned his living following
-the policeman’s trade as a commercial business. What he did in a case of
-this kind, and how, and why, are matters of general interest and
-importance.
-
-Finally, the story throws some useful light on criminals. It shows the
-cunning of the underworld, and also its limitations. To free the
-law-abiding mind of romantic notions about the criminal, and show him as
-he is, is highly important in the prevention of crime.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
- FACING
- PAGE
-
- Rhinelander Waldo, Commissioner of
- Police, New York City
-
- _Frontispiece_
-
- George S. Dougherty, Second Deputy 20
- Police Commissioner
-
- Edward P. Hughes, Inspector in Command 40
- of Detective Bureau, and Dominick G.
- Riley, Lieutenant and Aide to
- Commissioner Dougherty
-
- Geno Montani, Eddie Kinsman, Gene 60
- Splaine, “Scotty the Lamb” and John
- Molloy
-
- James Pasquale, Bob Delio, Jess 80
- Albrazzo, and Matteo Arbrano
-
- “Scotty” Receives Final Instructions 110
-
- “The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up 126
- Men for Theirs
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- THE CAST
-
-
- GENO MONTANI, a taxicab proprietor.
- WILBUR SMITH, an elderly bank teller.
- FRANK WARDLE, a seventeen-year-old bank office boy.
- EDDIE KINSMAN, alias “Collins,” alias “Eddie the Boob,” a hold-up man.
- BILLY KELLER, alias “Dutch,” a hold-up man.
- GENE SPLAINE, a hold-up man.
- “SCOTTY THE LAMB,” a thieves’ helper, or “stall.”
- JOE PHILADELPHIA, alias “The Kid,” a runner for thieves, or “lobbygow.”
- JAMES PASQUALE, alias “Jimmy the Push,” keeper of shady resorts known
- as “208” and “233.”
- BOB DEILIO, partner of “Jimmy the Push.”
- JESS ALBRAZZO, a middleman, formerly keeper of the Arch Café, pal of
- Montani, “Jimmy the Push” and Bob Deilio.
- MATTEO ARBRANO, }
- PAULI GONZALES, } The “Three Brigands.”
- CHARLES CAVAGNARO, }
- “KING DODO,” a Bowery character.
- RHINELANDER WALDO, Police Commissioner of New York.
- GEORGE S. DOUGHERTY, Second Deputy Police Commissioner, executive head
- of detectives.
- INSPECTOR EDWARD P. HUGHES, in command of Detective Bureau.
- POLICE LIEUTENANT DOMINICK G. RILEY, Aide of Commissioner Dougherty’s
- staff.
- DETECTIVE SERGT JOHN J. O’CONNELL, Official Stenographer.
- THE DETECTIVES on “Plants,” “Trailing,” “Surrounding,” “Arresting,”
- etc.:
-
- John P. Barron, Edward Boyle, Frank Campbell, James Dalton, James J.
- Finan, John W. Finn, Joseph A. Daly, Daniel W. Clare, John Gaynor,
- Anthony Grieco, John P. Griffith, Daniel F. Hallihan, Edward Lennon,
- Henry Mugge, Richard Oliver, Gustavus J. Riley, James F. Shevlin,
- Joseph Toner, George Trojan, James A. Watson.
-
- “SWEDE ANNIE,” Kinsman’s sweetheart.
- MYRTLE HORN, a pal of Annie.
- ROSE LEVY, a newcomer in Thompson street, Jess Albrazzo’s girl.
- MRS. ISABELLA GOODWIN, a police matron.
- MRS. SULLIVAN, keeper of a West Side rooming house.
- “JOSIE,” a lady of the Levee district, Chicago.
-
- Detectives, policemen, informants, witnesses, denizens of the
- underworld, newspaper reporters, trainmen, ticket sellers, etc.,
- etc.
-
- * * * * *
-
- PLACE—Chiefly in New York, with Scenes in Chicago, Albany, Memphis,
- Boston and Montreal.
-
- TIME—February and March, 1912.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- The
- Great Taxicab Robbery
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER I
- WHAT THE PUBLIC HEARD ABOUT THE CRIME
-
-
-On Thursday, February 15, 1912, the New York evening papers had a
-startling news story.
-
-Between ten and eleven o’clock that morning two messengers were sent in
-a taxicab from the East River National Bank, at Broadway and Third
-street, to draw $25,000 in currency from the Produce Exchange National
-Bank, at Broadway and Beaver street, in the downtown financial district,
-and bring it uptown. This transfer of money had been made several times
-a week for so long a period without danger or loss that the messengers
-were unarmed. One of them, Wilbur F. Smith, was an old man who had been
-in the service of the bank thirty-five years, and the other was a mere
-boy, named Wardle, seventeen years old. The taxicab man, an Italian
-named Geno Montani, seemed almost a trusted employee, too, for he
-operated two cabs from a stand near the bank, and was frequently called
-upon for such trips.
-
-While the cab was returning uptown through Church street with the money,
-five men suddenly closed in upon it. According to the chauffeur’s story,
-a sixth man forced him to slacken speed by stumbling in front of the
-vehicle. Immediately two men on each side of the cab opened the doors.
-Two assailants were boosted in and quickly beat the messengers into
-insensibility, while their two helpers ran along on the sidewalk. The
-fifth man climbed onto the seat beside the chauffeur, held a revolver to
-his ribs, and ordered him to drive fast on peril of his life. This
-fellow seemed to be familiar with automobiles, and threatened the driver
-when he tried to slacken speed. That is a busy part of the city. Yet
-nobody on the sidewalks seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary.
-The cab dodged vehicles, going at high speed for several blocks. At Park
-Place and Church street, after a trip of eleven blocks, at a busy
-corner, the chauffeur was ordered to stop the cab, and the three robbers
-got down, carrying the $25,000 in a leather bag, ran quickly to a black
-automobile without a license number which was waiting for them, and in a
-few moments were gone.
-
-That was the substance of the story.
-
-Information came chiefly from the chauffeur, because the two bank
-employees had been attacked so suddenly and viciously that they lost
-consciousness in a moment. When the chauffeur looked inside his cab
-after the crime, he said, he saw them both lying senseless and bleeding.
-They could give no description of the assailants. Eye-witnesses were
-found who had seen men loitering in the neighborhood where the cab was
-boarded shortly before the crime, but their descriptions were not very
-useful.
-
-That night the New York evening papers published accounts of the crime
-under great black headlines, and on the following morning every news
-item of a criminal nature was grouped in the same part of the papers to
-prove that the city had entered one of its sensational “waves of crime.”
-And for more than a week the public read criticism and denunciation of
-the police force.
-
-It was charged that the police had become “demoralized,” and various
-changes of administrative policy introduced into the department within
-the past eight months were blindly denounced.
-
-The most important of these changes was that devised by Mayor Gaynor.
-Eight or ten years ago, every uniformed policeman in New York carried a
-club, and often used it freely in defending himself while making
-arrests. Abuses led to the abolition of this means of defense except for
-officers patrolling the streets at night. There were still undoubted
-abuses, however, and when Mayor Gaynor came into office, bringing
-well-thought-out opinions of police administration from his experience
-as a magistrate on the bench, he took a determined stand for more humane
-methods of making arrests, and strict holding of every policeman to the
-letter of the laws. Every case of clubbing was prosecuted, the plain
-legal rights of citizens or criminals upheld, and the Police Department
-began teaching its men new ways of defending themselves by skillful
-holds in wrestling whereby prisoners may be handled effectually and
-without doing them harm. Sentiment against the use of the club began to
-grow in the Police Department itself, it being recognized that clubbing
-was an unskillful means of defense, and that special athletic devices
-were more workmanlike.
-
-Now, however, the newspapers published every chance opinion of
-discharged, retired and anonymous police officers who objected to the
-new regulations. It was alleged that criminals had got out of bounds
-because policemen no longer dared club them into good behavior, and the
-editors, without paying much attention to the many good points of the
-new regulations, or trying to understand the merits of a settled policy
-applied to an organization of more than ten thousand men, set up a cry
-for the presumably “good old days” of Inspector So-and-So and Chief
-This-and-That, when every known criminal was promptly struck over the
-head on sight and thereby taught to know his place. If the files of New
-York journals for those days following the robbery are examined they
-will reveal a curious exhibition of pleading for official lawlessness
-and autocracy.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration:
-
- GEORGE S. DOUGHERTY
- Second Deputy Police Commissioner
-]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Another point of criticism centered on a new method adopted in the
-distribution of the detective force. This comprises more than five
-hundred men. For years they were all required to report at Police
-Headquarters every day, coming from distant precincts, and had an
-opportunity to see whatever professional criminals were under arrest.
-Then they went back to different precincts to work. This took too much
-time, it was found, and the old-fashioned “line-up” of criminals was
-chiefly a spectacle, the same offenders dropping into the hands of the
-police with more or less regularity. So detectives were re-distributed
-on a plan that attaches a proper number of plain-clothes policemen to
-each precinct, according to its needs, and in those precincts the men
-live and become acquainted with local criminals. Many of them work in
-sections where they were born, and detectives speaking foreign languages
-are assigned to foreign quarters.
-
-The newspapers charged that red-tape had brought the Police Department
-to such a low state that young detectives had no idea what a real
-criminal looked like, and urged the restoration of the old system, with
-its picturesque “line-up.”
-
-In the days of Inspector Byrnes, when practically all the banking of the
-city was done around Wall Street, the police established a “dead line”
-beyond which criminals were supposed not to operate. In its day, the
-“dead line” was real enough, undoubtedly. But it was not necessarily an
-ideal police measure, and the growth of the city has long made it a mere
-memory, living only in newspaper tradition. To-day, banking extends as
-far north as Central Park, and millions upon millions of dollars are
-being carried about daily by people of every sort. Despite the fact that
-the last loss of money from a New York bank through professional
-criminals (apart from fraud and forgery) dated back some fifteen or
-eighteen years, the newspapers seemed to agree that life and property
-were no longer safe in the city because this purely mythical “dead line”
-had been disregarded by the robbers.
-
-There was other comment of the same character, and it had an immediate
-and grievous effect.
-
-On the day after the robbery a chance remark about a safe in an East
-Side bank, coupled with the general excitement, led to a run of its
-depositors, chiefly people of foreign birth. The bank was solvent, and
-the run was undoubtedly stimulated by gossip started by criminals for
-their own ends. But the frightened depositors insisted on drawing out
-their money, and exposing themselves to danger of robbery and assault.
-The situation was met by careful police co-operation.
-
-About six months before the taxicab robbery, the New York legislature
-put into force a measure known as the “Sullivan law,” providing
-penalties for the carrying of pistols and concealed weapons. This is
-unquestionably a wise measure fundamentally, and one that was badly
-needed for police administration and public safety. It is perhaps open
-to certain modifications, to be made as actual conditions are
-encountered in practical working of the law. Newspaper opinion drew a
-connection between this law and the “wave of crime,” and its repeal was
-urged, so that every citizen might arm himself as he pleased. Hundreds
-of persons who had felt safe in going about their business unarmed now
-applied for permits to carry pistols.
-
-Fortunately, a sensation does not last long in New York.
-
-Though the Police Department felt this criticism keenly, and was
-hampered by it, pressure began to slacken in about a week. Other
-sensations came along. There was nothing to publish about the taxicab
-case, as police information was withheld for good official reasons.
-Presently the town ventured to joke about the case. At an elaborate
-public dinner one night, among other topical effects, a dummy taxicab
-suddenly scooted out before the guests, held up a dummy police
-commissioner, took his watch, and scooted away again. The diners
-laughed, and that was fairly representative of the town, which was now
-ready to have its joke about the crime, too. Had there never been any
-further action by the police, the case would have quietly dropped out of
-sight. But fortunately there was police action, and with that we shall
-now deal.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER II
- HOW THE CRIME WAS HANDLED BY THE POLICE—ON THE TRAIL
-
-
-Now, let us follow the police story. We will begin at the very
-beginning, watch the incidents and character unfold, and give quite a
-little attention to the technical methods by which results were arrived
-at. For the story is a study in clean, straightforward detective work,
-and that work ought to be better known by the public, so that
-intelligent public opinion may back up honest police effort.
-
-The story starts with a burly, genial man, sitting in a big office at
-Police Headquarters. The office is that of the Second Deputy Police
-Commissioner, and the man is the Commissioner himself, George S.
-Dougherty.
-
-Commissioner Dougherty dominates the story. The taxicab robbers were
-caught by his methods, plans and supervision, backed by the splendid
-team work of the men under him. His own sources of information supplied
-the clues, and his personal skill in examining criminals brought out the
-confessions that saved the city the expense of trials with all but one
-offender. It is far from the writer’s wish to indulge in hero-worship,
-however, so these details will appear in their proper place in the
-narrative.
-
-George Dougherty has had nearly twenty-five years’ experience in
-criminal work in New York, and over the whole country. Until his
-appointment by Mayor Gaynor in May, 1911, he was connected with the
-Pinkerton organization. Bank and financial crimes have long been his
-specialty, so the taxicab case fell right into his own province. He
-knows the ways of forgers, bank sneaks, swindlers, burglars and
-“yeggmen,” and is personally acquainted with most of the criminals in
-those lines in and out of prison. He has also had much to do with
-protecting the crowds at races, ball games, aeronautic meetings and
-other big gatherings. As executive head of the detective bureau, five
-hundred plain-clothes policemen scattered over Greater New York cover
-all crimes of a local and routine nature, and are subject to his call
-when a special case like the taxicab robbery comes up for his personal
-attention.
-
-On an ordinarily quiet morning at Police Headquarters, there will be a
-steady stream of people passing into Dougherty’s office. Several
-assistants guard the doors leading from two ante-rooms, and marshal the
-visitors. Now a group of detectives enters and hears a talk on methods.
-Then two detectives come in, make a report and receive further
-instructions. Then there will be an interruption, perhaps, while an
-assistant soothes and sends away a crank who occasionally turns up with
-a purely imaginary affair of his own, and two more detectives pass in
-accompanied by a man and a woman who look just like the people one sees
-dining at a fashionable uptown restaurant. The woman’s furs are
-magnificent, and her hat a costly Fifth avenue creation.
-
-“A couple of taxpayers?” speculates the group of reporters, waiting
-outside to get a statement about some important case.
-
-“Two of the cleverest check swindlers in the country,” corrects a
-detective, and presently the reporters are called in, and Dougherty
-recites names, dates and facts connected with the gang to which these
-prosperous “taxpayers” belong, gazing reflectively out of the window as
-details come back in memory, and chuckling with the delighted
-journalists as the pithy slang and professional names of the underworld
-are jotted down on their pads. They fire a scattering volley of
-questions at him and depart, and then his secretary announces that the
-saloon-keeper who knows a good deal about the Blind Puppy Café case is
-outside, but refuses to talk to the police at all.
-
-“Hullo!” is the Commissioner’s off-hand greeting as the cautious
-saloon-keeper comes in, and in two minutes the latter is answering
-questions freely.
-
-“Why, say!” he exclaims, “I’ll tell _you_ anything.”
-
-Then a humble little woman in a cheap hat and a long cloak is brought
-in. For more than an hour she has been waiting outside, with her eyes
-fixed patiently on the door leading to the inner office.
-
-“Stand there,” says the Commissioner, with gruff kindness, and he makes
-a formal statement about her husband, who has been arrested with a
-criminal gang, and is pretty certain to go to prison. He tells her what
-has been done in the case, and what will follow, and the little woman
-listens mutely. When he finishes, her eyes fill with tears. But she
-makes no reply, nor any sound. The Commissioner winks fast as he looks
-out of the window again, and then says, sympathetically:
-
-“That’s the best that can be done. But don’t you worry. Come in and see
-me again. Keep in touch with me, and don’t worry yourself. Come in and
-talk with me—come in to-morrow.” And she bravely wipes her eyes and goes
-out with her trouble.
-
-The procession continues.
-
-Police captains and detectives in squads, prisoners and witnesses in
-twos and threes, newspaper men in corps and singly, and occasionally a
-cautious gentleman who wants to see the Commissioner alone, and is
-anxious that nobody say anything about this visit to Police
-Headquarters—for he is an informant.
-
-
- _The First Alarm_
-
-The taxicab robbery took place on a quiet morning like this.
-
-Suddenly, around eleven o’clock on Thursday, February 15, a brief
-message comes from the second precinct, stating that a robbery has been
-committed in the financial district. A little later there is a fuller
-report over police wires. The details are few, as will be seen by the
-general alarm that presently goes out over the city:
-
- _Police Department, City of New York_,
-
- February 15, 1912.
-
- To all, all Boroughs—notify the patrol platoon immediately.
-
- Arrest for assault and robbery three men:
-
- No. 1, about 35 years, five feet eight or nine inches in height,
- 160 or 170 pounds, small stubby dark mustache, dark complexion,
- medium build, dark suit and cap, no overcoat.
-
- No. 2, about 35 years, five feet ten inches in height, slender
- build, dark hair, possibly smooth shaven, light brown suit, no
- overcoat, wore a cap.
-
- No description of No. 3.
-
- Stole $25,000 in five and ten dollar bills, contained in a brown
- leather telescope bag, 24 inches long, 16 inches square, from
- two bank messengers in a taxicab about 11 this a. m., at Park
- Place and Church Street, and escaped in a five or seven-seated
- black touring car, top up. Look out for this car, bag and
- occupants on streets, at ferry entrances, bridge terminals,
- railroad stations. Inquire at all garages, automobile stands,
- stables, etc.
-
- If found, notify Detective Bureau.
-
-Before noon, the Commissioner has postponed appointments, assigned
-routine business, and is engaged in an investigation that will keep him
-busy until that morning, twelve days later, when the first arrests are
-made, and the case is, in police parlance, “broken.”
-
-Where do the police begin in such a crime? What do they start with when
-there is apparently so little to work upon?
-
-In spite of the wide popular interest in police and criminal matters,
-the average citizen has no very clear idea. Even the newspaper reporter,
-following police activities every day, is not well informed in technical
-details. Some information is necessarily withheld from him, and he is a
-busy young man, with his own technical viewpoint, working hard to get
-his own kind of information.
-
-This lack of knowledge leads to a feeling of mystery, helplessness and
-terror after a sensational crime, and to criticism of the police. They
-are at work, skillfully, honestly, diligently. But results take time. It
-would do little good to make arrests without evidence. The citizen’s
-sympathies are aroused by brutal lawlessness, and he urges that somebody
-be caught and punished. If results are not at once apparent, he jumps to
-the conclusion that the police are “demoralized.” He would be startled
-if he could see how quickly and persistently the underworld takes steps
-to strengthen him in that conclusion, and use him to discredit the
-police.
-
-Sixty detectives are immediately called into the case. Five of them go
-down to the scene of the robbery, with orders to work there until
-further notice. They make a thorough search of the neighborhood,
-following the route taken by Montani’s taxicab, and questioning
-merchants, newsdealers, porters, truckmen and other persons likely to
-have information as eye-witnesses. They go through the streets that may
-have been taken by the escaping robbers, and work over the whole ground.
-This search through one of the busiest sections of New York in a busy
-hour, amid the excitement created by the crime, may appear like hopeless
-business. But, as will be seen presently, it yields important results.
-Other detectives search garages for the black automobile without a
-license number in which the robbers are reported to have got away. Four
-uniformed policemen on beats along the route taken by the taxicab are
-questioned. Other detailed inquiries of the same nature are started.
-
-But the most important work of the first day centers at Police
-Headquarters, where a conference is held by Commissioner Dougherty and
-his assistants, and in the examination of Montani, the taxicab driver.
-
-Strip all the labels off a suit of clothes and lay it before a committee
-of tailors. In a few moments certain points would be agreed upon. It may
-be a new suit, or an old one, a fine piece of tailoring, or a cheap
-hand-me-down. The committee could often identify the cheap suit and tell
-the name of its manufacturer, while with a seventy-five-dollar suit it
-might be possible to determine the maker’s name. This holds true of many
-other lines of work, and it is particularly true of criminal
-investigation.
-
-Who cut and made that suit of clothes?
-
-The conference sat down to determine this, judging the robbery strictly
-as a piece of workmanship. Names of known bank criminals were brought
-up, one by one, and details gone over. It soon became clear that none of
-the men identified with bank crime were likely to have the brains, skill
-or organization to plan and execute so complicated a robbery.
-
-The criminals had known the habits of the bank in conveying cash uptown.
-They knew the route, and were aware that the guard was only an elderly
-man and a seventeen-year-old boy, both unarmed. They had boarded the cab
-at the best point, and evidently made arrangements for stopping it.
-There was team work in every detail. It showed marked insight, for
-instance, to provide additional men to boost each assailant in at the
-doors. For young Wardle, the bank employee, had made a plucky attempt to
-shove his robber out and shut the door, and might have succeeded had
-there not been an outside man. Robberies are committed under exciting
-conditions. They sometimes fail because criminals balk. That outside man
-was there not only to help his “slugger” into the cab, but to _force_
-him in if he shrank, and make certain he did his work. Whoever planned
-such details, it was agreed at the conference, possessed more cunning
-than the ordinary bank criminal.
-
-
- _Montani is Examined._
-
-When Montani, the taxicab driver, arrived at Police Headquarters, he was
-willing to talk, and seemed anxious to help the police in every way. He
-knew suspicion might be directed toward himself, but did not resent
-that. He talked like a man confident of the truth of his story, and
-certain that he would be found blameless.
-
-Montani is an Italian, from the northern part of Italy, about 30 years
-old, five feet six inches high, rather stout and thick-set, with very
-dark complexion. The striking feature of his countenance, his large,
-intelligent brown eyes. Commissioner Dougherty found himself thinking of
-Napoleon in connection with Montani.
-
-The first examination lasted all afternoon, Montani going out to lunch
-with the Commissioner. Hundreds of questions were asked bearing on the
-robbery, the appearance of the criminals, and Montani’s past and
-personal affairs. The story was gone over again and again, and different
-questioners relieved each other. Yet the taxicab man never lost his
-temper or patience, and did not contradict himself in any important
-particular.
-
-Montani had been in this country since the age of twelve, it appeared,
-had a wife and two children, and was the owner of two taxicabs operated
-from a stand at a hotel near the bank, whose money he regularly carried.
-He had owned three cabs, but lost one through business reverses. In
-fact, he had passed through money troubles, and his story excited
-sympathy. Starting originally as a truckman for a salvage company, his
-ambition and intelligence had won him such confidence that this company
-lent him money to set up trucking for himself. Still more ambitious, he
-had become a taxicab proprietor. Through the trickery of an ill-chosen
-partner, however, he has lost some of his savings. He seemed a little
-bitter about this, and it was a circumstance not likely to escape an
-expert police examiner, for the loss of money through fraud, coupled
-with temptation, is often the starting point in crime. The Italian’s
-former employers spoke highly of his character when questioned by
-detectives. He gave the names of chauffeurs who had worked for him
-lately, and of business people who knew him, and careful investigation
-failed to disclose any suspicious circumstances. Montani quite won the
-newspaper men—so much so that, when he was discharged in court a few
-days later for apparent lack of evidence, the newspapers criticised the
-police for having held him at all.
-
-And yet, before that first night, Montani himself, largely through
-simple answers to questions, had become so involved that there was
-ground for holding him under arrest.
-
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-
-[Illustration:
-
- EDWARD P. HUGHES
- Inspector in Command of Detective Bureau
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
- DOMINICK G. RILEY
- Lieutenant and Aide to Commissioner Dougherty
-]
-
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-
-In the questions and cross-questions, the checks and counter-checks of a
-skillful examiner, there are possibilities little suspected by those not
-familiar with that kind of work.
-
-Montani had slowed down his cab at the point where the robbers boarded
-it. He said that an old man had suddenly got in front, and he had
-slackened speed to avoid running over him. But detectives along the
-route found eye-witnesses who had seen the robbers board the cab, and
-who could testify that there had been nobody in front of the vehicle.
-
-Both of his cabs had stood in line near the bank that morning, the one
-driven by himself being second, and the other, in charge of an employee,
-was first. When the call came from the bank, Montani answered it himself
-out of his turn, sending the other cab uptown, as he explained, to have
-some tires vulcanized. But it was not a good explanation.
-
-He said that as soon as the robbers left his cab he had raised a cry for
-help. But eye-witnesses were found who denied this.
-
-Instead of running north after the robbers’ automobile when he had taken
-a policeman aboard his cab, he ran south, away from it. This action, he
-maintained, was taken under orders from the policeman. But the latter
-denied that.
-
-He was not able to explain how the robbers had known where to post their
-automobile so it would be waiting at the spot where they finished their
-work.
-
-Interest centered in this mysterious black automobile without a license
-number. For, though Montani was an experienced chauffeur, and his
-replies to other questions showed that he had seen both the rear and the
-side of that car, he was unable to tell its make.
-
-Meanwhile, it was learned that three men had hurriedly boarded an
-elevated train near the scene of the robbery shortly after, not waiting
-for change from a quarter. The ticket-seller was unable to describe
-them, but connected them with the robbery when he heard about it.
-
-Montani was held in the custody of the Commissioner that night, to be
-put through further examination in the morning. But long before morning
-the police were working on an entirely new development.
-
-
- _The First Direct Clue_
-
-The law-abiding citizen goes around New York with little knowledge of
-the crowding underworld all about him. It is perhaps just as well that
-he knows nothing of the lives and morals of hundreds of people who elbow
-him on the streets, sit beside him in the cars, and scrutinize him with
-a strictly professional eye in many places.
-
-Nor has he any clear conception of the relations that a good police
-officer maintains with members of this underworld. It is a world just as
-complete as that of business or society, however, and much of the time
-of a detective or police official is spent keeping track of people in
-it, forming acquaintances and connections in various ways, and
-establishing the organization of informants that will help in the
-detection and prevention of crime. A good detective is like a good
-salesman—he keeps track of his “trade.”
-
-Shortly after midnight of the first day, Commissioner Dougherty received
-a message over the telephone that sent him uptown to meet an informant.
-At two o’clock in the morning of Friday, February 16, he and this person
-had a talk at a fashionable uptown hotel. Indeed, most of the meetings
-with informants during this case were held at two well-known hotels,
-perhaps the last places in the city that anybody would connect with such
-conferences.
-
-Informants are not always right, nor always possessed of useful
-information. But this one had the first real clue.
-
-On the afternoon of the robbery, it was learned, a fellow known as
-“Eddie Collins” had come to his rooming house, on the lower West Side,
-told a woman with whom he lived, known as “Swede Annie,” to pack up and
-be ready to leave the city in a hurry, and presently disappeared with
-her. He was also reported to have a large roll of money. With a rough
-estimate of the size of this roll, given by the informant, and a dummy
-roll of “stage money” made up for the purpose, the police were able to
-judge that Collins must have had between $3,000 and $5,000. That would
-have been his probable share in a division of the stolen currency among
-five men.
-
-The house where Collins had lived was kept by a Mrs. Sullivan. Steps
-were at once taken to “surround” this woman, as the operation is known
-technically. For before a possible source of information like Mrs.
-Sullivan is followed up, it is necessary to know something about it. The
-person in question may be criminal, or in league with the underworld. On
-the other hand, he or she may be quite innocent, and willing to aid the
-police. The “surround” is an interesting operation. It is often made
-without the knowledge of the person investigated. In many cases it takes
-time.
-
-Mrs. Sullivan came through the ordeal handsomely.
-
-She proved to be a wholesome, hard-working landlady, keeping a house
-that sheltered occasional suspicious characters, but entirely honest
-herself. She was not only able to furnish information about her late
-lodgers, but willing.
-
-“Sure, it’s a good deal I know about that Collins, as he calls himself,”
-she said, “and mighty little that’s good.”
-
-It seems that about two weeks previously Collins had offered to pay the
-landlady if she would appear in a Brooklyn court and testify to the good
-character of a criminal named Molloy, who was being held for trial on a
-charge of robbery.
-
-“They’re paying fifteen to twenty dollars for ‘character’ witnesses,”
-said her lodger.
-
-“And do you think I’d take the stand and perjure myself swearing for a
-man I never heard of?” asked the indignant landlady.
-
-“Oh, that’s nothing to some of the things we do,” was the reply.
-
-Several days later, while she was putting some laundry into Collins’
-bureau drawer the landlady caught sight of two new blackjacks. She asked
-Collins what he was doing with such weapons.
-
-“Aw, we use them in our business,” he said. Then, with the confidence
-often bred in criminals by success, he told her he knew a gang that was
-planning to rob a taxicab that carried money uptown to a bank every
-week. Mrs. Sullivan questioned him as to details, and he assured her it
-would be an easy job.
-
-“For we’ve got it all fixed with the chauffeur,” he said.
-
-At that point, however, like many an honest person who might aid the
-police with information, Mrs. Sullivan let the matter drop out of her
-mind. It is a simple thing to mail a letter or telephone to Police
-Headquarters, giving such information, and the experience of the
-Detective Bureau is such that the information can be investigated
-without involving innocent persons. But perhaps Mrs. Sullivan concluded
-that, in a big city like New York, it is well for people to keep their
-mouths shut. Or maybe she decided that Collins was merely boasting.
-
-On Friday, less than twenty-four hours after the robbery, a “network
-investigation” was begun.
-
-Sixty detectives searched that part of the city where Collins and Annie
-had lived, seeking further information. Photograph galleries and other
-places were investigated on the chance of finding pictures. Denizens of
-the underworld were talked with casually. Professional criminals,
-prostitutes, dive-keepers, receivers of stolen goods and other shady
-characters were brought before Commissioner Dougherty in couples and
-half-dozens for quick cross-examination. By Saturday evening the police
-had some highly important information.
-
-It was learned that Annie had been seen going away on the afternoon of
-the robbery in a taxicab, accompanied by two men, one of whom was
-Collins, and the other unknown. Good descriptions were secured of Annie
-and her sweetheart, especially of her hat, which was a cheap affair, but
-conspicuous by reason of a row of little red roses. It was also
-discovered that Collins had been a boxer, that he hailed from Boston,
-and that his real name was Eddie Kinsman. Finally, the police secured
-two photographs, one an indifferent picture of Kinsman, and the other an
-excellent portrait of Annie. These were quickly put through the
-department’s photograph gallery, where there are facilities for making
-duplicates in a hurry, and more than a hundred copies were soon ready
-for work which will be described in its proper place.
-
-The trail now seemed to lead to Boston. At all events, further
-information was to be secured there. And here came in a little
-refinement imparted by Commissioner Dougherty’s experience with the
-Pinkerton forces. For where this private detective organization works
-unhampered over the whole country, the official police forces in most
-cities confine their searches to their own territory. When it is
-believed that criminals have left town, as in this case, a general
-description is telegraphed to other cities. Dougherty’s method, however,
-is always to send a man from his own staff, with detailed instructions.
-There are no local boundaries for him.
-
-Late on Saturday night Inspector Hughes, of the Detective Bureau,
-slipped out of headquarters with Detective O’Connell, and took a train
-for Boston. Their departure was kept strictly secret. They bid good
-night to associates, saying that they expected to be up and at work
-again early next morning, and until their return on Monday everybody who
-asked for the Inspector was told that “he is usually around the building
-somewhere.”
-
-
- _Montani Points Out “King Dodo”_
-
-All through Friday and Saturday, while the network investigation was
-going on, Commissioner Dougherty continued his examination of Montani.
-
-Some important information against him now came from outside.
-
-It developed that Montani had been involved several months before in an
-insurance case, claiming indemnity for a burned automobile under a
-policy. He had presented, as part of its value, a bill for repairs
-amounting to $1,348. The insurance company, however, had found that this
-bill was fraudulent, that the repairs had never been made, and had
-obtained a statement to that effect from the Italian chauffeur. Out of
-pity for his wife and two children the case was not pressed against him.
-Now that he was involved in another crime, however, the insurance people
-came forward and laid the facts before the police.
-
-Of course, Montani knew nothing about this new development.
-
-For two days the chauffeur was questioned at intervals, and the inquiry
-centered chiefly on the knotty points in his story of the crime. He was
-particularly pressed for better explanations of the slackening of his
-cab when the robbers boarded it, but stuck to his original statement
-about a man getting in front of the vehicle. He described this person as
-an old man, and said he must have been in league with the criminals. As
-the police had good evidence that there had been nobody in front of the
-taxicab, however, this point was returned to again and again, and toward
-night on Saturday, February 17, the little chauffeur began to feel the
-strain.
-
-On his way to supper that evening with men from the Detective Bureau,
-Montani was taken through the Bowery. Suddenly he stopped, dramatically,
-and exclaimed:
-
-“There! That is the old man who got in front of my cab!”
-
-His finger indicated a Bowery character as typical as anything ever seen
-in melodrama—a ragged little old figure with an amazing set of whiskers,
-engaged in picking up cigar butts along the gutters. He was immediately
-taken to headquarters.
-
-No detail of his work interests Commissioner Dougherty more keenly than
-his study of the many picturesque characters who turn up as an important
-case unfolds. He has a ready appreciation of everybody who appears, from
-the society lady who lost her jewels to the typical Bowery loafer. He is
-as ready to look at facts from a criminal’s point of view as that of an
-honest man. He has often gone half across the country to get acquainted
-with a good burglar, and in this warm human interest lies the basis of
-his skill as an examiner of suspects. These details are set down, not in
-glorification of Dougherty, but for the guidance of every police officer
-interested in his methods.
-
-The moment Dougherty laid eyes on this new character, with his
-magnificent whiskers, he gave him a nickname.
-
-“King Dodo!” said the Commissioner, and that by that name he was known
-in so far as he figured in the case at all. “King Dodo” proved to be
-entirely innocent, and nothing more than the victim of a chance move of
-Montani’s, who evidently thought that he ought to produce something
-tangible to back up his assertion that the cab had been intercepted by
-an old man. “King Dodo” established a perfect alibi, proving that he had
-been elsewhere at the time of the robbery, and after being questioned
-and the truth of his story established, he was released, there being no
-reason for holding him.
-
-“I feel safe,” said the Commissioner solemnly, “in paroling you on your
-own responsibility, to appear again if wanted.”
-
-That may have been a heavier responsibility than had been put on his
-shoulders in years. But he rose to it. Two days later a decently
-dressed, clean shaven, elderly gentleman came in and asked for the
-Commissioner. He was “all dolled up,” in police parlance, and looked
-like a retired small shopkeeper. The staff did not recognize him for a
-moment. But it was “King Dodo,” doing his best to fill the part of a
-minor figure in the great taxicab mystery. There being nothing for him
-to do, he dropped back into private life.
-
-On his Sunday visit to Boston Inspector Hughes talked with Chief
-Inspector Watts of that city, learned where Kinsman lived, and that his
-family was a respectable one; found a bright patrolman named Dorsey who
-knew Kinsman, and gave more information about his personal appearance,
-habits and career as a boxer, desertion from the Navy, and so forth, and
-made arrangements to have the Kinsman home watched so that news of his
-return would be secured immediately. It was clear that Kinsman had not
-returned to Boston.
-
-
- _Discovery of Kinsman’s Trail_
-
-As soon as Inspector Hughes returned from Boston, on Monday morning, the
-Commissioner took steps to question the crews of every train that had
-left New York since one p. m. on the day of the robbery.
-
-Just the other afternoon the writer sat with a squad of young detectives
-at Police Headquarters and heard a talk on methods given by Dougherty,
-and one point clearly brought out was the usefulness to the
-thief-catcher of routine information.
-
-He began by relating an amusing incident. Some days before a detective
-had turned up at headquarters for instruction, and naïvely asked the
-Commissioner to lend him a pencil and a slip of paper, so he could make
-some notes. Another detective was found who had only a hazy idea of the
-location of New York’s telephone exchanges. Taking these as his text,
-the Commissioner explained the value to every police officer of what
-might be called “time-table” information—knowing the depots and ferries,
-what roads run out of them, the cities reached, the number and character
-of trains, the general methods of dispatching trains, and so forth. The
-Commissioner himself is as well informed on such matters as any railroad
-man, and thoroughly familiar with routine methods in many other lines of
-work and business. How such knowledge can be employed was shown by the
-next move in the taxicab case.
-
-Detectives were sent to every railroad terminal to secure lists of
-trains, learn the names of the crews, and make out schedules of the time
-when each crew would be back in the city. Then each man was found and
-carefully questioned. His memory could be helped by pictures of Kinsman
-and Annie, and by intimate details of personal appearance and manner.
-
-The search bore fruit, though it took time.
-
-On Wednesday Detective Watson, who was a railroad engineer before he
-joined the police, found that Train No. 13 on the New York Central had
-taken on three passengers answering the descriptions on the afternoon of
-the robbery. They had boarded the train at Peekskill, the town to which,
-as it was subsequently learned, they had ridden in a taxicab. The
-conductor’s attention had been drawn to Annie by her smoking a cigarette
-on the sly in the toilet of the day coach. He remembered her high cheek
-bones, and the black velvet hat with its little roses, and the athletic
-build of her men companions, who both appeared to be boxers. It was also
-established that the trio had gone to Albany, for one of the trainmen
-distinctly remembered helping Annie down at that station.
-
-
- _“Plant 21” Is Established_
-
-Monday, February 19, was an important day in more ways than one.
-
-While the train investigation was going on, it was learned that a woman
-known as “Myrtle Horn,” an intimate of Annie’s, had moved to a lower
-West Side rooming house, taking Annie’s trunk with her, as though Annie
-expected to return to the city. After a preliminary survey, this house
-was visited by Commissioner Dougherty in person. He explained that he
-was a contractor, about to build a section of the new subway, and that
-he was looking for a quiet room at a reasonable price where he might
-have some of the comforts of home. After a little talk with the landlady
-it became clear that she was honest and trustworthy, with no information
-of the new lodger who had taken her front room in the basement.
-Arrangements were quickly made to put this house, inside and outside,
-under constant surveillance.
-
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-
-[Illustration: GENE SPLAINE]
-
-[Illustration: EDDIE KINSMAN]
-
-[Illustration: GENO MONTANI]
-
-[Illustration: “SCOTTY THE LAMB”]
-
-[Illustration: JOHN MOLLOY]
-
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-
-Along in the evening Mrs. Isabella Goodwin, a police matron, was
-installed there. The Commissioner brought her, and carried her bundle.
-The landlady and the matron had never seen each other in their lives,
-but kissed ostentatiously, and made considerable fuss on the chance of
-being overheard. Mrs. Goodwin was “planted” as the landlady’s “sister,”
-who had come from Montreal to live with her and help in the housework
-until she could find a position in New York. The Commissioner grumbled a
-little about her stinginess in refusing to pay an expressman to bring
-her bundle, and then took his departure, explaining that the train had
-been late, and the baby was not well, and his wife, Aggie, would be
-worried about him, and so forth. Mrs. Goodwin established herself in a
-room at the rear of the basement, handy to that occupied by Myrtle Horn,
-and kept her eyes and ears open as she went about the housework,
-slipping out to report when she had any information, and receiving
-instructions.
-
-Outside surveillance on this house was conducted from an empty store
-across the street. Arrangements for the use of such property are usually
-made by the police without difficulty, though occasionally a
-close-fisted owner expects rent. Blinds were put up over the windows,
-peep-holes made, and a few hammers provided, with some nails and boards.
-Then six of the best “shadow men” in the Detective Bureau were stationed
-there. They made a little noise occasionally, in “getting the store
-ready for a big firm moving up from downtown,” and watched the house day
-and night. Whenever Myrtle went out she was followed. If she had
-visitors, they were investigated. This store was known by the code term
-of “Plant 21,” so that reports could be sent without disclosing police
-information.
-
-
- _Montani Goes Free_
-
-On Monday, too, Montani was arraigned in court, and discharged for what
-appeared to be lack of any evidence against him.
-
-At this point the Commissioner took the liberty of fooling the newspaper
-men for the good of his case.
-
-Newspaper criticism for three days had been particularly severe. Editors
-made many charges, and were fertile in suggestions as what ought to be
-done to reorganize the presumably “demoralized” police department. The
-present writer feels confident, however, that a careful search of the
-files for those days will disclose hardly any suggestions likely to be
-at all helpful to public servants in the discharge of duty. Many
-questions with no real bearing on the case had been brought up by the
-journalists, and the Commissioner, who was patient in answering the
-newspaper men, began to be a little tired.
-
-On Sunday night his big office was filled with reporters. They sat about
-everywhere. He had admitted them because he wanted them to see that he
-was working. From time to time they quizzed him in this fashion:
-
-“Is it true that you and Commissioner Waldo have quarrelled?”
-
-“Is Waldo going to resign?”
-
-“Do you favor the Sullivan law against pistols?”
-
-“Will the ‘dead line’ be maintained now?”
-
-“Hadn’t the daily ‘line up’ of criminals ought to be restored so that
-detectives will know crooks when they see them?”
-
-“Hasn’t Mayor Gaynor tied the hands of the police?”
-
-And so forth, and so forth, and so forth.
-
-Suddenly, on Sunday night, Dougherty turned and read the newspaper men a
-lecture. He said that he wanted them to understand that he was no spring
-chicken at his business, that he was working eighteen hours a day, and
-that he knew he would show results if the people would only be patient,
-and give him time. His only recommendation in the way of new laws or
-reforms was for a statute that would enable the police to put known
-criminals, without occupation or visible means of support, at work
-mending roads. He outlined a plan which, rather strangely, did not get
-any attention in the newspapers at all. His idea of dealing with idle
-criminals, he said, was to have a cart, with commissary and sleeping
-quarters for twelve men. As soon as twelve idle criminals with records
-had been sentenced, they would pull this cart out of town themselves,
-under guard, and go to work repairing roads. If that plan were adopted,
-New York would not only be as free from criminals as the District of
-Columbia, where a similar measure is enforced, but the roads all around
-the city would be so well cared for that they could be used as
-roller-skating rinks.
-
-The newspapers next morning were quite certain that Commissioners Waldo
-and Dougherty had quarrelled, and when the journalists went down to
-report Montani’s examination in court they were decidedly partial to the
-taxicab man.
-
-Dougherty had told the newspaper men beforehand that he had evidence
-enough to have Montani held for trial. He had made very positive
-statements about this. Montani would be arraigned, he predicted, and if
-discharged on one count, would be immediately arrested on something
-else. If he was discharged on that, he would still be arraigned on
-further charges.
-
-It needs no very brilliant imagination, therefore, to picture the effect
-upon the newspapers when Montani, after being arraigned on the doubtful
-points in his own account of the crime, and those not too vigorously
-pressed, was discharged, with comment by the court upon the flimsiness
-of the police case. There was one striking discrepancy in the evidence
-presented at that examination which, if pressed, should have resulted in
-the holding of Montani for trial. He still insisted that he had stopped
-his cab because an old man had got in front of it, but this was denied
-by a witness. That point was permitted to pass by Lieutenant Riley, who
-appeared for the police. Montani could have been re-arrested on charges
-based upon his attempt to defraud the insurance company. But he was
-permitted to go free. That course had been decided on at Police
-Headquarters after some difference of opinion.
-
-The newspapers were now more pessimistic than ever in their comment.
-They contrasted this outcome with Dougherty’s promises that the
-chauffeur would be re-arrested. It was taken as a confession of police
-incompetency and bewilderment—which, as will be seen in its proper
-place, was very useful in its way. Montani went free, and was jubilant,
-calling on the Commissioner next morning to thank him. But from the
-moment he left court until he was arrested again the Italian chauffeur
-never got out of sight of the Police Department.
-
-
- _What Developed on a Busy Tuesday_
-
-It was on the day after Montani’s release that Commissioner Dougherty
-began to uncover more interesting characters in the taxicab drama.
-
-Bit by bit, through points supplied by informants and persons who had
-come in contact with him in various ways, a very good working knowledge
-of the fugitive Kinsman was pieced together. It appeared that he had
-come to New York the previous summer, from Boston, and after a brief
-career as a boxer, had gone to work in a Sixth avenue resort known as
-the “Nutshell Café,” where he was a waiter. Among his associates there
-had been two characters who invited further inquiry.
-
-The first of these was a fellow called “Gene,” described as having a
-“parrot nose,” and a criminal record. He had been a close pal of
-Kinsman, and had also introduced another intimate, a wily little Italian
-called “Jess,” who had formerly owned a thieves’ resort which he called
-the “Arch Café.” A good description of Jess was secured.
-
-There was some delay while the Commissioner “surrounded” this
-last-mentioned resort to find out if it was a place where any
-information might be obtained openly. The question was decided in the
-negative. So a plain-clothes man was quietly “planted” there to pick up
-information.
-
-When a criminal is arrested (or “falls”) it is customary in the
-underworld to raise a fund for his defense. The Arch Café was a center
-for the deposit of such “fall money.” It was learned that a hundred
-dollars had been raised for the defense of a man named Clarke, alias
-“Molloy,” under arrest in Brooklyn for robbery. This was the same Molloy
-to whose fine character Kinsman had asked his landlady to swear in
-court. The Italian named Jess had taken charge of Molloy’s defense fund,
-but squandered it in a spree. Later, making it good, he had sent it over
-to Molloy’s relief by Kinsman’s pal, “Dutch,” and an Italian known as
-“Matteo.”
-
-District inspectors of police were then called upon to find a detective
-who knew Jess, and an Italian plain-clothes man, Antony Grieco, who had
-grown up in that part of New York where Jess had kept a café, and who
-knew the latter well, was detailed with another detective to look him up
-and keep him under surveillance. They found that Jess, whose last name
-was Albrazzo, had headquarters in a tough resort in Thompson street,
-kept by an Italian named James Pasqualle, better known as “Jimmie the
-Push.” From that time Jess was kept “on tap,” to await further
-developments.
-
-Then the Commissioner undertook to find out more about the character
-called “Gene.” Working in New York, as waiters and bartenders, were many
-members of a criminal band known as the “Forty Thieves of Boston.” The
-Commissioner called in all of them that he could find, and sounded each
-for information about this “Gene.” After the time of day had been
-passed, the talk would turn on members of the band and criminals in
-general, and after curiosity had been excited, “Gene” would be referred
-to casually. If the party interviewed said he knew “Gene,” the
-Commissioner would probably be sceptical, ask his last name, press for
-details of appearance and habits, and then pass to some other subject.
-
-It was found that “Gene’s” last name was Splaine, that he had served a
-term in prison in Boston as a boy, and that, by his general description,
-he must be the third fugitive accompanying Kinsman and Annie. When
-Detective Watson got better descriptions of the third man at Albany, and
-comparisons were made with sources of information in New York, it became
-practically certain that Gene Splaine was with Kinsman.
-
-
- _Annie Shows at “Plant 21”_
-
-It was on this day, too (Tuesday, February 20), that “Swede Annie”
-suddenly stepped into police view, _wearing a new hat_. She turned up
-quietly at the house where Myrtle Horn had moved with her trunk, and
-began living in the front basement room. Matron Goodwin and “Plant 21”
-immediately reported her presence, and from that time the shadow men
-across the street had something to do besides driving nails. For
-whenever Annie or Myrtle went out of the house they were followed.
-
-Shadowing is a highly interesting kind of police work, at which some men
-have exceptional ability.
-
-The general conception is that of a detective following closely behind
-the suspected person, with his eyes glued to him, and cautiously
-crouching behind lamp-posts and trees when the victim turns suddenly.
-But that is far from the real thing. The work is done in ways altogether
-different. Shadow men operate in pairs, as a rule, and keep track of
-their party from vantage points not likely to be suspected. They dress
-according to the character of the case, always in quiet clothes, changed
-daily, and with absolutely no colors that will attract attention or lead
-to recognition through the memory. They know how to follow when the
-person under surveillance rides in cabs, cars or trains, to cover the
-different exits from a building into which he or she may have gone, and
-to loiter several hours around a given neighborhood, if need be, without
-attracting the attention of honest citizens.
-
-This work is done by shifts. The operators relieve each other almost as
-regularly as office employees, no matter how far the trail may have
-taken them. They are in constant touch with headquarters for the purpose
-of making reports and receiving instructions.
-
-In this branch of detective work, as in many others, the chief requisite
-is resourcefulness. The detective of fact wears little disguise apart
-from clothes that fit the surroundings he moves in. But he has an
-instant knack at accounting for himself as a normal character who has
-happened quite naturally into the scene. Ready wits do the trick—not
-false whiskers. Thus it came about that whenever Annie and Myrtle were
-hungry, and sat down in a restaurant, what they said was noted by a
-couple of fellows at another table, who quickly made a party of the
-chance patrons they found there, discussing wages or the suffragettes.
-Or if Annie used the telephone in a drug store, a polite young man
-turning over the directory said to her, “Go ahead, lady—I’m in no
-hurry,” and listened.
-
-At the same time, Matron Goodwin was reporting conversation from inside
-the house. It appeared that Kinsman had sent Annie back to the city
-after buying her a new hat and giving her $125. He promised to write
-soon, but did not tell her where he was going. Toward the end of the
-week, as no letter arrived, Annie began worrying, and was talkative. She
-feared that Eddie no longer loved her. She reproached herself for
-letting him go without taking her along, and spoke of setting out to
-find him.
-
-
- _The Trail Is Taken Up_
-
-It was now Wednesday, February 21, and all the careful detail work began
-to come together.
-
-It was this day that Detective Watson found the crew of Train No. 13, on
-the New York Central, which had taken Kinsman, Annie and Splaine aboard
-at Peekskill the afternoon of the robbery after they had ridden out of
-New York in a taxicab to avoid possible police surveillance at the
-railroad stations. Commissioner Dougherty dispatched Watson to Peekskill
-and Albany with thorough instructions. His motto in working out a case
-is, “Supervision is half the battle.”
-
-“When you get to Albany,” he said, “go to that big hat store on Broadway
-near the station. I’ll bet that’s where Annie’s new hat was bought—they
-sell the best millinery in the country outside of New York.”
-
-Nothing important was learned at Peekskill, but at Albany, sure enough,
-Detective Watson found the saleswoman right in “that big hat store” who
-had sold the new hat, and secured Annie’s discarded headgear. The new
-hat had cost twenty-five dollars. The old one looked as though it might
-have cost ninety-five cents—a “Division Street Special.” Its black
-velvet was of the cheapest grade, the famous little red roses proved to
-be, on close inspection, nothing more than little loops of pink cotton
-cloth, and the general state of the hat indicated that it was about time
-Annie had a new one. This interesting “bonnet,” however, seemed just
-then more handsome than any costly article of millinery ever smuggled
-over from Paris. It was immediately sent to New York by express, with a
-copy of the sales slip covering the purchase. The saleswoman was able to
-add one or two details of description, and remembered how, after the
-woman had selected a hat, the two men had joked about who was to pay for
-it.
-
-“She’s your girl,” said Splaine, and so Kinsman had paid the bill with
-five five-dollar bills.
-
-Nothing could be learned as to the direction in which the two men meant
-to travel. Detective Watson now began a search among train crews running
-out of Albany, and Commissioner Dougherty, in New York, got the Albany
-ticket-sellers by long-distance telephone. His knowledge of how railroad
-tickets are sold, accounted for, taken up, cancelled and checked by the
-auditing department made it possible to sift matters down to the
-strongest kind of probability. After considerable telephoning, aided by
-Detective Watson on the spot, it was determined that Kinsman and Splaine
-had been the purchasers of two consecutively numbered tickets for
-Chicago sold together on Friday morning, twenty-four hours after the
-robbery, and that they had gone west on Train No. 3, leaving Albany at
-12:10 p. m. Their tickets were available for that train, and the
-conclusion was strengthened by calculating Annie’s movements. For it was
-found that she had come back to New York the same day, between four and
-five in the afternoon. She had kept out of sight until she appeared at
-Myrtle Horn’s lodging and was reported by Matron Goodwin and “Plant 21”
-on Tuesday. But she must have taken a train from Albany about the time
-that the men were starting for Chicago, reaching New York at 3:45 p. m.
-
-Commissioner Dougherty felt that the chances of finding his men in
-Chicago were so good that, without wasting time in an investigation of
-the crew of Train No. 3, he put Detectives Daly and Clare aboard a
-Chicago train that same night. Kinsman and Splaine would both find
-congenial company among the pugilists in Chicago.
-
-These detectives were given names to conceal their identity, and ordered
-to report under the code term of “Orange Growers” to eliminate all
-flavor of police business. They received detailed instructions about
-where to go and what to do. Again the Commissioner covered the trail
-when it led out of New York by sending capable assistants, instead of
-merely wiring the police in other cities. Before the “Orange Growers”
-departed, the “boss” gave them a little talk about expenses.
-
-The detective attached to a municipal police force is very often
-hampered by fear of making unusual expenditures. Accounting routine is
-strict. Telegrams are often limited to the minimum of ten words where a
-hundred are needed to send a working description or report. The
-long-distance telephone is used as a luxury, and in many instances where
-the plain-clothes man can get valuable information through an informant
-he pays the shot out of his own pocket because there is no other way of
-paying it, and trusts to the chance that this private investment out of
-his salary will help him “break” a knotty case.
-
-Commissioner Dougherty told the “Orange Growers” that they would be kept
-on this trail if it led all around the world. They must not consider
-expenditure when there was vital information to put on the wire. He
-expected them to turn to the long-distance telephone whenever they
-needed new instructions in a hurry. Briefly, he took the blinders and
-shackles off them, and sent them out to do good work, and the outcome
-justified this far-sightedness.
-
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-
-[Illustration: JESS ALBRAZZO]
-
-[Illustration: MATTEO ARBRANO]
-
-[Illustration: JAMES PASQUALE]
-
-[Illustration: BOB DELIO]
-
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-
-At that period of the winter trains were delayed everywhere by storms,
-so the “Orange Growers” had opportunities to make inquiries at stations
-and railroad restaurants all along the line to Buffalo. They were in
-search of their “brother,” who was described in terms of Kinsman’s
-personal appearance, and was supposed to be on his way somewhere with
-another man. At Syracuse an observant waitress remembered their
-“brother” distinctly, having served both the men when their train
-stopped for supper. Finally, the two “Orange Growers” got snowed up in
-Michigan for a time, and there we will leave them for the present.
-
-
- _Montani Quizzed Once More_
-
-By Thursday many loose ends of the case were being brought together so
-effectually that the outlook seemed exceedingly bright.
-
-But only to the executive circle in Dougherty’s office.
-
-Outside, all was dark. Newspaper criticism had become more caustic than
-ever, and the public, after the ingrained habit of New York, was turning
-its attention to fresher news sensations.
-
-At a big annual dinner of police officials held that evening, February
-22, the atmosphere of gloom resting upon the department was most
-tangible. The fourteen hundred guests, who were chiefly police
-inspectors, captains and lieutenants, felt that a stigma lay upon the
-service with which they were identified. They had no means of knowing,
-of course, that one week from that night the gloom would have lifted,
-criticism be turned to praise, and that policemen generally would be, as
-a witty lieutenant put it, “back to our official standing again—which
-never was so very high.”
-
-Montani had called at Police Headquarters repeatedly, accompanied by his
-unseen shadowers. He professed to be anxious to furnish further
-information, if it lay in his power, and the Commissioner chatted with
-him cordially, leading him to believe that he no longer rested under the
-slightest suspicion.
-
-On Friday Dougherty made an interesting effort to “break” Montani.
-
-He now had a minute physical description of Kinsman, as well as two
-photographs of him. The chauffeur was asked to describe once more the
-man who had sat upon the cab seat with him. The questions went over
-details from head to foot, and were prompted by details of Kinsman’s
-real appearance.
-
-Montani said the man had large brown eyes, which was true.
-
-He remembered that he had talked with a good American accent, and used
-words not common to the criminal, which was also more or less true.
-
-He suddenly recalled a gold-filled tooth in the robber’s upper
-right-hand jaw, a point already furnished by informants.
-
-In fact, as this new examination went on, it became clear to the
-Commissioner that Montani was actually describing Kinsman, changing only
-one detail. He said that the robber had had a dark mustache, while it
-was certain that Kinsman had been smooth-shaven.
-
-Suddenly the Commissioner tried what is known as a “shot.”
-
-The examiner in such an inquiry is often in possession of incriminating
-evidence. Instead of producing it bluntly as evidence, however, he will
-perhaps let it slip out bit by bit, as though by awkwardness, meanwhile
-maintaining an appearance of absolute confidence in the suspect’s
-integrity. A classic example of this device is found in the Russian
-writer Dostoieffsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” The skillful “shot” is
-usually far more disconcerting than evidence produced openly to
-overwhelm. For the suspect assumes that the examiner really knows
-nothing, and has merely blundered. So he is on his guard outwardly. But
-he also worries inwardly, and this trying conflict between inner doubt
-and the need for keeping up outer calm will often break him down
-completely.
-
-Dougherty’s “shot” was a photograph of Kinsman.
-
-By pre-arrangement an assistant came into the office and began turning
-over some papers on the Commissioner’s desk. The photo of Kinsman popped
-out where Montani could see it plainly, and then was hurriedly put out
-of sight again. The Commissioner scolded his assistant, and the latter
-stood shamefaced and silent.
-
-But in this instance the device failed.
-
-Montani not only betrayed no interest in Kinsman’s picture, but took the
-awkward assistant’s part, and asked the Commissioner not to scold him.
-
-Montani had planned his crime, fitted the plan with men, laid out every
-detail in his mind, and arranged his story beforehand. He expected to be
-arrested, and said so. He admitted that there were inconsistencies in
-his story, but hoped to clear them up. He had discussed the crime with
-Jess and Dutch, and had not been seen in the company of the other
-criminals. So, having settled on his story, Montani stuck to it without
-variation under every form of pressure. Others forgot what they had
-arranged as their defense, or departed from it, or broke down and
-confessed. But not Montani. He alone went to trial, and stuck to his
-story until the end.
-
-
- _The “Orange Growers” in Chicago_
-
-When Daly and Clare, the two New York detectives working as the “Orange
-Growers,” arrived in Chicago, they went to Police Headquarters in that
-city, made inquiries about Kinsman and Splaine, and secured the aid of
-Chicago detectives. Then they put up at a hotel where, by arrangements
-with the house detective, they occupied a room on the second floor handy
-to a little-used stairway leading to a side street, which would make it
-easy to slip in and out without going through the lobby. On the trip
-from New York both of them had neglected shaving, and Daly was an
-especially tough-looking citizen, for his beard grows out stiff and
-bristly, with black and red intermixed, and a little green to help the
-general effect. With suits of old clothes and sweaters they were so
-little like their official selves that for several days, though they
-went rather freely around resorts frequented by crooks who knew them in
-New York, they were not recognized.
-
-The “Orange Growers” now became a pair of hardened “yeggmen,” or bank
-robbers, and for three days were busy visiting thieves’ haunts all over
-the city, from the Levee district to the Stockyards. It was found that
-Kinsman and Splaine had put up at a high-class boarding house in a
-fashionable residence section. Kinsman seemed to be doubtful about the
-impression Splaine might make there, though in the opinion of the police
-Splaine was by far the more intelligent of the pair. So he took the
-landlady aside and asked her, privately, if she had objections to a
-prize-fighter in her house. The landlady replied, “Why, no! if he is a
-gentleman—many prize-fighters are just like other people!” Thereupon,
-Kinsman undertook that Splaine should behave himself. He also wanted to
-know if valuables were safe there, and the astonished landlady assured
-him that her house was like a home, that the guests were like one big
-family and seldom locked their doors, and that Mr. Smith, well known as
-an officer in one of the leading banks, had lived there for years.
-
-The pair had spent considerable time in criminal haunts, but had now
-disappeared. Kinsman, as it was learned later, had returned to New York.
-Splaine was apparently in Chicago still, spending his money, but the two
-“Orange Growers” seemed never to catch up with him. Their man had always
-gone around the corner within the past hour.
-
-Finally they planned a ruse with the aid of two Chicago detectives.
-Splaine had been intimate with a certain woman of the underworld, known
-as “Josie.” Clare went to her, represented himself as a “stick-up man,”
-said he and his partner were after that guy with all the money and
-diamonds, meaning Splaine, and that they meant to rob him. If Josie
-worked with them, like a good girl, she would come in for her third of
-the plunder.
-
-Josie professed ignorance. She was sure, so help her Mike, cross her
-heart, that she knew nothing about no gent with any money or diamonds—no
-such a party had been near the house in months, worse luck. Clare argued
-awhile with no results, and then said he would come back a little later
-and bring his pal. Then Daly was introduced to Josie as the extremely
-undesirable citizen who would do the strong-arm work. But Josie still
-insisted that she had no idea what they were talking about.
-
-They went out, and within a few minutes the two Chicago detectives,
-Dempsey and McFarland, known by Josie as officers, came in, described
-the disguised Clare and Daly as two of the most desperate “yeggmen” in
-the country, said that they had warrants for them, and asked if they had
-been seen. Josie crossed her heart again, and said that there had been
-nobody around there all evening—believe her, it was like living the
-simple life, and if things kept on bein’ so quiet she’d blow the town
-and go back to Keokuk.
-
-Then, enter the two “Orange Growers” once more, to be warned by the fair
-Josie.
-
-“Say, the bulls are after you boys, an’ you better pull your freight,
-‘cause if you stay around here they’re goin’ to _get_ you.”
-
-“Aw, hell!” was the reply, “We’d just as lieve kill a cop or anybody
-else. We stick in this house till you tell us where we can reach that
-guy with the money and the diamonds—understand?”
-
-Then Josie broke down, and told them Splaine had been there early in the
-evening, but had gone away to take a train out of town. She did not know
-the railroad, and urged them to leave. This was evidently the truth, so
-they hurried to Police Headquarters, telegraphed descriptions to other
-cities with a request that arriving trains be watched, and went to bed
-to get a little sleep, so that they could be at work early the next
-morning.
-
-But in the morning word came from the Memphis Police that Splaine had
-been arrested there on alighting from a train, and they thereupon
-notified New York, went to Memphis, secured Splaine on extradition
-papers, and brought him back to the metropolis.
-
-
- _The Traps Are Sprung_
-
-On Saturday afternoon, February 24, while most of the energy of the
-Detective Bureau was centered on the taxicab case, a brutal murder was
-committed in Brooklyn.
-
-Word came that a Flatbush merchant had been found dead in his store,
-shot by unknown criminals whose motive was robbery. They had taken his
-watch and five safety razors.
-
-Inspector Hughes was sent to the scene of the crime, and Commissioner
-Dougherty quickly followed. The murder occurred about one p. m. By six
-o’clock the same day the number of the watch had been learned through a
-canvass of jewelers in the neighborhood, it being on record by one of
-them who had repaired it, and the watch and two of the safety razors had
-been found in pawnshops. Descriptions of the murderers were obtained,
-and by three o’clock Sunday, the following day, their identity had been
-established. Within thirty hours after the crime these men had been
-arrested, positively identified as the pawners of the stolen articles,
-and completely tied up in their own statements.
-
-At half-past nine Sunday night, while the Commissioner, Inspector Hughes
-and Captain Coughlin, in charge of Brooklyn detectives, and Lieutenant
-Riley were winding up their work on this murder case, word suddenly came
-over the telephone to Commissioner Dougherty from an informant that
-Eddie Kinsman had been seen in New York with “Swede Annie,” and that he
-was accompanied by an unknown man, wearing a red necktie, supposed to be
-Gene Splaine. At the same time Matron Goodwin, stationed inside Annie’s
-lodgings, telephoned that she had information indicating that Kinsman
-had returned to the city.
-
-When the Commissioner motored over to New York, he found his men
-covering a hotel on Third avenue, not far from 42d street. Kinsman and
-Annie were inside.
-
-The Commissioner hurried to the 18th precinct police station and sent
-out a call for twenty-five detectives. Team work on the case had
-developed to such a degree by this time that, though the men came from
-many stations, they were all on hand in record time, a matter of twenty
-or thirty minutes. Then a squad of these plain-clothes men was sent to
-watch every railroad station and ferry house, each accompanied by one of
-the men from “Plant 21,” familiar with Annie from having followed her
-movements for a week. Surveillance on the hotel was strengthened, and
-steps taken to ascertain whether the unknown man in the red tie was
-really Splaine.
-
-While making these arrangements, a curious incident occurred, showing
-how small is New York, after all, with its five million people. As
-Dougherty sat in the 18th precinct station, Detective Rein brought in a
-prisoner arrested for shooting a citizen. He was drunk and extremely
-disagreeable, and gave his name as “Steigel,” living at 98 Third avenue.
-Something in this address echoed to something in Dougherty’s memory—a
-keen one for names, dates, addresses and facts generally. He
-investigated further, and found that this prisoner was no other than the
-criminal Molloy, whose urgent need of “character witnesses” had played
-so important a part in furnishing the first information in the taxicab
-case.
-
-By some mischance, these operations came to the ears of the newspaper
-men. Word went about, beginning in Brooklyn, that important arrests were
-to be made. The reporters followed the Commissioner in a crowd when he
-refused to make a statement. They not only hampered the work, but
-greatly endangered the outcome. On the following day, Monday, the papers
-published information about the police activities of the night before.
-The hazard here may be appreciated when the reader is told that Kinsman
-had been a persistent reader of newspapers from the day of the robbery,
-and that it was largely the pessimistic newspaper comment upon Montani’s
-release in court that led him to return to New York. Deceived by the
-newspaper chorus of “police demoralization,” and the easy way in which
-Montani had got free, he concluded that the taxicab investigation had
-been given up as hopeless.
-
-Kinsman was arrested in the Grand Central Station at half-past eleven
-Monday morning, with Swede Annie and the unknown in the red tie. They
-were about to set out for Boston.
-
-There were some amusing circumstances in the arrest.
-
-Kinsman’s immunity over night, and police precaution in deferring the
-arrest until the last moment, on the chance that other persons would
-join the party, gave him a false confidence. He afterward admitted that
-ideas of a “pinch” at that time were far from his mind.
-
-When a criminal thought to be dangerous is to be arrested in a crowded
-place like the Grand Central Station, police officers operate by methods
-that prevent a struggle. As two detectives closed in on the party,
-Kinsman watched one of them out of the corner of his eye. While a waiter
-at the “Nutshell Café” he had often thrown objectionable guests out onto
-the sidewalk. He now fancied that one of the detectives resembled a man
-he had once “bounced,” and was ready to fight if attacked.
-
-“I was just folding it up,” he said, referring to his fist, “and getting
-ready to land on him when one had me from behind and the other in front.
-Then I knew they were cops.”
-
-Annie was gorgeously dressed in a new blue suit and fine fur coat,
-bought out of the taxicab money. The unknown man proved to be Kinsman’s
-brother, who had come down from Boston with him. Kinsman had visited his
-native city before returning to New York, but had escaped the police net
-there by stopping at a hotel and sending for his brother. He sent a grip
-home by this brother, and it was afterward found to contain three
-packages of bills of $250 each in the original wrappers of the bank.
-
-As soon as word of these arrests was telephoned to Police Headquarters,
-the other traps were sprung. Detectives brought in Montani, Jess
-Albrazzo and Myrtle Horn, the latter, with Annie, being held as
-witnesses.
-
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-
-
-
-
- CHAPTER III
- HOW THE CRIME WAS HANDLED BY THE POLICE—THE CONFESSIONS
-
-
-Now begins some of the most interesting work connected with the taxicab
-case—the examination of the first prisoners, which led to confessions,
-the implication of other guilty persons not yet under arrest, and the
-voluntary pleas of guilty in court which saved costly trials in all but
-Montani’s case.
-
-This sort of work is familiar under the term of “third degree.” It is
-popularly supposed to be accompanied by force and sometimes
-brutality—and in wrong hands often is. Commissioner Dougherty’s
-experience with a commercial detective agency, however, has led him to
-develop intelligent methods. The commercial detective organization has
-none of the authority of an official police force, and at the same time,
-through its national operations and the general character of its work,
-deals chiefly with the most accomplished criminals. Therefore, tact and
-legal subtilty are depended upon in examining suspects, and the
-Commissioner long ago learned to get his results mainly by straight
-question and answer. He puts his own wits against those of the suspect,
-backed by experience in many other cases. He has a practical grasp of
-criminal psychology, as well as many ingenious ways of using evidence to
-the best purpose, overwhelming the suspect, and breaking down stolidity
-and deception. Dougherty is not only opposed to force in the “third
-degree,” but knows that it is of absolutely no use.
-
-The first prisoner examined was Eddie Kinsman.
-
-When he was brought to Police Headquarters Kinsman appeared to be
-thoroughly satisfied with himself, and confident that no policeman would
-get anything out of _him_. He proved to be a good-looking young fellow,
-of athletic build, and by no means a fool.
-
-Methods of examination are never twice alike, for they depend upon the
-case and the suspect. As a rule, however, when the criminal first sits
-down to answer Commissioner Dougherty he is astonished by that
-gentleman’s apparent lack of guile, and ignorance of worldly knowledge.
-When Dougherty composes himself for an inquiry, he is rather a
-heavy-looking citizen, not unlike a country magistrate, and his first
-questions, put for the purpose of determining the suspect’s character
-and previous surroundings, usually relate to bald routine matters, such
-as name, age, residence, education, family, and so on.
-
-“Gee!” thinks the suspect, “This guy is the biggest lobster I ever got
-up against! I wonder how he ever got to be a police commissioner. He
-must have a strong political pull.”
-
-Kinsman was ushered into a large, quiet office, where this bureaucratic
-official began by asking his name, birthplace and other details.
-
-“Will you kindly stand up a minute while I get your height?” asked the
-questioner, and Kinsman did so in a patronizing way. Then the
-dull-looking gentleman turned back Kinsman’s coat and looked at the
-little label sewed in the inside pocket.
-
-“I see that you have been in Chicago recently,” he observed. “This suit
-was made by a tailor there. You ordered it February 17th, two days after
-the robbery.”
-
-He looked into Kinsman’s hat.
-
-“That was bought in Chicago, too.”
-
-He examined the label on Kinsman’s tie.
-
-“This was also bought in Chicago.”
-
-He turned up the label at the back of the neck of the new silk
-underclothes worn by the prisoner.
-
-“Those were bought in State street, Chicago, and from a very good store,
-too—I know it well.”
-
-Kinsman now began to be pugnacious and defiant.
-
-“See here!” he said, “You must take me for a boob.”
-
-“Yes, I think you are a boob,” replied the Commissioner. “You might as
-well have made your getaway with a brass band as to take Swede Annie
-with you to Albany, attracting attention all the way, and then send her
-back to New York with a hundred dollars to tell the police where you had
-gone.”
-
-Suddenly Lieutenant Riley, personal aide, walked into the Commissioner’s
-office carrying a cheap article of millinery—a shabby black velvet hat
-with a row of little red roses across the front. Commissioner Dougherty
-apparently grew very angry.
-
-“What do you mean by bringing that thing in here now?” he exclaimed. “I
-am not ready for that—take it away.”
-
-This “shot” had been previously arranged, of course, but Riley pretended
-to be injured when called by his superior.
-
-“Cripes!” exclaimed Kinsman. “Annie’s old hat. How did you get that so
-quick?”
-
-“Oh, that is only one thing we’ve got on you,” replied the Commissioner.
-“We know that you went to Peekskill in a taxicab with Annie and Splaine
-on the afternoon of the robbery. We know that you took Train 13 to
-Albany, and where you stopped that night, and where you bought Annie’s
-new hat, and how much you paid for it, and what train you took to
-Chicago Friday noon. Suppose you tell me something more about your
-movements?”
-
-Kinsman became scornful.
-
-“If you know all that,” he said, “maybe you know more about where I went
-and what I did than I do myself. So what would be the use of me telling
-_you_ anything?”
-
-While certain people were being found outside, the Commissioner worked
-upon the prisoner along another line. Enough of Kinsman’s personality
-was now disclosed to show that he was vain and egotistical. This side of
-his nature was therefore fed with flattery. He was assured that the
-taxicab robbery had been a wonderful “stick-up.” Everybody in New York
-had been astonished. The whole country was talking about it, and about
-him. He must be an awfully bright, cunning fellow to have planned and
-carried out such a piece of crime.
-
-Kinsman warmed up genially under this admiration, and seemed to be more
-confident than ever that so shrewd a young man as himself would have
-little difficulty in fooling the police.
-
-But presently self-satisfaction was subjected to shock after shock.
-
-Detectives were bringing in Montani, Myrtle Hoyt, Rose Levy, Mrs.
-Sullivan, the landlady with whom Kinsman had lived, and her housekeeper.
-Jess Albrazzo was under arrest. Kinsman’s brother was there for
-examination, and Inspector Hughes and Lieutenant Riley were bringing in
-startling intelligence every few minutes.
-
-The housekeeper was ushered in, and told how Kinsman had given her five
-dollars from a huge roll of bills before leaving for Peekskill.
-
-Commissioner Waldo came in and sat while Mrs. Sullivan told what she
-knew about her late lodger.
-
-Kinsman’s brother gave information about the former’s movements from the
-time he had arrived in Boston until he brought him to New York to have a
-good time, and Kinsman knew that at the home of his parents in Boston
-the police would surely find money in the original wrappers of the bank.
-
-The prisoner was put under pressure to explain how a man like himself,
-known to be working as a waiter in a cheap resort, could suddenly have
-come into possession of such sums. Statements from the women in the case
-had been secured, and were produced, and finally Kinsman was brought to
-detailed admissions, one by one. He agreed that it was true he had gone
-to Peekskill in a taxicab with Annie and Splaine, that he had gone to
-Albany, had bought Annie a hat there, had gone to Chicago, and so forth.
-Opportunities were given him to see Montani and Jess, under arrest.
-Nothing but the truth was told him, yet by degrees he was led to see
-himself surrounded on all sides by evidence and confessing accomplices.
-At last he broke down completely, his vain self-confidence destroyed,
-and made a detailed confession.
-
-Kinsman’s story brought up fresh circumstances and new actors in the
-taxicab case.
-
-He told how he had come to New York nine months before, to have a good
-time and make money, and how, after going penniless and hungry, and
-getting a few dollars for taking part in a boxing match, he had become a
-waiter at the “Nutshell Café.” There he soon made the acquaintance of
-criminals, meeting Gene Splaine, “Dutch” Keller, “Joe the Kid,” “Scotty
-the Lamb” and other characters who were afterward to assist in the taxi
-robbery. There he also met “Swede Annie” and became her sweetheart, and
-finally, Jess Albrazzo, a dark little Italian who seemed to exert marked
-influence over all the others. It was from Jess that Kinsman first heard
-about the plan to rob a taxicab carrying money to a bank. This “swell
-job” was discussed, and Jess told him he had a friend named Montani who
-carried the bank’s cash, and would cooperate in stealing it. The job
-would be easy, because Montani would run the cab through a side street,
-and the only guard was an old man and a boy, neither of them armed.
-
-One Sunday night, two weeks before the crime, Jess took Kinsman and
-other accomplices over the route, after all had drunk themselves into
-optimistic mood, and pointed out the bank from which the money was
-drawn, the streets through which Montani would run, the place where the
-gang could board the cab, and the point at which they could leave it and
-escape uptown. Details were discussed. There was a difference of opinion
-as to methods, and the plotters parted that night with the understanding
-that each would submit his own ideas of how the robbery could be most
-effectively and safely carried out. Eventually there was a definite
-agreement as to boarding the cab, preventing an outcry, making the
-getaway and splitting up the money.
-
-According to Montani’s information, the bank messengers usually carried
-between $75,000 and $100,000. When the day for the robbery had been set,
-word suddenly came that there would not be so large a sum. This was
-disappointing, but the gang decided to put their project through,
-nevertheless. Kinsman was busy at the café, where he worked until four
-o’clock on the morning of February 15, and “Dutch” called for him
-several times, asking if he was going to “lay down on the job.” Finally
-Kinsman got away, went to a room in a lodging house taken by “Dutch,”
-and found the gang all there smoking and drinking. At five o’clock they
-all went to sleep. At eight everybody was awakened. “Dutch” and Splaine
-took blackjacks, and offered Kinsman a revolver, which he refused,
-saying he could take care of himself with his hands, being a boxer.
-There were six in the party—Kinsman, “Dutch,” Splaine, “Joe the Kid,”
-Jess and “Scotty the Lamb,” whose part was to stumble in front of
-Montani’s cab at the place selected for the boarding, and thus give the
-chauffeur a colorable reason for slackening speed if eye-witnesses
-afterward called his honesty into question. The gang had breakfast in a
-cheap restaurant, stopped for a drink at the saloon of “Jimmie the Push”
-in Thompson street, where the booty was to be divided, and proceeded
-downtown, after parting with Jess. The latter was the organizer, and
-took no part in the robbery; as he explained, he was known as a friend
-of Montani’s, and wanted to arrange so that he could prove an alibi if
-suspected, proving that he had not been near the scene of the crime when
-it was committed.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration: “Scotty” Receives Final Instructions]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-At that saloon they had met a trio of Italian criminals known as the
-“Three Brigands,” who said they were not to take part in the robbery,
-but would be on hand to see that it was vigorously put through.
-
-Arrived upon the ground, at Church street and Trinity Place, Splaine and
-Kinsman waited on the west side of the thoroughfare, while “Dutch” and
-“Joe the Kid” stood on the opposite side. “Scotty the Lamb” posted
-himself fifty feet off.
-
-As Montani’s cab came speeding along, “Dutch” raised his hat as a
-signal. “Scotty the Lamb” did not have time to step in front of the
-vehicle before it slackened, and the robbers were aboard. “Dutch” opened
-one door and struck the old bank teller, Wilbur Smith, and “Joe the Kid”
-boosted Splaine in on the other side, where he assaulted young Wardle.
-Kinsman mounted the seat beside Montani, and the latter put on full
-speed, telling Kinsman to point his finger at his side as though he had
-a revolver. The cab slipped past trucks and dodged pedestrians. Kinsman
-said he seemed to see policemen everywhere, and was dazed when the
-vehicle stopped at Park Place and Church street. All the criminals got
-off there, “Dutch” lugging the brown bag containing the money. Splaine
-and “Dutch” were both covered with the bank guards’ blood. Taking
-Kinsman, they jumped aboard a street car. It was crowded. Several
-passengers noticed the bloody men, but were told that there had been a
-fight, and the occurrence was not reported to the police. After riding
-two or three blocks they got off, boarded an elevated train, rode to
-Bleeker street, and went to a back room in “Jimmie the Push’s” saloon,
-where the money was to be divided. Here they found Jess and the “Three
-Brigands,” and the latter now set up a claim for a share in the booty.
-Matteo, leader of the trio, pulled out a revolver, and there was a
-discussion. Finally the bag was opened, and found to contain $25,000.
-There were three packages of $5,000 each and one of $10,000. Matteo
-grabbed the latter package, saying that his gang was to get $3,000
-apiece, and that the odd $1,000 would go for “fall money” to get Molloy
-out of jail in Brooklyn. The robbers then divided the remainder, Jess
-taking $3,000 for himself and another $3,000 for Montani, Splaine
-getting $3,000, Kinsman $2,750, “Joe the Kid” $250 and “Scotty the Lamb”
-nothing. Kinsman then told how he had called for Swede Annie, and left
-town in a taxicab, going as far as Peekskill, to avoid the police at the
-Grand Central Station.
-
-
- _Jess Confesses and Assists_
-
-The next prisoner examined was Jess Albrazzo, a dark little Italian, who
-appeared to be somewhat ignorant.
-
-In this examination the Commissioner had ample outside proof, and he
-also employed what he calls his “psychological study.” Years ago, in
-dealing with negro suspects in Southern crime, Dougherty devised a
-little instrument which he dubbed his “lie watch.” This was a dial with
-a needle, hung round the suspect’s neck. If the latter told the truth,
-the needle presumably pointed to “Truth,” and if he didn’t, it pointed
-to “Lie.” Being out of the suspect’s sight, it had a strong effect.
-
-From that, Dougherty went into studies of the mental states of suspects
-under examination, and found rough physiological indications which he
-uses as a guide to the integrity of the suspect. Investigations of
-European criminal experts like Professor Hans Gross amply demonstrate
-that there is a real scientific basis for such methods.
-
-Dougherty took it a little easier with Jess. They sat down, and the
-Commissioner went over the Italian’s movements for the past few months,
-showing him how thoroughly he was implicated. Jess had worked for
-Montani, and been intimate with the rest of the taxicab “mob.” He and
-Montani were confronted with each other, and points brought out in
-Kinsman’s confession were skillfully used.
-
-At one point in this examination the Commissioner rose from his desk,
-took the lobe of Jess’s ear between his thumb and finger, pinched it
-slightly, looked at the ear closely, and then walked out of the room.
-
-Jess was all on edge with curiosity.
-
-“Why did he pinch my ear?” he asked of Lieutenant Riley.
-
-“To see if you are telling the truth,” was the answer, and in a moment
-the Commissioner came back and examined that ear again.
-
-“Yes, he’s lying,” he declared. “Look at his ear—can’t you see it
-yourself?” Others were invited to look at Jess’s ear, and the little
-Italian became so curious that he actually tried to look around the side
-of his skull and see his own ear!
-
-This psychological study was backed up with abundant proof that Jess had
-not told the whole truth. Presently he weakened and confessed. He told
-how he had handed $2,000 in a collar box to “Jimmie the Push” on the day
-of the robbery, which was to be taken to a Bowery bank and put in a
-safe-deposit vault for Montani. He agreed to accompany the police to
-Jimmie’s place in Thompson street, and late that evening a party made up
-of Commissioner Dougherty, Inspector Hughes and Lieutenant Riley went
-there, taking Jess along.
-
-“Jimmie the Push’s” place is one of the most picturesque thieves’
-resorts in lower New York.
-
-“Typical of the old village,” as Dougherty puts it. “In fact, this whole
-case has a strong flavor of the little old village of New York.”
-
-Jimmie was out when they got there, but this saloon was in charge of the
-biggest, swarthiest Italian bartender in town, a tough Hercules weighing
-somewhere around three hundred pounds. The room was crowded with motley
-characters, drinking beverages known to the neighborhood as “shocks” and
-“high hats.” For their edification, a tramp magician was taking coins
-out of his ears, his nose and the air.
-
-Jess was not known to be under arrest, and immediately sent a boy called
-“Reddy” to fetch the proprietor, who had known the three police officers
-for years. Presently Reddy came back and said that Jimmie would come in
-about half an hour, as he was playing cards and had a fine hand.
-
-Reddy was sent back to impress upon Jimmie that Jess wanted to see him
-right away—it was very important. In about two minutes, just as the
-Commissioner had bought a “high hat” for everybody in his party, Jimmie
-appeared. He was told that Jess had got into trouble in connection with
-the taxicab robbery, and asked about the money in the safe deposit
-vault. “Jimmie the Push,” with his partner, Bob Deilio, had by this time
-been implicated themselves, for it was clear that the money had been
-divided in their resort, and that probably they had taken part in the
-planning, and the decidedly one-sided division of the spoils. Jimmie was
-led to believe that he did not rest under suspicion, however, and that
-he was only asked to aid the police. He said Jess had handed him a
-collar box on the day of the robbery, asking him to put it in a vault in
-his own name, but that he had had no idea what the box contained, and
-had left it lying behind the bar for a couple of days before he got a
-chance to go to the bank with it. He readily promised to appear at
-Police Headquarters the following morning, bring the key to the safe
-deposit box, and help recover the money. Thereupon the police officials
-bade him good night and went away. But no chances were taken on “Jimmie
-the Push.” From that moment he was shadowed.
-
-That Monday was a busy day in many other ways.
-
-Developments came thick and fast.
-
-Kinsman’s home in Boston was visited, and $750 of the bank money
-recovered in the original wrappers. It had laid in his grip, unknown to
-the honest Kinsman family.
-
-Swede Annie, Myrtle Horn and a girl named Rose Levy were examined,
-quickly broke down, and made tearful statements to be used in evidence.
-These women were held only as witnesses, and as the case cleared up
-after a few days’ detention, were released.
-
-The girl, Rose Levy, greatly attracted the Commissioner. She was only
-nineteen years old, a mild-mannered little Jewess with jet black hair
-and very remarkable eyes. The Commissioner went into details of her
-personal story. It seems that she had left her home in Brooklyn two
-months before, after a quarrel with her mother, and had come to New York
-looking for a position. But she quickly fell into the lower world,
-became known as Jess’s girl, and was ambitious to be “one of the gang.”
-After a fatherly talk she was persuaded to return to her home and live a
-decent life. But within a week she was back in New York again, in her
-old haunts, trying to raise money to help Jess, for whom, she told the
-Commissioner, she would willingly work for the rest of her days.
-
-Before visiting Jimmie’s saloon the Commissioner called up the “Orange
-Growers” in Chicago, had a long talk with them, told what progress was
-being made, and put new life into them.
-
-
- _More Money Recovered_
-
-True to his word, “Jimmie the Push” walked into Police Headquarters at
-nine o’clock Tuesday morning, February 27, closely followed by his
-unseen shadowers. He produced the key of the safe-deposit vault, and
-went with officers to see the money recovered. There was $2,000, as Jess
-had stated, still in the wrappers of the bank. Jimmie was still
-permitted to go free, under the impression that he had come through the
-ordeal “clean,” while fresh evidence was being obtained against him.
-
-That morning the Commissioner also took Kinsman down over the route of
-the robbery, to have him explain it in his own way. This was done to
-strengthen the case against Montani, and upset his story in court.
-
-Then “Scotty the Lamb” was located, arrested, brought to headquarters
-and led to confess. “Scotty the Lamb” was in some respects a pathetic
-figure in the case, and also a humorous one. He had been in charge of
-the lunch kitchen at the Arch Café when Jess owned it, and later worked
-as a dishwasher in a Washington Square hotel. A Scotch youth, from
-Glasgow, he had been in this country about four years, and while no
-criminal record appeared against him, he was plainly in the company of
-thieves most of the time. According to his statement, he had been
-promised $25 for doing some work for Jess, and without inquiring into
-the nature of it at all, had shown up with the gang and gone along to do
-his minor part of a “stall,” stumbling in front of the cab. But before
-he could get out into the street, the cab had been boarded. So poor
-“Scotty the Lamb,” without a nickel for carfare, plodded all the way
-uptown again to the saloon where the money was to be divided, and got
-nothing whatever. He was a cheerful soul, however, and the life of the
-party when the gang was locked up, cracking jokes, and taking the view
-that, as sentences ought to be proportioned to the amount of money each
-member of the gang had got in the division, and he had got nothing, he
-might be let off with six months’ imprisonment.
-
-“Scotty, haven’t you got any overcoat?” asked Inspector Hughes,
-sympathetically, as they were going to court one brisk morning. “Did you
-_ever_ have an overcoat, Scotty?”
-
-“No, sir, I never had an overcoat,” replied Scotty, and then as he
-thought of his prospects for going to prison, added drolly, “And now I
-don’t expect, sir, that I ever will!”
-
-
- _The Fine Italian Hand_
-
-The next step in the case was that of arresting “Jimmie the Push” and
-his partner, Bob Deilio.
-
-Another phase of the robbery now began to come out plainly.
-
-Up to the present time the main burden of proof pointed to the four
-“hold-up” men of American birth as the chief actors in the crime.
-Montani and Jess, the two Italians, appeared to be accessories.
-
-But as the tangled threads were unravelled, one by one, it was found
-that the Italians involved outnumbered the American thugs, and that
-furthermore they had outwitted them.
-
-When Bob Deilio was arrested he drew $215 in five-dollar bills out of
-his pocket and handed it to the police, admitting that it was part of
-$5,500 of the stolen money. The rest, he asserted, had just been paid
-for rent of the two resorts operated by “Jimmie the Push” and himself.
-
-Jimmie and Bob were taken to Police Headquarters and examined, with Jess
-present. Commissioner Dougherty played one against the other so
-skillfully, with cross-questions and counter pressure, that in a little
-while each was excitedly telling tales on his two companions with the
-desperate hope of clearing himself, and denunciations flew back and
-forth among the trio as evidence came out that was likely to send them
-all to prison. Their confessions were obtained, and used in a new effort
-to break down Montani. But this was without results. The little Italian
-chauffeur still stuck doggedly to his original story.
-
-From these new confessions it appeared that the Italians had planned the
-crime, enlisted the American hold-up men to carry out the dirty work,
-and laid a counter-plot for holding them up in turn when the money was
-divided. The “Three Brigands” were ostensibly offered a chance to take
-part in the actual robbery, but refused on the plea that it would be too
-risky, and that they did not believe Montani could carry it out
-successfully. On the morning of the crime they walked north over the
-route. When they met the taxicab coming south, with a policeman on the
-seat beside Montani and two unconscious bank messengers inside, they
-knew that the project had succeeded. So the “Three Brigands” hurried
-uptown to “Jimmie the Push’s” saloon. They got there so quickly that
-they were ahead of the robbers. Jess made a rehearsed protest when they
-insisted in sharing in the plunder, but the “Three Brigands” drew
-revolvers, threatened to make a disturbance that would bring in the
-police, and finally helped themselves to $10,000. When the thugs who had
-done the actual work left the saloon, they had only $8,000 all told. The
-Italians, who had “played safe” at every point, had $17,000.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-[Illustration: “The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up Men for Theirs]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- _One of the Brigands Comes In_
-
-The actual whereabouts of the “Three Brigands” was not known to the
-police then. But there were certain channels through which news might
-reach at least one of them. Word was sent through those channels,
-therefore, that it might be best for them to appear and give an account
-of themselves, and on Friday, March 1, just at the time Splaine had been
-brought back from Memphis, the little leader of the brigands, Matteo
-Arbrano, an undersized Italian wearing spectacles, who had carried out
-the job of robbing the hold-up men, surrendered himself to the District
-Attorney.
-
-Arbrano said that he had divided his $10,000 with his two companions,
-Gonzales and Cavaquero, and immediately left New York, taking a steamer
-for Mexico by way of Havana. At the latter city he stopped over night,
-met a woman and accompanied her to a resort, was drugged and robbed of
-$2,700, and woke on the Prado with only $100 left, a single bill that
-had been concealed in his shoe. With that he returned to New York. The
-story is regarded by the police as more picturesque than convincing. It
-is probable that Matteo’s share of the plunder, with that of other
-Italians involved, has been carefully “planted.”
-
-Pauli Gonzales, another of the brigands, was traced to Vera Cruz,
-Mexico. In the present state of that country, however, it was found
-impossible to arrest and extradite him upon the evidence at hand.
-
-Three other persons concerned in the robbery are still at large at this
-writing—“Dutch” Keller, “Joe the Kid,” and an “unknown” whose identity
-is concealed for police reasons.
-
-Montani pleaded “Not guilty,” and stood trial. After two days, exactly a
-month and a day subsequent to the robbery, he was convicted by a jury,
-and sentenced to not less than ten years and not more than eighteen
-years and two months in prison, with hard labor.
-
-A word must be said about the prompt action of the District Attorney’s
-office in the taxicab case. Where crime has had such publicity there is
-an opportunity to make a demonstration of great value by pressing the
-prosecutions. It was not lost. Under Assistant Charles C. Nott, Jr.,
-evidence was succinctly laid before judges and juries, the trials
-finished in a matter of hours, and convictions and sentences secured
-within six weeks after the robbery. Furthermore, the various sentences
-were just, being carefully graded according to the part played by each
-offender, his character and previous record, and his individual effort
-in facilitating justice.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- _Name_ _Arrested_ _Pleaded_ _Sentenced_ _Sentence_
-
- MONTANI, GENO Feb. 26,’12 Feb. 29,’12 Mch. 16,’12 Not less than
- 10 yrs. nor
- more than 18
- yrs. 2 mos.
- Judge
- Seabury.
-
- KINSMAN, EDW. Feb. 26,’12 Mch. 1,’12 April 9,’12 Not less than 3
- yrs. nor more
- than 6 yrs.
- Judge Crain.
-
- SPLAINE, EUGENE Mch. 2,’12 Mch. 4,’12 Mch. 25,’12 Not less than 7
- yrs. 6 mos.
- nor more than
- 14 yrs. 6
- mos. Judge
- Seabury.
-
- DELIO, ROBERT Feb. 28,’12 Mch. 4,’12 Mch. 29,’12 Not less than 2
- yrs. 6 mos.
- nor more than
- 4 yrs. 2 mos.
- Judge
- Seabury.
-
- PASQUALE, JAMES Feb. 28,’12 Mch. 4,’12 April 8,’12 6 mos.
- (“Jimmie the Penitent’ry.
- Push”) Judge Davis.
-
- LAMB, JOSEPH Feb. 27,’12 Mch. 18,’12 Mch. 29,’12 Indeterminate
- (“Scotty the sentence,
- Lamb”) Elmira. Judge
- Seabury.
-
- ARBRANO, MATTEO Mch. 2,’12 April 3,’12 2 to 4 years.
- Judge Davis.
-
- ALBRAZZO, JESS Mch. 26,’12 Mch. 18,’12 3 to 6 years.
- Judge Davis.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- FINAL
- A WORD ABOUT THE NEW YORK POLICE
-
-
-It has been the writer’s good fortune to look into the work of both the
-London and the New York policemen recently, within the same year.
-
-A somewhat embarrassing point arose.
-
-In London, the “bobby” was anxious to know which police force the writer
-considered best. The “bobby” gets his ideas of the New York “cop” from
-such accounts as filter through the cable dispatches from our
-newspapers. He hears chiefly the worst, and pictures the “cop” as a
-lawless individual, wielding pistol and club indiscriminately, with whom
-it is not safe to pass a civil word. So, when he puts his little
-question about the respective merits of the two organizations, he
-reserves the right to keep his opinion that the London force is best
-anyway.
-
-In New York, it is much the same. The “cop” has heard just enough about
-the “bobby” to regard him with mild tolerance. He pictures him as a
-policeman servile to the last degree, thankfully accepting sixpenny tips
-from pedestrians, and occupied chiefly with unarmed thieves and harmless
-political offenders.
-
-When one has good friends in both forces, the question “Which do you
-think best?” is to be met with tactful evasions. And the more one thinks
-it over, the more it becomes clear that there is really little
-difference at bottom. Both police organizations are made up of good men,
-following the same trade along the same lines, and dealing with about
-the same general conditions.
-
-The London “bobby,” however, enjoys excellent leadership, is governed by
-a definite administrative policy, has the backing of the courts, and
-therefore comes in for a general public good will which is exceedingly
-useful to him in the performance of duty.
-
-The New York “cop” rather lacks public good will. Administrative policy
-has not been well defined in the past. The courts do not always accept
-his evidence, much less back him up, and he has been made the scapegoat
-for various shortcomings in leadership.
-
-But to-day the New York policeman is working on an entirely new basis.
-Before long his public is certain to understand and like him as
-thoroughly as London does its “bobby.”
-
-The change began with Mayor Gaynor, who insisted that both policeman and
-citizen have plain legal rights—until the citizen has committed a crime
-the policeman may not arrest him. The policeman has plain rights—the law
-empowers him to use all necessary force in making arrests in grave
-cases. But force must not be used for minor offenses. Confusion existed
-on these points to such a degree that when the Mayor began insisting
-upon them, many people thought he was putting into effect some of his
-personal whims. But they are all in the statute books, and many of them
-were there before the Mayor was born, because they are constitutional.
-
-The present Police Commissioner, Rhinelander Waldo, is not only
-administering the department along the strict legal line pointed out by
-the Mayor, but is effecting improvements of organization and method that
-must favorably alter the whole future of the service.
-
-Commissioner Waldo is a soldier, with a record of service in the United
-States Army, and the Army’s fine standards to guide him.
-
-In some ways the administration of the New York Police Department is a
-soldier’s job. If the ten thousand members were mobilized, they would
-make quite an impressive little standing army, with eight or ten full
-regiments of patrolmen, a brigade of cavalry, a small transport corps, a
-little navy, and so forth. As in an army, too, the men are enlisted, and
-may only be discharged for serious offenses. It is a force scattered
-over three hundred square miles of territory. The leader must be
-skillful in laying down regulations, and handling men in the mass rather
-than by personal contact. He must define duty plainly, hold everybody to
-it, eliminate departmental politics and abuses. Every man, wherever he
-is stationed, must feel that the general knows his business, that he
-lays down regulations for good reasons, and that day by day he is taking
-the organization somewhere.
-
-For years, every Police Commissioner has asked for more men to keep pace
-with the growing city. When Waldo took charge he asked, too. While he
-was waiting, however, he overhauled the organization and got one
-thousand additional patrolmen by cutting off men detailed for clerical
-and other special duty. Every large working force tends to create
-superfluous routine work. The useless routine was eliminated by better
-accounting methods, and the men sent back to do the street duty for
-which they originally enlisted.
-
-Then Waldo’s system of “fixed posts” was introduced. Complaints that
-policemen were hard to find at night had become common. So the platoon
-on duty from 11 p. m. to 7 a. m. was distributed by a plan under which
-the men work in pairs, one patrolling a given beat and the other
-standing on a street intersection. Each hour they change places, or
-oftener in severe weather. The fixed posts are about a thousand feet
-apart all over Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. The system has been
-indiscriminately criticised, but produces its results. Fire losses were
-cut down the first six months, night crime has decreased, and many
-notable arrests are due to the fact that policemen stand all over town
-like checkers through the night. The exposure is no greater than that
-endured by traffic men. The men have better opportunities to advance
-themselves by making meritorious arrests, and the Commissioner knows
-that, as citizens see the police on duty, night after night, and crime
-decreases, there will be a growing good will for the department.
-
-The Detective Bureau has not only been reorganized so that plain-clothes
-men are distributed over the whole city, but a new spirit has been
-introduced. Formerly, when the patrolman rose to detective rank, he felt
-that he had “arrived.” No longer wearing the uniform or keeping
-scheduled hours, he was in danger of going to sleep. To-day, however,
-the detective has, not a job, but an opportunity. He must maintain his
-rank by results, or be reduced. To help him do this, he is taught
-methods in the school for detectives. But he knows that hundreds of
-ambitious men in brass buttons are working to attain that rank.
-
-In an organization of ten thousand men, it would be strange if there
-were not some intriguing and politics. New York policemen are
-exceptionally shrewd, and occasionally they will try to “put one over”
-on the Commissioner, going around his authority. But Commissioner Waldo
-has proved singularly resourceful. He meets such an emergency with the
-quickness, certainty and impartiality of a natural force like gravity,
-and the department has found it out.
-
-He has laid out a clear path for advancement all through the department.
-The newest uniformed patrolman understands that, for meritorious work,
-he will have a chance of promotion. If he makes a commendable arrest, he
-is sent to the Detective Bureau, given instruction, and tried at
-detective work. If he makes good, he stays. If unfitted for
-plain-clothes duty, he has still had his chance. What is just as
-important, the Detective Bureau has had a chance to see him.
-
-Under Commissioner Waldo and Deputy Commissioner Dougherty, the
-so-called “Black Hand” crimes among Italians have been checked, and will
-be stopped. Many of these cases were traced to sensational reporting of
-ordinary quarrels and assaults, and others to business rivalries. In the
-serious cases, arrests have been made and convictions secured.
-
-Another well-known form of law-breaking in New York is gambling. This is
-particularly difficult to check because of ingenuity in concealing
-evidence, developed by long experience on the part of the law-breakers,
-and also the strong political alliances of gambling-house keepers. But
-after several experiments in dealing with it, the Commissioner now feels
-confident that he has a method which will result in the suppression of
-gambling, and that, as he says, “When you put a crimp into things of
-that sort they don’t generally come back.”
-
-In other directions red tape has been abolished and economies brought
-about; the way has been opened for individual merit in all ranks; steps
-have been taken to develop and teach better methods; the work of the
-department has been brought closer to the public. There is a new spirit
-in the New York Police Department to-day—a spirit certain to develop the
-public good will and appreciation that is so necessary to the best order
-of public service.
-
- * * * * *
-
- SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE POLICE
- DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
-
-The Police Department of the City of New York is made up as follows:
-
- Commissioner and four Deputy Commissioners
-
- 19 Inspectors
-
- 25 Surgeons
-
- 95 Captains
-
- 624 Lieutenants
-
- 586 Sergeants
-
- 8,585 Patrolmen
-
- 191 Doormen
-
- 69 Matrons
-
- 1 Superintendent of Telegraph
-
- 2 Assistant Superintendents of Telegraph
-
- 1 Chief Lineman
-
- 5 Linemen
-
- 2 Boiler Inspectors
-
- ------
-
- 10,207 Total uniform force
-
-Of this number, 500 are detectives in civilian dress.
-
-In addition, there are over 247 civilians employed in clerical capacity.
-
-There are 6 automobiles and 161 other vehicles, including patrol wagons,
-used by the Department. Also 679 horses for mounted patrolmen.
-
-The Harbor Squad numbers: 1 Captain, 7 Lieutenants, 9 Sergeants, 36
-Patrolmen, 2 Doormen, besides civilians employed as engineers, firemen,
-oilers, deck-hands, etc.
-
-It is provided with one vessel of 235 tons, five launches, two dories,
-and six boats.
-
-These boats patrol about 340 miles of water front.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's The Great Taxicab Robbery, by James H. Collins
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Taxicab Robbery, by James H. Collins
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Great Taxicab Robbery
- A True Detective Story
-
-Author: James H. Collins
-
-Release Date: September 25, 2016 [EBook #53145]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT TAXICAB ROBBERY ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by ellinora and The Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
- <div class='nf-center'>
- <div>Transcriber’s Note</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
- <ul class='ul_1'>
- <li>Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected.
- </li>
- <li class='c000'>Spelling variations have been kept as in the original.
- </li>
- <li class='c000'>The cover has been created by the transcriber from elements in the book and
- has been placed in the public domain.
- </li>
- </ul>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-<div class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='cover' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div><span class='xlarge'>THE GREAT</span></div>
- <div><span class='xlarge'>TAXICAB ROBBERY</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='rw' class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/image004.jpg' alt='RHINELANDER WALDO, Commissioner of Police, New York City' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>RHINELANDER WALDO<br />Commissioner of Police, New York City</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
- <h1 class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>THE GREAT <br /> TAXICAB ROBBERY</span></h1>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c001'>
- <div><span class='large'><i>A True Detective Story</i></span></div>
- <div class='c001'>BY</div>
- <div><span class='large'>JAMES H. COLLINS</span></div>
- <div class='c001'>WRITTEN FROM RECORDS AND PERSONAL ACCOUNTS</div>
- <div>OF THE CASE FURNISHED BY THE NEW</div>
- <div>YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c004'>
- <div><span class='small'>NEW YORK</span></div>
- <div>JOHN LANE COMPANY</div>
- <div><span class='small'>MCMXII</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div><span class='small'><span class='sc'>Copyright, 1912, by</span></span></div>
- <div><span class='small'>JOHN LANE COMPANY</span></div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
- <div>This book has something to say about practical</div>
- <div>results of wiser police administration in New</div>
- <div>York. It is respectfully dedicated to</div>
- <div class='c001'><span class='large'>HON. WILLIAM J. GAYNOR</span></div>
- <div class='c001'><span class='xsmall'>MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY</span></div>
- <div class='c001'>the official who took the initiative in improving</div>
- <div>conditions</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>
- <h2 class='c005'>PREFACE</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c006'>There are several reasons for this
-little book, but the best of all is the
-main reason—that it is a cracking
-good story, and right out of life. The
-characters will be found interesting, and
-they are real people, every one of them.
-The incidents are full of action and color.
-The plot has mystery, surprise, interplay
-of mind and motive—had a novelist invented
-it, the reader might declare it
-improbable. This is the kind of story
-that is fundamental—the kind Mr. Chesterton
-says is so necessary to plain people
-that, when writers do not happen to
-write it, plain people invent it for themselves
-in the form of folk-lore.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But apart from the story interest there
-are other reasons.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>When the New York police department
-had run down all the threads of
-the plot, and accounted for most of the
-characters by locking them up, they had
-become so absorbed in the story themselves,
-as a story, that they thought the
-public would enjoy following it from the
-inside.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>While the crime was being dealt with,
-the police were subjected to pretty severe
-criticism. They felt that the facts would
-make it clear that they knew their trade
-and had been working at it diligently.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The story gives an insight into real
-police methods. These are very different
-from the methods of the fiction detective,
-and also from the average citizen’s idea
-of police work. They ought to be better
-known. When the public understands
-that there is nothing secret, tyrannical or
-dangerous in good police practice, and
-that our laws safeguard even the guilty
-against abuses, there will be helpful public
-opinion behind officers of the law, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>we shall have a higher degree of order
-and security.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The directing mind in this case was
-that of Commissioner George Dougherty,
-executive head of the detectives of
-the New York Police Department. Thousands
-of clean, ambitious young fellows
-are constantly putting on the policeman’s
-uniform all over the country, and rising
-to places as detectives and officials. The
-manufacturer or merchant may find himself
-in the police commissioner’s chair.
-Even the suburbanite, with his bundles,
-may be, out at Lonesomehurst, a member
-of the village council, and thus responsible
-for the supervision of a police
-force that, though it be only two patrolmen
-and a chief, is important in its place.
-So in writing the story there has been an
-effort to show how a first-rate man like
-Commissioner Dougherty works. His
-methods are plain business methods.
-Most of his life he has earned his living
-following the policeman’s trade as a commercial
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>business. What he did in a case
-of this kind, and how, and why, are matters
-of general interest and importance.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Finally, the story throws some useful
-light on criminals. It shows the cunning
-of the underworld, and also its limitations.
-To free the law-abiding mind of
-romantic notions about the criminal, and
-show him as he is, is highly important
-in the prevention of crime.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>
- <h2 class='c005'>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class='table0' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='86%' />
-<col width='13%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr>
- <th class='c008'></th>
- <th class='c009'>FACING PAGE</th>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#rw'>Rhinelander Waldo</a>, Commissioner of Police, New York City</td>
- <td class='c010'>&nbsp;</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c011'><i>Frontispiece</i></td>
- <td class='c010'>&nbsp;</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#gsd'>George S. Dougherty</a>, Second Deputy Police Commissioner</td>
- <td class='c010'>20</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#eph'>Edward P. Hughes</a>, Inspector in Command of Detective Bureau, and <a href='#dgr'>Dominick G. Riley</a>, Lieutenant and Aide to Commissioner Dougherty</td>
- <td class='c010'>40</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#gm'>Geno Montani</a>, <a href='#ek'>Eddie Kinsman</a>, <a href='#gs'>Gene Splaine</a>, <a href='#stl'>“Scotty the Lamb”</a> and <a href='#jm'>John Molloy</a></td>
- <td class='c010'>60</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#jp'>James Pasquale</a>, <a href='#bd'>Bob Delio</a>, <a href='#ja'>Jess Albrazzo</a>, and <a href='#ma'>Matteo Arbrano</a></td>
- <td class='c010'>80</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#scotty'>“Scotty” Receives Final Instructions</a></td>
- <td class='c010'>110</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c008'><a href='#brigands'>“The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up Men for Theirs</a></td>
- <td class='c010'>126</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>
- <h2 class='c005'>THE CAST</h2>
-</div>
-
- <ul class='ul_1 c004'>
- <li><span class='sc'>Geno Montani</span>, a taxicab proprietor.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Wilbur Smith</span>, an elderly bank teller.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Frank Wardle</span>, a seventeen-year-old bank office boy.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Eddie Kinsman</span>, alias “Collins,” alias “Eddie the Boob,” a
- hold-up man.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Billy Keller</span>, alias “Dutch,” a hold-up man.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Gene Splaine</span>, a hold-up man.
- </li>
- <li>“<span class='sc'>Scotty the Lamb</span>,” a thieves’ helper, or “stall.”
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Joe Philadelphia</span>, alias “The Kid,” a runner for thieves, or
- “lobbygow.”
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>James Pasquale</span>, alias “Jimmy the Push,” keeper of shady
- resorts known as “208” and “233.”
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Bob Deilio</span>, partner of “Jimmy the Push.”
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Jess Albrazzo</span>, a middleman, formerly keeper of the Arch Café,
- pal of Montani, “Jimmy the Push” and Bob Deilio.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Matteo Arbrano</span>, <span class="spacing2">}</span>
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Pauli Gonzales</span>, <span class="spacing3">}</span> The “Three
- Brigands.”
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Charles Cavagnaro</span>, <span class="spacing1">}</span>
- </li>
- <li>“<span class='sc'>King Dodo</span>,” a Bowery character.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Rhinelander Waldo</span>, Police Commissioner of New York.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>George S. Dougherty</span>, Second Deputy Police Commissioner,
- executive head of detectives.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Inspector Edward P. Hughes</span>, in command of Detective Bureau.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Police Lieutenant Dominick G. Riley</span>, Aide of Commissioner
- Dougherty’s staff.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Detective Sergt John J. O’Connell</span>, Official Stenographer.
- </li>
- <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span><span class='sc'>The Detectives</span> on “Plants,” “Trailing,” “Surrounding,”
- “Arresting,” etc.:
- </li>
- </ul>
-<p class='c012'>John P. Barron, Edward Boyle, Frank Campbell,
-James Dalton, James J. Finan, John W. Finn, Joseph A.
-Daly, Daniel W. Clare, John Gaynor, Anthony Grieco,
-John P. Griffith, Daniel F. Hallihan, Edward Lennon,
-Henry Mugge, Richard Oliver, Gustavus J. Riley, James
-F. Shevlin, Joseph Toner, George Trojan, James A.
-Watson.</p>
- <ul class='ul_1 c001'>
- <li>“<span class='sc'>Swede Annie</span>,” Kinsman’s sweetheart.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Myrtle Horn</span>, a pal of Annie.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Rose Levy</span>, a newcomer in Thompson street, Jess Albrazzo’s
- girl.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Mrs. Isabella Goodwin</span>, a police matron.
- </li>
- <li><span class='sc'>Mrs. Sullivan</span>, keeper of a West Side rooming house.
- </li>
- <li>“<span class='sc'>Josie</span>,” a lady of the Levee district, Chicago.
- </li>
- </ul>
-
-<p class='c013'>Detectives, policemen, informants, witnesses, denizens of the
-underworld, newspaper reporters, trainmen, ticket sellers,
-etc., etc.</p>
-<hr class='c014' />
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Place</span>—Chiefly in New York, with Scenes in Chicago,
-Albany, Memphis, Boston and Montreal.</p>
-
-<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Time</span>—February and March, 1912.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>
- <h2 class='c005'><span class='xlarge'>The <br /> Great Taxicab Robbery</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div>
- <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER I <br /> <span class='small'>WHAT THE PUBLIC HEARD ABOUT THE CRIME</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa_2__6 c016'>On Thursday, February 15, 1912,
-the New York evening papers had
-a startling news story.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Between ten and eleven o’clock that
-morning two messengers were sent in a
-taxicab from the East River National
-Bank, at Broadway and Third street,
-to draw $25,000 in currency from the
-Produce Exchange National Bank, at
-Broadway and Beaver street, in the
-downtown financial district, and bring it
-uptown. This transfer of money had
-been made several times a week for so
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>long a period without danger or loss that
-the messengers were unarmed. One of
-them, Wilbur F. Smith, was an old man
-who had been in the service of the bank
-thirty-five years, and the other was a mere
-boy, named Wardle, seventeen years old.
-The taxicab man, an Italian named Geno
-Montani, seemed almost a trusted employee,
-too, for he operated two cabs
-from a stand near the bank, and was frequently
-called upon for such trips.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>While the cab was returning uptown
-through Church street with the money,
-five men suddenly closed in upon it. According
-to the chauffeur’s story, a sixth
-man forced him to slacken speed by
-stumbling in front of the vehicle. Immediately
-two men on each side of the
-cab opened the doors. Two assailants
-were boosted in and quickly beat the
-messengers into insensibility, while their
-two helpers ran along on the sidewalk.
-The fifth man climbed onto the seat beside
-the chauffeur, held a revolver to his
-ribs, and ordered him to drive fast on
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>peril of his life. This fellow seemed to
-be familiar with automobiles, and
-threatened the driver when he tried to
-slacken speed. That is a busy part of
-the city. Yet nobody on the sidewalks
-seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary.
-The cab dodged vehicles, going
-at high speed for several blocks. At
-Park Place and Church street, after a
-trip of eleven blocks, at a busy corner,
-the chauffeur was ordered to stop the
-cab, and the three robbers got down,
-carrying the $25,000 in a leather bag,
-ran quickly to a black automobile without
-a license number which was waiting
-for them, and in a few moments were
-gone.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That was the substance of the story.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Information came chiefly from the
-chauffeur, because the two bank employees
-had been attacked so suddenly
-and viciously that they lost consciousness
-in a moment. When the chauffeur
-looked inside his cab after the crime, he
-said, he saw them both lying senseless
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>and bleeding. They could give no description
-of the assailants. Eye-witnesses
-were found who had seen men loitering
-in the neighborhood where the cab was
-boarded shortly before the crime, but
-their descriptions were not very useful.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That night the New York evening papers
-published accounts of the crime under
-great black headlines, and on the following
-morning every news item of a
-criminal nature was grouped in the same
-part of the papers to prove that the city
-had entered one of its sensational “waves
-of crime.” And for more than a week the
-public read criticism and denunciation of
-the police force.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It was charged that the police had
-become “demoralized,” and various
-changes of administrative policy introduced
-into the department within the past
-eight months were blindly denounced.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The most important of these changes
-was that devised by Mayor Gaynor.
-Eight or ten years ago, every uniformed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>policeman in New York carried a club,
-and often used it freely in defending
-himself while making arrests. Abuses
-led to the abolition of this means of defense
-except for officers patrolling the
-streets at night. There were still undoubted
-abuses, however, and when
-Mayor Gaynor came into office, bringing
-well-thought-out opinions of police
-administration from his experience as a
-magistrate on the bench, he took a determined
-stand for more humane methods
-of making arrests, and strict holding
-of every policeman to the letter of the
-laws. Every case of clubbing was prosecuted,
-the plain legal rights of citizens
-or criminals upheld, and the Police Department
-began teaching its men new
-ways of defending themselves by skillful
-holds in wrestling whereby prisoners
-may be handled effectually and without
-doing them harm. Sentiment against the
-use of the club began to grow in the Police
-Department itself, it being recognized
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>that clubbing was an unskillful
-means of defense, and that special athletic
-devices were more workmanlike.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Now, however, the newspapers published
-every chance opinion of discharged,
-retired and anonymous police
-officers who objected to the new regulations.
-It was alleged that criminals had
-got out of bounds because policemen no
-longer dared club them into good behavior,
-and the editors, without paying
-much attention to the many good points
-of the new regulations, or trying to understand
-the merits of a settled policy
-applied to an organization of more than
-ten thousand men, set up a cry for the
-presumably “good old days” of Inspector
-So-and-So and Chief This-and-That,
-when every known criminal was promptly
-struck over the head on sight and
-thereby taught to know his place. If the
-files of New York journals for those days
-following the robbery are examined they
-will reveal a curious exhibition of pleading
-for official lawlessness and autocracy.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='gsd' class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/image023.jpg' alt='GEORGE S. DOUGHERTY Second Deputy Police Commissioner' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>GEORGE S. DOUGHERTY<br />Second Deputy Police Commissioner</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Another point of criticism centered on
-a new method adopted in the distribution
-of the detective force. This comprises
-more than five hundred men. For years
-they were all required to report at Police
-Headquarters every day, coming
-from distant precincts, and had an opportunity
-to see whatever professional
-criminals were under arrest. Then they
-went back to different precincts to work.
-This took too much time, it was found,
-and the old-fashioned “line-up” of criminals
-was chiefly a spectacle, the same offenders
-dropping into the hands of the
-police with more or less regularity. So
-detectives were re-distributed on a plan
-that attaches a proper number of plain-clothes
-policemen to each precinct, according
-to its needs, and in those precincts
-the men live and become acquainted
-with local criminals. Many of them
-work in sections where they were born,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>and detectives speaking foreign languages
-are assigned to foreign quarters.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The newspapers charged that red-tape
-had brought the Police Department to
-such a low state that young detectives
-had no idea what a real criminal looked
-like, and urged the restoration of the old
-system, with its picturesque “line-up.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In the days of Inspector Byrnes, when
-practically all the banking of the city
-was done around Wall Street, the police
-established a “dead line” beyond which
-criminals were supposed not to operate.
-In its day, the “dead line” was real
-enough, undoubtedly. But it was not
-necessarily an ideal police measure, and
-the growth of the city has long made it a
-mere memory, living only in newspaper
-tradition. To-day, banking extends as
-far north as Central Park, and millions
-upon millions of dollars are being carried
-about daily by people of every sort.
-Despite the fact that the last loss of
-money from a New York bank through
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>professional criminals (apart from fraud
-and forgery) dated back some fifteen or
-eighteen years, the newspapers seemed to
-agree that life and property were no
-longer safe in the city because this purely
-mythical “dead line” had been disregarded
-by the robbers.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There was other comment of the same
-character, and it had an immediate and
-grievous effect.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On the day after the robbery a chance
-remark about a safe in an East Side bank,
-coupled with the general excitement, led
-to a run of its depositors, chiefly people
-of foreign birth. The bank was solvent,
-and the run was undoubtedly stimulated
-by gossip started by criminals for their
-own ends. But the frightened depositors
-insisted on drawing out their money, and
-exposing themselves to danger of robbery
-and assault. The situation was met
-by careful police co-operation.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>About six months before the taxicab
-robbery, the New York legislature put
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>into force a measure known as the “Sullivan
-law,” providing penalties for the
-carrying of pistols and concealed weapons.
-This is unquestionably a wise measure
-fundamentally, and one that was
-badly needed for police administration
-and public safety. It is perhaps open to
-certain modifications, to be made as actual
-conditions are encountered in practical
-working of the law. Newspaper opinion
-drew a connection between this law and
-the “wave of crime,” and its repeal was
-urged, so that every citizen might arm
-himself as he pleased. Hundreds of persons
-who had felt safe in going about
-their business unarmed now applied for
-permits to carry pistols.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Fortunately, a sensation does not last
-long in New York.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Though the Police Department felt
-this criticism keenly, and was hampered
-by it, pressure began to slacken in about
-a week. Other sensations came along.
-There was nothing to publish about the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>taxicab case, as police information was
-withheld for good official reasons. Presently
-the town ventured to joke about the
-case. At an elaborate public dinner one
-night, among other topical effects, a
-dummy taxicab suddenly scooted out before
-the guests, held up a dummy police
-commissioner, took his watch, and scooted
-away again. The diners laughed, and
-that was fairly representative of the town,
-which was now ready to have its joke
-about the crime, too. Had there never
-been any further action by the police, the
-case would have quietly dropped out of
-sight. But fortunately there was police
-action, and with that we shall now deal.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>
- <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER II <br /> <span class='small'>HOW THE CRIME WAS HANDLED BY THE POLICE—ON THE TRAIL</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa_2__6 c016'>Now, let us follow the police story.
-We will begin at the very beginning,
-watch the incidents and
-character unfold, and give quite a little
-attention to the technical methods by
-which results were arrived at. For the
-story is a study in clean, straightforward
-detective work, and that work ought to
-be better known by the public, so that intelligent
-public opinion may back up
-honest police effort.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The story starts with a burly, genial
-man, sitting in a big office at Police
-Headquarters. The office is that of the
-Second Deputy Police Commissioner,
-and the man is the Commissioner himself,
-George S. Dougherty.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Commissioner Dougherty dominates
-the story. The taxicab robbers were
-caught by his methods, plans and supervision,
-backed by the splendid team work
-of the men under him. His own sources
-of information supplied the clues, and
-his personal skill in examining criminals
-brought out the confessions that saved the
-city the expense of trials with all but one
-offender. It is far from the writer’s wish
-to indulge in hero-worship, however, so
-these details will appear in their proper
-place in the narrative.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>George Dougherty has had nearly
-twenty-five years’ experience in criminal
-work in New York, and over the whole
-country. Until his appointment by
-Mayor Gaynor in May, 1911, he was connected
-with the Pinkerton organization.
-Bank and financial crimes have long been
-his specialty, so the taxicab case fell right
-into his own province. He knows the
-ways of forgers, bank sneaks, swindlers,
-burglars and “yeggmen,” and is personally
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>acquainted with most of the criminals
-in those lines in and out of prison.
-He has also had much to do with protecting
-the crowds at races, ball games, aeronautic
-meetings and other big gatherings.
-As executive head of the detective bureau,
-five hundred plain-clothes policemen
-scattered over Greater New York cover
-all crimes of a local and routine nature,
-and are subject to his call when a special
-case like the taxicab robbery comes up
-for his personal attention.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On an ordinarily quiet morning at Police
-Headquarters, there will be a steady
-stream of people passing into Dougherty’s
-office. Several assistants guard the
-doors leading from two ante-rooms, and
-marshal the visitors. Now a group of detectives
-enters and hears a talk on methods.
-Then two detectives come in, make
-a report and receive further instructions.
-Then there will be an interruption, perhaps,
-while an assistant soothes and sends
-away a crank who occasionally turns up
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>with a purely imaginary affair of his own,
-and two more detectives pass in accompanied
-by a man and a woman who look
-just like the people one sees dining at a
-fashionable uptown restaurant. The woman’s
-furs are magnificent, and her hat
-a costly Fifth avenue creation.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“A couple of taxpayers?” speculates
-the group of reporters, waiting outside to
-get a statement about some important
-case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Two of the cleverest check swindlers
-in the country,” corrects a detective, and
-presently the reporters are called in, and
-Dougherty recites names, dates and facts
-connected with the gang to which these
-prosperous “taxpayers” belong, gazing
-reflectively out of the window as details
-come back in memory, and chuckling
-with the delighted journalists as the pithy
-slang and professional names of the underworld
-are jotted down on their pads.
-They fire a scattering volley of questions
-at him and depart, and then his secretary
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>announces that the saloon-keeper who
-knows a good deal about the Blind
-Puppy Café case is outside, but refuses
-to talk to the police at all.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Hullo!” is the Commissioner’s off-hand
-greeting as the cautious saloon-keeper
-comes in, and in two minutes the
-latter is answering questions freely.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Why, say!” he exclaims, “I’ll tell <em>you</em>
-anything.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then a humble little woman in a cheap
-hat and a long cloak is brought in. For
-more than an hour she has been waiting
-outside, with her eyes fixed patiently on
-the door leading to the inner office.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Stand there,” says the Commissioner,
-with gruff kindness, and he makes a formal
-statement about her husband, who
-has been arrested with a criminal gang,
-and is pretty certain to go to prison. He
-tells her what has been done in the case,
-and what will follow, and the little woman
-listens mutely. When he finishes,
-her eyes fill with tears. But she makes
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>no reply, nor any sound. The Commissioner
-winks fast as he looks out of the
-window again, and then says, sympathetically:</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“That’s the best that can be done. But
-don’t you worry. Come in and see me
-again. Keep in touch with me, and don’t
-worry yourself. Come in and talk with
-me—come in to-morrow.” And she
-bravely wipes her eyes and goes out with
-her trouble.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The procession continues.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Police captains and detectives in
-squads, prisoners and witnesses in twos
-and threes, newspaper men in corps and
-singly, and occasionally a cautious gentleman
-who wants to see the Commissioner
-alone, and is anxious that nobody
-say anything about this visit to Police
-Headquarters—for he is an informant.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>The First Alarm</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>The taxicab robbery took place on a
-quiet morning like this.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>Suddenly, around eleven o’clock on
-Thursday, February 15, a brief message
-comes from the second precinct, stating
-that a robbery has been committed in the
-financial district. A little later there is a
-fuller report over police wires. The details
-are few, as will be seen by the general
-alarm that presently goes out over
-the city:</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><i>Police Department, City of New York</i>,</p>
-<div class='c020'>February 15, 1912.</div>
-
-<p class='c021'>To all, all Boroughs—notify the patrol
-platoon immediately.</p>
-
-<p class='c021'>Arrest for assault and robbery three men:</p>
-
-<p class='c021'>No. 1, about 35 years, five feet eight or
-nine inches in height, 160 or 170 pounds,
-small stubby dark mustache, dark complexion,
-medium build, dark suit and cap,
-no overcoat.</p>
-
-<p class='c021'>No. 2, about 35 years, five feet ten inches
-in height, slender build, dark hair, possibly
-smooth shaven, light brown suit, no overcoat,
-wore a cap.</p>
-
-<p class='c021'>No description of No. 3.</p>
-
-<p class='c021'>Stole $25,000 in five and ten dollar bills,
-contained in a brown leather telescope bag,
-24 inches long, 16 inches square, from two
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>bank messengers in a taxicab about 11 this
-a. m., at Park Place and Church Street, and
-escaped in a five or seven-seated black touring
-car, top up. Look out for this car, bag
-and occupants on streets, at ferry entrances,
-bridge terminals, railroad stations. Inquire
-at all garages, automobile stands, stables,
-etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c021'>If found, notify Detective Bureau.</p>
-
-<p class='c018'>Before noon, the Commissioner has
-postponed appointments, assigned routine
-business, and is engaged in an investigation
-that will keep him busy until
-that morning, twelve days later, when the
-first arrests are made, and the case is, in
-police parlance, “broken.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Where do the police begin in such a
-crime? What do they start with when
-there is apparently so little to work upon?</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In spite of the wide popular interest
-in police and criminal matters, the average
-citizen has no very clear idea. Even
-the newspaper reporter, following police
-activities every day, is not well informed
-in technical details. Some information
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>is necessarily withheld from him, and he
-is a busy young man, with his own technical
-viewpoint, working hard to get his
-own kind of information.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>This lack of knowledge leads to a feeling
-of mystery, helplessness and terror
-after a sensational crime, and to criticism
-of the police. They are at work, skillfully,
-honestly, diligently. But results
-take time. It would do little good to
-make arrests without evidence. The citizen’s
-sympathies are aroused by brutal
-lawlessness, and he urges that somebody
-be caught and punished. If results are
-not at once apparent, he jumps to the conclusion
-that the police are “demoralized.”
-He would be startled if he could
-see how quickly and persistently the underworld
-takes steps to strengthen him in
-that conclusion, and use him to discredit
-the police.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Sixty detectives are immediately called
-into the case. Five of them go down to
-the scene of the robbery, with orders to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>work there until further notice. They
-make a thorough search of the neighborhood,
-following the route taken by Montani’s
-taxicab, and questioning merchants,
-newsdealers, porters, truckmen and other
-persons likely to have information as eye-witnesses.
-They go through the streets
-that may have been taken by the escaping
-robbers, and work over the whole ground.
-This search through one of the busiest
-sections of New York in a busy hour,
-amid the excitement created by the crime,
-may appear like hopeless business. But,
-as will be seen presently, it yields important
-results. Other detectives search garages
-for the black automobile without a
-license number in which the robbers are
-reported to have got away. Four uniformed
-policemen on beats along the
-route taken by the taxicab are questioned.
-Other detailed inquiries of the same nature
-are started.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But the most important work of the
-first day centers at Police Headquarters,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>where a conference is held by Commissioner
-Dougherty and his assistants, and
-in the examination of Montani, the taxicab
-driver.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Strip all the labels off a suit of clothes
-and lay it before a committee of tailors.
-In a few moments certain points would
-be agreed upon. It may be a new suit,
-or an old one, a fine piece of tailoring,
-or a cheap hand-me-down. The committee
-could often identify the cheap suit
-and tell the name of its manufacturer,
-while with a seventy-five-dollar suit it
-might be possible to determine the
-maker’s name. This holds true of many
-other lines of work, and it is particularly
-true of criminal investigation.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Who cut and made that suit of clothes?</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The conference sat down to determine
-this, judging the robbery strictly as a
-piece of workmanship. Names of known
-bank criminals were brought up, one by
-one, and details gone over. It soon became
-clear that none of the men identified
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>with bank crime were likely to have the
-brains, skill or organization to plan and
-execute so complicated a robbery.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The criminals had known the habits of
-the bank in conveying cash uptown. They
-knew the route, and were aware that the
-guard was only an elderly man and a seventeen-year-old
-boy, both unarmed. They
-had boarded the cab at the best point, and
-evidently made arrangements for stopping
-it. There was team work in every
-detail. It showed marked insight, for instance,
-to provide additional men to boost
-each assailant in at the doors. For young
-Wardle, the bank employee, had made a
-plucky attempt to shove his robber out
-and shut the door, and might have succeeded
-had there not been an outside man.
-Robberies are committed under exciting
-conditions. They sometimes fail because
-criminals balk. That outside man was
-there not only to help his “slugger” into
-the cab, but to <em>force</em> him in if he shrank,
-and make certain he did his work. Whoever
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>planned such details, it was agreed
-at the conference, possessed more cunning
-than the ordinary bank criminal.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Montani is Examined.</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>When Montani, the taxicab driver, arrived
-at Police Headquarters, he was
-willing to talk, and seemed anxious to
-help the police in every way. He knew
-suspicion might be directed toward himself,
-but did not resent that. He talked
-like a man confident of the truth of his
-story, and certain that he would be found
-blameless.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Montani is an Italian, from the northern
-part of Italy, about 30 years old, five
-feet six inches high, rather stout and
-thick-set, with very dark complexion.
-The striking feature of his countenance,
-his large, intelligent brown eyes. Commissioner
-Dougherty found himself
-thinking of Napoleon in connection with
-Montani.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>The first examination lasted all afternoon,
-Montani going out to lunch with
-the Commissioner. Hundreds of questions
-were asked bearing on the robbery,
-the appearance of the criminals, and
-Montani’s past and personal affairs. The
-story was gone over again and again, and
-different questioners relieved each other.
-Yet the taxicab man never lost his temper
-or patience, and did not contradict himself
-in any important particular.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Montani had been in this country since
-the age of twelve, it appeared, had a wife
-and two children, and was the owner of
-two taxicabs operated from a stand at a
-hotel near the bank, whose money he regularly
-carried. He had owned three
-cabs, but lost one through business reverses.
-In fact, he had passed through
-money troubles, and his story excited sympathy.
-Starting originally as a truckman
-for a salvage company, his ambition and
-intelligence had won him such confidence
-that this company lent him money to set
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>up trucking for himself. Still more ambitious,
-he had become a taxicab proprietor.
-Through the trickery of an ill-chosen
-partner, however, he has lost some
-of his savings. He seemed a little bitter
-about this, and it was a circumstance not
-likely to escape an expert police examiner,
-for the loss of money through fraud,
-coupled with temptation, is often the
-starting point in crime. The Italian’s
-former employers spoke highly of his
-character when questioned by detectives.
-He gave the names of chauffeurs who had
-worked for him lately, and of business
-people who knew him, and careful investigation
-failed to disclose any suspicious
-circumstances. Montani quite won the
-newspaper men—so much so that, when
-he was discharged in court a few days
-later for apparent lack of evidence, the
-newspapers criticised the police for having
-held him at all.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>And yet, before that first night, Montani
-himself, largely through simple answers
-to questions, had become so involved
-that there was ground for holding
-him under arrest.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='eph' class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/image045a.jpg' alt='EDWARD P. HUGHES Inspector in Command of Detective Bureau' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>EDWARD P. HUGHES<br />Inspector in Command of Detective Bureau</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='dgr' class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/image045b.jpg' alt='DOMINICK G. RILEY Lieutenant and Aide to Commissioner Dougherty' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>DOMINICK G. RILEY<br />Lieutenant and Aide to Commissioner Dougherty</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>In the questions and cross-questions,
-the checks and counter-checks of a skillful
-examiner, there are possibilities little
-suspected by those not familiar with that
-kind of work.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Montani had slowed down his cab at
-the point where the robbers boarded it.
-He said that an old man had suddenly
-got in front, and he had slackened speed
-to avoid running over him. But detectives
-along the route found eye-witnesses
-who had seen the robbers board the cab,
-and who could testify that there had been
-nobody in front of the vehicle.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Both of his cabs had stood in line near
-the bank that morning, the one driven by
-himself being second, and the other, in
-charge of an employee, was first. When
-the call came from the bank, Montani
-answered it himself out of his turn, sending
-the other cab uptown, as he explained,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>to have some tires vulcanized. But it was
-not a good explanation.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He said that as soon as the robbers left
-his cab he had raised a cry for help. But
-eye-witnesses were found who denied this.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Instead of running north after the robbers’
-automobile when he had taken a policeman
-aboard his cab, he ran south,
-away from it. This action, he maintained,
-was taken under orders from the
-policeman. But the latter denied that.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He was not able to explain how the
-robbers had known where to post their
-automobile so it would be waiting at the
-spot where they finished their work.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Interest centered in this mysterious
-black automobile without a license number.
-For, though Montani was an experienced
-chauffeur, and his replies to other
-questions showed that he had seen both
-the rear and the side of that car, he was
-unable to tell its make.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Meanwhile, it was learned that three
-men had hurriedly boarded an elevated
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>train near the scene of the robbery shortly
-after, not waiting for change from a quarter.
-The ticket-seller was unable to describe
-them, but connected them with the
-robbery when he heard about it.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Montani was held in the custody of the
-Commissioner that night, to be put
-through further examination in the morning.
-But long before morning the police
-were working on an entirely new development.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>The First Direct Clue</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>The law-abiding citizen goes around
-New York with little knowledge of the
-crowding underworld all about him. It
-is perhaps just as well that he knows
-nothing of the lives and morals of hundreds
-of people who elbow him on the
-streets, sit beside him in the cars, and
-scrutinize him with a strictly professional
-eye in many places.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Nor has he any clear conception of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>relations that a good police officer maintains
-with members of this underworld.
-It is a world just as complete as that of
-business or society, however, and much of
-the time of a detective or police official is
-spent keeping track of people in it, forming
-acquaintances and connections in various
-ways, and establishing the organization
-of informants that will help in the
-detection and prevention of crime. A
-good detective is like a good salesman—he
-keeps track of his “trade.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Shortly after midnight of the first day,
-Commissioner Dougherty received a message
-over the telephone that sent him uptown
-to meet an informant. At two
-o’clock in the morning of Friday, February
-16, he and this person had a talk at a
-fashionable uptown hotel. Indeed, most
-of the meetings with informants during
-this case were held at two well-known hotels,
-perhaps the last places in the city
-that anybody would connect with such
-conferences.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>Informants are not always right, nor
-always possessed of useful information.
-But this one had the first real clue.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On the afternoon of the robbery, it was
-learned, a fellow known as “Eddie Collins”
-had come to his rooming house, on
-the lower West Side, told a woman with
-whom he lived, known as “Swede Annie,”
-to pack up and be ready to leave the
-city in a hurry, and presently disappeared
-with her. He was also reported to have
-a large roll of money. With a rough estimate
-of the size of this roll, given by
-the informant, and a dummy roll of
-“stage money” made up for the purpose,
-the police were able to judge that Collins
-must have had between $3,000 and $5,000.
-That would have been his probable share
-in a division of the stolen currency among
-five men.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The house where Collins had lived was
-kept by a Mrs. Sullivan. Steps were at
-once taken to “surround” this woman, as
-the operation is known technically. For
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>before a possible source of information
-like Mrs. Sullivan is followed up, it is
-necessary to know something about it.
-The person in question may be criminal,
-or in league with the underworld. On
-the other hand, he or she may be quite
-innocent, and willing to aid the police.
-The “surround” is an interesting operation.
-It is often made without the knowledge
-of the person investigated. In many
-cases it takes time.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Mrs. Sullivan came through the ordeal
-handsomely.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>She proved to be a wholesome, hard-working
-landlady, keeping a house that
-sheltered occasional suspicious characters,
-but entirely honest herself. She was not
-only able to furnish information about
-her late lodgers, but willing.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Sure, it’s a good deal I know about
-that Collins, as he calls himself,” she said,
-“and mighty little that’s good.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It seems that about two weeks previously
-Collins had offered to pay the landlady
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>if she would appear in a Brooklyn
-court and testify to the good character of
-a criminal named Molloy, who was being
-held for trial on a charge of robbery.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“They’re paying fifteen to twenty dollars
-for ‘character’ witnesses,” said her
-lodger.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“And do you think I’d take the stand
-and perjure myself swearing for a man
-I never heard of?” asked the indignant
-landlady.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Oh, that’s nothing to some of the
-things we do,” was the reply.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Several days later, while she was putting
-some laundry into Collins’ bureau
-drawer the landlady caught sight of two
-new blackjacks. She asked Collins what
-he was doing with such weapons.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Aw, we use them in our business,” he
-said. Then, with the confidence often
-bred in criminals by success, he told her
-he knew a gang that was planning to rob
-a taxicab that carried money uptown to
-a bank every week. Mrs. Sullivan questioned
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>him as to details, and he assured
-her it would be an easy job.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“For we’ve got it all fixed with the
-chauffeur,” he said.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At that point, however, like many an
-honest person who might aid the police
-with information, Mrs. Sullivan let the
-matter drop out of her mind. It is a
-simple thing to mail a letter or telephone
-to Police Headquarters, giving such information,
-and the experience of the Detective
-Bureau is such that the information
-can be investigated without involving
-innocent persons. But perhaps Mrs.
-Sullivan concluded that, in a big city like
-New York, it is well for people to keep
-their mouths shut. Or maybe she decided
-that Collins was merely boasting.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On Friday, less than twenty-four hours
-after the robbery, a “network investigation”
-was begun.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Sixty detectives searched that part of
-the city where Collins and Annie had
-lived, seeking further information. Photograph
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>galleries and other places were
-investigated on the chance of finding pictures.
-Denizens of the underworld were
-talked with casually. Professional criminals,
-prostitutes, dive-keepers, receivers
-of stolen goods and other shady characters
-were brought before Commissioner
-Dougherty in couples and half-dozens for
-quick cross-examination. By Saturday
-evening the police had some highly important
-information.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It was learned that Annie had been seen
-going away on the afternoon of the robbery
-in a taxicab, accompanied by two
-men, one of whom was Collins, and the
-other unknown. Good descriptions were
-secured of Annie and her sweetheart, especially
-of her hat, which was a cheap
-affair, but conspicuous by reason of a row
-of little red roses. It was also discovered
-that Collins had been a boxer, that he
-hailed from Boston, and that his real
-name was Eddie Kinsman. Finally, the
-police secured two photographs, one an
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>indifferent picture of Kinsman, and the
-other an excellent portrait of Annie.
-These were quickly put through the department’s
-photograph gallery, where
-there are facilities for making duplicates
-in a hurry, and more than a hundred
-copies were soon ready for work
-which will be described in its proper
-place.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The trail now seemed to lead to Boston.
-At all events, further information
-was to be secured there. And here came
-in a little refinement imparted by Commissioner
-Dougherty’s experience with
-the Pinkerton forces. For where this private
-detective organization works unhampered
-over the whole country, the official
-police forces in most cities confine their
-searches to their own territory. When it
-is believed that criminals have left town,
-as in this case, a general description is
-telegraphed to other cities. Dougherty’s
-method, however, is always to send a man
-from his own staff, with detailed instructions.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>There are no local boundaries for
-him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Late on Saturday night Inspector
-Hughes, of the Detective Bureau, slipped
-out of headquarters with Detective
-O’Connell, and took a train for Boston.
-Their departure was kept strictly secret.
-They bid good night to associates, saying
-that they expected to be up and at work
-again early next morning, and until their
-return on Monday everybody who asked
-for the Inspector was told that “he is
-usually around the building somewhere.”</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Montani Points Out “King Dodo”</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>All through Friday and Saturday,
-while the network investigation was going
-on, Commissioner Dougherty continued
-his examination of Montani.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Some important information against
-him now came from outside.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It developed that Montani had been
-involved several months before in an insurance
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>case, claiming indemnity for a
-burned automobile under a policy. He
-had presented, as part of its value, a bill
-for repairs amounting to $1,348. The insurance
-company, however, had found
-that this bill was fraudulent, that the repairs
-had never been made, and had obtained
-a statement to that effect from the
-Italian chauffeur. Out of pity for his
-wife and two children the case was not
-pressed against him. Now that he was
-involved in another crime, however, the
-insurance people came forward and laid
-the facts before the police.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Of course, Montani knew nothing
-about this new development.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>For two days the chauffeur was questioned
-at intervals, and the inquiry centered
-chiefly on the knotty points in his
-story of the crime. He was particularly
-pressed for better explanations of the
-slackening of his cab when the robbers
-boarded it, but stuck to his original statement
-about a man getting in front of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>vehicle. He described this person as an
-old man, and said he must have been in
-league with the criminals. As the police
-had good evidence that there had been
-nobody in front of the taxicab, however,
-this point was returned to again and
-again, and toward night on Saturday,
-February 17, the little chauffeur began
-to feel the strain.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On his way to supper that evening with
-men from the Detective Bureau, Montani
-was taken through the Bowery. Suddenly
-he stopped, dramatically, and exclaimed:</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“There! That is the old man who got
-in front of my cab!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>His finger indicated a Bowery character
-as typical as anything ever seen in
-melodrama—a ragged little old figure
-with an amazing set of whiskers, engaged
-in picking up cigar butts along the gutters.
-He was immediately taken to headquarters.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>No detail of his work interests Commissioner
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>Dougherty more keenly than
-his study of the many picturesque characters
-who turn up as an important case
-unfolds. He has a ready appreciation of
-everybody who appears, from the society
-lady who lost her jewels to the typical
-Bowery loafer. He is as ready to look
-at facts from a criminal’s point of view as
-that of an honest man. He has often gone
-half across the country to get acquainted
-with a good burglar, and in this warm
-human interest lies the basis of his skill
-as an examiner of suspects. These details
-are set down, not in glorification of
-Dougherty, but for the guidance of every
-police officer interested in his methods.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The moment Dougherty laid eyes on
-this new character, with his magnificent
-whiskers, he gave him a nickname.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“King Dodo!” said the Commissioner,
-and that by that name he was known in so
-far as he figured in the case at all. “King
-Dodo” proved to be entirely innocent,
-and nothing more than the victim of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>a chance move of Montani’s, who evidently
-thought that he ought to produce
-something tangible to back up his assertion
-that the cab had been intercepted by
-an old man. “King Dodo” established a
-perfect alibi, proving that he had been
-elsewhere at the time of the robbery, and
-after being questioned and the truth of his
-story established, he was released, there
-being no reason for holding him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“I feel safe,” said the Commissioner
-solemnly, “in paroling you on your
-own responsibility, to appear again if
-wanted.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That may have been a heavier responsibility
-than had been put on his shoulders
-in years. But he rose to it. Two
-days later a decently dressed, clean
-shaven, elderly gentleman came in and
-asked for the Commissioner. He was “all
-dolled up,” in police parlance, and looked
-like a retired small shopkeeper. The
-staff did not recognize him for a moment.
-But it was “King Dodo,” doing his best
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>to fill the part of a minor figure in the
-great taxicab mystery. There being nothing
-for him to do, he dropped back into
-private life.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On his Sunday visit to Boston Inspector
-Hughes talked with Chief Inspector
-Watts of that city, learned where Kinsman
-lived, and that his family was a respectable
-one; found a bright patrolman
-named Dorsey who knew Kinsman, and
-gave more information about his personal
-appearance, habits and career as a
-boxer, desertion from the Navy, and so
-forth, and made arrangements to have
-the Kinsman home watched so that news
-of his return would be secured immediately.
-It was clear that Kinsman had
-not returned to Boston.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Discovery of Kinsman’s Trail</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>As soon as Inspector Hughes returned
-from Boston, on Monday morning, the
-Commissioner took steps to question the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>crews of every train that had left New
-York since one p. m. on the day of the
-robbery.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Just the other afternoon the writer sat
-with a squad of young detectives at Police
-Headquarters and heard a talk on
-methods given by Dougherty, and one
-point clearly brought out was the usefulness
-to the thief-catcher of routine information.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He began by relating an amusing incident.
-Some days before a detective had
-turned up at headquarters for instruction,
-and naïvely asked the Commissioner to
-lend him a pencil and a slip of paper, so
-he could make some notes. Another detective
-was found who had only a hazy
-idea of the location of New York’s telephone
-exchanges. Taking these as his
-text, the Commissioner explained the
-value to every police officer of what might
-be called “time-table” information—knowing
-the depots and ferries, what
-roads run out of them, the cities reached,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>the number and character of trains, the
-general methods of dispatching trains,
-and so forth. The Commissioner himself
-is as well informed on such matters as
-any railroad man, and thoroughly familiar
-with routine methods in many
-other lines of work and business. How
-such knowledge can be employed was
-shown by the next move in the taxicab
-case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Detectives were sent to every railroad
-terminal to secure lists of trains, learn the
-names of the crews, and make out schedules
-of the time when each crew would
-be back in the city. Then each man was
-found and carefully questioned. His
-memory could be helped by pictures of
-Kinsman and Annie, and by intimate details
-of personal appearance and manner.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The search bore fruit, though it took
-time.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On Wednesday Detective Watson, who
-was a railroad engineer before he joined
-the police, found that Train No. 13 on
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>the New York Central had taken on three
-passengers answering the descriptions on
-the afternoon of the robbery. They had
-boarded the train at Peekskill, the town
-to which, as it was subsequently learned,
-they had ridden in a taxicab. The conductor’s
-attention had been drawn to Annie
-by her smoking a cigarette on the sly
-in the toilet of the day coach. He remembered
-her high cheek bones, and the
-black velvet hat with its little roses, and
-the athletic build of her men companions,
-who both appeared to be boxers. It was
-also established that the trio had gone to
-Albany, for one of the trainmen distinctly
-remembered helping Annie down at that
-station.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>“Plant 21” Is Established</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>Monday, February 19, was an important
-day in more ways than one.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>While the train investigation was going
-on, it was learned that a woman
-known as “Myrtle Horn,” an intimate of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>Annie’s, had moved to a lower West Side
-rooming house, taking Annie’s trunk with
-her, as though Annie expected to return
-to the city. After a preliminary survey,
-this house was visited by Commissioner
-Dougherty in person. He explained that
-he was a contractor, about to build a section
-of the new subway, and that he was
-looking for a quiet room at a reasonable
-price where he might have some of the
-comforts of home. After a little talk with
-the landlady it became clear that she was
-honest and trustworthy, with no information
-of the new lodger who had taken her
-front room in the basement. Arrangements
-were quickly made to put this
-house, inside and outside, under constant
-surveillance.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='gs' class='figleft id005'>
-<img src='images/image067a.jpg' alt='GENE SPLAINE' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>GENE SPLAINE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='ek' class='figright id005'>
-<img src='images/image067b.jpg' alt='EDDIE KINSMAN' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>EDDIE KINSMAN</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='gm' class='figcenter id006'>
-<img src='images/image067c.jpg' alt='GENO MONTANI' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>GENO MONTANI</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='stl' class='figleft id005'>
-<img src='images/image067d.jpg' alt='SCOTTY THE LAMB' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“SCOTTY THE LAMB”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='jm' class='figright id005'>
-<img src='images/image067e.jpg' alt='JOHN MOLLOY' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JOHN MOLLOY</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>Along in the evening Mrs. Isabella
-Goodwin, a police matron, was installed
-there. The Commissioner brought her,
-and carried her bundle. The landlady
-and the matron had never seen each other
-in their lives, but kissed ostentatiously,
-and made considerable fuss on the chance
-of being overheard. Mrs. Goodwin was
-“planted” as the landlady’s “sister,” who
-had come from Montreal to live with her
-and help in the housework until she could
-find a position in New York. The Commissioner
-grumbled a little about her
-stinginess in refusing to pay an expressman
-to bring her bundle, and then took
-his departure, explaining that the train
-had been late, and the baby was not well,
-and his wife, Aggie, would be worried
-about him, and so forth. Mrs. Goodwin
-established herself in a room at the rear
-of the basement, handy to that occupied
-by Myrtle Horn, and kept her eyes and
-ears open as she went about the housework,
-slipping out to report when she had
-any information, and receiving instructions.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Outside surveillance on this house was
-conducted from an empty store across the
-street. Arrangements for the use of such
-property are usually made by the police
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>without difficulty, though occasionally a
-close-fisted owner expects rent. Blinds
-were put up over the windows, peep-holes
-made, and a few hammers provided,
-with some nails and boards. Then six of
-the best “shadow men” in the Detective
-Bureau were stationed there. They made
-a little noise occasionally, in “getting the
-store ready for a big firm moving up from
-downtown,” and watched the house day
-and night. Whenever Myrtle went out
-she was followed. If she had visitors,
-they were investigated. This store was
-known by the code term of “Plant 21,”
-so that reports could be sent without disclosing
-police information.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Montani Goes Free</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>On Monday, too, Montani was arraigned
-in court, and discharged for what
-appeared to be lack of any evidence
-against him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At this point the Commissioner took
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>the liberty of fooling the newspaper men
-for the good of his case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Newspaper criticism for three days
-had been particularly severe. Editors
-made many charges, and were fertile in
-suggestions as what ought to be done to
-reorganize the presumably “demoralized”
-police department. The present
-writer feels confident, however, that a
-careful search of the files for those days
-will disclose hardly any suggestions likely
-to be at all helpful to public servants in
-the discharge of duty. Many questions
-with no real bearing on the case had been
-brought up by the journalists, and the
-Commissioner, who was patient in answering
-the newspaper men, began to be
-a little tired.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On Sunday night his big office was
-filled with reporters. They sat about
-everywhere. He had admitted them because
-he wanted them to see that he was
-working. From time to time they quizzed
-him in this fashion:</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>“Is it true that you and Commissioner
-Waldo have quarrelled?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Is Waldo going to resign?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Do you favor the Sullivan law against
-pistols?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Will the ‘dead line’ be maintained
-now?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Hadn’t the daily ‘line up’ of criminals
-ought to be restored so that detectives will
-know crooks when they see them?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Hasn’t Mayor Gaynor tied the hands
-of the police?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>And so forth, and so forth, and so forth.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Suddenly, on Sunday night, Dougherty
-turned and read the newspaper men a
-lecture. He said that he wanted them to
-understand that he was no spring chicken
-at his business, that he was working eighteen
-hours a day, and that he knew he
-would show results if the people would
-only be patient, and give him time. His
-only recommendation in the way of new
-laws or reforms was for a statute that
-would enable the police to put known
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>criminals, without occupation or visible
-means of support, at work mending roads.
-He outlined a plan which, rather strangely,
-did not get any attention in the newspapers
-at all. His idea of dealing with
-idle criminals, he said, was to have a
-cart, with commissary and sleeping quarters
-for twelve men. As soon as twelve
-idle criminals with records had been sentenced,
-they would pull this cart out of
-town themselves, under guard, and go to
-work repairing roads. If that plan were
-adopted, New York would not only be as
-free from criminals as the District of Columbia,
-where a similar measure is enforced,
-but the roads all around the city
-would be so well cared for that they could
-be used as roller-skating rinks.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The newspapers next morning were
-quite certain that Commissioners Waldo
-and Dougherty had quarrelled, and when
-the journalists went down to report Montani’s
-examination in court they were decidedly
-partial to the taxicab man.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>Dougherty had told the newspaper men
-beforehand that he had evidence enough
-to have Montani held for trial. He had
-made very positive statements about this.
-Montani would be arraigned, he predicted,
-and if discharged on one count, would
-be immediately arrested on something
-else. If he was discharged on that, he
-would still be arraigned on further
-charges.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It needs no very brilliant imagination,
-therefore, to picture the effect upon the
-newspapers when Montani, after being
-arraigned on the doubtful points in his
-own account of the crime, and those not
-too vigorously pressed, was discharged,
-with comment by the court upon the flimsiness
-of the police case. There was one
-striking discrepancy in the evidence presented
-at that examination which, if
-pressed, should have resulted in the holding
-of Montani for trial. He still insisted
-that he had stopped his cab because
-an old man had got in front of it, but this
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>was denied by a witness. That point was
-permitted to pass by Lieutenant Riley,
-who appeared for the police. Montani
-could have been re-arrested on charges
-based upon his attempt to defraud the insurance
-company. But he was permitted
-to go free. That course had been decided
-on at Police Headquarters after some difference
-of opinion.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The newspapers were now more pessimistic
-than ever in their comment. They
-contrasted this outcome with Dougherty’s
-promises that the chauffeur would be re-arrested.
-It was taken as a confession of
-police incompetency and bewilderment—which,
-as will be seen in its proper
-place, was very useful in its way. Montani
-went free, and was jubilant, calling
-on the Commissioner next morning to
-thank him. But from the moment he left
-court until he was arrested again the
-Italian chauffeur never got out of sight
-of the Police Department.</p>
-
-<div>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>
- <h3 class='c017'><i>What Developed on a Busy Tuesday</i></h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>It was on the day after Montani’s release
-that Commissioner Dougherty began
-to uncover more interesting characters
-in the taxicab drama.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Bit by bit, through points supplied by
-informants and persons who had come in
-contact with him in various ways, a very
-good working knowledge of the fugitive
-Kinsman was pieced together. It appeared
-that he had come to New York
-the previous summer, from Boston, and
-after a brief career as a boxer, had gone
-to work in a Sixth avenue resort known
-as the “Nutshell Café,” where he was a
-waiter. Among his associates there had
-been two characters who invited further
-inquiry.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The first of these was a fellow called
-“Gene,” described as having a “parrot
-nose,” and a criminal record. He had
-been a close pal of Kinsman, and had
-also introduced another intimate, a wily
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>little Italian called “Jess,” who had formerly
-owned a thieves’ resort which he
-called the “Arch Café.” A good description
-of Jess was secured.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There was some delay while the Commissioner
-“surrounded” this last-mentioned
-resort to find out if it was a place
-where any information might be obtained
-openly. The question was decided in the
-negative. So a plain-clothes man was
-quietly “planted” there to pick up information.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When a criminal is arrested (or
-“falls”) it is customary in the underworld
-to raise a fund for his defense. The Arch
-Café was a center for the deposit of such
-“fall money.” It was learned that a hundred
-dollars had been raised for the defense
-of a man named Clarke, alias “Molloy,”
-under arrest in Brooklyn for robbery.
-This was the same Molloy to
-whose fine character Kinsman had asked
-his landlady to swear in court. The
-Italian named Jess had taken charge of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>Molloy’s defense fund, but squandered it
-in a spree. Later, making it good, he had
-sent it over to Molloy’s relief by Kinsman’s
-pal, “Dutch,” and an Italian known
-as “Matteo.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>District inspectors of police were then
-called upon to find a detective who knew
-Jess, and an Italian plain-clothes man,
-Antony Grieco, who had grown up in
-that part of New York where Jess had
-kept a café, and who knew the latter well,
-was detailed with another detective to
-look him up and keep him under surveillance.
-They found that Jess, whose last
-name was Albrazzo, had headquarters in
-a tough resort in Thompson street, kept
-by an Italian named James Pasqualle,
-better known as “Jimmie the Push.”
-From that time Jess was kept “on tap,” to
-await further developments.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then the Commissioner undertook to
-find out more about the character called
-“Gene.” Working in New York, as
-waiters and bartenders, were many members
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>of a criminal band known as the
-“Forty Thieves of Boston.” The Commissioner
-called in all of them that he
-could find, and sounded each for information
-about this “Gene.” After the time
-of day had been passed, the talk would
-turn on members of the band and criminals
-in general, and after curiosity had
-been excited, “Gene” would be referred
-to casually. If the party interviewed said
-he knew “Gene,” the Commissioner
-would probably be sceptical, ask his last
-name, press for details of appearance and
-habits, and then pass to some other
-subject.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It was found that “Gene’s” last name
-was Splaine, that he had served a term
-in prison in Boston as a boy, and that,
-by his general description, he must
-be the third fugitive accompanying Kinsman
-and Annie. When Detective Watson
-got better descriptions of the third
-man at Albany, and comparisons were
-made with sources of information in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>New York, it became practically certain
-that Gene Splaine was with Kinsman.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Annie Shows at “Plant 21”</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>It was on this day, too (Tuesday, February
-20), that “Swede Annie” suddenly
-stepped into police view, <em>wearing a new
-hat</em>. She turned up quietly at the house
-where Myrtle Horn had moved with her
-trunk, and began living in the front basement
-room. Matron Goodwin and “Plant
-21” immediately reported her presence,
-and from that time the shadow men across
-the street had something to do besides
-driving nails. For whenever Annie or
-Myrtle went out of the house they were
-followed.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Shadowing is a highly interesting kind
-of police work, at which some men have
-exceptional ability.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The general conception is that of a detective
-following closely behind the suspected
-person, with his eyes glued to him,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>and cautiously crouching behind lamp-posts
-and trees when the victim turns suddenly.
-But that is far from the real
-thing. The work is done in ways altogether
-different. Shadow men operate in
-pairs, as a rule, and keep track of their
-party from vantage points not likely to
-be suspected. They dress according to
-the character of the case, always in quiet
-clothes, changed daily, and with absolutely
-no colors that will attract attention
-or lead to recognition through the memory.
-They know how to follow when the
-person under surveillance rides in cabs,
-cars or trains, to cover the different exits
-from a building into which he or she may
-have gone, and to loiter several hours
-around a given neighborhood, if need be,
-without attracting the attention of honest
-citizens.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>This work is done by shifts. The operators
-relieve each other almost as regularly
-as office employees, no matter how
-far the trail may have taken them. They
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>are in constant touch with headquarters
-for the purpose of making reports and
-receiving instructions.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In this branch of detective work, as in
-many others, the chief requisite is resourcefulness.
-The detective of fact wears
-little disguise apart from clothes that fit
-the surroundings he moves in. But he has
-an instant knack at accounting for himself
-as a normal character who has happened
-quite naturally into the scene. Ready
-wits do the trick—not false whiskers.
-Thus it came about that whenever Annie
-and Myrtle were hungry, and sat down
-in a restaurant, what they said was noted
-by a couple of fellows at another table,
-who quickly made a party of the chance
-patrons they found there, discussing
-wages or the suffragettes. Or if Annie
-used the telephone in a drug store, a polite
-young man turning over the directory
-said to her, “Go ahead, lady—I’m
-in no hurry,” and listened.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At the same time, Matron Goodwin
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>was reporting conversation from inside
-the house. It appeared that Kinsman had
-sent Annie back to the city after buying
-her a new hat and giving her $125. He
-promised to write soon, but did not tell
-her where he was going. Toward the
-end of the week, as no letter arrived, Annie
-began worrying, and was talkative.
-She feared that Eddie no longer loved
-her. She reproached herself for letting
-him go without taking her along, and
-spoke of setting out to find him.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>The Trail Is Taken Up</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>It was now Wednesday, February 21,
-and all the careful detail work began to
-come together.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It was this day that Detective Watson
-found the crew of Train No. 13, on the
-New York Central, which had taken
-Kinsman, Annie and Splaine aboard at
-Peekskill the afternoon of the robbery
-after they had ridden out of New York
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>in a taxicab to avoid possible police surveillance
-at the railroad stations. Commissioner
-Dougherty dispatched Watson
-to Peekskill and Albany with thorough
-instructions. His motto in working out
-a case is, “Supervision is half the battle.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“When you get to Albany,” he said, “go
-to that big hat store on Broadway near
-the station. I’ll bet that’s where Annie’s
-new hat was bought—they sell the best
-millinery in the country outside of New
-York.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Nothing important was learned at
-Peekskill, but at Albany, sure enough,
-Detective Watson found the saleswoman
-right in “that big hat store” who had sold
-the new hat, and secured Annie’s discarded
-headgear. The new hat had cost
-twenty-five dollars. The old one looked
-as though it might have cost ninety-five
-cents—a “Division Street Special.” Its
-black velvet was of the cheapest grade,
-the famous little red roses proved to be,
-on close inspection, nothing more than
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>little loops of pink cotton cloth, and the
-general state of the hat indicated that it
-was about time Annie had a new one.
-This interesting “bonnet,” however,
-seemed just then more handsome than any
-costly article of millinery ever smuggled
-over from Paris. It was immediately sent
-to New York by express, with a copy of
-the sales slip covering the purchase. The
-saleswoman was able to add one or two
-details of description, and remembered
-how, after the woman had selected a hat,
-the two men had joked about who was to
-pay for it.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“She’s your girl,” said Splaine, and so
-Kinsman had paid the bill with five five-dollar
-bills.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Nothing could be learned as to the direction
-in which the two men meant to
-travel. Detective Watson now began a
-search among train crews running out of
-Albany, and Commissioner Dougherty, in
-New York, got the Albany ticket-sellers
-by long-distance telephone. His knowledge
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>of how railroad tickets are sold, accounted
-for, taken up, cancelled and
-checked by the auditing department made
-it possible to sift matters down to the
-strongest kind of probability. After considerable
-telephoning, aided by Detective
-Watson on the spot, it was determined
-that Kinsman and Splaine had been the
-purchasers of two consecutively numbered
-tickets for Chicago sold together on
-Friday morning, twenty-four hours after
-the robbery, and that they had gone west
-on Train No. 3, leaving Albany at 12:10
-p. m. Their tickets were available for
-that train, and the conclusion was
-strengthened by calculating Annie’s
-movements. For it was found that she
-had come back to New York the same
-day, between four and five in the afternoon.
-She had kept out of sight until she
-appeared at Myrtle Horn’s lodging and
-was reported by Matron Goodwin and
-“Plant 21” on Tuesday. But she must
-have taken a train from Albany about the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>time that the men were starting for Chicago,
-reaching New York at 3:45 p. m.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Commissioner Dougherty felt that the
-chances of finding his men in Chicago
-were so good that, without wasting time
-in an investigation of the crew of Train
-No. 3, he put Detectives Daly and Clare
-aboard a Chicago train that same night.
-Kinsman and Splaine would both find
-congenial company among the pugilists
-in Chicago.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>These detectives were given names to
-conceal their identity, and ordered to report
-under the code term of “Orange
-Growers” to eliminate all flavor of police
-business. They received detailed instructions
-about where to go and what to do.
-Again the Commissioner covered the
-trail when it led out of New York by
-sending capable assistants, instead of
-merely wiring the police in other cities.
-Before the “Orange Growers” departed,
-the “boss” gave them a little talk about
-expenses.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>The detective attached to a municipal
-police force is very often hampered by
-fear of making unusual expenditures. Accounting
-routine is strict. Telegrams are
-often limited to the minimum of ten
-words where a hundred are needed to
-send a working description or report. The
-long-distance telephone is used as a luxury,
-and in many instances where the
-plain-clothes man can get valuable information
-through an informant he pays the
-shot out of his own pocket because there
-is no other way of paying it, and trusts
-to the chance that this private investment
-out of his salary will help him “break” a
-knotty case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Commissioner Dougherty told the
-“Orange Growers” that they would be
-kept on this trail if it led all around the
-world. They must not consider expenditure
-when there was vital information to
-put on the wire. He expected them to
-turn to the long-distance telephone whenever
-they needed new instructions in a
-hurry. Briefly, he took the blinders and
-shackles off them, and sent them out to
-do good work, and the outcome justified
-this far-sightedness.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='ja' class='figleft id005'>
-<img src='images/image089a.jpg' alt='JESS ALBRAZZO' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JESS ALBRAZZO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='ma' class='figright id005'>
-<img src='images/image089b.jpg' alt='MATTEO ARBRANO' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MATTEO ARBRANO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='jp' class='figleft id005'>
-<img src='images/image089c.jpg' alt='JAMES PASQUALE' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JAMES PASQUALE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='bd' class='figright id005'>
-<img src='images/image089d.jpg' alt='BOB DELIO' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BOB DELIO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>At that period of the winter trains were
-delayed everywhere by storms, so the
-“Orange Growers” had opportunities to
-make inquiries at stations and railroad
-restaurants all along the line to Buffalo.
-They were in search of their “brother,”
-who was described in terms of Kinsman’s
-personal appearance, and was supposed
-to be on his way somewhere with another
-man. At Syracuse an observant waitress
-remembered their “brother” distinctly,
-having served both the men when their
-train stopped for supper. Finally, the
-two “Orange Growers” got snowed up in
-Michigan for a time, and there we will
-leave them for the present.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Montani Quizzed Once More</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>By Thursday many loose ends of the
-case were being brought together so effectually
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>that the outlook seemed exceedingly
-bright.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But only to the executive circle in
-Dougherty’s office.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Outside, all was dark. Newspaper
-criticism had become more caustic than
-ever, and the public, after the ingrained
-habit of New York, was turning its attention
-to fresher news sensations.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At a big annual dinner of police officials
-held that evening, February 22, the
-atmosphere of gloom resting upon the department
-was most tangible. The fourteen
-hundred guests, who were chiefly police
-inspectors, captains and lieutenants,
-felt that a stigma lay upon the service
-with which they were identified. They
-had no means of knowing, of course, that
-one week from that night the gloom
-would have lifted, criticism be turned to
-praise, and that policemen generally
-would be, as a witty lieutenant put it,
-“back to our official standing again—which
-never was so very high.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>Montani had called at Police Headquarters
-repeatedly, accompanied by his
-unseen shadowers. He professed to be
-anxious to furnish further information,
-if it lay in his power, and the Commissioner
-chatted with him cordially, leading
-him to believe that he no longer
-rested under the slightest suspicion.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On Friday Dougherty made an interesting
-effort to “break” Montani.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He now had a minute physical description
-of Kinsman, as well as two photographs
-of him. The chauffeur was asked
-to describe once more the man who had
-sat upon the cab seat with him. The questions
-went over details from head to foot,
-and were prompted by details of Kinsman’s
-real appearance.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Montani said the man had large brown
-eyes, which was true.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He remembered that he had talked
-with a good American accent, and used
-words not common to the criminal, which
-was also more or less true.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>He suddenly recalled a gold-filled
-tooth in the robber’s upper right-hand
-jaw, a point already furnished by informants.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In fact, as this new examination went
-on, it became clear to the Commissioner
-that Montani was actually describing
-Kinsman, changing only one detail. He
-said that the robber had had a dark mustache,
-while it was certain that Kinsman
-had been smooth-shaven.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Suddenly the Commissioner tried what
-is known as a “shot.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The examiner in such an inquiry is
-often in possession of incriminating evidence.
-Instead of producing it bluntly as
-evidence, however, he will perhaps let it
-slip out bit by bit, as though by awkwardness,
-meanwhile maintaining an appearance
-of absolute confidence in the suspect’s
-integrity. A classic example of this
-device is found in the Russian writer Dostoieffsky’s
-“Crime and Punishment.” The
-skillful “shot” is usually far more disconcerting
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>than evidence produced openly to
-overwhelm. For the suspect assumes that
-the examiner really knows nothing, and
-has merely blundered. So he is on his
-guard outwardly. But he also worries inwardly,
-and this trying conflict between
-inner doubt and the need for keeping up
-outer calm will often break him down
-completely.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Dougherty’s “shot” was a photograph
-of Kinsman.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>By pre-arrangement an assistant came
-into the office and began turning over
-some papers on the Commissioner’s desk.
-The photo of Kinsman popped out where
-Montani could see it plainly, and then
-was hurriedly put out of sight again. The
-Commissioner scolded his assistant, and
-the latter stood shamefaced and silent.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But in this instance the device failed.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Montani not only betrayed no interest
-in Kinsman’s picture, but took the awkward
-assistant’s part, and asked the Commissioner
-not to scold him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>Montani had planned his crime, fitted
-the plan with men, laid out every detail
-in his mind, and arranged his story beforehand.
-He expected to be arrested,
-and said so. He admitted that there were
-inconsistencies in his story, but hoped to
-clear them up. He had discussed the
-crime with Jess and Dutch, and had not
-been seen in the company of the other
-criminals. So, having settled on his story,
-Montani stuck to it without variation under
-every form of pressure. Others forgot
-what they had arranged as their defense,
-or departed from it, or broke down
-and confessed. But not Montani. He
-alone went to trial, and stuck to his story
-until the end.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>The “Orange Growers” in Chicago</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>When Daly and Clare, the two New
-York detectives working as the “Orange
-Growers,” arrived in Chicago, they went
-to Police Headquarters in that city, made
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>inquiries about Kinsman and Splaine, and
-secured the aid of Chicago detectives.
-Then they put up at a hotel where, by
-arrangements with the house detective,
-they occupied a room on the second floor
-handy to a little-used stairway leading to
-a side street, which would make it easy
-to slip in and out without going through
-the lobby. On the trip from New York
-both of them had neglected shaving, and
-Daly was an especially tough-looking
-citizen, for his beard grows out stiff and
-bristly, with black and red intermixed,
-and a little green to help the general effect.
-With suits of old clothes and
-sweaters they were so little like their official
-selves that for several days, though
-they went rather freely around resorts
-frequented by crooks who knew them in
-New York, they were not recognized.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The “Orange Growers” now became a
-pair of hardened “yeggmen,” or bank robbers,
-and for three days were busy visiting
-thieves’ haunts all over the city, from the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>Levee district to the Stockyards. It was
-found that Kinsman and Splaine had put
-up at a high-class boarding house in a
-fashionable residence section. Kinsman
-seemed to be doubtful about the impression
-Splaine might make there, though in
-the opinion of the police Splaine was by
-far the more intelligent of the pair. So
-he took the landlady aside and asked her,
-privately, if she had objections to a prize-fighter
-in her house. The landlady replied,
-“Why, no! if he is a gentleman—many
-prize-fighters are just like other
-people!” Thereupon, Kinsman undertook
-that Splaine should behave himself.
-He also wanted to know if valuables were
-safe there, and the astonished landlady
-assured him that her house was like a
-home, that the guests were like one big
-family and seldom locked their doors, and
-that Mr. Smith, well known as an officer
-in one of the leading banks, had lived
-there for years.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The pair had spent considerable time
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>in criminal haunts, but had now disappeared.
-Kinsman, as it was learned later,
-had returned to New York. Splaine was
-apparently in Chicago still, spending his
-money, but the two “Orange Growers”
-seemed never to catch up with him. Their
-man had always gone around the corner
-within the past hour.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Finally they planned a ruse with the
-aid of two Chicago detectives. Splaine
-had been intimate with a certain woman
-of the underworld, known as “Josie.”
-Clare went to her, represented himself as
-a “stick-up man,” said he and his partner
-were after that guy with all the money
-and diamonds, meaning Splaine, and
-that they meant to rob him. If Josie
-worked with them, like a good girl,
-she would come in for her third of the
-plunder.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Josie professed ignorance. She was
-sure, so help her Mike, cross her heart,
-that she knew nothing about no gent with
-any money or diamonds—no such a party
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>had been near the house in months, worse
-luck. Clare argued awhile with no results,
-and then said he would come back
-a little later and bring his pal. Then Daly
-was introduced to Josie as the extremely
-undesirable citizen who would do the
-strong-arm work. But Josie still insisted
-that she had no idea what they were talking
-about.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>They went out, and within a few minutes
-the two Chicago detectives, Dempsey
-and McFarland, known by Josie as
-officers, came in, described the disguised
-Clare and Daly as two of the most desperate
-“yeggmen” in the country, said
-that they had warrants for them, and
-asked if they had been seen. Josie
-crossed her heart again, and said that
-there had been nobody around there all
-evening—believe her, it was like living
-the simple life, and if things kept on
-bein’ so quiet she’d blow the town and go
-back to Keokuk.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then, enter the two “Orange Growers”
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>once more, to be warned by the fair
-Josie.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Say, the bulls are after you boys, an’
-you better pull your freight, ‘cause if you
-stay around here they’re goin’ to <em>get</em> you.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Aw, hell!” was the reply, “We’d just
-as lieve kill a cop or anybody else. We
-stick in this house till you tell us where
-we can reach that guy with the money and
-the diamonds—understand?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then Josie broke down, and told them
-Splaine had been there early in the evening,
-but had gone away to take a train out
-of town. She did not know the railroad,
-and urged them to leave. This was
-evidently the truth, so they hurried to Police
-Headquarters, telegraphed descriptions
-to other cities with a request that arriving
-trains be watched, and went to bed
-to get a little sleep, so that they could be
-at work early the next morning.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But in the morning word came from
-the Memphis Police that Splaine had
-been arrested there on alighting from a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>train, and they thereupon notified New
-York, went to Memphis, secured Splaine
-on extradition papers, and brought him
-back to the metropolis.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>The Traps Are Sprung</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>On Saturday afternoon, February 24,
-while most of the energy of the Detective
-Bureau was centered on the taxicab
-case, a brutal murder was committed in
-Brooklyn.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Word came that a Flatbush merchant
-had been found dead in his store, shot by
-unknown criminals whose motive was
-robbery. They had taken his watch and
-five safety razors.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Inspector Hughes was sent to the scene
-of the crime, and Commissioner Dougherty
-quickly followed. The murder occurred
-about one p. m. By six o’clock
-the same day the number of the watch
-had been learned through a canvass of
-jewelers in the neighborhood, it being on
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>record by one of them who had repaired
-it, and the watch and two of the safety
-razors had been found in pawnshops. Descriptions
-of the murderers were obtained,
-and by three o’clock Sunday, the
-following day, their identity had been established.
-Within thirty hours after the
-crime these men had been arrested, positively
-identified as the pawners of the
-stolen articles, and completely tied up in
-their own statements.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At half-past nine Sunday night, while
-the Commissioner, Inspector Hughes and
-Captain Coughlin, in charge of Brooklyn
-detectives, and Lieutenant Riley were
-winding up their work on this murder
-case, word suddenly came over the telephone
-to Commissioner Dougherty from
-an informant that Eddie Kinsman had
-been seen in New York with “Swede Annie,”
-and that he was accompanied by
-an unknown man, wearing a red necktie,
-supposed to be Gene Splaine. At the
-same time Matron Goodwin, stationed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>inside Annie’s lodgings, telephoned
-that she had information indicating
-that Kinsman had returned to the
-city.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When the Commissioner motored over
-to New York, he found his men covering
-a hotel on Third avenue, not far from
-42d street. Kinsman and Annie were inside.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Commissioner hurried to the 18th
-precinct police station and sent out a call
-for twenty-five detectives. Team work
-on the case had developed to such a degree
-by this time that, though the men
-came from many stations, they were all
-on hand in record time, a matter of
-twenty or thirty minutes. Then a squad
-of these plain-clothes men was sent to
-watch every railroad station and ferry
-house, each accompanied by one of the
-men from “Plant 21,” familiar with Annie
-from having followed her movements
-for a week. Surveillance on the hotel was
-strengthened, and steps taken to ascertain
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>whether the unknown man in the red tie
-was really Splaine.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>While making these arrangements, a
-curious incident occurred, showing how
-small is New York, after all, with its five
-million people. As Dougherty sat in the
-18th precinct station, Detective Rein
-brought in a prisoner arrested for shooting
-a citizen. He was drunk and extremely
-disagreeable, and gave his name
-as “Steigel,” living at 98 Third avenue.
-Something in this address echoed to something
-in Dougherty’s memory—a keen
-one for names, dates, addresses and facts
-generally. He investigated further, and
-found that this prisoner was no other than
-the criminal Molloy, whose urgent need
-of “character witnesses” had played so
-important a part in furnishing the first
-information in the taxicab case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>By some mischance, these operations
-came to the ears of the newspaper men.
-Word went about, beginning in Brooklyn,
-that important arrests were to be
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>made. The reporters followed the Commissioner
-in a crowd when he refused to
-make a statement. They not only hampered
-the work, but greatly endangered
-the outcome. On the following day, Monday,
-the papers published information
-about the police activities of the night before.
-The hazard here may be appreciated
-when the reader is told that Kinsman
-had been a persistent reader of newspapers
-from the day of the robbery, and
-that it was largely the pessimistic newspaper
-comment upon Montani’s release
-in court that led him to return to New
-York. Deceived by the newspaper chorus
-of “police demoralization,” and the
-easy way in which Montani had got free,
-he concluded that the taxicab investigation
-had been given up as hopeless.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman was arrested in the Grand
-Central Station at half-past eleven Monday
-morning, with Swede Annie and the
-unknown in the red tie. They were about
-to set out for Boston.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>There were some amusing circumstances
-in the arrest.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman’s immunity over night, and
-police precaution in deferring the arrest
-until the last moment, on the chance that
-other persons would join the party, gave
-him a false confidence. He afterward admitted
-that ideas of a “pinch” at that time
-were far from his mind.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When a criminal thought to be dangerous
-is to be arrested in a crowded place
-like the Grand Central Station, police
-officers operate by methods that prevent
-a struggle. As two detectives closed in
-on the party, Kinsman watched one of
-them out of the corner of his eye. While
-a waiter at the “Nutshell Café” he had
-often thrown objectionable guests out onto
-the sidewalk. He now fancied that one
-of the detectives resembled a man he had
-once “bounced,” and was ready to fight if
-attacked.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“I was just folding it up,” he said, referring
-to his fist, “and getting ready to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>land on him when one had me from behind
-and the other in front. Then I knew
-they were cops.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Annie was gorgeously dressed in a new
-blue suit and fine fur coat, bought out of
-the taxicab money. The unknown man
-proved to be Kinsman’s brother, who had
-come down from Boston with him. Kinsman
-had visited his native city before returning
-to New York, but had escaped
-the police net there by stopping at a hotel
-and sending for his brother. He sent a
-grip home by this brother, and it was afterward
-found to contain three packages
-of bills of $250 each in the original wrappers
-of the bank.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>As soon as word of these arrests was
-telephoned to Police Headquarters, the
-other traps were sprung. Detectives
-brought in Montani, Jess Albrazzo and
-Myrtle Horn, the latter, with Annie, being
-held as witnesses.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>
- <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER III <br /> <span class='small'>HOW THE CRIME WAS HANDLED BY THE POLICE—THE CONFESSIONS</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa_2__6 c016'>Now begins some of the most interesting
-work connected with the
-taxicab case—the examination of
-the first prisoners, which led to confessions,
-the implication of other guilty persons
-not yet under arrest, and the voluntary
-pleas of guilty in court which saved
-costly trials in all but Montani’s case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>This sort of work is familiar under the
-term of “third degree.” It is popularly
-supposed to be accompanied by force and
-sometimes brutality—and in wrong hands
-often is. Commissioner Dougherty’s experience
-with a commercial detective
-agency, however, has led him to develop
-intelligent methods. The commercial detective
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>organization has none of the
-authority of an official police force, and
-at the same time, through its national operations
-and the general character of its
-work, deals chiefly with the most accomplished
-criminals. Therefore, tact and legal
-subtilty are depended upon in examining
-suspects, and the Commissioner
-long ago learned to get his results mainly
-by straight question and answer. He puts
-his own wits against those of the suspect,
-backed by experience in many other cases.
-He has a practical grasp of criminal psychology,
-as well as many ingenious ways
-of using evidence to the best purpose,
-overwhelming the suspect, and breaking
-down stolidity and deception. Dougherty
-is not only opposed to force in the “third
-degree,” but knows that it is of absolutely
-no use.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The first prisoner examined was Eddie
-Kinsman.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When he was brought to Police Headquarters
-Kinsman appeared to be thoroughly
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>satisfied with himself, and confident
-that no policeman would get anything
-out of <em>him</em>. He proved to be a
-good-looking young fellow, of athletic
-build, and by no means a fool.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Methods of examination are never
-twice alike, for they depend upon the case
-and the suspect. As a rule, however, when
-the criminal first sits down to answer
-Commissioner Dougherty he is astonished
-by that gentleman’s apparent lack of
-guile, and ignorance of worldly knowledge.
-When Dougherty composes himself
-for an inquiry, he is rather a heavy-looking
-citizen, not unlike a country magistrate,
-and his first questions, put for the
-purpose of determining the suspect’s
-character and previous surroundings, usually
-relate to bald routine matters, such
-as name, age, residence, education, family,
-and so on.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Gee!” thinks the suspect, “This guy
-is the biggest lobster I ever got up
-against! I wonder how he ever got to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>be a police commissioner. He must have
-a strong political pull.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman was ushered into a large,
-quiet office, where this bureaucratic official
-began by asking his name, birthplace
-and other details.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Will you kindly stand up a minute
-while I get your height?” asked the questioner,
-and Kinsman did so in a patronizing
-way. Then the dull-looking gentleman
-turned back Kinsman’s coat and
-looked at the little label sewed in the inside
-pocket.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“I see that you have been in Chicago
-recently,” he observed. “This suit was
-made by a tailor there. You ordered it
-February 17th, two days after the robbery.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He looked into Kinsman’s hat.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“That was bought in Chicago, too.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He examined the label on Kinsman’s
-tie.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“This was also bought in Chicago.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He turned up the label at the back of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>the neck of the new silk underclothes
-worn by the prisoner.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Those were bought in State street,
-Chicago, and from a very good store, too—I
-know it well.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman now began to be pugnacious
-and defiant.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“See here!” he said, “You must take
-me for a boob.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Yes, I think you are a boob,” replied
-the Commissioner. “You might as well
-have made your getaway with a brass
-band as to take Swede Annie with you to
-Albany, attracting attention all the way,
-and then send her back to New York with
-a hundred dollars to tell the police where
-you had gone.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Suddenly Lieutenant Riley, personal
-aide, walked into the Commissioner’s office
-carrying a cheap article of millinery—a
-shabby black velvet hat with a row
-of little red roses across the front. Commissioner
-Dougherty apparently grew
-very angry.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>“What do you mean by bringing that
-thing in here now?” he exclaimed. “I
-am not ready for that—take it away.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>This “shot” had been previously arranged,
-of course, but Riley pretended
-to be injured when called by his superior.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Cripes!” exclaimed Kinsman. “Annie’s
-old hat. How did you get that so
-quick?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Oh, that is only one thing we’ve got
-on you,” replied the Commissioner. “We
-know that you went to Peekskill in a taxicab
-with Annie and Splaine on the afternoon
-of the robbery. We know that you
-took Train 13 to Albany, and where you
-stopped that night, and where you bought
-Annie’s new hat, and how much you paid
-for it, and what train you took to Chicago
-Friday noon. Suppose you tell me something
-more about your movements?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman became scornful.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“If you know all that,” he said, “maybe
-you know more about where I went and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>what I did than I do myself. So what
-would be the use of me telling <em>you</em> anything?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>While certain people were being found
-outside, the Commissioner worked upon
-the prisoner along another line. Enough
-of Kinsman’s personality was now disclosed
-to show that he was vain and egotistical.
-This side of his nature was therefore
-fed with flattery. He was assured
-that the taxicab robbery had been a wonderful
-“stick-up.” Everybody in New
-York had been astonished. The whole
-country was talking about it, and about
-him. He must be an awfully bright, cunning
-fellow to have planned and carried
-out such a piece of crime.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman warmed up genially under
-this admiration, and seemed to be more
-confident than ever that so shrewd a
-young man as himself would have little
-difficulty in fooling the police.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But presently self-satisfaction was subjected
-to shock after shock.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>Detectives were bringing in Montani,
-Myrtle Hoyt, Rose Levy, Mrs. Sullivan,
-the landlady with whom Kinsman had
-lived, and her housekeeper. Jess Albrazzo
-was under arrest. Kinsman’s
-brother was there for examination, and
-Inspector Hughes and Lieutenant Riley
-were bringing in startling intelligence
-every few minutes.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The housekeeper was ushered in, and
-told how Kinsman had given her five dollars
-from a huge roll of bills before leaving
-for Peekskill.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Commissioner Waldo came in and sat
-while Mrs. Sullivan told what she knew
-about her late lodger.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman’s brother gave information
-about the former’s movements from the
-time he had arrived in Boston until he
-brought him to New York to have a good
-time, and Kinsman knew that at the home
-of his parents in Boston the police would
-surely find money in the original wrappers
-of the bank.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>The prisoner was put under pressure
-to explain how a man like himself, known
-to be working as a waiter in a cheap resort,
-could suddenly have come into possession
-of such sums. Statements from
-the women in the case had been secured,
-and were produced, and finally Kinsman
-was brought to detailed admissions, one
-by one. He agreed that it was true he
-had gone to Peekskill in a taxicab with
-Annie and Splaine, that he had gone to
-Albany, had bought Annie a hat there,
-had gone to Chicago, and so forth. Opportunities
-were given him to see Montani
-and Jess, under arrest. Nothing but
-the truth was told him, yet by degrees he
-was led to see himself surrounded on all
-sides by evidence and confessing accomplices.
-At last he broke down completely,
-his vain self-confidence destroyed, and
-made a detailed confession.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman’s story brought up fresh circumstances
-and new actors in the taxicab
-case.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>He told how he had come to New York
-nine months before, to have a good time
-and make money, and how, after going
-penniless and hungry, and getting a few
-dollars for taking part in a boxing match,
-he had become a waiter at the “Nutshell
-Café.” There he soon made the acquaintance
-of criminals, meeting Gene Splaine,
-“Dutch” Keller, “Joe the Kid,” “Scotty
-the Lamb” and other characters who were
-afterward to assist in the taxi robbery.
-There he also met “Swede Annie” and
-became her sweetheart, and finally, Jess
-Albrazzo, a dark little Italian who
-seemed to exert marked influence over
-all the others. It was from Jess that
-Kinsman first heard about the plan to rob
-a taxicab carrying money to a bank. This
-“swell job” was discussed, and Jess told
-him he had a friend named Montani who
-carried the bank’s cash, and would cooperate
-in stealing it. The job would be
-easy, because Montani would run the cab
-through a side street, and the only guard
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>was an old man and a boy, neither of
-them armed.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>One Sunday night, two weeks before
-the crime, Jess took Kinsman and other
-accomplices over the route, after all had
-drunk themselves into optimistic mood,
-and pointed out the bank from which the
-money was drawn, the streets through
-which Montani would run, the place
-where the gang could board the cab, and
-the point at which they could leave it and
-escape uptown. Details were discussed.
-There was a difference of opinion as to
-methods, and the plotters parted that
-night with the understanding that each
-would submit his own ideas of how the
-robbery could be most effectively and
-safely carried out. Eventually there was
-a definite agreement as to boarding the
-cab, preventing an outcry, making the
-getaway and splitting up the money.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>According to Montani’s information,
-the bank messengers usually carried between
-$75,000 and $100,000. When the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>day for the robbery had been set, word
-suddenly came that there would not be so
-large a sum. This was disappointing, but
-the gang decided to put their project
-through, nevertheless. Kinsman was busy
-at the café, where he worked until four
-o’clock on the morning of February 15,
-and “Dutch” called for him several
-times, asking if he was going to “lay down
-on the job.” Finally Kinsman got away,
-went to a room in a lodging house taken
-by “Dutch,” and found the gang all there
-smoking and drinking. At five o’clock
-they all went to sleep. At eight everybody
-was awakened. “Dutch” and Splaine took
-blackjacks, and offered Kinsman a revolver,
-which he refused, saying he could
-take care of himself with his hands, being
-a boxer. There were six in the party—Kinsman,
-“Dutch,” Splaine, “Joe the
-Kid,” Jess and “Scotty the Lamb,” whose
-part was to stumble in front of Montani’s
-cab at the place selected for the boarding,
-and thus give the chauffeur a colorable
-reason for slackening speed if eye-witnesses
-afterward called his honesty into
-question. The gang had breakfast in a
-cheap restaurant, stopped for a drink at
-the saloon of “Jimmie the Push” in
-Thompson street, where the booty was to
-be divided, and proceeded downtown, after
-parting with Jess. The latter was the
-organizer, and took no part in the robbery;
-as he explained, he was known as
-a friend of Montani’s, and wanted to arrange
-so that he could prove an alibi if
-suspected, proving that he had not been
-near the scene of the crime when it was
-committed.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-<div id='scotty' class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/image121.jpg' alt='“Scotty” Receives Final Instructions' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“Scotty” Receives Final Instructions</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>At that saloon they had met a trio of
-Italian criminals known as the “Three
-Brigands,” who said they were not to take
-part in the robbery, but would be on hand
-to see that it was vigorously put through.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Arrived upon the ground, at Church
-street and Trinity Place, Splaine and
-Kinsman waited on the west side of the
-thoroughfare, while “Dutch” and “Joe
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>the Kid” stood on the opposite side.
-“Scotty the Lamb” posted himself fifty
-feet off.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>As Montani’s cab came speeding along,
-“Dutch” raised his hat as a signal. “Scotty
-the Lamb” did not have time to step in
-front of the vehicle before it slackened,
-and the robbers were aboard. “Dutch”
-opened one door and struck the old bank
-teller, Wilbur Smith, and “Joe the Kid”
-boosted Splaine in on the other side,
-where he assaulted young Wardle. Kinsman
-mounted the seat beside Montani,
-and the latter put on full speed, telling
-Kinsman to point his finger at his side as
-though he had a revolver. The cab
-slipped past trucks and dodged pedestrians.
-Kinsman said he seemed to see
-policemen everywhere, and was dazed
-when the vehicle stopped at Park Place
-and Church street. All the criminals got
-off there, “Dutch” lugging the brown bag
-containing the money. Splaine and
-“Dutch” were both covered with the bank
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>guards’ blood. Taking Kinsman, they
-jumped aboard a street car. It was
-crowded. Several passengers noticed the
-bloody men, but were told that there had
-been a fight, and the occurrence was not
-reported to the police. After riding two
-or three blocks they got off, boarded an
-elevated train, rode to Bleeker street, and
-went to a back room in “Jimmie the
-Push’s” saloon, where the money was to
-be divided. Here they found Jess and
-the “Three Brigands,” and the latter now
-set up a claim for a share in the booty.
-Matteo, leader of the trio, pulled out a
-revolver, and there was a discussion.
-Finally the bag was opened, and found to
-contain $25,000. There were three packages
-of $5,000 each and one of $10,000.
-Matteo grabbed the latter package, saying
-that his gang was to get $3,000 apiece,
-and that the odd $1,000 would go for
-“fall money” to get Molloy out of jail in
-Brooklyn. The robbers then divided the
-remainder, Jess taking $3,000 for himself
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>and another $3,000 for Montani, Splaine
-getting $3,000, Kinsman $2,750, “Joe the
-Kid” $250 and “Scotty the Lamb” nothing.
-Kinsman then told how he had
-called for Swede Annie, and left town
-in a taxicab, going as far as Peekskill, to
-avoid the police at the Grand Central
-Station.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>Jess Confesses and Assists</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>The next prisoner examined was Jess
-Albrazzo, a dark little Italian, who appeared
-to be somewhat ignorant.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In this examination the Commissioner
-had ample outside proof, and he also employed
-what he calls his “psychological
-study.” Years ago, in dealing with negro
-suspects in Southern crime, Dougherty
-devised a little instrument which he
-dubbed his “lie watch.” This was a dial
-with a needle, hung round the suspect’s
-neck. If the latter told the truth, the
-needle presumably pointed to “Truth,”
-and if he didn’t, it pointed to “Lie.” Being
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>out of the suspect’s sight, it had a
-strong effect.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>From that, Dougherty went into studies
-of the mental states of suspects under
-examination, and found rough physiological
-indications which he uses as a guide
-to the integrity of the suspect. Investigations
-of European criminal experts like
-Professor Hans Gross amply demonstrate
-that there is a real scientific basis for such
-methods.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Dougherty took it a little easier with
-Jess. They sat down, and the Commissioner
-went over the Italian’s movements
-for the past few months, showing him
-how thoroughly he was implicated. Jess
-had worked for Montani, and been intimate
-with the rest of the taxicab “mob.”
-He and Montani were confronted with
-each other, and points brought out in
-Kinsman’s confession were skillfully used.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At one point in this examination the
-Commissioner rose from his desk, took
-the lobe of Jess’s ear between his thumb
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>and finger, pinched it slightly, looked at
-the ear closely, and then walked out of
-the room.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Jess was all on edge with curiosity.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Why did he pinch my ear?” he asked
-of Lieutenant Riley.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“To see if you are telling the truth,”
-was the answer, and in a moment the
-Commissioner came back and examined
-that ear again.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Yes, he’s lying,” he declared. “Look
-at his ear—can’t you see it yourself?”
-Others were invited to look at Jess’s ear,
-and the little Italian became so curious
-that he actually tried to look around the
-side of his skull and see his own ear!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>This psychological study was backed
-up with abundant proof that Jess had not
-told the whole truth. Presently he weakened
-and confessed. He told how he had
-handed $2,000 in a collar box to “Jimmie
-the Push” on the day of the robbery,
-which was to be taken to a Bowery bank
-and put in a safe-deposit vault for Montani.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>He agreed to accompany the police
-to Jimmie’s place in Thompson street, and
-late that evening a party made up
-of Commissioner Dougherty, Inspector
-Hughes and Lieutenant Riley went there,
-taking Jess along.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Jimmie the Push’s” place is one of the
-most picturesque thieves’ resorts in lower
-New York.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Typical of the old village,” as Dougherty
-puts it. “In fact, this whole case has
-a strong flavor of the little old village of
-New York.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Jimmie was out when they got there,
-but this saloon was in charge of the biggest,
-swarthiest Italian bartender in town,
-a tough Hercules weighing somewhere
-around three hundred pounds. The room
-was crowded with motley characters,
-drinking beverages known to the neighborhood
-as “shocks” and “high hats.” For
-their edification, a tramp magician was
-taking coins out of his ears, his nose and
-the air.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>Jess was not known to be under arrest,
-and immediately sent a boy called
-“Reddy” to fetch the proprietor, who had
-known the three police officers for years.
-Presently Reddy came back and said that
-Jimmie would come in about half an
-hour, as he was playing cards and had a
-fine hand.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Reddy was sent back to impress upon
-Jimmie that Jess wanted to see him
-right away—it was very important. In
-about two minutes, just as the Commissioner
-had bought a “high hat”
-for everybody in his party, Jimmie appeared.
-He was told that Jess had got
-into trouble in connection with the taxicab
-robbery, and asked about the money
-in the safe deposit vault. “Jimmie the
-Push,” with his partner, Bob Deilio, had
-by this time been implicated themselves,
-for it was clear that the money had been
-divided in their resort, and that probably
-they had taken part in the planning, and
-the decidedly one-sided division of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>spoils. Jimmie was led to believe that he
-did not rest under suspicion, however,
-and that he was only asked to aid the police.
-He said Jess had handed him a collar
-box on the day of the robbery, asking
-him to put it in a vault in his own name,
-but that he had had no idea what the box
-contained, and had left it lying behind
-the bar for a couple of days before he got
-a chance to go to the bank with it. He
-readily promised to appear at Police
-Headquarters the following morning,
-bring the key to the safe deposit box, and
-help recover the money. Thereupon the
-police officials bade him good night and
-went away. But no chances were taken
-on “Jimmie the Push.” From that moment
-he was shadowed.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That Monday was a busy day in many
-other ways.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Developments came thick and fast.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Kinsman’s home in Boston was visited,
-and $750 of the bank money recovered in
-the original wrappers. It had laid in his
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>grip, unknown to the honest Kinsman
-family.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Swede Annie, Myrtle Horn and a
-girl named Rose Levy were examined,
-quickly broke down, and made tearful
-statements to be used in evidence. These
-women were held only as witnesses, and
-as the case cleared up after a few days’
-detention, were released.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The girl, Rose Levy, greatly attracted
-the Commissioner. She was only nineteen
-years old, a mild-mannered little Jewess
-with jet black hair and very remarkable
-eyes. The Commissioner went into details
-of her personal story. It seems that
-she had left her home in Brooklyn two
-months before, after a quarrel with her
-mother, and had come to New York looking
-for a position. But she quickly fell
-into the lower world, became known
-as Jess’s girl, and was ambitious to be
-“one of the gang.” After a fatherly talk
-she was persuaded to return to her home
-and live a decent life. But within a week
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>she was back in New York again, in her
-old haunts, trying to raise money to help
-Jess, for whom, she told the Commissioner,
-she would willingly work for the
-rest of her days.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Before visiting Jimmie’s saloon the
-Commissioner called up the “Orange
-Growers” in Chicago, had a long talk
-with them, told what progress was being
-made, and put new life into them.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>More Money Recovered</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>True to his word, “Jimmie the Push”
-walked into Police Headquarters at nine
-o’clock Tuesday morning, February 27,
-closely followed by his unseen shadowers.
-He produced the key of the safe-deposit
-vault, and went with officers to see the
-money recovered. There was $2,000, as
-Jess had stated, still in the wrappers of
-the bank. Jimmie was still permitted to
-go free, under the impression that he had
-come through the ordeal “clean,” while
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>fresh evidence was being obtained against
-him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That morning the Commissioner also
-took Kinsman down over the route of the
-robbery, to have him explain it in his own
-way. This was done to strengthen the
-case against Montani, and upset his story
-in court.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then “Scotty the Lamb” was located,
-arrested, brought to headquarters and led
-to confess. “Scotty the Lamb” was in
-some respects a pathetic figure in the case,
-and also a humorous one. He had been
-in charge of the lunch kitchen at the Arch
-Café when Jess owned it, and later
-worked as a dishwasher in a Washington
-Square hotel. A Scotch youth, from Glasgow,
-he had been in this country about
-four years, and while no criminal record
-appeared against him, he was plainly in
-the company of thieves most of the time.
-According to his statement, he had been
-promised $25 for doing some work for
-Jess, and without inquiring into the nature
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>of it at all, had shown up with the
-gang and gone along to do his minor part
-of a “stall,” stumbling in front of the
-cab. But before he could get out into the
-street, the cab had been boarded. So poor
-“Scotty the Lamb,” without a nickel for
-carfare, plodded all the way uptown
-again to the saloon where the money was
-to be divided, and got nothing whatever.
-He was a cheerful soul, however, and the
-life of the party when the gang was
-locked up, cracking jokes, and taking the
-view that, as sentences ought to be proportioned
-to the amount of money each
-member of the gang had got in the division,
-and he had got nothing, he might
-be let off with six months’ imprisonment.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Scotty, haven’t you got any overcoat?”
-asked Inspector Hughes, sympathetically,
-as they were going to court one brisk
-morning. “Did you <em>ever</em> have an overcoat,
-Scotty?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“No, sir, I never had an overcoat,” replied
-Scotty, and then as he thought of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>his prospects for going to prison, added
-drolly, “And now I don’t expect, sir, that
-I ever will!”</p>
-
-<h3 class='c017'><i>The Fine Italian Hand</i></h3>
-
-<p class='c018'>The next step in the case was that of
-arresting “Jimmie the Push” and his partner,
-Bob Deilio.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Another phase of the robbery now began
-to come out plainly.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Up to the present time the main burden
-of proof pointed to the four “hold-up”
-men of American birth as the chief actors
-in the crime. Montani and Jess, the two
-Italians, appeared to be accessories.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But as the tangled threads were unravelled,
-one by one, it was found that
-the Italians involved outnumbered the
-American thugs, and that furthermore
-they had outwitted them.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When Bob Deilio was arrested he drew
-$215 in five-dollar bills out of his pocket
-and handed it to the police, admitting
-that it was part of $5,500 of the stolen
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>money. The rest, he asserted, had just
-been paid for rent of the two resorts operated
-by “Jimmie the Push” and himself.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Jimmie and Bob were taken to Police
-Headquarters and examined, with Jess
-present. Commissioner Dougherty played
-one against the other so skillfully, with
-cross-questions and counter pressure, that
-in a little while each was excitedly telling
-tales on his two companions with the
-desperate hope of clearing himself, and
-denunciations flew back and forth among
-the trio as evidence came out that was
-likely to send them all to prison. Their
-confessions were obtained, and used in a
-new effort to break down Montani. But
-this was without results. The little Italian
-chauffeur still stuck doggedly to his original
-story.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>From these new confessions it appeared
-that the Italians had planned the
-crime, enlisted the American hold-up
-men to carry out the dirty work, and laid
-a counter-plot for holding them up in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>turn when the money was divided. The
-“Three Brigands” were ostensibly offered
-a chance to take part in the actual
-robbery, but refused on the plea that it
-would be too risky, and that they did not
-believe Montani could carry it out successfully.
-On the morning of the crime
-they walked north over the route. When
-they met the taxicab coming south, with
-a policeman on the seat beside Montani
-and two unconscious bank messengers inside,
-they knew that the project had succeeded.
-So the “Three Brigands” hurried
-uptown to “Jimmie the Push’s” saloon.
-They got there so quickly that they
-were ahead of the robbers. Jess made a
-rehearsed protest when they insisted in
-sharing in the plunder, but the “Three
-Brigands” drew revolvers, threatened to
-make a disturbance that would bring in
-the police, and finally helped themselves
-to $10,000. When the thugs who had done
-the actual work left the saloon, they had
-only $8,000 all told. The Italians, who
-had “played safe” at every point, had
-$17,000.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='brigands' class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/image139.jpg' alt='“The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up Men for Theirs' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up Men for Theirs</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>
- <h3 class='c017'><i>One of the Brigands Comes In</i></h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c018'>The actual whereabouts of the “Three
-Brigands” was not known to the police
-then. But there were certain channels
-through which news might reach at least
-one of them. Word was sent through
-those channels, therefore, that it might
-be best for them to appear and give an
-account of themselves, and on Friday,
-March 1, just at the time Splaine had
-been brought back from Memphis, the
-little leader of the brigands, Matteo Arbrano,
-an undersized Italian wearing
-spectacles, who had carried out the job
-of robbing the hold-up men, surrendered
-himself to the District Attorney.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Arbrano said that he had divided his
-$10,000 with his two companions, Gonzales
-and Cavaquero, and immediately
-left New York, taking a steamer for
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>Mexico by way of Havana. At the latter
-city he stopped over night, met a woman
-and accompanied her to a resort, was
-drugged and robbed of $2,700, and woke
-on the Prado with only $100 left, a single
-bill that had been concealed in his shoe.
-With that he returned to New York. The
-story is regarded by the police as more
-picturesque than convincing. It is probable
-that Matteo’s share of the plunder,
-with that of other Italians involved, has
-been carefully “planted.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Pauli Gonzales, another of the brigands,
-was traced to Vera Cruz, Mexico.
-In the present state of that country, however,
-it was found impossible to arrest
-and extradite him upon the evidence at
-hand.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Three other persons concerned in the
-robbery are still at large at this writing—“Dutch”
-Keller, “Joe the Kid,” and
-an “unknown” whose identity is concealed
-for police reasons.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>Montani pleaded “Not guilty,” and
-stood trial. After two days, exactly a
-month and a day subsequent to the robbery,
-he was convicted by a jury, and sentenced
-to not less than ten years and not
-more than eighteen years and two months
-in prison, with hard labor.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>A word must be said about the prompt
-action of the District Attorney’s office in
-the taxicab case. Where crime has had
-such publicity there is an opportunity to
-make a demonstration of great value by
-pressing the prosecutions. It was not
-lost. Under Assistant Charles C. Nott,
-Jr., evidence was succinctly laid before
-judges and juries, the trials finished in
-a matter of hours, and convictions and
-sentences secured within six weeks after
-the robbery. Furthermore, the various
-sentences were just, being carefully
-graded according to the part played by
-each offender, his character and previous
-record, and his individual effort
-in facilitating justice.</p>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-<table class='table1' summary=''>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='23%' />
-<col width='17%' />
-<col width='17%' />
-<col width='17%' />
-<col width='22%' />
-</colgroup>
- <tr><td class='c022' colspan='5'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span></td></tr>
- <tr>
- <th class='c023'><i>Name</i></th>
- <th class='c023'><i>Arrested</i></th>
- <th class='c023'><i>Pleaded</i></th>
- <th class='c023'><i>Sentenced</i></th>
- <th class='c009'><i>Sentence</i></th>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Montani, Geno</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Feb. 26,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Feb. 29,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 16,’12</td>
- <td class='c025'>Not less than 10 yrs. nor more than 18 yrs. 2 mos. Judge Seabury.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Kinsman, Edw.</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Feb. 26,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 1,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>April 9,’12</td>
- <td class='c025'>Not less than 3 yrs. nor more than 6 yrs. Judge Crain.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Splaine, Eugene</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 2,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 4,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 25,’12</td>
- <td class='c025'>Not less than 7 yrs. 6 mos. nor more than 14 yrs. 6 mos. Judge Seabury.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Delio, Robert</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Feb. 28,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 4,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 29,’12</td>
- <td class='c025'>Not less than 2 yrs. 6 mos. nor more than 4 yrs. 2 mos. Judge Seabury.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Pasquale, James</span><br /><span class='small'>(“Jimmie the Push”)</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Feb. 28,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 4,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>April 8,’12</td>
- <td class='c025'>6 mos. Penitent’ry. Judge Davis.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Lamb, Joseph</span><br /><span class='small'>(“Scotty the Lamb”)</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Feb. 27,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 18,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 29,’12</td>
- <td class='c025'>Indeterminate sentence, Elmira. Judge Seabury.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Arbrano, Matteo</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 2,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>April 3,’12</td>
- <td class='c026'></td>
- <td class='c025'>2 to 4 years. Judge Davis.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class='c024'><span class='sc'>Albrazzo, Jess</span></td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 26,’12</td>
- <td class='c024'>Mch. 18,’12</td>
- <td class='c026'></td>
- <td class='c025'>3 to 6 years. Judge Davis.</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
- <span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>
- <h2 class='c005'>FINAL <br /> <span class='small'>A WORD ABOUT THE NEW YORK POLICE</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa_2__6 c016'>It has been the writer’s good fortune
-to look into the work of both the London
-and the New York policemen
-recently, within the same year.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>A somewhat embarrassing point arose.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In London, the “bobby” was anxious to
-know which police force the writer considered
-best. The “bobby” gets his ideas
-of the New York “cop” from such accounts
-as filter through the cable dispatches
-from our newspapers. He hears
-chiefly the worst, and pictures the “cop”
-as a lawless individual, wielding pistol
-and club indiscriminately, with whom it
-is not safe to pass a civil word. So, when
-he puts his little question about the respective
-merits of the two organizations,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>he reserves the right to keep his opinion
-that the London force is best anyway.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In New York, it is much the same. The
-“cop” has heard just enough about the
-“bobby” to regard him with mild tolerance.
-He pictures him as a policeman
-servile to the last degree, thankfully accepting
-sixpenny tips from pedestrians,
-and occupied chiefly with unarmed
-thieves and harmless political offenders.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When one has good friends in both
-forces, the question “Which do you think
-best?” is to be met with tactful evasions.
-And the more one thinks it over, the more
-it becomes clear that there is really little
-difference at bottom. Both police organizations
-are made up of good men, following
-the same trade along the same
-lines, and dealing with about the same
-general conditions.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The London “bobby,” however, enjoys
-excellent leadership, is governed by a
-definite administrative policy, has the
-backing of the courts, and therefore
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>comes in for a general public good will
-which is exceedingly useful to him in the
-performance of duty.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The New York “cop” rather lacks public
-good will. Administrative policy has
-not been well defined in the past. The
-courts do not always accept his evidence,
-much less back him up, and he has been
-made the scapegoat for various shortcomings
-in leadership.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But to-day the New York policeman
-is working on an entirely new basis. Before
-long his public is certain to understand
-and like him as thoroughly as London
-does its “bobby.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The change began with Mayor Gaynor,
-who insisted that both policeman and
-citizen have plain legal rights—until the
-citizen has committed a crime the policeman
-may not arrest him. The policeman
-has plain rights—the law empowers him
-to use all necessary force in making arrests
-in grave cases. But force must not
-be used for minor offenses. Confusion
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>existed on these points to such a degree
-that when the Mayor began insisting
-upon them, many people thought he was
-putting into effect some of his personal
-whims. But they are all in the statute
-books, and many of them were there before
-the Mayor was born, because they
-are constitutional.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The present Police Commissioner,
-Rhinelander Waldo, is not only administering
-the department along the strict legal
-line pointed out by the Mayor, but
-is effecting improvements of organization
-and method that must favorably alter the
-whole future of the service.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Commissioner Waldo is a soldier, with
-a record of service in the United States
-Army, and the Army’s fine standards to
-guide him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In some ways the administration of the
-New York Police Department is a soldier’s
-job. If the ten thousand members
-were mobilized, they would make quite
-an impressive little standing army, with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>eight or ten full regiments of patrolmen,
-a brigade of cavalry, a small transport
-corps, a little navy, and so forth. As in
-an army, too, the men are enlisted, and
-may only be discharged for serious offenses.
-It is a force scattered over three
-hundred square miles of territory. The
-leader must be skillful in laying down
-regulations, and handling men in the mass
-rather than by personal contact. He must
-define duty plainly, hold everybody to
-it, eliminate departmental politics and
-abuses. Every man, wherever he is stationed,
-must feel that the general knows
-his business, that he lays down regulations
-for good reasons, and that day by day he
-is taking the organization somewhere.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>For years, every Police Commissioner
-has asked for more men to keep pace with
-the growing city. When Waldo took
-charge he asked, too. While he was waiting,
-however, he overhauled the organization
-and got one thousand additional
-patrolmen by cutting off men detailed for
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>clerical and other special duty. Every
-large working force tends to create superfluous
-routine work. The useless routine
-was eliminated by better accounting methods,
-and the men sent back to do the street
-duty for which they originally enlisted.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then Waldo’s system of “fixed posts”
-was introduced. Complaints that policemen
-were hard to find at night had become
-common. So the platoon on duty
-from 11 p. m. to 7 a. m. was distributed
-by a plan under which the men work in
-pairs, one patrolling a given beat and the
-other standing on a street intersection.
-Each hour they change places, or oftener
-in severe weather. The fixed posts are
-about a thousand feet apart all over Manhattan
-and parts of Brooklyn. The system
-has been indiscriminately criticised,
-but produces its results. Fire losses were
-cut down the first six months, night crime
-has decreased, and many notable arrests
-are due to the fact that policemen stand
-all over town like checkers through the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>night. The exposure is no greater than
-that endured by traffic men. The men
-have better opportunities to advance
-themselves by making meritorious arrests,
-and the Commissioner knows that, as citizens
-see the police on duty, night after
-night, and crime decreases, there will be
-a growing good will for the department.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Detective Bureau has not only
-been reorganized so that plain-clothes
-men are distributed over the whole city,
-but a new spirit has been introduced. Formerly,
-when the patrolman rose to detective
-rank, he felt that he had “arrived.”
-No longer wearing the uniform or keeping
-scheduled hours, he was in danger of
-going to sleep. To-day, however, the detective
-has, not a job, but an opportunity.
-He must maintain his rank by results, or
-be reduced. To help him do this, he is
-taught methods in the school for detectives.
-But he knows that hundreds of
-ambitious men in brass buttons are working
-to attain that rank.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>In an organization of ten thousand
-men, it would be strange if there were not
-some intriguing and politics. New York
-policemen are exceptionally shrewd, and
-occasionally they will try to “put one
-over” on the Commissioner, going around
-his authority. But Commissioner Waldo
-has proved singularly resourceful. He
-meets such an emergency with the quickness,
-certainty and impartiality of a natural
-force like gravity, and the department
-has found it out.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He has laid out a clear path for advancement
-all through the department.
-The newest uniformed patrolman understands
-that, for meritorious work, he will
-have a chance of promotion. If he makes
-a commendable arrest, he is sent to the
-Detective Bureau, given instruction, and
-tried at detective work. If he makes
-good, he stays. If unfitted for plain-clothes
-duty, he has still had his chance.
-What is just as important, the Detective
-Bureau has had a chance to see him.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>Under Commissioner Waldo and Deputy
-Commissioner Dougherty, the so-called
-“Black Hand” crimes among
-Italians have been checked, and will be
-stopped. Many of these cases were traced
-to sensational reporting of ordinary quarrels
-and assaults, and others to business
-rivalries. In the serious cases, arrests
-have been made and convictions secured.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Another well-known form of law-breaking
-in New York is gambling. This
-is particularly difficult to check because
-of ingenuity in concealing evidence, developed
-by long experience on the part
-of the law-breakers, and also the strong
-political alliances of gambling-house
-keepers. But after several experiments in
-dealing with it, the Commissioner now
-feels confident that he has a method
-which will result in the suppression of
-gambling, and that, as he says, “When
-you put a crimp into things of that sort
-they don’t generally come back.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In other directions red tape has been
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>abolished and economies brought about;
-the way has been opened for individual
-merit in all ranks; steps have been taken
-to develop and teach better methods; the
-work of the department has been brought
-closer to the public. There is a new spirit
-in the New York Police Department to-day—a
-spirit certain to develop the
-public good will and appreciation that is
-so necessary to the best order of public
-service.</p>
-
-<hr class='c014' />
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c027'>
- <div>SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE POLICE</div>
- <div>DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c028'>The Police Department of the City of New York is made
-up as follows:</p>
-
- <dl class='dl_1'>
- <dt>&nbsp;</dt>
- <dd>Commissioner and four Deputy Commissioners
- </dd>
- <dt>19</dt>
- <dd>Inspectors
- </dd>
- <dt>25</dt>
- <dd>Surgeons
- </dd>
- <dt>95</dt>
- <dd>Captains
- </dd>
- <dt>624</dt>
- <dd>Lieutenants
- </dd>
- <dt>586</dt>
- <dd>Sergeants
- </dd>
- <dt>8,585</dt>
- <dd>Patrolmen
- </dd>
- <dt>191</dt>
- <dd>Doormen
- </dd>
- <dt>69</dt>
- <dd>Matrons
- </dd>
- <dt>1</dt>
- <dd>Superintendent of Telegraph
- </dd>
- <dt>2</dt>
- <dd>Assistant Superintendents of Telegraph
- </dd>
- <dt>1</dt>
- <dd>Chief Lineman
- </dd>
- <dt>5</dt>
- <dd>Linemen
- </dd>
- <dt>2</dt>
- <dd>Boiler Inspectors
- </dd>
- <dt>------</dt>
- <dd>&nbsp;
- </dd>
- <dt>10,207</dt>
- <dd>Total uniform force
- </dd>
- </dl>
-
-<p class='c028'><span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>Of this number, 500 are detectives in civilian dress.</p>
-
-<p class='c028'>In addition, there are over 247 civilians employed in clerical
-capacity.</p>
-
-<p class='c028'>There are 6 automobiles and 161 other vehicles, including
-patrol wagons, used by the Department. Also 679 horses for
-mounted patrolmen.</p>
-
-<p class='c028'>The Harbor Squad numbers: 1 Captain, 7 Lieutenants, 9
-Sergeants, 36 Patrolmen, 2 Doormen, besides civilians employed
-as engineers, firemen, oilers, deck-hands, etc.</p>
-
-<p class='c028'>It is provided with one vessel of 235 tons, five launches,
-two dories, and six boats.</p>
-
-<p class='c028'>These boats patrol about 340 miles of water front.</p>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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