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diff --git a/59621-0.txt b/59621-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bc90b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/59621-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7248 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59621 *** + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 59621-h.htm or 59621-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/59621/59621-h/59621-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/59621/59621-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/whycrimedoesnotp00burk + + + + + +WHY CRIME DOES NOT PAY. + +by + +SOPHIE LYONS + +_Queen of the Underworld_. + + +[Illustration: Decoration] + + + + + + +New York +J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Co. +57 Rose Street + + +[Illustration: + +Yours Truly +Sophia Lyons.] + + +Copyright, 1913, by +The Star Company + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter Page + I. How I Began My Career of Crime 11 + + II. The Secret of the Stolen Gainsborough--And the + Lesson of the Career of Raymond, the "Prince of + Safe Blowers," Who Built a Millionaire's Residence + in a Fashionable London Suburb and Kept a Yacht + with a Crew of 20 Men in the Mediterranean 37 + + III. How I Escaped from Sing Sing, and Other Daring + Escapes from Prison That Profited Us Nothing 62 + + IV. Women Criminals of Extraordinary Ability with + Whom I Was in Partnership 89 + + V. How I Faced Death, How My Husband Was Shot, and + Some Narrow Escapes of My Companions 118 + + VI. Behind the Scenes at a $3,000,000 Burglary--the + Robbery of the Manhattan Bank of New York 146 + + VII. Bank Burglars Who Disguised Themselves as Policemen + and Other Ingenious Schemes Used by Thieves + in Bold Attempts to Get Out Their Plunder 173 + +VIII. Promoters of Crime--People Who Plan Robberies and + Act as "Backers" for Professional Criminals--The + Extraordinary "Mother" Mandelbaum, "Queen of + the Thieves," and Grady, Who Had Half a + Dozen Gangs of Cracksmen Working for Him 186 + + IX. Surprising Methods of the Thieves Who Work Only + During Business Hours and Walk Away with Thousands + of Dollars Under the Very Eyes of the Bank + Officials 212 + + X. Startling Surprises That Confront Criminals--How + Unexpected Happenings Suddenly Develop and Upset + Carefully Laid Plans and Cause the Burglars Arrest + or Prevent His Getting Expected Plunder 225 + + XI. Thrilling Events Which Crowded One Short Week of + My Life--How I Profited Nothing from All the + Risks I Faced 238 + + XII. Good Deeds Which Criminals Do and Which Show + That Even the Worst Thief Is Never Wholly Bad 250 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The publishers believe that a picture of life sketched by a master +hand--somebody who stands in the world of crime as Edison does in his +field or as Morgan and Rockefeller do in theirs--could not fail to be +impressive and valuable and prove the oft repeated statement that crime +does not pay. + +Such a person is Sophie Lyons, the most remarkable and the greatest +criminal of modern times. This extraordinary woman is herself a +striking evidence that crime does not pay and that the same energy +and brains exerted in honest endeavor win enduring wealth and +respectability. She has abandoned her earlier career and has lately +accumulated a fortune of half a million dollars, honestly acquired by +her own unaided business ability. + +Sophie Lyons was a "thief from the cradle," as one Chief of Police +said; at the early age of six years she had already been trained by her +stepmother to be a pickpocket and a shoplifter. A beautiful child with +engaging manners, she was sent out every day into the stores and among +the crowds of shoppers, and was soundly whipped if she came out of a +shop with less than three pocketbooks. "I did not know it was wrong to +steal; nobody ever taught me that," Sophie Lyons writes. "What I was +told was wrong and what I was punished for was when I came home with +only one pocketbook instead of many." + +As the child grew into womanhood she was conspicuously beautiful, and +soon became known as "Pretty Sophie." Then romance entered her life +and she married Ned Lyons, the famous bank burglar. Her husband was a +member of the great gang of expert safe-blowers who were the terror of +the police and the big banks of some years ago. + +Women are regarded as dangerous and are seldom taken into the +confidence of such criminals as these. But Sophie Lyons was not only +welcomed to their councils, but was taken along with them to the actual +scenes of their operations. Many of the most daring bank robberies +were, indeed, planned by her and to her quick brain and resourcefulness +the burglars often owed their success. + +Sophie Lyons became famous not only among the burglars who work with +dark lantern and jimmy but also among those specialists who are called +"bank sneaks"--the daring men who walk into banks in broad daylight, +in the midst of business, and get away with great bundles of money. +Her fame spread, too, among other specialists--the shoplifters, +pickpockets, confidence women, jewelry robbers, importers of forbidden +opium, and the men engaged in bringing Chinamen into the country (a +very profitable and hazardous field). + +For twenty-five years Sophie Lyons was "The Queen of the Bank +Burglars," the active leader of many expeditions in various parts +of the world, and with her were associated about all of the great +criminals of Europe and America. It has been said that she has been +arrested in nearly every large city in America, and in every country +in Europe except Turkey. She has served sentences in several prisons, +and, on one occasion, her husband, Ned Lyons, was in Sing Sing while +she herself was confined in the women's wing of the prison across the +road. Ned Lyons managed to make his escape and very soon drove up to +the women's prison and effected the escape of his wife, Sophie Lyons. + +But all this belongs to the past. Sophie Lyons has learned that her new +life as a respected woman is the only one that is really worth while. +The comfortable fortune she has now honestly accumulated has proved +that it is not true that "once a thief always a thief." + +The actual happenings in her career have been more extraordinary than +the imagination of any novelist has dreamed; more surprising than any +scene on the stage. + +Yet nearly every one of those whose exploits she has recounted here +is now an outcast, has served a good share of life in prison, is in +poverty, or has died poor. Surely, as she has asserted again and +again--and hopes to abundantly prove--CRIME DOES NOT PAY. + +This great truth forced itself upon her after many, many years of +profitless life in the Underworld. And her own life experience and her +present fortune of half a million dollars, all honestly acquired, have +demonstrated that half the industry and ability that great criminals +expend will return them richer and more enduring success in honest +fields of endeavor. + + + + +SOPHIE LYONS + +QUEEN OF THE BURGLARS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +HOW I BEGAN MY CAREER OF CRIME + + +I was not quite six years old when I stole my first pocketbook. I was +very happy because I was petted and rewarded; my wretched stepmother +patted my curly head, gave me a bag of candy, and said I was a "good +girl." + +My stepmother was a thief. My good father never knew this. He went to +the war at President Lincoln's call for troops and left me with his +second wife, my stepmother. + +Scarcely had my father's regiment left New York than my stepmother +began to busy herself with my education--not for a useful career, but +for a career of crime. Patiently she instructed me, beginning with +the very rudiments of thieving--how to help myself to things that lay +unprotected in candy shops, drug stores and grocery stores. I was made +to practice at home until my childish fingers had acquired considerable +dexterity. + +Finally, I was told that money was the really valuable thing to +possess, and that the successful men and women were those who could +take pocketbooks. With my stepmother as the model to practice on I +was taught how to open shopping bags, feel out the loose money or +the pocketbook and get it into my little hands without attracting +the attention of my victims. In those days leather bags were not +common--most women carried cloth or knitted shopping bags. I was +provided with a very sharp little knife and was carefully instructed +how to slit open the bags so that I could get my fingers in. + +And at last, when I had arrived at a sufficient degree of proficiency, +I was taken out by my stepmother and we traveled over into New York's +shopping district. I was sent into a store and soon came out with a +pocketbook--my stepmother petted me and rewarded me. + + +ARRESTED FOR PICKING POCKETS + +That was the beginning of my career as a professional criminal. I did +not know it was wrong to steal; nobody ever taught me that. What I was +told was wrong, and what I was punished for was when I came home with +only one pocketbook instead of many. + +All during my early childhood I did little but steal, and was +never sent to school. I did not learn to read or write until I was +twenty-five years old. If my stepmother brought me to a place where +many persons congregated and I was slow in getting pocketbooks and +other articles, she would stick a pin into my arm to remind me that I +must be more industrious. If a pin was not convenient she would step on +my toes or pinch me when occasion made her think I was in need of some +such stimulant. + +One time we went over to Hoboken to a place where a merry-go-round +was operating, and my stepmother sent me into the crowds to take +pocketbooks and anything else I could put my hands on. A detective saw +me take a woman's pocketbook and he carried me off to jail in his arms, +my stepmother disappearing in the crowd. I remained in the Hoboken jail +several days and was very happy there, for the policemen used to give +me candy and let me play around the place, and did not beat me, as my +stepmother used to do. A strange woman came and took me home, for my +absence was felt because of the loss of the money I used to bring home +every night. I was arrested very often when a small girl, but usually +got out after a few days, as my stepmother knew how to bring influence +to bear in my favor. One time I was sent to Randall's Island and used +to play with the daughters of the assistant superintendent, whose name +was Jones. The little girls learned from their father that I was a +thief, and they used to sympathize with me and make things pleasant, +knowing that it was not my fault, but the fault of my stepmother, who +forced me to do wrong. + + +A THIEF FROM THE CRADLE + +I did most of my stealing when a little girl by putting my hands into +men's and women's pockets, but I also used to cut a hole in the bags +carried by women--and then insert my fingers and take out the money or +other things I found there, as I have already mentioned. Hardly a day +passed when I did not steal a considerable sum of money, and many days +I would take home more than a hundred dollars. Sometimes I would forget +my work and be attracted to a store window and buy a doll for myself to +pet. When I went home to my house and sat down on the steps to cuddle +my doll my stepmother or my brother would come out and catch me up and +give me a good many hard knocks for neglecting my duty--and the only +duty I knew in those days was to steal, and never stop stealing. + +More than once when I would dread going home I would have myself +arrested by stealing so a policeman could see me do it. But it didn't +help me much, for my stepmother never failed to get me out of jail +within a few days after my arrest. It seemed so natural for me to steal +that one time when I was arrested the policeman asked me what I was +doing, and I said frankly, "Picking pockets." He asked me how many I +got, and I said, "I don't know; I gave them all to my mama." + +Every day I would wear a different kind of dress so as not to attract +attention, in case anybody who saw me steal something the day before +happened to be around. My stepmother was wise enough to disguise me +in this way, and it enabled me to keep working for a long time in the +same place. My stepmother would take me into the department stores and +wait outside for me. If I came out with enough money to satisfy her +she would say nothing, but march me off home or to another store for +more money, but if I came out with less than she expected, then I would +get the pin pricks or pinches, and be made to feel that I had done +something wrong in not working harder and stealing more. + +I was, indeed, as one chief of police once said, "A thief from the +cradle." Surrounding my childhood and youth there was not one wholesome +or worthy influence. My friends and companions were always criminals, +and it is not surprising that in my early womanhood I should have +fallen in love with a bank burglar--Ned Lyons. + +Following this romance came motherhood and an awakening within me of +at least one worthy resolve--that, whatever had been my career, I +certainly would see that my children were given the benefit of a tender +mother love, which I had never had, and that my little ones should be +surrounded with every pure and wholesome influence. + +The first few years of my married life were divided between my little +ones and the necessary exactions which my career imposed on me. Ned +Lyons, my husband, was a member of the boldest and busiest group +of bank robbers in the world. Here and there, all over the Eastern +States, we went on expeditions, forcing the vaults of the biggest and +richest banks in the country. We had money in plenty, but we spent +money foolishly. When we crept out of the vaults of the great Manhattan +Bank in the early morning hours of the night of that famous robbery, +we had nearly $3,000,000 in money, bonds and securities. And from the +Northampton Bank we took $200,000, if I remember correctly. + +But we had our troubles. My husband, Ned Lyons, was a desperate +scoundrel, and was constantly in difficulties. My desire was to be with +my little ones, but the gang of burglars with whom I was associated had +learned to make me useful, and they insisted on my accompanying them on +their expeditions. I will explain fully in following chapters just what +my part was in many of their various exploits. + +Ned Lyons was hungry for money--money, more money--and the desperate +risks he took and his continual activity took me away from the children +much of the time. + + +MY ESCAPE FROM SING SING + +Always there was something going on, and I had very little peace. Early +one winter Ned Lyons, in connection with Jimmy Hope, George Bliss, Ira +Kingsland and others, blew open the safe of the Waterford, New York, +Bank, and secured $150,000. Lyons and two others were caught, convicted +and sent to Sing Sing Prison. + +It was not long before I myself was captured, convicted and also sent +to Sing Sing for five years. But my husband managed to escape from the +prison one December afternoon, and he lost no time in arranging for my +escape from the women's section of the prison, which was a separate +building just across the road from the main prison. + +I was all ready, of course, and when my husband drove up in a sleigh, +wonderfully well disguised, wearing a handsome fur coat, and carrying +a woman's fur coat on his arm, I made my escape and joined him. I will +tell the details of how my husband and I got out of Sing Sing in a +subsequent article. + +We both went into hiding and made our way to Canada, where Ned, being +short of funds, broke into a pawnbroker's safe and helped himself to +$20,000 in money and diamonds. With these funds in our pockets we +returned to New York, and I kept in hiding as well as I could until my +husband, with George Mason and others, robbed the bank at Wellsboro, +Pennsylvania. Shortly afterward my husband was arrested while engaged +on a job at Riverhead, L. I., and $13,000 worth of railroad bonds were +taken from his pockets. + +My husband could not let drink alone, and one day he had a street +fight with the notorious Jimmy Haggerty, a burglar, who was afterward +killed by "Reddy the Blacksmith" in a saloon fight on Houston Street +and Broadway. During the fight between Haggerty and Ned Lyons Haggerty +managed to bite off the greater portion of my husband's left ear. This +was a great misfortune to him as it served as a means of identification +ever after. On another occasion, in a drunken dispute, Ned Lyons was +shot at the Star and Garter saloon on Sixth Avenue by "Ham" Brock, a +Boston character, who fired two shots, one striking Lyons in the jaw +and the other in the body. + +My husband soon had the bad luck to be caught in the act of breaking +into a jewelry store in South Windham, Conn. As soon as he knew he was +discovered, my husband tried to make his escape, and the police shot +him as he ran, putting one bullet hole through his body and imbedding +another ball in his back. + +He was also caught in the burglary of a post-office at Palmer, +Massachusetts, where they took the safe out of the store, carried +it a short distance out of the village, broke it open, and took the +valuables. As I have already said, the men had found me very helpful +and insisted on my accompanying them on most of their expeditions. +Always, if an arrest was made, I was relied upon to get them out of +trouble. This took time, money, and resourcefulness, and kept me away +from my little ones against my will. + +During this time my children were approaching an age when it would +no longer do to have them in our home. Our unexplained absences, our +midnight departures, our hurried return in the early morning hours +with masks, burglars' tools, and satchels full of stolen valuables +would arouse curiosity in their little minds. One thing I had sworn +to do--to safeguard my little ones from such wretched influences as +had surrounded my childhood. With this in view I sent my little boy +and my little girl to schools where I felt sure of kind treatment and +a religious atmosphere. And I paid handsomely to make sure that they +would receive every care and consideration. + + +I SEE WHY CRIME DOES NOT PAY + +I had scarcely gotten the children well placed in excellent schools +in Canada when my husband was caught in one of his robberies. I +busied myself with lawyers and spent all the money we had on hand, +to no avail, and he was given a long prison sentence. Just at this +unfortunate moment I was myself arrested in New York and given a six +months' term of imprisonment. + +On my account I did not care--but what would become of my children? My +sources of income had been brought to a sudden stop. I had no money to +send to pay my children's expenses. Then, for the first time, I felt +the full horror of a criminal's life. I resolved for my children's sake +to find a way to support them honestly. I realized the full truth that +crime does not pay. + +As I went on day after day serving my term in prison my thoughts +were always about my little ones. The frightful recollections of my +own childhood had developed in me an abnormal mother love. At last +I resolved to write to the institutions where my boy and girl were +located and explain that I was unavoidably detained and out of funds, +but promising to generously repay them for continuing to care for my +children. + +But I was too late. The newspapers had printed an account of my arrest, +and when it reached the ears of the convent and college authorities +where my boy and girl were stopping it filled them with indignation +to think that a professional thief had the audacity to place her +children under their care. So they immediately took steps to get rid +of the innocent youngsters, in spite of the fact that I had paid far +in advance for their board and tuition. The boy was shipped off in +haste to the poorhouse, and my dear little girl was sent to a public +orphanage, from which she was adopted by a man named Doyle, who was a +customs inspector in Canada at the time. + +When my six months were up my first thoughts were of my children, and +I started off to visit them, thinking, of course, that they were still +in the institutions where I had placed them. I called at the convent, +and when they saw me coming one of the sisters locked the door in my +face. I was astounded at this, but determined to know what it meant. As +my repeated knocks did not open the door, I resorted to a more drastic +method and began to kick on the panels quite vigorously. The inmates of +the convent became alarmed at my persistence and feared that the door +would be broken open, so they thought it best to open and let me in. I +then demanded to know the cause of their peculiar conduct, and one of +them spoke up, saying: + +"You are a thief, and we do not want you here." + +"Oh, is that it?" I replied. "Well, where is my little girl? I want to +see her." + +"Your child has been placed in a respectable family, and you will not +be permitted to see her," answered the sister. + +Then my blood began to boil with fury, and I demanded to know why they +had sent my girl away without letting me know, especially as I had +given them considerable money, and they knew all her expenses would +be paid. But she refused to give me any satisfaction. In desperation +I sprang at her. She screamed and called for help. The mother +superior then made her appearance and, dismayed at the sight of the +determination I had displayed, she reluctantly gave me the address of +the man who had my little girl. + +I did not have a dollar with me at the time, but started off to walk to +Mr. Doyle's house, which was some distance in the country. After a few +hours' walking I met a man driving by in a buggy, and he stopped and +offered me a ride. I, of course, accepted his invitation and got into +the buggy. He asked me where I was going, and I said I was searching +for a man named Doyle. He wanted my name and the nature of my business, +but I said that information would be given to Mr. Doyle himself, and +nobody else. He then said his name was Doyle, and asked me my name, and +I told him I was Sophie Lyons. As soon as he heard this he stopped the +horse and ordered me out of the buggy, and shouted: + +"You are a very bad woman. I have your little girl. I'm going to keep +her. You are not a fit mother, and should be kept in jail, where you +belong." + + +FOR MY CHILDREN'S SAKE + +"We will not discuss that here," I replied. "What I want now is to see +my little girl, and I wish you would drive me to your house." + +"You shall never see your child, and you had better not come near my +house," he cried as he whipped up his horse and was soon out of sight, +leaving me alone on the road. + +I continued my walk, however, and shortly afterward reached the Doyle +house and stood outside the gate, while Doyle, with his two sons and +two hired men and a dog, watched me from the piazza. I stood there a +few moments, and then Doyle came out and asked me what I was doing +there, and demanded that I leave the neighborhood at once. He said: +"This is my home, and you must go away." + +"It may be your home, Mr. Doyle," I answered, "but my child is in +there, and I am going to wait here until I see her." + +"I have adopted your girl," he said, "and she will be better off here +than with you." + +"It takes two to make a bargain," I said, "and you did not get my +consent when you adopted the girl." + +Realizing that it was useless to try to persuade me, he went inside and +left me at the gate, where I stood waiting developments. After another +long wait Doyle came out again and said: + +"Are you still there? What do you want? You know very well it is better +for the girl that she remain with us, and not with a thief like you. I +will take good care of her, but you shall not see her." + +"I know my rights," I replied, "and I will hire a lawyer and compel +the convent authorities to show me their books and explain what they +have done with the thousands of dollars I left with them to care for my +girl. I will make it hot for you and for them before I finish." + +This threat must have frightened him a little, for he then asked me if +I had had anything to eat that day, and I told him I had not. Then he +invited me into the house to get some food, and said he would hitch up +the buggy and drive me back to town. I said: + + +A MOTHER'S LOVE WINS AT LAST + +"No, you will not drive me back to town. I will not go back without my +girl." + +"Now, be reasonable, Mrs. Lyons," he said. "Your little girl is happy +here, and she does not like you because you are a bad woman." + +"Well," I answered, "if she does not like her mother then you have made +her feel that way; you have taught her to dislike me." + +After a little more parleying he went into the house and sent out my +little girl to talk to me. + +"My darling," I said, "don't you want to kiss your own mother?" + +"No," she said; "I do not like you, because you are a thief. You are +not my mother at all." + +My eyes filled with tears at this, and with sobs in my voice I asked +her if she did not remember the little prayers I had taught her and the +many happy hours we had spent together. The little dear said: + +"Yes, I remember the prayers, but I do not want to see you. You are a +thief! Go away, please!" + +Those words cut me to the heart--from my own precious daughter. And +again I was made to realize that crime does not pay! + +I lost no time in setting matters in motion which very soon brought +back to my arms my daughter. Meanwhile I hastened to the academy where +my little boy had been left and demanded to see him. When my boy was +brought out to me he was in a disgraceful condition, he seemed to have +been utterly neglected, his clothing was ragged and his face as dirty +as a chimney sweep's. I was shocked at this and demanded an explanation +from the professor who had charge of the institution. He turned on me +angrily, and said: + +"You have an amazing assurance to place your good-for-nothing brat +among honest children. How dare you give us an assumed name and impose +on us in this manner? Get your brat out of here at once, for if honest +parents knew your character they would take their children out of the +school without delay." + +"A false name, is it?" I said to the proud professor. "What name did +you give when you were caught in a disreputable house?" + +This remark startled him. He changed his manner at once and implored me +to speak lower and not let anybody know what I said. I had recognized +this professor as a man who had visited Detroit a year or so before +and had been caught in a disreputable resort by the police on one of +their raids. The professor, of course, did not imagine that anybody +in Detroit had known him, and so he thought it perfectly safe to +assume the rôle of superior virtue. He apologized for his neglect of +my child and begged me to forget the abuse he had heaped upon me. I +congratulated myself that the child had not heard his remarks to me, +and I departed with my boy. + +But my joy over the fact that my little one had not had his mother's +wickedness revealed to him was of short duration. I had brought the +child to Detroit, where I had begun preparations to make a permanent +home, honestly, I hoped. Several persons there owed me money, and among +them a barber I had befriended. I tried persistently to get from him +what he owed me, but without success. + +When I returned home after a little trip I was compelled to make to New +York, my boy came up to me, crying, and said: + +"Mamma, I don't want to live around here any more." + +I wondered what could have caused the poor boy to speak that way, so I +patted him on the back and said: + +"Why, what is the matter, dearie? Don't you like this street any more?" + +"Mamma," he sobbed, "I heard something about you which makes me feel +awful bad, but I know it isn't true, is it, mamma?" + +"Tell me, child, what is it?" + +"Well," he answered, "Mr. Wilson, the barber, asked me the day after +you left to go downtown on a trip with him, and I went along. He took +me into a large building which I heard was the police station. He asked +a man to let him see some pictures, and when he got the pictures he +showed me one of them which he said was you; and he said you were a +thief and the police had to keep your picture so they could find you +when you stole things," and then the boy began to sob as if his poor +heart would break. + +The man had taken my boy down to the police station and had shown him +my picture in the rogues' gallery. And again the realization was forced +in on me by the reproachful gaze of my boy that crime does not pay. + +For a time I managed to get along fairly well and was able by honest +efforts to have a little home and to have my children with me. But +my old career came up to haunt me and many refused to have business +dealings with me when they were informed of my earlier life. At last +I was at the end of my resources--should I lose my little home and my +children, or should I go back once more, just once more to my old life? + +The struggle between my two impulses was finally settled by a visit +from two of my old acquaintances of the underworld--Tom Bigelow and +Johnny Meaney. They came to ask my help in a promising job which they +felt sure would be a success if they could enlist my services--there +would be at least $50,000 for me, they said. + +"Big Tom" Bigelow was an old-time professional bank burglar, who had +learned his business under such leaders as Jimmy Hope and Langdon W. +Moore--men who had never found any bank or any vault too much for their +skill. Little Johnny Meaney was one of the cleverest "bank sneaks" that +ever lived. He would perform the most amazing feats in getting behind +bank counters and walking off with large bundles of money. He was so +quick and noiseless in his work that he would never have been arrested +but for his fondness for women and drink. When under the influence of +champagne he would confide in some strange woman he had met only a few +days before, and in order to get the reward some of the women would +tell the police where to find Johnny. + +He had granulated eyelids, and his inflamed eyes were so conspicuous +that he could always be recognized easily. He was married and had +several children. His wife never knew the kind of work he did. He +had a quarrelsome temper, and always got into some dispute with every +woman he met, and usually left them feeling unfavorably disposed toward +him. Many of the girls who betrayed him did so more through resentment +than anything else. I mention these things to show how personal +peculiarities and temperament are often serious menaces to criminals. + +Meaney's specialty was day work. He would walk into a bank during +business hours and sneak behind the counter and pick up everything he +could lay his hands on. He never did any night work, and knew nothing +about safe blowing. As a rule, a man who makes a specialty of night +work, with dark lantern, mask, and jimmy, will not attempt any sneak +work, and the first-class sneak will not undertake night work. The +night robber is guided by the moon, and oftentimes a job will be called +off because the cracksmen think the moon is not right for the work. The +darker the night the better. But the bank sneak prefers daylight of the +brightest kind. He often works right under the eyes of a room full of +clerks, and the bigger the crowd in the streets the easier for him to +make his escape and lose himself among them. + + +HOW I PLANNED A BANK ROBBERY + +It was a "bank sneak" job they had in mind. The bank was in a small New +Jersey city, near enough to New York so that we could lose ourselves +in our old haunts on the East Side before the detectives should get hot +on our trail. + +I went to the town in advance of the other members of the party and +rented a small cottage, posing as a widow who planned to settle down +there and live on the income of her husband's insurance money. + +Soon after settling in my new quarters, I visited the bank and opened a +small account. I found the cashier a man who fitted in perfectly with +our dishonest designs. He must have been nearly seventy years old and +he could not hear or see so well as he should for the security of the +funds in his charge. + +I saw right away that he was very susceptible to pretty women and was +quite willing to drop his work at any time for a half hour's chat with +such a comely widow as I looked to be. My task was to look the ground +over, find out where the cash was kept, and how and when access to it +could best be secured. It was the simplest thing in the world to get +these facts after I had worked my way into the cashier's good graces. + +I quickly saw that the most favorable time for the robbery was between +the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock, when the other two men in the bank went +to their homes for lunch, leaving the institution in the charge of +the old cashier. At that time the door of the vault was open, and the +bundles of currency and securities lay there in full view, ready for us +to take away. + +It would be an easy matter for Johnny Meaney, who was a small, wiry +fellow, light and quiet on his feet as a cat, to slip in through a side +entrance while I held the cashier's attention with one of my harmless +flirtations and gain access to the vault through the door in the wire +cage, which was almost invariably left unlocked. Even if it should be +locked on the day we set for the robbery, it would be a simple matter +for Johnny to get inside with the aid of one of his skeleton keys. + +Accordingly I sent word to my two comrades that the coast was clear and +to come on at once. They arrived in due time and, after looking the +ground over, confirmed my own judgment that the robbery was an easy one +and could be carried out with little risk according to the plan I had +made. + +The following Tuesday was the day set, because on that day, as I had +found out, the bank generally had a large amount of cash on hand. +The time fixed was between 12 and 12:30 o'clock, when the assistant +cashier, the bookkeeper, and practically all the rest of the town were +at their noonday meal. + +Everything was definitely settled unless my visit to the bank on Monday +should reveal some unlooked-for hitch. + +The cashier had become thoroughly accustomed to the "pretty widow's" +habit of dropping in on him every day at the noon hour, and he was +exceedingly glad to see me when I entered as usual, Monday, and began +a series of questions about some fictitious investments of mine in the +West. Alas! how well I remember how that vain old man enjoyed his +innocent flirtation, little suspecting that the object of his regard +was there only to make sure that nothing had happened to disarrange the +plans for to-morrow's robbery. + + +WHAT DELAYED OUR PLANS + +Luckily for me the bookkeeper was just starting for lunch when I took +my accustomed place outside the cashier's window. I had seen the door +through which he had to pass to get from inside the wire cage to the +outer part of the bank opened and shut a hundred times; and I had +always noted with satisfaction not only that it was seldom locked but +also that its hinges never gave even the slightest squeak. + +But at this moment a most unexpected thing happened. + +As the bookkeeper turned the knob of the wire-screen door and opened it +a most unearthly scream came from the iron hinges. + +The clerk passed on, and the door lazily swung back behind him with +another piercing screech that filled me with dismay. + +No watch-dog could have sounded a more certain alarm than those hinges. +My heart sank as I realized how impossible it would be for Johnny +Meaney to pass in and out of that creaking door without detection. +Bringing my conversation to a hurried close, I went to tell my comrades +how our hopes had been dashed by the unexpected development of a squeak +in those bothersome hinges. + +The difficulty seemed insurmountable until Johnny Meaney, always a +quick-witted, resourceful thief, showed us a way out. His suggestion +was that the robbery be postponed for a week and that in the meantime +we call in the aid of another well-known bank sneak named Bill Taylor, +to fix those refractory hinges. + +This seemed the only possible solution of the problem, as that +squeaking had to be stopped, and it was not safe for either of my +companions to attempt it. Accordingly, Meaney went back to New York to +make the necessary arrangements, and a few days later Taylor appeared +on the scene as the suave, well dressed representative of the company +which had built the vault for this bank. + +On presentation of his neatly engraved card, Taylor was readily given +permission to inspect the vault. During the afternoon he spent in the +bank he called attention to the squeaky hinges and suggested that he +apply to them some very excellent machine oil he had with him. This he +did and the door moved as noiselessly as before. + +And incidentally, while Taylor was masquerading as the traveling agent +of the safe company and had the freedom of the bank that afternoon he +took occasion to fit a key to the wire door. Not that Johnny Meaney +could not attend to this himself in case he found the door locked, but +Taylor thought he might as well make everything as smooth as possible +for Meaney. + +Everything was now in shape, and we decided to rob the bank next day. +Just at noon, as the big clock on the Municipal Building was striking +12, I came up the steps of the bank and greeted the old cashier with my +customary smile. The bookkeeper and the four other clerks were passing +out of the side door to their lunch. Suddenly I spilled out of my hand +right in front of the cashier a handful of large coins in such a way +that two silver dollars rolled past him and dropped on the floor inside +the wire cage. As he laboriously stooped to pick them up I strained my +neck and eyes to examine quickly everything inside the cage to make +sure that all the bank clerks had gone out--that nobody remained behind +the wire railing except the aged cashier. + +Moving over as far as possible to one side of the cashier's window, I +drew the old cashier's attention to a photograph of a little child in +a locket. This brought the back of his head toward the side door of +the bank. As he leaned his face down to see it more closely I caught a +glimpse out of the corner of my eye of the shadow-like form of Johnny +Meaney. + +Noiselessly he had come in through the side door. Like a cat he +crept to the wire door. With my ears strained for the faintest alarm +from those treacherous hinges, I listened as I kept up a rapid fire +conversation to hold the attention of the aged cashier. + +The wire door swung open noiselessly; Meaney was crouching low; I had +lost my view of him as he crept toward the big open door of the bank +vault. + +On the sidewalk, pacing slowly up and down in front of the side +door, was "Big Tom" Bigelow. He was the "outside man" of the job and, +although I could not see him, I knew he was on the alert to intercept +anybody who might happen in. With some excuse he must stop any clerk +who tried to enter through the side door--I myself must intercept any +clerk who might chance to return from lunch and enter by the front +entrance. + + +WE GET OUR PLUNDER + +With increasing vivaciousness, I rattled along entertaining the +cashier. In a few moments I saw the wire door gently open as if by a +spirit hand. Creeping low along the floor, a shadow crossed the little +corridor to the outside door; noiselessly it opened and closed--the +work was done! + +And thus this job, which had taken us weeks to plan, was done in less +than five minutes from the time I entered the bank until Meaney stole +out of a back door with his satchel full of bank notes and securities. +Then the three of us quickly made our way by separate routes to New +York. + +The loss was not discovered until it came time to close the vault for +the day, and we thus had nearly three hours' start of the police. A +large reward was offered and numerous detectives engaged, but no one +was ever arrested for this crime. I am just vain enough to think that +the old cashier was probably very reluctant to believe his pretty widow +had a share in the robbery, in spite of her mysterious disappearance +on the very day it occurred. + +Our plunder amounted to $150,000, of which $20,000 was cash and the +rest good negotiable bonds. The money was divided and I undertook the +marketing of the securities, which were finally disposed of through +various channels for $78,000, or about 60 per cent. of their value. + +Those squeaky door hinges cost Meaney, Bigelow, and myself about $6,000 +apiece, for through the addition of Taylor to our party we had to +divide the spoils among four persons instead of three. After paying my +expenses, my share of these ill-gotten gains amounted to about $20,000. +This I thought ample to provide for the wants of my children until I +could establish myself in some honorable business, and I returned to +Detroit fully determined never again to risk, as I had, a long prison +term. + +But my good resolutions were short lived. Two weeks later word came +that my husband was in jail for complicity in an attempted bank robbery +which had been nipped in the bud and urgently needed my assistance. It +took several thousand dollars of the money for which I had paid so dear +to secure his liberty, and the remainder soon melted away before the +numerous needs of my little brood and my husband's unfortunate gambling +propensities. + +Here I was again just where I was before the robbery of that New Jersey +bank. My money was gone, my old reputation still pursued me, nobody +would trust me; "once a thief, always a thief," they said; nobody +believed in my sincere desire to abandon my early career and lead an +honest life. + +I did not feel vindictive at the sneers at my protestations of a desire +to earn an honest living--I could not blame anybody for doubting my +sincerity. But my home and my little ones, dearer to me than life, what +was to become of them? Was there no way to escape from my wretched +career? If ever a woman and a mother realized that crime does not pay, +I was made to learn that truth. + +It is a long and difficult road--the narrow path that leads from crime +to honest living. I have traveled it, thank heaven! but it was hard, it +was slow--and many times I strayed from the path. + +Some of my companions of the old days traveled that road with me. A +few, a very few, succeeded as I did at last. Many gave it up, turned +back. A thousand episodes of my career and of their misguided lives all +illuminate the one great inevitable fact that crime does not pay! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SECRET OF THE STOLEN GAINSBOROUGH--AND THE LESSON OF THE CAREER +OF RAYMOND, THE "PRINCE OF SAFE BLOWERS," WHO BUILT A MILLIONAIRE'S +RESIDENCE IN A FASHIONABLE LONDON SUBURB AND KEPT A YACHT WITH A CREW +OF 20 MEN IN THE MEDITERRANEAN + + +It was on the morning of May 15, several years ago, that the manager of +Agnew's great art gallery in London turned the key in the lock of the +private gallery to show an art patron the famous "Gainsborough." His +amiable smile faded from his lips as he came face to face with an empty +gilt frame. + +The great $125,000 painting had been cut from its frame. + +Who stole this masterpiece? How was it stolen? Could it be recovered? + +The best detectives of Europe and America were asked to find answers to +these questions. They never did. I will answer them here for the first +time to-day. + +The man who cut the Gainsborough from its frame was a millionaire, he +was an associate of mine, he was a bank burglar. Adam Worth, or Harry +Raymond, as he was known to his friends, did not need the money and +he did not want the painting--he entered that London art gallery at 3 +o'clock in the morning and took that roll of canvas out under his arm +for a purpose that nobody suspected. I will explain all this presently. + +I have said that Raymond was a millionaire, and I said in previous +chapters that crime does not pay--how is it possible to reconcile these +two statements? We shall see. + +Among all my old acquaintances and associates in the criminal world, +perhaps no one serves better as an example of the truth that crime does +not pay than this very millionaire burglar, this man who had earned +the title of the "Prince of Safe Blowers." For a time he seemed to +have everything his heart could desire--a mansion, servants, liveried +equipages, a yacht; and it all crumbled away like a house of cards, +vanished like the wealth of Aladdin in the Arabian Nights. And so +Raymond, most "successful" bank robber of the day, lived to learn the +lesson that crime does not pay. + +Raymond was a Massachusetts boy--bright, wide awake, but headstrong. +Born of an excellent family and well educated, he formed bad habits and +developed a passion for gambling. + + +RAYMOND'S FIRST CRIMES + +Unable to earn honestly all he needed to gratify his passion for +gambling, Raymond soon drifted into the companionship of some +professional thieves he had met in the army. From that time his +downfall was rapid; he never earned another honest dollar. Like myself +and many other criminals who later achieved notoriety in broader +fields, he first tried picking pockets. He had good teachers and he +was an apt pupil. His long, slender fingers seemed just made for the +delicate task of slipping watches out of men's pockets and purses out +of women's handbags. Soon he had plenty of money and a wide reputation +for his cleverness in escaping arrest. + +Aside from his love for faro and roulette, Raymond was always a +prudent, thrifty man. In those early days he picked pockets so +skillfully and disposed of his booty to the "fences" so shrewdly +that it was not long before he had enough capital to finance other +criminals. The first manifestation of the executive ability which was +one day to make him a power in the underworld was his organization of +a band of pickpockets. Raymond's word was law with the little group of +young thieves he gathered around him. He furnished the brains to keep +them out of trouble and the cash to get them out if by chance they got +in. Every morning they met in a little Canal Street restaurant to take +their orders from him--at night they came back to hand him a liberal +share of the day's earnings. + +But even the enormous profits of this syndicate of pickpockets were not +enough to satisfy Raymond's restless ambition. He began to cast envious +eyes at men like my husband (Ned Lyons), Big Jim Brady, Dan Noble, Tom +Bigelow, and other bank sneaks and burglars whom he met in the places +where criminals gathered. These men were big, strong, good-looking +fellows. Their work looked easy--it was certainly exciting. They had +long intervals of leisure and were always well supplied with money. "If +these men can make a good living robbing banks," thought Raymond, "why +can't I?" + +It was through Raymond's itching to get into bank work that I first +met him. One day he came into a restaurant where my husband and I were +sitting, and Mr. Lyons introduced him to me. I myself saw little in him +to impress me, but when he had gone my husband said: "That fellow will +be a great thief some day." + + +AMBITIOUS TO BE A BANK BURGLAR + +It was hard for a young man to get a foothold with an organized party +of bank robbers, for the more experienced men were reluctant to risk +their chances of success by taking on a beginner. + +"No doubt you're all right," they told him, "but you can see yourself +that we can't afford to have anybody around that hasn't had experience +in our line of business. It's too risky for us, and it wouldn't be fair +to you." + +"But how am I going to get experience if some of you chaps don't give +me a chance?" Raymond replied; but still he got no encouragement from +my husband and his companions. + +"All right," he finally said one day. "I'll show you what I can do--I +won't be asking to be taken in with you; you will be asking me." + +So Raymond, in order to get experience, cheerfully made up his mind to +make his first attempt in that line alone. He broke into an express +company's office on Liberty Street and forced open a safe containing +$30,000 in gold. The inner box, however, in which the money was kept, +proved too much for Raymond's limited experience. To his great disgust, +daylight came before he was able to get it open. + +Tired and mad, Raymond trudged home in the gray of the morning, dusty, +greasy, and with his tools under his arm. The newspapers printed the +full details of the curious failure to reach the funds in the express +company's safe, and Ned Lyons and his companions guessed very quickly +whose work it was. Meeting Raymond a few days later, they accused him +of having done the bungling job. He admitted that the joke was on him, +and they all laughed loudly at his effort to get some experience. + +"You're all right," said Big Jim Brady. "You've got the right +idea--that's the only way to learn; keep at it and you will make a name +for yourself some day." + +His next undertaking was more successful. From the safe of an insurance +company in Cambridge, Mass., his native town, he took $20,000 in cash. +This established him as a bank burglar, and he soon became associated +with a gang of expert cracksmen, including Ike Marsh, Bob Cochran, and +Charley Bullard. + + +ROBBING THE BOYLSTON BANK + +Raymond was very proud of having gotten a footing among the big bank +burglars, whom he had long looked upon with respect and envy. After +several minor robberies Raymond became uneasy, and declared that he +wanted to do a really big job that would be worth while--something +that would astonish the police and would merit the respect of the big +professional bank burglars. + +[Illustration: ROBBING THE BOYLSTON BANK] + +Being a native of Massachusetts, he decided to give his attention to +something in his own State. He made a tour of inspection of all the +Boston banks, and decided that the famous Boylston Bank, the biggest in +the city, would suit him. + +And, in picking this great bank, Raymond had indeed selected an +undertaking which was worthy of his skill and daring. + +On Washington Street Raymond's quick eye at once discovered a vacant +shop adjoining the Boylston Bank. He rented this shop, ostensibly for a +patent medicine laboratory, filled the windows with bottles of bitters +and built a partition across the back of the shop. The partition was to +hide the piles of débris which would accumulate as the robbers burrowed +into the bank next door; the bottles in the window to prevent passersby +seeing too much of the interior. + +When news of this clever ruse of Raymond's came out in the papers after +the robbery, I made a note of it and used the same idea years later +in robbing an Illinois bank at its president's request. That is an +interesting chapter in my life which I will give you soon. + +Careful measurements had shown where the tunneling through the thick +walls of the bank could best be bored. Work was done only at night, and +in a week's time only a thin coating of plaster separated them from +the treasure. The robbers entered the vault on Saturday night, broke +open three safes which they found there and escaped with a million +dollars in cash and securities. After this crime America was not safe +for Raymond, so he and his comrades, including Charley Bullard, fled to +Europe. + +In Paris Bullard opened a gambling house, and there Raymond lived when +the criminal ventures from which he was amassing his first fortune +permitted. + +And now there entered into Raymond's life a very remarkable romance, +which almost caused him to reform. + +In one of the big Parisian hotels at this time was an Irish barmaid +named Kate Kelley. She was an unusually beautiful girl--a plump, +dashing blonde of much the same type Lillian Russell was years ago. +Bullard and Raymond both fell madly in love with her. + +The race for her favor was a close one, despite the fact that Bullard +was an accomplished musician, spoke several languages fluently, and +was in other ways Raymond's superior. The scales, however, were surely +turning in Raymond's favor when the rumor that he was a bank robber +reached Kate's ears. + +Raymond admitted this was the truth. But he never attempted to take +advantage of his friend Bullard by telling Kate that he also was a +thief. That was characteristic of the man. Criminal though he was, he +never stooped to anything mean or underhanded, and would stand by his +friends through thick and thin. Instead of trying to drag Bullard to +disappointment with him, he pleaded with Kate to forgive his past and +to help him make a fresh start. + +"Marry me," he urged, "and I'll never commit another crime. We'll go +to some distant land and I'll start all over again in some decent, +honorable business." + +But Kate would not be persuaded. She could not marry a self-confessed +thief--no, never! A month later she married Bullard, little dreaming +how glad the American police would be to lay their hands on him. +Raymond was best man at the wedding, and to his credit it should be +said that the bridal couple had no sincerer well-wisher than he. + + +RAYMOND'S GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT + +Kate never realized how she had been deceived until several years +later, when Bullard was given a prison sentence for running a crooked +gambling house. She got an inkling of the facts then and her husband +confessed the rest. By this time, however, she had two little children, +and her anxiety for them impelled her to become reconciled to the +situation and stick to her husband. After his release they left the +children in a French school, returned to this country, and took a +brown-stone house at the corner of Cumberland Street and De Kalb +Avenue, in Brooklyn. Here they installed all the costly furniture, +bric-à-brac, and paintings which had made Bullard's gambling house one +of the show places of Paris. + +Soon afterward Raymond also came to America, although there was a price +on his head for his share in the Boylston Bank robbery. He lived with +Kate and Bullard until the latter's jealousy caused a quarrel. Then he +went to London and laid the foundations for the international clearing +house of crime which for years had its headquarters in his luxurious +apartment in Piccadilly. + +With Raymond's cool, calculating brain no longer there to guide him, +Bullard became reckless and fell into the hands of the police. He was +sentenced to twenty years in prison. For her own and her children's +support his wife had nothing except the rich contents of the Brooklyn +home. She tried various ways of making a living, with poor success, and +was at last forced to offer a quantity of her paintings for sale in an +art store on Twenty-third Street. + +In this store one day she met Antonio Terry. His father was an +Irishman, his mother a native of Havana, and he had inherited millions +of dollars in Cuban sugar plantations. Young Terry was infatuated with +Kate's queenly beauty, and he laid siege to her heart so ardently +that she divorced her convict husband and married him. Two children +blessed this exceedingly happy marriage. Before Terry died he divided +his fortune equally among his wife, his own children, and the children +she had by her first husband. Kate Terry lived until 1895, and left an +estate valued at $6,000,000. She passed her last years in a magnificent +mansion on Fifth Avenue, surrounded by every luxury. + +Kate Kelley's refusal to marry Raymond was one of the great +disappointments of his unhappy life. He married another woman, but I am +sure he never forgot the winsome Irish barmaid who had won his heart +in Paris. "What's the news of Kate?" used to be his first question +whenever I arrived in London, and his face would fall if something +prevented my seeing her on my last visit to New York. Had this woman +become Raymond's wife I am confident that the whole course of his life +would have been changed, and that the world would have something to +remember him for besides an unbroken record of crime. + + +PLANNING THE GAINSBOROUGH ROBBERY + +As I have said, Raymond had not been long in London before he had +forced his way into a commanding position in the criminal world. The +cleverest thieves of every nation sought him out as soon as they set +foot in England. They sought his advice, carried out his orders, and +gladly shared with him the profits of their illegal enterprises. Crimes +in every corner of the globe were planned in his luxurious home--and +there, often, the final division of booty was made. + +No crime seemed too difficult or too daring for Raymond to undertake. +It was his almost unbroken record of success in getting large amounts +of plunder and in escaping punishment for crimes that gave the +underworld such confidence in him and made all the cleverest criminals +his accomplices. Another reason for his leadership was his unwavering +loyalty to his friends. Raymond never "squealed"--he never deserted a +friend. When one of his associates ran foul of the law he would give +as freely of his brains and money to secure his release as if his own +liberty were at stake. It was his loyalty to a friend--a thief named +Tom Warren--which led to his bold theft of the famous Gainsborough +portrait for which J. Pierpont Morgan later paid $125,000. Here is how +it came about: + +Warren was in jail in London for his share in one of Raymond's +forgeries. He was a great favorite of Raymond's and Harry vowed he +would have him out before his case ever came to trial. This, however, +was no easy matter, because England is not like this country, where +almost anyone can furnish bond. The bondsman in England must be a +freeholder and of good reputation. + +While Raymond was searching his fertile brain for some way out of the +difficulty, he and an English thief named Jack Philips happened to be +walking through Bond Street and noticed the large number of fashionable +carriages stopping at Agnew & Company's art gallery. To satisfy their +curiosity they entered the gallery and found that everybody was +crowding about a wonderful portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire, +painted by the master hand of the great artist Gainsborough. + +It was Gainsborough's masterpiece, and the Agnews were considering a +number of bids that had been made for the painting. They had one offer +of $100,000 from an American, but they were holding it on exhibition in +the belief that a still better bid would be made. + +Raymond stood long and thoughtfully on the edge of the crowd, studied +the painting, took in the doors, walls, windows, chatted with an +attendant, and slowly sauntered out, swinging his cane. + +"I have the idea," exclaimed Raymond the instant they were in the +street again. "We'll steal that picture and use it as a club to compel +the Agnews to go bail for Tom Warren." + +"You don't want that picture," said Philips. "It's a clumsy thing to do +anything with." + +"Of course I don't want the picture--but Agnew does," Raymond replied. +"If I get it and send word that Tom Warren, who is in jail, knows where +it's hidden--don't you suppose Agnew will hurry down to Old Bailey +Prison, bail poor Tom out mighty quick, and pay him something besides +if Warren digs up the picture for him?" + +"He might," admitted Philips. + +"Why, of course he will," persisted Raymond. "And it's the only way I +can see to make sure of getting Tom Warren out before he is called for +trial. When they try him they'll convict him; and then it's too late." + +Philips was not enthusiastic over the scheme. In the first place +he thought it too risky. Even if they did succeed in getting the +picture he feared it would prove an elephant on their hands. Raymond, +however, was a man who seldom receded from a decision, no matter how +quickly it had been made. He argued away Philip's objections and with +the assistance of Joe Elliott, a forger whom they took into their +confidence, they proceeded with their plans for the robbery. + + +HOW THE GREAT MASTERPIECE WAS STOLEN + +It was decided to make the attempt on the first dark, foggy night. +Elliott was to be the "lookout" and keep a watchful eye for any of the +army of policemen and private detectives who guarded the gallery's +treasures. Philips was to serve as the "stepladder." On his broad, +powerful shoulders, the light, agile Raymond would mount like a circus +performer, climb through a window and cut the precious canvas out of +the frame. It was a job fraught with the greatest danger, for the +gallery was carefully protected with locks and bars and, besides, no +one could tell when a policeman or detective might appear on the scene. + +A thick fog settled down on the city the night of May 15, 1876. Under +its cover the thieves decided to make their descent on the gallery +early the next morning. + +Just as the clocks were striking three, Raymond stole cautiously into +the alley at the rear of the Agnew gallery. Then he was joined after a +judicious interval by his two comrades. + +Elliott remained near the mouth of the alley to watch for "bobbies." +Raymond and Philips stealthily made their way over the back fence and +to a rear window, whose sill was about eight feet from the ground. + +Straining his ears for any ominous sound, Philips braced his big body +to bear Raymond's weight. Then he made a stirrup of his hand and +Raymond sprang like a cat to his shoulders. + +Crouching in the darkness, Elliott watched and waited while Raymond +applied his jimmy to the window. "Click" went the fastenings--but not +too loud. The sash was cautiously raised and Harry Raymond dropped to +the floor inside. + +Unluckily for the owners of the Gainsborough, the watchmen were asleep +on an upper floor. Raymond, with the clever thief's characteristic +caution, first groped his way to the front door to see if he could +unfasten it and thus provide a second avenue of escape for use in an +emergency. But the locks and bars were too much for him and he gave up +the attempt. + +By the dim rays of his dark lantern he could see the gallery's +pride--the famous Gainsborough, hanging on what picture dealers know as +"the line"--that is to say, about five feet from the floor. + +The place was as quiet as the grave. A sudden sound gave Raymond a +start--but it was only a cat that came mewing out of the darkness. +Outside a cab rattled by and the heavy tread of a policeman's feet +echoed through the street. + +Raymond procured a table, which he placed before the portrait. By +standing upon it he was barely able to reach the top. With a long, +sharp knife he carefully slashed the precious canvas from its heavy +gold frame. + +At one of the bottom corners Raymond's knife made a series of peculiar +zigzags. Later he cut from the portrait a little piece that matched +these jagged lines. This was to send to the Agnews as evidence that he +really had the picture. + +[Illustration: HOW RAYMOND CUT THE FAMOUS "GAINSBOROUGH" OUT OF ITS +FRAME.] + +After cutting the picture out, Raymond rolled it up carefully, tied it +with a string, and buttoned it underneath his coat. Then he went out +the same way he had entered, being careful to close the window behind +him. With his companions he returned to his Piccadilly house and hid in +a closet the picture which he hoped would prove his friend's ransom. + +Next morning all London was in a fever of excitement over the loss of +the Gainsborough. The Agnews offered $5,000 for its return and soon +increased the reward to $15,000. A hundred of the best detectives in +Scotland Yard scoured the city for clews. + +The crime was shrouded in mystery. The doors of the gallery had not +been tampered with. The fastenings of a rear window were broken, but +the watchmen averred that no thief could have entered there as they had +been sitting close by all night. + +In all London the only persons who had no theories to advance as to the +Gainsborough's fate were Raymond, Philips, and Elliott. They quietly +waited for the excitement to subside, realizing that with the public +mind in its present state it was altogether too hazardous to think of +attempting to negotiate for the picture's return. + +Meanwhile something happened to make the Gainsborough of no use +to Raymond--his friend Warren was released from jail through the +discovery of a technicality in his indictment. The famous portrait now +became a veritable "white elephant." Raymond dared not return it--he +feared to leave it in storage lest some one recognize it. So he carried +the roll of canvas with him about the world until later, when, through +"Pat" Sheedy's aid, he returned it to the Agnews and secured $25,000 +for his pains. + + +PAT SHEEDY'S PART + +And that is the history of what happened to Gainsborough's famous +"Duchess of Devonshire" painting, which is now in J. Pierpont Morgan's +private art gallery on Madison Avenue, New York. As I said earlier in +this article, Raymond, who stole it, neither wanted the picture nor +the money it represented. Raymond cut that painting from its frame as +an act of loyalty to a fellow thief who was in trouble--to use it as a +powerful lever to make sure of getting Tom Warren out of prison. + +And right here, before going further with the episodes of Raymond's +remarkable career, let me explain the mystery of how "Pat" Sheedy, +the New York gambler, happened to be the person who sold the stolen +Gainsborough back to the Agnews. + +Long before that "Pat" Sheedy and Harry Raymond had done much business +together. After Sheedy had accumulated a fortune by gambling, he +built up a large and exceedingly profitable business in the sale of +stolen paintings. Through his wide acquaintance he formed a convenient +connecting link between the rich men who could afford to buy rare +paintings and the clever criminals who knew how to steal them. Raymond +took up the stealing of paintings when he became too old and too well +known to the police to attempt more profitable kinds of robbery, and it +was through Sheedy that he disposed of most of them. + +A number of years before Raymond died he met me in London and asked +if I could do some business for him. Being in need of ready money, +I readily agreed. He took me to his apartments and handed me two +paintings which showed at a glance that they had been cut from their +frames. + +"I got these from a cathedral in Antwerp," said Raymond. "I want you to +take them to New York and sell them to Pat Sheedy for $75,000. If he +won't give that, bring them back to me. I'll pay you well for your time +and trouble." + +Accordingly I sailed for New York. By wrapping the pictures in some old +clothes at the bottom of my trunk, I got them by the customs inspectors +without any trouble. I had then never met Sheedy and it occurred +to me that if I had to leave the pictures with him he might try to +take advantage of my ignorance of art by substituting copies for the +originals. So, before setting out for Sheedy's office in Forty-second +Street, I took an indelible pencil and marked my initials, very small, +on the back of each canvas. + +As I had expected, Sheedy asked me to leave the pictures until the next +day as he was not sure he could afford to pay $75,000 for them. The +next day he put me off with some other excuse, and so it went on for +two weeks until I felt sure something was wrong. Then one morning he +handed me two pictures, saying: + +"Sorry, but I don't think these are worth more than $10,000. If you'll +take that for them, I'll buy them." + + +RAYMOND AND HIS YACHT + +Of course, I told him my instructions were not to accept a cent less +than $75,000, and if he didn't want to pay that I would have to take +them back to London. I was about to roll them up when I chanced to +think of looking for my initials. They were not there--Sheedy was +trying to palm off cheap copies on me in place of the originals. Quick +as a flash, I pulled out the revolver I always carried in those days; +shoved it right under Sheedy's nose, and said: + +"Come, Mr. Sheedy--hand over the original paintings I left with you, or +I'll blow your head off!" + +He was considerably amazed at this warlike nerve on my part, but still +had nerve enough left to argue that those were the pictures I had given +him. But I was not to be tricked like that. Finally he went into an +adjoining room--I after him with the gun in my hand--pulled open a +drawer and took out the canvasses which had my initials on the back. +I carried them back to London, where Raymond sold them for $75,000, of +which he gave me $10,000. I sold many stolen paintings to Sheedy after +that, but he never tried to take advantage of me again. + +Raymond often used to tell me that all his bad luck dated from the +night he stole the famous Gainsborough. If the portrait really was +a "hoodoo" its evil influence was a long time in taking effect. The +two or three years after his robbery of the Agnew gallery saw the +most daring crimes of his life and the money they yielded made him +a multi-millionaire. Even his heavy losses at Monte Carlo could not +seriously affect a fortune which was being steadily increased by all +sorts of illegal undertakings. + +He lived like a prince in London and Paris, owned several race horses +and maintained, besides a sailing yacht, a palatial steam yacht with +a crew of twenty men. He liked to vary the monotony of his cruises by +deeds of piracy as sensational as any Captain Kidd ever attempted. On +one such occasion he robbed a post-office on the island of Malta; on +another he attempted to loot a warehouse on the docks at Kingston, +Jamaica. This last exploit would have ended in his capture by a British +gunboat which pursued him for twenty miles had his yacht not been a +remarkably speedy craft. + + +RAYMOND'S EXPERT ON SAFE CRACKING + +Raymond was a natural leader of men, and he had a sharp eye for able +assistants. In his gangs were the greatest experts he could collect +around him. Raymond was not a technically educated machinist, and he +felt the need of an expert mechanic. For a number of years he watched +the work of various other bank burglars and gave especial attention to +any work that showed peculiar mechanical skill in getting into locks +and steel safes. + +Finally Raymond got his eye on a very promising young burglar named +Mark Shinburn, who turned out to be a perfect wonder as a safe opener. +Shinburn had served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and soon got +a job in the factory of the Lilly Safe Company. Locks and safes had a +peculiar fascination for Shinburn and he rapidly mastered the whole +scheme, theory, and practice of lock-making, and knew the weak points +not only of the locks his own company made but also of all the other +big safe makers whose locks and safes were on the market. + +Shinburn was just the man to fit into Raymond's band of experts. He +had the peculiar and valuable technical knowledge that Raymond lacked. +Raymond would select a bank, study the habits of the bank clerks, +survey the situation, and lay out the plans for the job. Raymond would +execute all these preliminaries and would lead his men into the bank +and face to face with the safe; but at this point Shinburn would bring +his genius into action and Raymond would stand by holding his dark +lantern and watching Shinburn with silent admiration. + +Raymond and Shinburn were the moving spirits of the bold gang which +robbed the Ocean Bank in New York of a million dollars. With them were +associated Jimmy Hope, who later led the attack on the Manhattan Bank; +my husband, Ned Lyons, George Bliss, and several others. + +On his return from a series of bank robberies on the Continent, +Raymond took apartments in the house of a widow who lived with her two +daughters in Bayswater, a suburb of London. He became in time much +attached to this woman and her children, and lavished every luxury on +them, including the education of the girls in the best French schools. +For years this family never suspected their benefactor was a criminal, +but supposed him to be a prosperous diamond importer. + +When the eldest daughter's education was finished Raymond married her. +She was a beautiful woman, but a weak, clinging sort of creature--very +different from strong, self-willed Kate Kelley. Although passionately +fond of her, Raymond's attitude toward her was always that of the +devoted father rather than the loving husband. + +After his marriage Raymond made many sincere attempts to reform. He +became a student of art and literature, and for months at a time would +live quietly in his London home or on board his yacht. Then the old +life would call him--he would mysteriously drop out of sight for a few +weeks, and with the aid of some of his old associates add another crime +to his record. + +On one of these occasions he and John Curtin, a desperate burglar, +went to Liège, Belgium. Their object was the robbery of a wagon which +carried a large amount of valuable registered mail. + +Raymond had fitted a key to the lock on the wagon and had sent a decoy +package, whose delivery would necessitate the driver leaving the mail +unguarded at a certain place. Curtin was to delay the driver's return +while Raymond climbed up on the front of the wagon and rifled the +pouches. + + +TREACHERY AND TRAGEDY + +But Curtin carelessly failed to carry out part of this arrangement +and the driver caught Raymond in the act. He was arrested, convicted, +and given the first and only prison sentence he ever received--eight +years at hard labor. With the loyalty for which he was famous Raymond +steadfastly refused to reveal the identity of the confederate to whose +folly he owed his own arrest, and Curtin escaped to England. + +Soon after his sentence began, rumors reached Raymond in prison of the +undue intimacy of his wife and Curtin. He investigated the reports and +found them true. Raging with indignation at his wife's weakness and his +friend's treachery, he broke his lifelong habit of loyalty, confessed +to the authorities Curtin's share in the attempted robbery and told +them where he could be found. Curtin was brought back to Belgium and +sentenced to five years in prison. + +Mrs. Raymond's mind gave way under its weight of remorse, and soon +after her husband's release she died in an asylum. This was not the +only crushing misfortune the released convict had to face. Through +unfortunate investments and the dishonesty of friends he had trusted, +his fortune had dwindled to almost nothing. He had to sell his yachts, +his horses, and his London house with its fine library and art +galleries in order to raise enough to provide for the education of his +three children. He sent them to America, where they grew to manhood and +womanhood in ignorance of the truth about their father. + +With an energy worthy of a better cause, Raymond at once set about +making a new fortune. The whole world was his field-forgeries, bank +robberies, and jewel thefts his favorite methods. But the nervous +strain under which he had always lived and the long prison term were +beginning to tell on him. His health was poor--his hand and brain +were losing much of their cunning. Each crime made the next one more +difficult, as the police got to know him and his methods better, and at +last he was forced to abandon the bolder forms of robbery and devote +his time entirely to the theft of famous paintings. + +Yet, in the face of these handicaps, Raymond made in those last years +of his life several fortunes. But one after another they were all +swept away as quickly as they were made, and he died, as I have said, +penniless. + +Did crime pay Harry Raymond? He invested his natural endowment of +brains, resourcefulness, daring, energy, and perseverance in criminal +enterprises--and died a hunted, hungry, trembling outcast. One-half +his industry and intelligence expended in honest business would have +insured him a great and enduring fortune and a respected name. If +crime does not pay for the really great criminals, how can the small +criminals have any hope? + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HOW I ESCAPED FROM SING SING, AND OTHER DARING ESCAPES FROM PRISON THAT +PROFITED US NOTHING. + + +It is not easy to get out of Sing Sing Prison. Ned Lyons, the bank +burglar, my husband, got out, and so did I. We were both serving +sentences of five years at the same time. + +Ned Lyons was a desperate man, and he had no notion of remaining long +in any prison. Although his body was already considerably punctured +with pistol bullets, he did not welcome the idea of inviting the rifle +balls from the armed sentries who patroled the prison walls on all +sides. A dash for liberty was out of the question--if he was to escape +it must be through some adroit scheme which would not make him a target +for the riflemen who surround the prison. + +My husband and I had a comfortable home on the East Side in New York, +but I had very little peace of mind because of the activities of +Lyons and his energetic companions. As I have said before, these men +had found it very convenient to have my assistance in their various +enterprises, and so it was that my husband and I both got into Sing +Sing at the same time--Lyons was confined in the men's prison and I was +in the women's prison just across the road. + +It was the Waterford, N. Y., bank that had been robbed of $150,000, +and in the party were George Bliss, Ira Kingsland, and the famous +Jimmy Hope. Of the whole party, Hope alone was not caught. Just how my +husband got out of Sing Sing I am able to explain, because I myself +planned the escape. + +The day I reached Sing Sing I was turned over to the prison physician +for him to find out what my physical condition was, and what kind of +work I was best fitted to do. This doctor's name was Collins. I shall +never forget him for he was one of the kindest hearted men I ever knew. +In my hope of being assigned to some easy work where I would be able +to assist in my husband's plans for escape, I pretended to him I was +suffering from all sorts of ailments. + + +PLANNING LYONS'S ESCAPE + +"Why, Doctor," I said, "I'm a sick woman, and besides I don't know how +to do any kind of work. I've never had to work for a living." + +"Well, my good little woman," the doctor replied, "you'll have to learn +to work. You're in here for five years, and nobody is allowed to play +the lady in Sing Sing Prison, you know." + +"But, Doctor," I said, "you wouldn't have Sophie Lyons be anything but +a lady, would you?" + +"I'd like to make an honest woman of you, Sophie--that's more important +than being a lady," he answered gravely, "and I'm going to try. I've +got enough confidence in your sense of honor to give you a position +as assistant nurse in the prison hospital. If you profit by your +opportunities there, you can learn a good trade which will enable you +to make an honest living when your term is up." + +Nothing could have suited me better. A position in the hospital is +the easiest work the prison offers, and it would give me just the +opportunities I needed to help my husband escape. But I tried not +to let Dr. Collins see how delighted I was and pretended to be very +tearful and penitent as I thanked him for his kindness. + +My husband was allowed to come and see me once a week under guard of a +prison keeper. My conduct was so good and had given the matron and Dr. +Collins such confidence in me that Ned and I were soon permitted to +talk without any prison official being present to listen, as the prison +rules required. + +On these visits we had opportunity for discussing various plans for +escape, but we both agreed that no one of them would probably succeed. +I favored trying to get a forged pass--a counterfeit of the passes +given to visitors, which the keeper at the prison door must have before +he allows anybody to leave the building. But my husband had serious +doubts. + +About this time the matron's two children were taken sick and I was +assigned to her house to take care of them. So faithfully did I nurse +them back to health that the matron became quite fond of me and wanted +me to remain there permanently as her personal servant. + +When Ned Lyons came to see me again he was amazed at my good fortune in +receiving a position which was the next best thing to liberty itself. +It not only gave me all sorts of liberties but it enabled me to dress +like any servant girl instead of in the regulation prison costume. This +last fact would prove of tremendous advantage when my opportunity to +make a break for liberty came. + + +"RED" LEARY LENDS AID + +Besides this I was allowed a little pocket money to buy candies, fruit, +and occasional trinkets for the children. + +Ned brought good news this time. He had pondered over my suggestion +of a forged pass and the more he thought of it the more it seemed a +promising scheme. But there were several important things that must be +done, and done well, to make the plan reasonably sure of success. + +Lyons, in prison, could not personally attend to the necessary details. +He must have outside help. Usually, in such emergencies, I was the +one who was relied upon to attend to matters of this kind--but, +unfortunately, I, too, was in prison and under close watch. + +So, in casting about for a reliable friend, Lyons decided to ask the +help of "Red" Leary, the bank burglar, who had been associated with my +husband in the famous $3,000,000 Manhattan Bank robbery. Word was sent +to Leary and, on the next "visitors' day," a gentleman with high silk +hat and black gloves and a lawyer's green bag drove up to the prison +and sent in his card to the Warden--could Ned Lyons's "lawyer" see his +imprisoned client? + +In this guise "Red" Leary, high hat, lawyer's bag and gloves, swept +into the prison and was courteously allowed an interview with my +husband. Ned explained that two important things were needed--a +visitor's pass properly signed with the Warden's signature, and a +carefully selected disguise for the escaping man to use. Could "Red" +Leary attend to these two matters? "Red" Leary could, and with much +pleasure--and the first move in the proceedings then and there was to +carefully chew up his pass into a wad and tuck it behind his upper +molar teeth. + +Ned Lyons was led back to his cell and his "lawyer" put on his silk hat +and arose to leave. He began searching his pockets and his green bag +for his missing pass. An attendant helped him. Then the keeper at the +door took a hand and looked through his pocketbook and papers while the +"lawyer," in much distress, turned his pockets inside out. But no pass +could be found. + +At last the principal keeper, Connaughton, was called and he +reprimanded the "lawyer" severely for his carelessness, but finally +allowed the visitor to depart--and behind "Red" Leary's back teeth +was the pass that was so much needed in forging a fresh one, with the +proper day and date on it Leary returned to New York and enlisted the +services of a friend who was an expert check forger and soon had a +pass that the Warden of Sing Sing himself would not know was a forgery. +And this precious piece of paper was smuggled in to Lyons and he hid it +in a crack in the floor of his cell. Ned planned to use this pass in +making his escape if he could get a wig to cover his closely cropped +head, a false beard to disguise his face, and a suit of clothes to +replace his prison stripes in time for the next visitors' day. + +"Red" Leary was to call to see me the next day and I was to arrange +with him about securing these necessaries. They were to be left in an +obscure corner grocery outside the prison where a "trusty," whom my +husband had befriended, would claim them and smuggle them into Ned's +cell. + +It was a Wednesday I had my last call from Ned. Through one of those +mysterious underground channels which keep the inmates of every prison +in such close touch with the outside world, my husband had learned +that on the following Tuesday, which was a visitors' day, the Warden +and several other prominent officials of the prison were to be away +attending a political meeting. That was the day he had set for his +escape, provided our friend Leary could deliver the necessary disguise +in time. + +I had my doubts about "Red" Leary, who was good hearted enough and +meant well, but was prone to be careless about keeping appointments. +To my delight, however, he was on hand next day and he got permission +from the matron to see me. When I asked him if he had everything in +readiness he burst into a torrent of eager explanations. + +"It's all out there in the buggy, Sophie," he said, "tied up in a +bundle that you'd take for anything but what it is. Everything's there +and everything's right. Why, even the shirt and collar are Ned's right +size, and, say, I bet they'll feel good after rubbing his neck for +months against that rough prison stuff." + + +THE PRISON BELL SOUNDS ALARM + +Leary was a talkative fellow and he was going on with a detailed +description of the wig and false beard which he had had made to order +for the occasion, when Dr. Collins and the matron appeared at the end +of the corridor where we were sitting. I signaled "Ned" to keep quiet +and led him over to a window. + +There, under pretext of showing him some geraniums I was trying to coax +into bloom, I hurriedly explained where he was to leave the things and +sent him away on the errand which meant so much to Ned and me. + +The next Tuesday was the longest, most nerve-racking day of my life. I +had slept little the night before. All night long my mind was turning +over Ned's plans--how, by feigning sickness, he would get permission to +leave the shop and go to his cell; how he would change his clothes and +put on the wig and false beard "Red" Leary had bought; and how, just +as his fellow prisoners were being marched in to their noonday meal, he +would mingle with the little crowd of departing visitors, surrender his +forged pass at the gate and walk out of the main entrance of the prison +a free man. + +I had approved every bit of this plan--in fact, I myself had mapped out +a large part of it. Yet now, when I considered on what narrow margins +its success depended, I felt it was foredoomed to failure. Ned would be +caught in the act--he would be put in solitary confinement--perhaps he +would be shot dead by some vigilant guard. + +I arose unusually early that Tuesday morning and worked unusually +hard--to hide my nervousness. + +Nothing out of the ordinary happened to relieve the awful tension. +Early in the morning I heard from one of the other prisoners that the +Warden and his assistants had gone away for the day. This, of course, +coincided with Ned's plans, but it brought me little relief, for I +feared that perhaps the officers left in charge might, in the absence +of their superiors, be unusually careful in guarding their convict +charges. + +Noon came and went and still I heard nothing to relieve my anxiety. +"No news is good news," I kept saying to myself, and in this case the +old adage really spoke the truth. If there was no excitement about the +prison it was good evidence that Ned's absence had not been noted. +And if they did not discover his absence until they came to lock the +prisoners up for the night all was well, for by that time I knew Ned +would be safe in his old haunts on the East Side, in New York City. + +But there still remained the discouraging possibility that at the last +minute some of his plans had miscarried and he had been obliged to +postpone the attempt. + +Night came and I was setting the table for the evening meal when I +heard the sounds of some unusual excitement over in the men's prison, +across the road. There was much running to and fro, keepers were +shouting to each other and presently the prison bell began to ring +frantically. The sound of the bell made my heart jump--it was never +rung, I knew, except in case of fire or when a prisoner escaped. + +"What on earth is that bell ringing for?" said the matron. I was just +saying that I didn't know and was trying to hide my excitement when in +rushed Dr. Collins, all breathless and worried. + +"Heard the news?" he shouted. And before the matron could say yes or no +out he burst with the whole story. + +"Ned Lyons, the bank robber, has escaped!" he said. "He's been gone +since noon and they never knew it until just now, when they went to +lock him in his cell and found nothing there but his suit of stripes. +It's the boldest escape there's been in years. + +"According to all accounts he walked right out of the main gate, +stepped into a buggy that was waiting, and drove off like a gentleman. +Of course he was disguised, and so cleverly they say that one of the +head gatekeepers bowed to him at the gate, thinking he was a member of +that new legislative commission from Albany." + +A great weight rolled from my heart--Ned was free! I managed to control +my feelings and it was lucky I did, for the next instant I saw the +matron point a warning finger in my direction, and at that the doctor +lowered his voice so that I could hear no more. + + +NED LYONS IN DISGUISE + +The next morning, of course, the whole prison knew of the escape. + +"If I get out I'll have you out in a few weeks," Ned had promised, and +every day I was expecting some word from him. + +As time went on, the confidence the matron and the doctor had in +me seemed to increase rather than diminish. Soon I was allowed to +accompany the matron's little daughters on long walks through the +grounds outside the prison, and even as far as the village. + +On one of these walks my attention was attracted by the peculiar +actions of an old Indian peddler. He was a copper-colored, long-haired +old chief, with Indian baskets and strings of beads on his arms. As +soon as the girls and I stepped out of the prison gate this queer +looking, bent old man singled us out from all the rest of the crowd and +began following us about, urging us with muffled grunts to buy some of +the bead goods he carried in a basket strapped around his neck. + +I thought he was crazy and told him very emphatically that I didn't +want any of his trash. But this did not discourage him in the least, +and he dogged our footsteps wherever we went. + +At last--more to be rid of the old fellow than because I wanted +anything he had--I selected from his stock a pair of bead slippers. + +As I handed him the money I felt him press a little folded slip of +paper into the hollow of my hand. + +Quick as a flash I closed my fingers over it, and in that instant I +recognized--under the old Indian peddler's clever disguise--my husband, +Ned Lyons. + +He had come back to the very gates of the prison from which he had +escaped to bring this message to me! + +Kate Leary, wife of "Red" Leary, the bank burglar, was coming to see me +soon--so the note said. I was to have my plans for escape all ready to +discuss with her. + +Now, the only way of getting out of my prison I had been able to +discover was through a door which led from a little used passageway in +the basement of the matron's house to a point just outside the prison +walls. + +This door--a massive, iron-barred affair--was seldom if ever opened. +The big brass key which unlocked it hung with other keys from a ring +suspended at the matron's belt. + +Kate Leary could easily have a duplicate of that key made, but first I +must secure a model of the original. This wasn't a difficult task--I +had often done similar tricks to aid my husband in his bank robberies. +I slipped into the matron's room while she was taking a nap and took a +careful impression of the key on a piece of wax. + +In due time Kate Leary brought the key which had been carefully made +from my wax model. At the first opportunity I tried it--it fitted the +rusty old lock perfectly! Hiding the key away as carefully as I ever +hid any stolen diamonds, I waited impatiently for the night set for my +escape. + +It came at last. Between 6 and 7 o'clock was the hour, because then my +household duties frequently took me into the vicinity of the basement +door. It was a crisp December evening. It had snowed heavily all day, +and it was still snowing and was growing colder. + +About 6:30 I heard a peculiar low whistle. That was the signal that the +pair of horses and the sleigh which were to carry me away were waiting +outside. + +There was, of course, no opportunity to get my hat and coat. Luckily I +was all alone in the lower house--upstairs I could hear the matron and +her family laughing and talking over their dinner. + +Putting down the tray of dishes I was carrying I snatched the key from +its hiding place under a flour barrel and hurried noiselessly along the +dark passageway to the door that led to liberty. + +My heart was thumping with excitement--my fingers were trembling so +that I could hardly find the keyhole. It seemed ages before the lock +turned and I stepped out into the cold winter night. + +Although every second was precious, I took the time to close the door +behind me and lock it. By thus concealing the way I had gone I would +delay my pursuers just so much. + +From an open window above me floated the voice of one of the matron's +little daughters as I picked my way through the snow, bareheaded and +with house slippers, avoiding the regular path. + +"Mamma," she was saying; "why doesn't Sophie bring the rest of my +dinner?" + +"She'll bring it in a minute," the mother replied. + +I heaved a sigh of relief--quite evidently my absence had not yet +caused any suspicion. + +Hurling the key into a snowdrift, I ran to the waiting sleigh. Ned was +standing beside the sleigh with a big warm fur coat outstretched in his +arms. Without a word I slipped into the coat, hopped into the sleigh, +and Ned gave the horses a clip with the whip and away we dashed toward +Poughkeepsie. + +The long fur coat and stylish hat which Ned had brought made me look +like anything but an escaped convict. After a good warm supper at +Poughkeepsie, we took the night train for New York and reached there +safely the next morning. + +And so we were free! + +But what had we gained by our escape? We shall see. + +When my husband first suggested his escape from Sing Sing he promised +me that if he ever succeeded in getting out he would give up crime and +turn to some honest and honorable work. That promise was made while his +remorse was sharpened by his sudden change from high living to poor +prison fare, and I was now to see how weak his good intentions really +were. + +After a few weeks in New York, where we received the warm +congratulations of many friends on our escape from Sing Sing, we went +to Canada to visit our children who were in school there. It was not +long before our funds began to get low. I thought this a favorable time +to remind my husband of his promises and to urge him to get some honest +employment. But he would not listen to me. + +"That would be all very well if I had any money," he said; "but I can't +settle down until I have enough capital to give me a decent start. Wait +until I do one more good bank job and then I will think about living +differently." + + +AN EASY BANK ROBBERY + +I agreed to this reluctantly, for I felt a premonition that when this +"one more job" was finished we should both find ourselves back in Sing +Sing again. And, as it turned out, I was right. + +It was not altogether lack of money or the desire to live a decent +life which made me plead with Ned to reform. The fact that there was +a reward on both our heads and that at any minute some ambitious +detective was liable to recognize us was beginning to tell on my +nerves. Ned used to try to laugh my fears away by saying that I saw +policemen in my sleep. Probably I did--at any rate, I know that for +months, asleep or awake, I would jump at the slightest sound, thinking +it was an officer come to take us back to Sing Sing. We could not live +natural lives but had to be constantly dodging about, and occasionally +running to cover for long intervals. + +The "one more job" my husband had in mind was the robbery of a Montreal +bank. He looked the ground over, found it to his liking, and then sent +for a friend of ours, Dave Cummings, an experienced bank robber, to +come on from New York and help us. + +It was really a very simple undertaking for three such expert criminals +as we were. My part of it was merely to stand in the shadow of an alley +and watch for the possible return of one of the bank's two watchmen. +There was small chance of his putting in an appearance, for my husband +had previously cultivated his acquaintance, and on this particular +evening had been plying him with mugs of ale until he had left him fast +asleep in a nearby saloon. + +Inside the bank there was a second watchman. He was an old man, but +when he discovered Ned and Dave crawling through the rear window, which +they had opened with their jimmies, he put up such a stiff fight that +they had all they could do to stun him with a blow on the head, stuff +a handkerchief down his throat, and tie his hands and feet with a piece +of rope. As it was, they made so much noise that I nearly had nervous +prostration in the alley where I was crouching half a block away. + +"I think I'd better keep an eye on this old chap while you get the +coin, Dave," my husband said, ruefully rubbing a bruised cheek he had +received in the tussle with the faithful guardian of the bank. + +So, as a matter of precaution, my husband mounted guard with his +revolver over the watchman, while Dave solved the combination of the +safe. Nothing further happened to interfere with our plans and by +daybreak we were well on our way toward the Canadian border. + +We had expected to get at least $30,000 from this robbery, but when +we came to empty the satchel in which Dave had placed the plunder, we +found there was not quite half that amount. It was all Dave's fault, +as we learned later from the newspapers. He had carelessly overlooked +a bundle of currency containing $25,000. I had always considered Dave +Cummings a thoroughly careful and reliable man, but this expensive +oversight of his rather shook my confidence in him. + +My husband and I returned to New York with our share of the booty. +There, a few days later, we were arrested, but not for the bank robbery +in Montreal. The detectives who had been searching for us ever since +our escape from Sing Sing had found our hiding place at last, and they +took us back to prison to serve out our terms. + +In our prison cells, once more, we had ample opportunity to consider +how fruitless of results our escape had been. For all the risks we +had run in getting out and for all the worrisome months we had spent +in dodging detectives we had nothing to show except the fleeting +satisfaction of a few days with our children. What had we gained? +Nothing. + + +HOW BULLARD GOT OUT + +A criminal's reputation for cleverness among his fellows depends very +largely upon his ability to escape--or to help his friends to escape. +Mark Shinburn used to take more pride in the way he broke into the jail +at White Plains, New York, to free Charley Bullard and Ike Marsh, two +friends of his, than he did in some of his boldest robberies. + +After reconnoitering the ground and carefully planning the jail +delivery, Shinburn and his companion, Raymond, put in a hard night's +work burrowing into the jail. They took Marsh and Bullard out, but what +was gained? Marsh was soon in trouble again and Bullard was taken again +and ended his days in prison. + +And now one more instance--a very curious one. + +Of all the ways by which thieves have cheated the law out of its due, +the most ingenious was probably the way "Sheeney Mike" brought about +his release from the Massachusetts State Prison. He feigned illness +so cleverly that the eminent physicians of the State Medical Board +pronounced him suffering from a mysterious and incurable disease +and ordered his release after he had served only three years of his +twelve-year sentence for one of his daring burglaries. + +It was the robbery of Scott & Co.'s silk warehouse in Boston that sent +"Sheeney Mike" to Charlestown Prison, from which he so ingeniously +escaped. He discovered that the watchman was vigilant all through the +night except between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock, when he went out to +get something to eat. Mike secured a false key which unlocked a door +to the warehouse, and arranged for two trucks to be on hand at a few +minutes past 12 one night. + +When the truckmen arrived they found Mike at the door of the warehouse +coolly smoking a cigar. Quite naturally they thought he was the +proprietor. After helping the men to load the trucks with $20,000 worth +of expensive silks, "Sheeney Mike" turned out the lights, locked the +door, and drove away to Medford, a suburb of Boston, where the goods +were unloaded. + +Before Mike found an opportunity to ship his plunder to New York he was +arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. + +He tried every means of escape he could think of without avail. At +last, in his desperation to get out, he began drinking large quantities +of strong soap suds. This made him deathly sick and unable to retain +any nourishment. His sufferings became so intense that he had to be +removed from his cell to the prison hospital. + +In the prison hospital the doctor in charge began watching his patient +to be sure that some trick was not being played on him. A careful +examination of Mike revealed no organic trouble--the doctor could find +no reason for the strange symptoms. And yet right in front of his eyes +Mike would be taken with violent pains in the stomach, followed by +vomiting. + +The prison doctor was worried. He gave stomach tonics. Still the spasms +and nausea continued. He put his patient on a cereal diet--but his +vomiting was not lessened. He changed the diet; he gave beef juice; he +changed it to milk and brandy--nothing brought relief. + +The prison doctor was worried. Here was this once vigorous man wasting +away to a pallid skeleton in spite of his best efforts. The doctor +was a conscientious man and he called a consultation of two outside +physicians at his own expense. They patiently went over the record of +the case and examined "Sheeney Mike" minutely--there was nothing to +account for the patient's alarming condition. Still, it might possibly +be this or that, and so they would recommend trying a few things that +had not yet been tried by the prison doctor. + + +"SHEENEY MIKE'S" ESCAPE + +"Sheeney Mike" thought that the time had come for some new +manifestation of his mysterious disease which would still further +puzzle and frighten the doctor, so, as the new treatment of the +consulting doctors was begun, Mike made preparation for some new +symptoms. He scraped an opening in his right side and each night rubbed +salt and pepper into it. He soon had an angry looking inflammation +which shortly produced a flow of pus. When Mike had reached this +achievement with his sore he languidly called the doctor's attention to +it. + +This new development was enough. The doctor sadly shook his head. +Things were going from bad to worse. + +"My poor man," he said, "you probably haven't a month to +live--certainly not in this prison. You might improve if you had your +freedom; I don't know. I am convinced that it would be murder to keep +you here. I shall at once recommend to Governor Butler that you be +pardoned. I decline to have your death on my conscience any longer." + +On the ground that the patient could not possibly live more than a few +weeks in prison all three doctors solemnly certified to the Governor +that "Sheeney Mike" was a dying man and recommended immediate pardon. +Governor Butler approved the recommendation, and next day out walked +"Sheeney Mike" free, pardoned and restored to full citizenship. Soap +suds, a little salt and a sprinkling of pepper had opened the bars for +him. + +But what did "Sheeney Mike" gain by all this? Nothing. + +He had his freedom and a laugh on the doctors--but his astonishing +persistence in his soap-sud poisoning had so undermined his health +that he never recovered his strength and he finally died in Bellevue +Hospital in great agony after a long and painful illness. + +And now one more case--also unusual and remarkable. + +Of course, the escape of Eddie Guerin, a few years ago from Devil's +Island surprised everybody and attracted a great deal of attention. +Guerin is a well-known thief who has operated in England, America and +more or less all over Europe. Guerin, with a companion, robbed a bank +in Lyons, France, of $50,000, and a little later stole $30,000 from the +American Express Company in Paris. These two jobs were too much for the +French police, and they grabbed Guerin. + +Guerin, traveling under the name of Walter Miller, and assisted by an +accomplice, entered the American Express Company's office in Paris +under the pretense of transacting some business. The other man busied +himself attracting the attention of the agent while Guerin sprang +across the counter with a drawn pistol. At this moment the agent and +a couple of clerks noticed Guerin's peculiar activity, but they were +unable to make any outcry or move because Guerin's accomplice kept the +express company's employees covered with a couple of revolvers. Guerin +helped himself to $30,000 which was lying within reach in an open safe, +and then the two thieves coolly walked out the door. + +Guerin was caught and convicted of the express company robbery, and +sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment in the French penal colony on +Devil's Island, off the coast of South America. This is the place where +Captain Dreyfus, the French army officer, was imprisoned, and it has +been the boast of the French police that nobody can escape from Devil's +Island. + +Guerin had served four years of his sentence before he succeeded in +maturing a plan for escape. He had the friendship of a notorious woman +known as "Chicago May," who collected a fund in New York's underworld +and managed to get the money into Guerin's hands on Devil's Island. +By the judicious use of this money Guerin arranged for the escape of +himself and two other prisoners, French convicts, whom he decided would +be helpful to him in the journey through the swamps and wildernesses +after they left the penal colony. + +The prison officials who had been reached by Guerin's fund arranged to +have him and his fellow convicts sent under guard to the outermost part +of the Island, which is a dense swamp, full of malaria and poisonous +snakes and insects. The next day the guards, who had been well paid, +buried a dead convict in the prison cemetery, and over the grave +they set up a headboard bearing the name "Eddie Guerin." This was to +complete the records of the prison, and a duly certified copy of the +prison record, telling of Guerin's death and burial, was forwarded to +France. + +This much accomplished, Guerin and his two companions were allowed to +get away from the guards and they were soon lost in the swamp. They +were allowed to carry some tools, water, and provisions. While the +guards made a feeble and perfunctory search in the swamps the three +convicts set to work busily completing a boat and paddles. When these +were finished they loaded the boat with their food supplies, launched +it and headed along the South American coast for Dutch Guiana, the +three men paddling and sleeping by turns. + +I have heard Guerin's own account of his escape, and I will repeat it +just as he told it. + +Guerin was armed with a revolver and cartridges, fortunately, as +otherwise all his planning would have been in vain. After a day or +two in the boat he noticed that his two companions were growing very +chummy. They were astonishingly willing to do the paddling and let him +sleep. + +So one night Guerin feigned to be asleep but kept an eye and both ears +open. Presently he heard his companions talking together in Spanish, +which they had no reason to believe he understood. + +The men whom he had helped out of prison had made up their minds that +he had a lot of money left. They were conspiring to slit his throat as +he slept, rob his body and feed him to the sharks. The men lost no +time in putting the enterprise into operation. But, as they crept upon +him, knives in hand, they found themselves looking into the muzzle of +his revolver. + +"For three days and nights," Guerin has told, "I could hardly lower the +muzzle of my revolver, and for them to stop paddling would mean only +prolongation of the agony of our escape." + +At last all were so exhausted that they decided to try to rig a sail by +tying their shirts to an oar. A breeze had sprung up and a moderately +large sea was now endangering the craft. Everywhere about the boat were +big man-eating sharks. These creatures swam around the boat, frequently +whirling over on their backs and snapping their jaws within reaching +distance of the little craft. + +One of Guerin's companions began to complain about his eyes, and the +reflection of the fierce tropical sun on the water had almost blinded +all three convicts. Suddenly this man stood up in the boat and pressed +his sun-burned hands to his eyes. He groped for a moment about him like +a blind man, and then lost his balance and fell to the side of the +canoe. The boat heeled over and began to take water over the side and +Guerin and this companion were thrown into the water. A shark close by +made a dash for Guerin's companion, and this gave Guerin a chance to +clamber back into the canoe, as another shark swept around the stern, +narrowly missing the American burglar. + + +HORRORS WORSE THAN DEATH + +The tragic end of one of the party terrified Guerin and the remaining +convict, and put an end to the conspiracy against Guerin. But the +straining of the canoe when it had nearly upset and the rising sea had +made the boat begin to leak. Guerin and his fellow voyager decided that +they could not risk it any longer in the boat, but must make a landing +and continue their journey through the swamps and wildernesses and run +the risk of encountering hostile natives. + +After the canoe was beached they hauled it up on shore and hid it +among the trees so as to leave no track in case a searching party +should follow after them. They had no very definite idea of the +proper direction to follow--knowing only that they were on the wild +coast of Dutch Guiana, and must travel inland several miles to find a +settlement. Both men were as thin as skeletons, worn out with bailing +and paddling the leaky boat, and their scanty food supply was scarcely +fit to eat. They plunged haphazard into the tropical forest and swamp. +They had nothing to mark the time but the sun, which was sometimes +completely hidden by the dense foliage. Threading cautiously through +the swamps and forests filled with treacherous death traps, they were +terrified and tortured by the constant presence of poisonous snakes +and venomous insects and lizards. Describing this trip, which lasted +several days, Guerin said: + +"After a while we seemed to be struggling through an endless maze, that +was leading in the end to nowhere, and this sort of thing went on and +on. Sometimes the undergrowth, waist high, would rustle as an invisible +snake took flight before us. The next moment we would be floundering +in a quagmire, not knowing whether to go back or to the left or to the +right, and conscious of sinking deeper with each second of indecision." + +"With throbbing head, burning skin, chattering teeth, aching and leaden +limbs, we were inclined to throw ourselves down to miserably die, and +we knew that the swamp fever was upon us." + +Finally, Guerin and his companion reached a river and concluded that +they would follow its bank in the hope of coming upon a native camp, +where they would take chances of a friendly or unfriendly reception. +Before long their bloodshot eyes beheld a hut. As they approached it, +swaying and trembling from their hunger and hardships and fever, a +black native emerged and set up a shout which soon collected many other +blacks from neighboring huts, who rushed at them with spears. + +Guerin could not understand their language, but endeavored to explain +to them that they wanted food, rest, and a guide. Guerin's companion, +in an effort to make plain their willingness to pay for what they +wanted, showed a couple of francs in silver. This was an unfortunate +move, because it excited the cupidity of the blacks, who promptly fell +upon them and searched them and took away everything they had of +value, after which they were pushed into a hut and kept prisoners. + +Sick, weak, almost discouraged, Guerin and his companion managed to +escape, and, stumbling through the treacherous morasses, emerged in the +neighborhood of an Indian village. Unlike the blacks, these natives +greeted the strangers in a friendly manner and invited Guerin and his +companion to stay with them until they were rested and able to continue +their journey. After a few days Guerin and the other convict were given +a guide by the Indians and he piloted them to a seaport, where they +embarked on a boat loading for New Orleans. From New Orleans Guerin +went to Boston, and then took passage for England, hoping to find the +woman he had been in love with when he was sent away to Devil's Island. +Guerin found her, but she was then the sweetheart of another. In the +row that followed this woman and her lover tried to shoot Guerin. + +And so Eddie Guerin escaped--but he purchased his freedom at a +frightful cost of agony and ruined health. + +Does crime pay? Nobody will claim that it does if the criminal gets +into prison. But criminals often escape from prison, it is urged--what +then? And it is to answer this question that I have endeavored to take +the public behind the scenes and show them the real truth about a few +famous escapes from prison, and how the escaped convicts profited +nothing, but were, indeed, worse off than they were before. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WOMEN CRIMINALS OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY WITH WHOM I WAS IN PARTNERSHIP + + +Sophie Lyons, bank president--can you imagine it? Strange as it may +seem, I actually held such a position in New York City for several +months, and the experience proved one of the most surprising in my +whole career. + +Although this venture in high finance yielded me only a bare living +and nearly landed me in a prison cell, it gave me a remarkable insight +into the methods used by clever women to swindle the public, and showed +me how these women are able to carry through schemes which the most +skillful men in the underworld would never dare undertake. + +All this happened in the days before I had won the wide reputation +which my crimes later gave me. I had come to New York with very little +money and with no definite plans for getting any--my husband was +serving a term in prison and I was temporarily alone and on my own +resources. + +Walking up Broadway one day, I came face to face with Carrie Morse, a +woman I knew by reputation as one of the most successful swindlers in +the business. Friends of mine had often pointed her out to me, but we +had never been introduced, and I had no idea that she knew me. + +I was, therefore, greatly surprised when she stepped up to me and +called me by name: + +"Why, Sophie Lyons, how do you do?" she said, with the well-bred +cordiality which was such an important part of her stock in trade. +"Come in and have some tea with me." + +As we entered a well known restaurant I noted with envious eyes the +evidences of prosperity which Carrie flaunted. From the long ostrich +plume which drooped from her Parisian hat to the shiny tips of her +high-heeled shoes she was dressed in the height of fashion and expense. +At her throat sparkled a valuable diamond brooch, and, when she removed +her gloves, there flashed into view a princely array of rings which +made my own few jewels look quite cheap and insignificant. + + +WE PLAN TO START A BANK + +And yet, except for this somewhat too lavish display of jewelry, there +was nothing loud or overdressed about her. It was plain that she knew +how to buy clothes, and her tall, well-rounded figure set off her +stylish garments admirably. In every detail--her well kept hands, +her gentle voice, her superb complexion, and the dainty way she had +of wearing her mass of chestnut hair--she was the personification of +luxury and refinement. As she looked that day Carrie Morse would have +passed anywhere without the slightest question for the beautiful and +cultured wife of some millionaire. + +All these facts, which I took in at a glance, made me less inclined to +question too closely the motives which had prompted her to hail me as +an old friend when we had never had even a speaking acquaintance. Quite +evidently she had lots of money or an unlimited line of credit. How did +she get it? That was what I was curious to find out. I made up my mind +that I would be just as nice to her as I knew how--hoping that I might +learn from her a new and easy road to wealth. + +By the time our tea was served we were chatting away like old friends. + +"Sophie," she said, "I'm going to take you into my confidence and help +you make a lot of money. You and I will start a bank." + +"You mean, rob a bank, don't you?" I said, not quite able to believe my +ears. + +"I mean nothing of the sort," she said, setting down her teacup with a +thump. "You and I will start a bank. It will be a bank for ladies only. +Any woman who has a little money saved up can come to us for advice. We +will take her money and show her where she can invest it so that she +will get more interest than she could in any other way." + +"But I don't know anything about running a bank," I protested. "I'm Ned +Lyons's wife--he and I are bank robbers, not bank owners." + +"That's all right," she reassured me. "It's not necessary for you to +know anything about running banks in order to hold the position I have +in mind. All you have to do is to follow my instructions--and you'll +soon be wearing as many diamonds as I am." + +A half hour before I should have thought it the height of absurdity +for any one to suggest my engaging in a wild-cat banking scheme with +Carrie Morse. Yet now I sat spellbound by her magnetic power--patiently +listening to details which were all Greek to me and getting from every +word she uttered renewed confidence in the reality of the financial +castles in the air which were to make us both millionaires. + +What a business woman Carrie Morse would have made! With her personal +charms, her eloquence, and her quick ingenuity she had no need to +depend on crime for a living--she could have accumulated a fortune in +any legitimate line of work. + + +I ENTER "HIGH FINANCE" + +The upshot of it all was that I agreed heart and soul to Carrie Morse's +plans for taking a short cut to fortune. First, she had excited my +avarice by her stories of the ease with which money could be made; +then she dazed me by her apparent familiarity with the intricacies of +finance. At last I became as credulous as any farmer is when he comes +to the city to exchange a few hard earned dollars for ten times their +value in green goods. + +I accompanied Carrie to the door of her hotel. The fact that she was +staying at the fashionable Brunswick, while I was finding it hard work +to raise the price of a room at a modest hotel farther down town, +proved another argument in favor of my following the leadership of my +new found friend. + +"Meet me at 9 o'clock to-morrow," Carrie had said, "at No. ---- West +Twenty-third street." I was on hand a few minutes before the appointed +hour. The address she had given me was a three-story brownstone-front +house just beyond the business section of the street. But I was barely +able to see it through the clouds of mortar dust raised by a gang of +workmen who were busily engaged in tearing out the whole front of the +building. + +"Yes, this is No. ----," said one of the workmen to whom I addressed +a rather startled inquiry. "We're making it over into offices." I was +convinced that I had made a mistake in the address and was just on the +point of turning away when I saw Carrie Morse coming down the steps. + +"Good morning," she called cheerily. "This is the new bank--or, rather, +it will be when these workmen get it finished. And you, my dear, are no +longer Sophie Lyons, but Mrs. Celia Rigsby, the president of this rich +and prosperous institution for the amelioration of the finances of the +women of New York." + +"But," I said, beginning now for the first time to feel some doubts +about the undertaking in which I had so suddenly embarked, "where is +all the money coming from to start this bank?" + +"Money?" said Carrie, lowering her voice to a hoarse whisper. "Don't +speak of that so loud--the workmen might hear you. I've leased this +house and I'm having all these alterations made on credit. I haven't +a cent to my name--that's why I'm starting this bank. I need money and +this is the easiest way I know to make it." + +Carrie's easy confidence allayed most of my fears and I forgot the rest +when, from some mysterious source, she produced money enough to support +me in comparative luxury during the ten days we had to wait for the +bank to be completed. She insisted that there was absolutely nothing +for me to do in the meantime and that she didn't want to see me in +Twenty-third street until the bank was ready for business. + +I was hardly prepared for the surprises which I found when I visited +the bank on the appointed day. Over the entrance hung a huge brass +sign reading, "New York Women's Banking and Investment Company." The +entire front of the building had been remodeled into a commodious and +up-to-date counting room. This was lighted by two large plate glass +windows and the entrance was through a massive door whose glass was +protected by heavy bars. These bars looked for all the world like iron, +but Carrie assured me that they were only wood covered with tin and +painted black. + +Inside were all the appurtenances of a first-class banking +establishment--brass railings, desks, counters, chairs, and, in the +most conspicuous position, an enormous "burglar proof" safe. In the +rear were partitioned off two little private offices, their doors +labeled "Mrs. Celia Rigsby, President," and "Mrs. Carrie Morse, General +Manager." + +"All this quite took my breath away, but what impressed me most of all +was the sight of half a dozen old graybeards who were busily engaged +on some bulky account books. Not one of these men could have been less +than sixty years old and all were of venerable aspect, with spectacles, +white hair, and long, white beards. + +"Why do you hire such old men?" I asked Carrie at the first +opportunity. "And where do you get the money to pay all of them?" + +"S-s-sh!" she whispered. "Don't you know there's nothing that inspires +people's confidence like old men? Many people who would never trust +their money to a young, active man will gladly hand it over to an old, +venerable appearing fellow. And the next best thing to an old man is a +pretty woman--that's why I think you and I shall make such a success of +this business. As for paying these old men, they don't get a cent. They +are all working for nothing in the hope of getting a chance to invest +some money in the business." + + +HOW WE FOOLED THE PUBLIC + +I was so impressed by these fresh evidences of Carrie's business +ability and my own ignorance that I felt quite relieved when she +informed me that I would not have to remain at the bank, but would +fulfill my duties as president at some apartments she had taken for +me in a fashionable quarter of Fifth avenue. These apartments were +furnished in splendid style and Carrie handed me a roll of bills with +which to purchase some gowns that would be in keeping with my new home. + +After my wardrobe was purchased and my trunks moved over from the +hotel, I was not long in learning just what Carrie expected of me. She +began inserting advertisements in all the leading newspapers offering +"widows and other women of means" investments which were guaranteed to +net them from 15 to 20 per cent. on their money. + +When women called in answer to the advertisement at the bank on +Twenty-third street many of them would want more evidence than Carrie +could supply before they would part with their money. These doubting +ones were referred to me--Mrs. Celia Rigsby, if you please, who had +made a fortune by investing her late husband's $1,500 insurance money +in the securities offered by the Women's Banking and Investment Company. + +The advertisements were kept going in the newspapers, and more and +more women kept coming to the bank on Twenty-third street. Mrs. Morse +received them all, talked many of them into leaving their money with +her right then and there, and to those who had misgivings she said +sweetly: + +"But I would rather you would not be influenced by anything I have +said. It is your duty to yourself to investigate and assure yourself as +to just what profits we are really paying on investments. Perhaps you +would like to see and talk with one of our customers who has done so +well with our investments that she has taken an interest in our bank. +I'm sure you'd be interested in talking with Mrs. Rigsby." + +The style in which I lived on Fifth avenue left no doubt of my wealth, +and, with Carrie's help, I soon had a glib and convincing story to tell +of my previous poverty and the steps I had taken to reach my present +prosperity. + +Of course, I explained, I took no active part in the bank's affairs. +I allowed the use of my name as president and permitted Mrs. Morse +to refer prospective investors to me merely because I was so well +satisfied with the way my own investments had turned out and felt a +philanthropic desire to share my good fortune with other women. + +Business increased rapidly and greater crowds of women came in reply +to my partner's glowing advertisements. Many of them would hand over +their money right away in exchange for a handful of the crinkly stock +certificates which filled a whole room in the rear of the bank. These +certificates were printed in all the colors of the rainbow, for, as +Carrie naïvely explained, "some of the ladies prefer green, some blue, +some black, and so on." + +Carrie was jubilant. She kept me liberally supplied with money for +clothes and the heavy expenses of my apartment, but when I asked her +about a further share of the profits she said: + +"Sophie, you're as ignorant as a new born babe of business methods. +It's always customary to leave all the money in a new business until +the end of six months. Then we'll divide what we've made, turn the bank +over to someone else and go to Europe for a long rest." + +I had my doubts about the truth of this, but, as I was making a good +living with little effort and had nothing better in sight just then, +I determined to continue under Carrie's leadership. She continually +reassured me by insisting that what we were doing was just as +legitimate as any business and that there was nothing in it for which +the police could take us to task. + +Although I foolishly had confidence in Carrie's ability to keep out +of trouble, I did not for a minute believe that the securities she +was selling were worth the paper they were printed on. Still, as most +of the women who called to see me seemed to be persons of means who +could well afford to contribute toward our support, I did not feel any +serious compunctions at advising them to invest. It seemed no worse +than picking a rich man's pocket or robbing a wealthy bank--and it was +not half so difficult or so hazardous to life and liberty. + + +OUR BANKING BUBBLE BURSTS + +One day, however, something happened that filled me with honest +indignation at Carrie Morse and her schemes. A poor, bent old widow +called to see me--a woman whose threadbare clothes and rough hands +plainly showed how she had to struggle to make a living. Tied up in her +handkerchief she had $500 which she had just drawn from a savings bank. + +"It's all I have in the world," she said with tears in her eyes, "and +I've had to scrimp and slave for every cent of it. I saw Mrs. Morse's +advertisements and I've been to see her this morning. She says if I'll +give my money to her she can double it for me in two years. Would I +better do it? I'm only a poor old woman and I want you to give me your +advice?" + +As diplomatically as I could I explained to her that, while Mrs. +Morse's scheme was an excellent one, it would be much wiser for a woman +in her circumstances to keep her money in the savings bank, and I made +her promise that she would put it back there at once. Then I put on my +hat and coat and hurried over to the bank to see Carrie Morse. + +As usual Carrie was in the midst of an enthusiastic description of her +stocks while a long line of women anxiously awaited their turn with +her. I took her by the arm, led her into one of the private offices, +and shut the door. + +"Carrie Morse, this sort of business has got to stop," I said with all +the emphasis I could. "I'm willing to help you swindle women who can +afford to lose the money, but I positively will not have any part in +taking the bread out of the mouths of poor widows like the one you just +sent over to see me. Sooner than do that I'll starve--or go back to +robbing banks or picking pockets." + +"There, there--don't get excited," she said soothingly. "Perhaps I did +make a mistake in encouraging the poor widow. But this is a business +where you can't help being deceived sometimes. Often the women who +plead poverty the hardest and dress the poorest really have the most +money hidden away. I'll give you my word of honor, though, that I won't +accept any money from that widow even if she tries to force it on me." + +Somewhat mollified at this I started back home to renew my interviews +with the prospective investors who came daily in crowds. + +For several weeks things went on as before. Then one day I chanced to +meet the poor widow who had so excited my sympathies. To my surprise +she confessed that she had finally yielded to the lures of Mrs. Morse's +advertisements and had given her $500 for some shares in a bogus +western oil company. + +I was indignant that Carrie should have forgotten her promise in +that way, and I set out at once to demand an explanation. As I was +approaching the bank my attention was attracted by some unusual +excitement just outside the entrance. + +Scenting trouble and thinking perhaps it would be just as well if I +were not recognized in that vicinity I slipped into a doorway across +the street where I could see what was going on without being seen. + +Around the doors of the bank surged a crowd of several hundred very +excited persons, mostly women. Among them I recognized many of the +ladies whom I had urged to invest in Carrie's securities. I also +noticed our landlord, the contractor who had altered the building, the +man who had supplied the furniture, a collector for the gas company, +and numerous other creditors of the bank. + +The doors of the bank were closed and the closely drawn shades revealed +no sign of life inside. In front of the doors stood three blue-coated +policemen vainly trying to keep the pushing crowd back. + +What interested me most was two Central Office detectives who mingled +with the crowd trying to get some information from the hysterical +women. They made slow progress, for the women were too excited to do +more than repeat over and over again the sad refrain: "My money's +gone!" But the sight of those plain clothes men showed me the wisdom of +getting out of the way before they had time to get too deep into the +cause of all the trouble. + +Quite plainly the bubble had burst. Some investor had become suspicious +and the investigation which she or her husband had started had +demolished the flimsy structure which Carrie's vivid imagination had +reared. + +Bitterly I thought of Carrie's treachery to me. Without a word of +warning she had fled, leaving me alone and almost penniless to face +arrest. By now she was doubtless on her way to Europe or Canada with +all the money in which I should rightfully have shared. + +There was only one thing for me to do--get away from my Fifth avenue +house before any of the women investors recovered enough of their +senses to put the police on my trail. Hurriedly throwing a few of my +possessions into a trunk I shipped it to my friend Mr. Rowe's hotel and +followed there myself on foot. + +To Mr. Rowe I poured out the whole story of my troubles and asked his +help. He was very willing to do all in his power to aid me. + +"It looks bad for you, Sophie," he said. "A detective was here less +than fifteen minutes ago inquiring for you and the chances are that +he'll be back again before long. But I can easily hide you until night, +and then we'll try to find some way of smuggling you to the station. +I'll loan you whatever money you need and will ship your trunk to you +when you get to Detroit." + +Mr. Rowe was right--the detective returned and posted himself at the +front door of the hotel. With him came another headquarters man to +guard the side entrance. They were evidently convinced that Sophie +Lyons was in the hotel or that she would soon return there. + + +HOW I ESCAPED ARREST + +Night came and the two sleuths showed no signs of leaving. The only +avenue of escape from the upper room where I had been hiding all day +was by the window. + +With Mr. Rowe's kind help I securely fastened to the window frame one +end of a long rope, which was kept for use in case of fire. Down this I +slid in the darkness to the roof of a one-story building adjoining the +hotel. From there it was an easy drop to a little alley, which finally +brought me out on Broadway. + +After an agonizing wait of several minutes at the station I got safely +on board a train and was soon speeding toward Detroit. Then I drew +the first long breath I had taken since morning, when I had seen that +tearful crowd of investors and creditors in front of the closed bank. + +Carrie Morse was never caught or punished for the ladies' bank swindle, +which the newspapers later said must have netted her at least $50,000. +Years after I met her in Chicago where she was operating a matrimonial +agency which was almost as crooked as the bank had been. She never +mentioned our banking venture nor offered me my share of the profits, +and, as I was prosperous then, I never asked her for it. + +She was a swindler to her dying day and served many long prison terms. +As she grew old it took all the money she could make to keep out of +jail and she finally died in poverty. With all her cleverness she never +seemed able to see what expensive folly it was to waste her really +brilliant abilities in a life of crime. + +This was my first experience with clever women swindlers. I was +surprised to learn, to my sorrow, that the standards of good faith +which are maintained among men of the underworld do not hold good +among most women criminals. I fully determined to have no more dealings +with criminals of my own sex. + +But this wise resolve was broken quite by accident a few years later, +while I was traveling in the south of Europe and became acquainted with +Mrs. Helen Gardner, an English swindler and confidence operator. Mrs. +Gardner was a woman of fine presence, a finely modulated voice, all +the manners, graces, and charms of a well-bred English woman, and an +amazingly inspiring and persuasive conversationalist. + +In daring and ingenuity this remarkable woman surpassed any man I +ever knew. Crimes which the cleverest men in the underworld would +have declared impossible or too foolhardy to undertake she not only +attempted, but carried through to success. + +For years the boldest schemes followed one another in rapid succession +from Mrs. Gardner's fertile brain. Swindling was as natural to her as +breathing is to normal persons. She was the most successful confidence +woman who ever operated in England or on the Continent, and no rich man +was safe once she got her traps set for him. + +I first met Mrs. Gardner in Nice, where I was enjoying a little +vacation after a long, arduous bank robbing campaign in America. She +was then traveling under the name of Lady Temple. + +To make a long story short, we soon became great friends. We went +everywhere together and she generously shared with me the luxuries +with which she was so plentifully supplied. She finally even induced me +to take rooms in the hotel adjoining her own suite. + +I did not know at that time that she was Mrs. Gardner, the famous +English confidence swindler. + +She told me little of her personal affairs except that her husband, Sir +Edward Temple, had been a prominent physician in London and that she +was in Nice to recover from the shock incident to his sudden death. +The deep mourning she habitually wore and the heavy black band on her +visiting cards bore out this story, but, to tell the truth, I didn't +bother my head much about its truth or falsity. + +I did not at that time happen to know that it is the custom in England +for a doctor's practice to be sold when he retires from business or +dies. + +There was no doubt that she had money and that she was giving me a +liberal share of its benefits--why should I worry about where it came +from or how long it would last? + +I, in turn, kept her in equal ignorance of my own past life and of my +means of support. + +But there was one thing about which I couldn't help being very +curious--the number of doctors who were calling at the hotel to see +Lady Temple. Every day there was at least one and some days there were +three or four--each came alone and the same one seldom appeared a +second time. + + +MRS. GARDNER'S CLEVER SCHEME + +Lady Temple invariably saw all of them. When a physician's card came up +she would ask me to retire to my own rooms and then would be closeted +for a long time with the visitor. It could not be professional calls +these doctors were making, for there was nothing about her ladyship's +health to call for such a varied assortment of medical attention. + +What could be the meaning of all these visits from physicians? My +curiosity got the better of me and I determined to do a little +eavesdropping. + +My opportunity came when the maid brought in the card of "Dr. Robert +Mackenzie, of Edinburgh, Scotland." As usual, Lady Temple said, "Show +him up," and asked me if I would be good enough to retire. Instead of +closing the door which led from Lady Temple's sitting room to my own I +left it open a trifle and stood there with my ear to the crack, where I +could hear every word that was said and also get an occasional peep at +the lady and her visitor. + +Dr. Mackenzie was a grave, pompous appearing man, slightly under +middle age. He was dressed in the conventional garb of the old school +physician and carried a small medicine case. + +"I have come to see you, Lady Temple," he said, after the usual polite +preliminaries, "in relation to your advertisement in the current number +of the _Lancet_. Your late husband's practice seems to offer just the +opportunity I have long been seeking to establish myself in London. May +I ask if it is still for sale?" + +"My husband was a very distinguished man and had a very lucrative +practice," the bogus Lady Temple replied. "You must read these notices +in the papers which were printed when he died. Here is one from the +London _Times_--oh! my poor dear husband!----" + +At this point Mrs. Gardner burst into tears. She covered her face +with her black-bordered handkerchief and her charming figure shook +convulsively with her sobs. Her visitor, Dr. Mackenzie, stood with head +bowed in silent respect. + +Presently Mrs. Gardner recovered herself with an effort, and, gazing +appealingly at her visitor through her tear-stained eyes, said: + +"Will you pardon me? I know it is very weak of me to give way to my +grief like this. + +"As I was saying," she finally resumed, "my husband was so dear to me +that I cannot bear to think of living in London now he is gone. That is +why I am anxious to dispose of my interests there at once. Did you know +the late Sir Edward, doctor?" + +"I never had the honor of his acquaintance, but I have often heard him +lecture, and I have in my library all the books he ever published. I +was always a great admirer of his abilities. His discoveries about +the circulation of the blood seem to me the most valuable recent +contribution to medical science." + +"It pleases me to have you say that," said Lady Temple, warming into +cordiality at this tribute to her late husband. "I have had many good +offers for the practice, but none so far from a man such as my husband +would have wished to see succeed him. You are a man after Sir Edward's +own heart, and, if you can furnish satisfactory references, I feel +confident matters can be arranged to our mutual satisfaction." + +From an inner pocket the doctor produced a packet of letters, which he +carefully unfolded and handed to Lady Temple. + +"Very, very satisfactory," she murmured, after studying them intently. +"If my husband were here he would be so gratified to see what an able +successor I have found for him. And now as to terms." + +The doctor did not seem at all disturbed by this abrupt introduction of +monetary considerations. Indeed, he was growing quite merry under the +warming influence of her ladyship's bright smiles. These smiles, by the +way, were all the more effective because of their background of widow's +weeds and tear-stained cheeks. + +"Then I may really have the practice?" he asked eagerly. + +"Indeed you may," Lady Temple replied. "The price is $25,000, but I +do not want to accept that amount or sign the final papers until I +get back to London. My solicitors, however, say it will be perfectly +satisfactory to give you an option now, provided you are willing to +pay just a small amount on the purchase price--say $1,000. Is that +agreeable, doctor?" + +Agreeable? Indeed it was! + + +SWINDLING ONE DOCTOR A DAY + +The doctor counted out $1,000 in crisp bank notes. Her ladyship +produced two copies of an agreement which, she said, her solicitors +had prepared, and these they both signed. Then she bade the departing +doctor an almost affectionate farewell and gave him the most minute +directions about meeting her in London a month later. + +The next day I overheard an almost similar interview with a doctor from +Glasgow! The only point of difference was that he paid $1,200 for the +option instead of $1,000. + +There was no necessity for further eavesdropping. I understood now why +Lady Temple read all the medical papers and why so many doctors came +to see her. No wonder we lived in luxury with some ambitious doctor +contributing at least $1,000 every day to our support! + +I said nothing of what I had seen or heard, and, although I continued +to live with Lady Temple for several months, she never explained her +affairs with the doctors. This seems to be a characteristic of all +women swindlers--to deceive even their closest friends and never to +tell any one the whole truth about their nefarious schemes. + +It was from others that I later learned the complete details of this +swindle. There really had been a Sir Edward Temple, who was a great +London physician. + +Mrs. Gardner, learning of his death from the newspapers, familiarized +herself with his career from the obituary notices, secured some +photographs of him, and began posing as his widow. + +Her advertisements in the medical journals did not mention Sir Edward +by name, but it was to be inferred that the practice offered for sale +was his, because of his recent death and because the announcements were +signed "Lady Temple." + +Doctors interested were invited to write her at a post office box +address. She replied from Nice, where she had "gone for her health," +and invited them to come there and see her. What happened to the +unfortunate doctors who made the trip I have already told you. + +The supply of physicians willing to pay for an option on a London +practice seemed inexhaustible and in a few weeks my friend must easily +have cleared $20,000. But she began to tire of Nice and invited me to +accompany her to London. + +When we reached there we went to Claridge's, in Mayfair, and took one +of the finest suites in that exclusive hotel. The morning after our +arrival she suggested a shopping expedition. + +To my amazement there stood at the hotel door waiting for us a splendid +carriage drawn by a prancing pair of horses in heavy silver-plated +harness. + +On the doors of the carriage was emblazoned a brilliant coat of arms. +On the box sat a pompous coachman in livery. A liveried footman stood +at attention ready to assist us. + +[Illustration: THERE STOOD A SPLENDID CARRIAGE DRAWN BY A PAIR OF +PRANCING HORSES] + +I had hard work to believe it wasn't all a dream as I settled back +against the soft silken cushions and heard my friend order us driven to +Bond street. + +We stopped in front of a famous jewelry store--I made ready to alight, +but that, it seems, was not the plan. Instead, her ladyship whispered a +message to the footman and he went into the store. + +Out came the proprietor, a dignified old Englishman. At sight of this +splendid equipage with its crests on the door and the two fine ladies +inside, he was all bows and smiles. + +"It is not customary," he said, rubbing his hands in gleeful +anticipation of big sales to come, "to let our trays of diamonds go out +of the store, but I shall be glad to arrange it for your ladyship." + +A clerk appeared carrying two trays full of diamond necklaces, rings, +and other jewelry which Lady Temple had asked to see. + +"Have you nothing better than these?" said Lady Temple, rather +contemptuously, after a casual glance at them. + +The eager clerk hurried back to the store and returned with a tray of +more elaborate specimens of the jeweler's art. + +Lady Temple leisurely selected a necklace, two rings, and a +locket--worth in all more than $5,000. + +"Send these to Lady Temple's apartments at Claridge's," she said, "and +include them in my bill the first of next month. Doubtless you knew my +dear husband, the late Sir Edward"--her voice caught as it always did +when she spoke his name--"he had an account here for years." + + +OUR EXPERIENCE IN LONDON + +The clerk smirked his gratitude, promised prompt delivery, and we drove +on to a fashionable dressmaker's. There we secured on credit, which had +nothing more substantial for its basis than the stolen crest our hired +carriage bore, several costly gowns. + +This sort of thing went on for two weeks. The magic of my friend's +methods opened to us all the treasures of London's finest shops. +A never-ending line of messengers brought to Claridge's the most +expensive goods of every description--and not a penny of real money was +involved in any of the transactions. + +I discarded all my old gowns and had to get additional trunks to hold +the new ones. Soon I had accumulated three or four times as much +jewelry as I could wear at one time. With the prudence for which I was +always famous, I put the surplus rings and brooches in a safe deposit +box. + +All this time you may be sure I felt considerable apprehension. +Although I took no active part in these swindling operations, I shared +in the plunder, and knew I would be held as an accomplice in case there +was trouble. + +The trouble came sooner than I expected. We had been "buying" some +linens--making our selections, as usual, without leaving our carriage. +Just as we were about to drive away the clerk who had taken our order +came rushing out. + +"Your ladyship's pardon," he stammered, "but would you please step +inside the store. The manager thinks there's some mistake--that is, he +thought Lady Temple was in Egypt." + +I gave a gasp--now we'd be arrested! + +But my friend showed not the slightest emotion, except a little +annoyance, such as was quite natural under the circumstances to a lady +of rank. She calmly walked into the store--and I have never laid eyes +on her since. + +After waiting an hour I decided she must have escaped by a side +entrance. I returned to Claridge's and found she had been there before +me. She was gone, bag and baggage--and in a great hurry, as the +disorder of the rooms showed. + +I lost no time in arranging my own departure and did not feel safe +until I was well on my way to New York with my trunks full of more +finery than I had ever possessed. + +Two or three years later Helen Gardner, alias Lady Temple, was +convicted in France for obtaining money under false pretenses. Her +prison term brought her to her senses--showed her how foolish it was to +waste her life in crime. When she was released she settled down to an +honest career and later became the wife of a prosperous merchant. + +The account of my experiences with famous women swindlers would not +be complete without some mention of the greatest of them all--the +notorious Ellen Peck, long known as the "Confidence Queen." + +Mrs. Peck's exploits during the many years when she defrauded everybody +who came within her reach would fill a book. One swindle would hardly +be finished before another would be begun, and often she would have +several entirely different schemes under way at once. + +She paid her lawyers several fortunes in her persistent efforts to keep +out of jail and to retain possession of the property she had stolen. At +one time, when she was in her prime, she was defendant in twenty-eight +civil and criminal suits. + +One of Ellen Peck's many peculiarities was her fondness for practicing +her skilful arts on her fellow criminals. She found more satisfaction +in cheating a thief out of a ten-dollar bill than in defrauding some +banker of $1,000. + +Even I, trained in crime from childhood, was not proof against Ellen's +wiles. Several times I became her victim as completely as I did Carrie +Morse's--and I can vouch for the fact that no shrewder fox ever lived. + +Each time she tricked me I would make a solemn vow never to have +anything to do with her again. Then along she would come with some +story, oh, so plausible!--and I would swallow it as readily as I had +the previous one and as much to my sorrow. + +Once she actually cheated me out of the very shawl on my back. It was a +fine cashmere shawl--one I had secured in Europe at a great bargain. + +"Come," said Ellen, "let me have that shawl. I know a rich woman who +will give you $500 for it." + +"No," I said, grimly, "I don't want to sell it." But Ellen turned her +hypnotic eye on me, began her irresistible flow of smooth argument +and--got the shawl. + +That was the last I saw of her for six months. When I did succeed in +running her down she said she had been able to get only $100 for the +shawl--and she had left that at home on the sideboard! + +Grabbing her by the arm I told her I would not let her go until she +gave me what money she had. After considerable argument she emptied +$37.50 out of her purse--which was all I ever got for my $500 shawl. + +Ellen Peck conceived a very simple scheme of piano swindling, and I was +in partnership with her in it. She had been working this swindle alone +until she had become known to all the piano dealers. Then she invited +me to join her. Here is how we managed it: + +I would go to a store and buy a piano on the installment plan, paying +five or ten dollars down. The instrument would be delivered at some one +of the twenty furnished rooms which Ellen had engaged for just this +purpose in various parts of the city. + +As soon as the piano was installed at one of these rooms we would +promptly advertise it for sale at a greatly reduced price. If the +first purchaser did not move the piano at once we would sometimes be +able to sell the same instrument to five or six different persons. +When we had squeezed as much money as we could out of a piano we would +disappear--only to repeat the same trick at another furnished room and +with a piano from another store. + +It sometimes happened that, when the several persons to whom we had +sold a single piano came to claim it, the merchant from whom we +had secured it and to whom it still belonged would also put in an +appearance. Then there would be the liveliest kind of a squabble, which +would have to be settled in the courts. + +Crafty Ellen Peck supplied the brains for this enterprise but made +me do most of the hard work and gave me only a meager share of the +profits. It was a despicable swindle, for the loss did not fall on the +dealer, but on the poor families to whom we sold the pianos and who +could ill afford the money we took from them. I am thankful to say that +I did not long make my living in this mean way. + +I hope that Ellen Peck may be alive to read these lines. In her +declining years wisdom and charity have doubtless come to her just as +they have to me. I feel sure that she shares my sincere repentance for +past errors, and that she will give me her hearty indorsement when I +say, as I constantly do, that under no circumstances does crime pay. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOW I FACED DEATH, HOW MY HUSBAND WAS SHOT, AND SOME NARROW ESCAPES OF +MY COMPANIONS + + +From the moment when he commits his first crime the professional +criminal never knows what it is to enjoy real peace of mind. His crimes +hang over him like the sword of Damocles, and, unless he reforms, he +can never be free from the fear of some day being found out and sent +away to prison for a long term. + +And arrest is not the only thing he has to fear--he is continually face +to face with the danger of serious injury or death. Whatever the crime +he undertakes, he must run the most desperate risks--he has to stake +not only his liberty, but life itself on the narrowest of margins. + +The powerful explosive he is using to blow open a safe may go off +prematurely, as it did one night when George Mason and I were robbing a +bank in Illinois, and leave the robber half dead. + +Perhaps an indignant mob may decide to take justice into its own hands +by lynching the criminal. This is what happened to one of my comrades +in Kentucky. They had the noose around his neck and were all ready to +string him up when I arrived in the nick of time to save his life. + +Perhaps he will be caught in the act at one of his crimes and shot down +like a dog, as my husband, Ned Lyons, was in Connecticut one night. +That was the narrowest escape my husband ever had--I saw it with my own +eyes, and, if I live to be a hundred, I shall never forget the agony of +it all. + +At the time of this thrilling adventure the police wanted us so badly +for our share in several famous robberies that Ned and I did not dare +to undertake any operations in the large cities which usually formed +our most profitable fields. So, being in need of ready money, we had +decided to take a little trip through some of the smaller towns of +New England. The amount of cash to be had from the banks, stores and +postoffices in these places was not large, but, on the other hand, it +was not hard to get and we thought we ought to be able to spend two or +three weeks quite profitably in the nearby towns of Connecticut and +Massachusetts. + +As my health that summer was not very good and Ned did not want me to +take any very active part in the robberies, we invited George Mason to +go along with us. + +From the start we seemed to be ill-fated. Ned and George succeeded in +getting into a bank in Fitchburg, Mass., but were frightened away by a +watchman before they had time to open the safe. From the postoffice in +a little village just outside Fitchburg we secured only eight or ten +dollars to pay us for our trouble. Quite discouraged and desperately in +need of money we went on to Palmer, Mass. + +There I scouted around and discovered that the most likely place for +us to rob was G. L. Hitchcock's drug store, which was also the village +postoffice. A storm came up to hide the full moon, and this enabled us +to make the attempt that very night. It was not the easiest job in the +world, for Mr. Hitchcock and his family lived directly above the store +and the least noise was sure to rouse them. + + +HOW WE ROBBED A STORE + +Shortly after midnight I took up my position in an alley in the rear +of the store to stand guard while Ned and George removed a pane of +glass from a cellar window. Through this opening the men squeezed, and +presently the dim reflection of their dark lanterns showed me that they +had safely reached the store above. + +I had been standing there in the rain for nearly twenty minutes when a +low rumble from inside the store made me prick up my ears. Just as I +was puckering my lips to whistle a shrill warning to my comrades I saw +them appear at the back door of the store carrying between them a small +iron safe. It was this safe rolling over the floor which I had heard. + +The safe was a small affair, but so well made that it had successfully +resisted all their efforts to drill it open. Finding it was not too +heavy to be carried they had decided to take it outside the town, where +they could blow it open without fear of arousing the sleeping village. + +We must have made a strange procession as we trudged along through +the darkness--the two men partly carrying and partly rolling the safe +along, and all of us wading through mud half way to our knees. + +At last we reached a meadow far enough removed from any houses for our +purpose. George Mason filled one of the holes he had drilled with black +powder and wrapped the safe with some old sacks to protect the fuse +from the wet and also to muffle the noise of the explosion. + +Ned touched a match to the fuse and we scurried to a safe distance. The +charge went off with a dull boom--the shattered door of the safe flew +high into the air and landed several yards away. + +Waiting a few minutes to make sure that no one in the village had +been awakened, we hurried back to get our plunder. There were $350 in +cash, a diamond ring, some gold pens, and fifteen or twenty dollars' +worth of postage stamps. With the few dollars the boys had taken from +the till this made a trifle more than four hundred dollars for our +night's work--a pitifully small sum compared with what some of our bank +robberies brought us, but enough to support us until we could plan some +more ambitious undertaking. + +Just as we were dividing our plunder into three equal shares a freight +train whistled in the distance. + +"George and I will jump on this train," said my husband, giving me a +hurried kiss. "It's safer than for the three of us to stick together. +Good-bye--and take care of yourself. We'll meet you in South Windham, +Conn., late to-night or early to-morrow." + +Wet, bedraggled, and so tired that I could have fallen asleep standing +up, I groped my way to the railroad station and curled myself up on a +bench to snatch what rest I could. Just before daybreak a milk train +came along. I boarded this and traveled by a roundabout route to South +Windham. + + +MY HUSBAND IS SHOT + +I reached there late in the afternoon and went straight to the +postoffice. This was always the accepted rendezvous for professional +criminals when no other place had been agreed upon. Detectives in +every city might very profitably spend more of their time watching the +postoffice, for wherever the criminal is he makes a point of calling +there at least once every twenty-four hours to keep appointments with +his friends or in the hope of running across some acquaintance. + +Ned and George were there waiting for me, and mighty glad they were to +see me, for they had heard vague rumors of a woman having been arrested +on suspicion that she knew something about the Palmer robbery. + +The best opportunity the sleepy little town afforded seemed to be a +general store run by a man named Johnson. I dropped in there late one +evening, and, on the pretext of buying a crochet hook, saw the old +proprietor locking the day's receipts--quite a respectable bundle of +money--in a ramshackle safe which offered about as much security as a +cheese box. + +We got everything in readiness to break into the store the following +night. It was a foolhardy time for such a job, as there was a bright +moon--but we were hungry for money, and one more good haul would supply +enough to keep us in comfort until we could lay our plans for some +robbery really worthy of our skill. + +There was really little I could do to help the men, but I could not +bear to be left behind. Just after midnight I stole out of the railroad +station, where I had been waiting ostensibly for the night train to New +York, and hid myself in the doorway of a livery stable, where I had a +good view of the store we were going to rob. + +Pretty soon I saw my two comrades come cautiously down the main street +from opposite directions. They met underneath a window of the store on +the side which was in the dark shadow of a tree. + +The window was so high above the ground that my husband had to climb up +on George Mason's shoulders to reach it. I could hear the gentle rasp +of his jimmy as it worked against the fastenings. + +At last he raised the sash gently and stepped into the store. Then +he leaned far out across the sill and stretched his brawny arms down +toward his companion. + +Mason gave a leap, caught hold of Ned's wrists, and, with the agility +of a circus performer, swung himself up into the window. + +All was as silent as the grave. The only sign of life I could see in +the peaceful street were two cats enjoying a nocturnal gambol on a +nearby piazza roof. I shivered for fear they might start yowling and +awaken somebody to spoil our plans. + +Just at that instant one of the cats upset a flower pot which stood at +a window opening on the porch roof. To my horror that pot went rolling +down the roof with a tremendous clatter, hung suspended for a second +on the eaves, then fell to the stone steps with a crash that woke the +echoes. + +At once the whole town awoke. In every direction I could hear windows +being thrown open, children crying, and sleepy voices asking what the +trouble was. + +At a window directly over the store where my two friends were a +night-capped head appeared and a frightened woman screamed, "Help! +Burglars!" at the top of her lungs. + +That completed the havoc which the playful cats and the flower pot had +begun. From every house half-dressed men armed with rifles, shotguns, +and all sorts of weapons poured into the street. + +All this racket had started too suddenly for me to give Ned and George +any warning. I could only crouch farther back in the shadow of my +doorway and trust to Providence that the villagers would overlook me in +their excitement. + +"There goes the burglar now!" some one shouted, and just then I saw my +husband dash past my hiding place so close that I could have touched +him. He was headed for the open country beyond the railroad tracks and +was running faster than I had ever supposed a man of his weight could. + +"Stop, or I'll shoot!" yelled an old white-whiskered farmer, who stood, +rifle in hand, not a dozen yards away. + +But Ned, if he heard the command, made no move to obey. Instead, he +only ran all the faster, hunching his head down between his shoulders +and zigzagging back and forth across the road as if to make his bulky +form a less favorable target. + +The old farmer raised his rifle as deliberately as if he had been +aiming at a squirrel instead of a fellow man. Three shots blazed out in +rapid succession. + +The first shot went wild. At the second my husband stumbled. At the +third he threw up his hands and pitched forward headlong in the road. + +"We've got him!" the crowd shouted with what seemed to me fiendish +glee, and rushed up to where Ned's body lay in a quivering, bloody heap. + +I supposed he was dead, but, whether dead or alive, I knew there was +nothing I could do to aid him. Nervous and trembling at the awful sight +I had seen, I slipped out of town unnoticed. + + +WHAT CAME OF OUR CRIMES + +I saw nothing of George Mason and for months afterward did not know +how he had escaped. With better judgment than my husband showed he +had remained quietly in the store after the outcry started. He saw +the shooting, and, in the confusion which followed, he found little +difficulty in getting out of town. + +Friends of mine in New London aided me to return to the hospital in +Hartford, where Ned had been taken after the shooting. His recovery +was slow, for there was a bullet imbedded nine inches deep in his back +which the surgeons were unable to remove. As soon as he was able to +stand trial he was sentenced to three years in State prison, and, when +he had completed this term, he was given three years in Massachusetts +for the robbery at Palmer. + +This was the result of our crimes in New England--my husband nearly +killed and sentenced to six long years in prison. Can you wonder why I +have learned the lesson that crime does not pay? + +But, to my sorrow, I did not learn the lesson then--no, not for many +years after that. With my husband in prison the support of my little +ones fell wholly on my shoulders, and I promptly turned to bank robbing +as the easiest way I knew of making a living. + +My early training under such expert bank robbers as Ned Lyons, Mark +Shinburn, and Harry Raymond made me extraordinarily successful in this +variety of crime. The cleverest men in the business began to have +respect for my judgment and were continually inviting me to take an +important part in their risky but very profitable ventures. Soon, as +I am going to tell you, my reputation for skill in organizing the most +daring robberies and carrying them through without detection had spread +even beyond the limits of the underworld. + +One day, when I was trying to enjoy the novel experience of living +honestly for a few weeks, a distinguished looking gentleman called at +my home. He saw my look of incredulity when he announced himself as +a bank president and promptly produced a heavy engraved card which +confirmed the truth of his statement. + +Instantly I was on my guard. In those days my house was the +headquarters for all sorts of strange persons--receivers of stolen +goods, professional bondsmen, criminal lawyers, escaped prisoners--but +I had never before been honored by a visit from a bank president. What +on earth could the president of a bank want of a bank robber? + +"I understand that you are one of the most successful bank robbers in +America," he said without any delay in coming to the point. "I want +your advice in a little undertaking I have in mind, and, if possible, +your help." + +"My advice and help!" I exclaimed, thinking the man must be out of his +head. + +"That's exactly what I want," he replied coolly. "I want you to tell +me how I can have my bank robbed, and, if possible, I want you to take +charge of the robbery yourself." + +As he explained, he was more than $150,000 short in his accounts. He +had taken this amount from the bank within the past year and lost +every dollar of it in speculation. He could not return this money and +it was only a matter of a few weeks before his embezzlement would be +discovered. + +Being a man of prominence in his community--a deacon in the church, his +wife a society leader, his children in college--running away was out of +the question. For months he had been racking his brain for some way of +averting the ruin which he had brought upon himself. + +The plan he had finally devised for retaining his good name and keeping +out of prison was to have his bank robbed. On the night of the robbery +he would leave $50,000 in the vault to pay the robbers for their +trouble, but, when he came to announce the robbery to the police and +the newspapers, he would declare that $200,000 had been taken. + +In this way his thefts would be covered up and he could continue to +enjoy the respect and confidence of the community where he had always +lived. + + +A BANKER HIRES US TO ROB + +I was amazed at the bold ingenuity of this plan and the matter-of-fact +way in which he presented it to me. This was the first I had ever heard +of a bank being robbed by request of one of its officials. Later I came +to know that it is not an uncommon thing for dishonest presidents and +cashiers to conceal their thefts by hiring robbers to break into their +banks. The difference between what is actually taken in one of these +robberies by request and what the police and the newspapers say is +taken covers the amount which the embezzling official has lost in Wall +Street or some other speculation. + +[Illustration: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE ROBBED A BANK "BY REQUEST."] + +At that time such an idea was so new to me that all sorts of suspicions +crowded into my mind. Probably it was a trap for me, I thought, and I +positively declined to have anything to do with it. + +But the old banker would not take no for an answer. He urged me to +think it over and a week later he called again. + +By this time the fear of the disgrace which threatened him and his +family had made him a nervous wreck. He begged so piteously for me to +help him save his good name that my womanly sympathies got the better +of me and I finally consented. + +All my feeling for him, however, did not quite free my mind of the fear +that the whole affair might be a trick, and I determined to protect +myself and the robbers who would assist me with all the shrewdness I +could. + +"We must have a written agreement," I said at the very start. + +The banker objected to this, fearing, I suppose, that I might use the +paper against him later for blackmail. But I insisted that I would not +do a thing until I had it. + +"If you can't trust me to that extent I can't trust you," I said +firmly--and at last he told me to draw up the paper and he would sign +it. + +According to the contract which I prepared, the banker paid five +thousand dollars down and was to pay me an equal amount as soon as I +had completed my arrangements and set the date for the robbery. He +further agreed that there should be at least $50,000 in cash in the +bank vault on the night of our visit. + +It was further provided that the banker should cooperate with me and my +fellow robbers in every possible way, and that he should do nothing to +aid in our arrest or conviction for the crime, which, as was expressly +stated, was committed at his suggestion, and not ours. In case the +robbery was interrupted before we could get inside the vault the banker +was to pay us $25,000 in cash in addition to the $10,000 already +advanced. + +I agreed to leave no stone unturned to carry out the robbery and +promised to return the agreement to the banker as soon as all its +provisions had been fulfilled. + +All this I set down on paper in as businesslike way as I knew how. It +was a document which would have made the poor old banker's ruin even +greater than his thievings had done if I had been the sort of woman to +break faith with him. With trembling fingers he signed it and counted +out $5,000 in bills. + +From the banker I had gained a good idea of the bank and the sort of +vault we would have to enter. Now, to get some good, reliable men to +help me do the job. + +Of all the bank burglars in my acquaintance George Mason seemed best +fitted for this particular crime. He was a cool, resourceful fellow +and had had wide experience in blowing open bank vaults. + +George readily agreed to join me, and for the rest of the party he +recommended two younger men--Tom Smith and Frank Jones, I will call +them, although those were not their names. I do not like to reveal +their identity here because they later reformed and led honest lives. + +Right here let me say that I never told these three men of my +arrangements with the banker or that I was to receive from him $10,000 +in addition to what we expected to find in the vault. If they are alive +to-day and read these lines they will learn here for the first time +that the bank in Quincy, Ill., which they helped Sophie Lyons rob was +robbed by request of its president. + + +BORING INTO THE BANK VAULT + +I sent word to the banker that we were ready and he came to my house +and paid me $5,000 more. Then, by different routes, George Mason, the +other two robbers and I proceeded to Quincy. + +I was the first to arrive. I went to the leading hotel, announced my +plan to add a patent medicine laboratory to the town's industries and +began to look around for a suitable location for my enterprise. As I +believe I mentioned in a previous chapter, this ruse of the patent +medicine laboratory was one I had borrowed from my friend, Harry +Raymond--he had used it to splendid advantage in his robbery of the +Boylston Bank in Boston. + +Of course, it was a part of my prearranged plan with the banker that +the quarters I should finally find best suited for my purpose would +be a room on the second floor of the bank building, directly over the +vault we were going to rob. + +I made several visits to the bank before I completed my arrangements +with the president--partly to carry out my rôle of the cautious +business woman and partly to study the construction of the vault and +see where we could best bore our way into it. + +By the time the lease was signed the three men who were to be +associated with me in the new business arrived. With their help I +secured a quantity of bottles, labels, jars of chemicals, chairs, +desks, tables, and other things we would need if we were really making +patent medicine. + +Among the articles of furniture we moved in was an unusually large oak +wardrobe. We removed the bottom from this and placed it over the exact +spot in the floor where we planned to dig our opening into the bank +vault. + +Then, while one of the men and I ostentatiously pasted labels on +endless bottles of "Golden Bitters," the other two men crawled into +the wardrobe where no chance visitor could see them and day after day +continued the work of removing the layers of brick and timber which +separated us from the vault. We stored the débris as it accumulated in +bags and carried it away every night. + +It was a long job and a hard one. The floor timbers were seasoned oak +and beneath them were two layers of brick. + +In the cramped space inside the wardrobe it was hard to work to the +best advantage and, besides, the men never knew just how far they had +progressed and were in constant fear that an extra vigorous blow would +loosen a big strip of plaster in the ceiling of the bank. + +To our disgust we found, after we had passed through the floor itself, +that the vault had a sort of false roof composed of short lengths of +railroad iron placed irregularly in a setting of mortar and brick. This +made our task three days longer than we had expected. + +Late one afternoon George Mason cleared away a space which left only a +thin layer of lath and plaster between us and the inside of the vault. + +There was too much danger of the gaping hole we had dug under the +wardrobe being discovered to admit of any further delay. We made our +arrangements to rob the bank that very night. + +While the rest of the town was going to bed we waited impatiently for +it to get late enough for us to lay our hands on the $50,000 which I +had every reason to believe was waiting below that thin layer of lath +and plaster. Luckily enough the bank's watchman was at a christening +party that evening and was not likely to return until the wee small +hours. This prevented the necessity of my remaining on guard outside. + +Shortly after midnight we turned out our lamps and lighted our dark +lanterns. I peered out of the window--the streets were deserted. + +George Mason took a small sledge hammer and with one or two well +directed blows opened up the hole in the floor wide enough to admit his +body. Then he tied one end of a long rope under his arms and we lowered +him down into the vault. + + +MY COMRADE'S NARROW ESCAPE + +To the best of my knowledge and belief the cash which had been promised +would be found right on the shelves of the vault, and all George would +have to do would be to stuff it into his pockets and climb back up the +way he had come. + +But, whether through intent or an oversight on the president's part, +that was not the case. For several minutes we waited breathlessly +listening to George as he fumbled around the vault by the light of his +dark-lantern. Then we heard him call in a hoarse whisper: + +"Sophie, it's just as I was afraid it would be. Every cent of the money +is locked up in the small steel safe. I'll have to come back up and get +my tools." + +It is the custom in big bank vaults to have a small and separate steel +safe to put the actual cash into. Leases, documents, account books, and +sometimes bonds and stock certificates are kept in the big vault, but +money and things of special value are usually locked up in the inside +steel compartment. + +With some difficulty we hauled him back up. From his bag he selected +the drills he thought he would need and from a bottle poured out what +seemed to me an extra generous quantity of black powder. + +"Be careful and not use too much of that stuff," I called as he +disappeared again through the hole. "Ned always said that was your +worst failing." + +"Don't you worry, Sophie," he replied; "it will take a good big dose to +open this safe." + +For several minutes we sat there listening to the rasping of his drills +against the door of the safe. Just as we felt that tug on the rope +which was the signal to haul him up, we saw the flare of his lighted +match and heard the sputter of the fuse. + +We pulled on the rope for all we were worth but before George's body +was within two feet of the hole in the floor there came a blinding +flash, followed by an explosion that shook the building. + +Although dazed by the shock and half blinded by the cloud of dust and +poisonous fumes which poured up through the hole, we managed to keep +our hold on the rope and haul our helpless comrade out of the death +trap in which the premature explosion had caught him. + +"George!" I called, as we lifted the rope from under his arms. But he +never answered and I thought it was only a corpse that we laid gently +on the floor. His hair and eyebrows were completely burned off, his +face and hands were as black as coal and he was bleeding from an ugly +wound in the head. + +We forgot the money we were after--we forgot the danger of being +caught--in our anxiety for our wounded friend. One of the men brought +water while I tried to force a drink of brandy down his throat. It +seemed an age before he came to his senses, raised himself on one elbow +and roughly pushed me aside. + +"It went off too quick for me," he said; "but don't be foolish--I'll be +all right in a minute. Look and see if the noise has roused the town." + +I looked out--there was not a soul in sight. The bank's thick walls and +the fact that it stood at some distance from any other building had +evidently prevented the explosion being heard outside. + + +WE GET THE BANK'S MONEY + +Although suffering intense pain George insisted on going back to get +the money. It was no easy task, for the vault was full of suffocating +smoke. There was no time to lose, as the watchman might return at any +minute. + +After a few minutes we hauled him up for the third time. + +"That charge blew the safe door to splinters, but here's every dollar +it contained," he said, handing me several packages of bills. + +I counted the money and had hard work to conceal my surprise when I +found there was only $30,000. But, as Mason thought himself lucky to +escape with his life and, as the other two men seemed well satisfied +with the amount, I said nothing. + +We started at once for Chicago, where a few days later we divided the +spoils. As I had expected, the bank's loss was placed by the newspapers +at $200,000. A large reward was offered for the capture of the robbers. +I was pleased to note that the president's story of the amount taken +and of the complete mystery in which the affair was shrouded seemed to +be generally accepted. + +After the excitement had died down the bank president came to Detroit +to see me. Worry over the possibility of his crime being discovered +had shattered his nerves and he was such a poor broken specimen of an +old man that I did not have the heart to demand the additional $20,000 +which he had promised us. As I tore up our agreement and handed him the +pieces, he said: + +"My criminal folly has ruined my peace of mind. Thanks to your help, I +have saved my family from disgrace, but the worries and nervous strain +of my defalcation and the bank robbery have killed me. My doctors say +I have heart disease, and have but a few months to live. I wish I had +known two years ago what I have since learned--that crime does not pay." + + +FACING A LYNCHING MOB + +The desperate risks every criminal has to run often come through no +crime of his own, but through his association with other criminals. +Two of the most exciting events in my varied career happened to me +through my loyal effort to save the life of my friend, Tom Bigelow, a +well-known bank sneak and burglar. + +It was in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, that all this happened. I was +there on a perfectly legitimate errand and had no idea that any of my +criminal friends were in the vicinity. + +There was a circus in town that day and the long main street was +crowded with sightseers. I had been watching the parade with the rest +and was on my way back to the hotel for dinner when I heard some one +call my name. + +Looking around in surprise I saw Johnny Meaney, a young bank sneak, +whom I knew well, pressing his way through the crowd toward me. He was +all out of breath and in the greatest agitation. + +"Sophie," he whispered in my ear, "they've just caught Tom Bigelow with +the bank's money on him and they're going to lynch him." + +There was no time to ask him more--before the last word was fairly out +of his mouth he had disappeared in the crowd. + +As I afterward learned, Tom and Johnny had taken advantage of the +excitement created by the circus parade to rob the Mount Sterling Bank. +While the cashier was standing upon the counter to see the passing +parade, Johnny had crawled in under his legs and taken a bundle of +money out of the vault. + +He got safely out with his plunder and was just handing it to Tom, +who had been waiting in a buggy outside, when the cashier discovered +his loss and raised a great outcry. Before Tom had time to stir out +of his tracks a hundred willing hands in the crowd had made him a +prisoner--then some one started the cry, "Lynch the Yankee robber!" and +some one else brought a rope. + +In the excitement nimble John Meaney had managed to escape. As he +dashed down the street he had chanced to catch sight of me and had +passed me the word of our friend's peril. + +The crowd was already hurrying in the direction of the square in the +center of the town where the court house stood and I followed as fast +as my legs could carry me. + +As I entered the square I could see Tom's familiar form looming above +the heads of the yelling mob which surrounded him. He was mounted on a +soap box under an oak tree which stood in front of the court house. + +I shall never forget how he looked--pale as a sheet, his feet tied with +rope, his arms securely bound behind him. He was bareheaded and they +had removed his coat and collar in order to adjust the noose which hung +around his neck. + +Quite plainly, if there was anything I could do to save my friend, +it must be done quickly. The mob was loudly clamoring for his life. +Already a young man was climbing up the tree in search of a convenient +limb over which to throw the end of the rope. + +I shuddered to think that, unless I could devise some plan of action, +Tom Bigelow's lifeless body would soon be dangling before my eyes. + +Summoning every ounce of the nervous energy I possessed I pressed my +way through the crowd, screaming frantically: + +"That man is my sweetheart! Don't lynch him--oh, please don't lynch +him!" + +My action took the crowd by surprise--they made a lane for me and +pushed me along until finally I stood right at Tom's feet. + + +HOW I SAVED TOM'S LIFE + +I climbed up on the box beside Tom; I threw my arms around his neck, +although the feel of that ugly noose against my flesh made me shudder. + +"This man is innocent--he is my sweetheart," I kept shouting. "You must +let him go." + +I hugged Tom Bigelow, I kissed him, I wept over him--I did everything I +could imagine a woman doing when the man she loves is about to be hung +before her eyes. + +"If you hang him you'll have to hang me, too," I screamed between my +heart-rending sobs. + +The crowd was amazed. Lynchings were no uncommon occurrence in that +region, but nothing like this had ever happened before. + +The cooler heads in the crowd began to have their say. "Take that noose +off his neck and lock them both up," some one shouted. + +The Sheriff put handcuffs on us and led us away. My ruse had +succeeded. Tom Bigelow's life was saved! + +Tom and I were lodged in jail, indicted by the Grand Jury and held +without bail for trial. Of course, I was innocent of any share in the +robbery, but, as the authorities believed my story that I was Tom's +sweetheart, they thought I must know more about it than I admitted. + +It was while we were confined in the jail at Mount Sterling that I +had an opportunity to see for myself how it feels to face a desperate +lynching mob. That was one of the most horrid nightmares I ever +experienced. + +One of our fellow inmates in the jail was a man named Murphy Logan, +who was awaiting trial for the murder of his father. He was a sullen, +weak-minded fellow, who had several killings to his discredit. The +general opinion was that he belonged in an insane asylum. + +In another neighboring cell was a young man named Charlie Steele. He +was exceedingly popular in the community. His worst fault was love of +liquor and he was in jail for some minor offense which he had committed +on one of his sprees. The other prisoners shunned Logan on account of +his disagreeable ways, but Steele good naturedly made quite a friend of +him and they often played cards together. + +In this jail the prisoners were allowed the freedom of the long +corridor on which the cells opened. One afternoon Tom Bigelow and I sat +just outside my cell trying to devise some way to regain our liberty. +Down at the other end of the corridor, Charlie Steele and Murphy Logan +were enjoying their usual game of cards. + +Suddenly we were startled by a piercing scream. I jumped to my feet, +and looked around to see poor Steele lying on the floor with the blood +streaming from a long wound in his throat. Over him, glaring like the +madman he was, stood Murphy Logan, brandishing in one hand a heavy +piece of tin which he had fashioned into a crude sort of dagger. + +Forgetful of my own danger, I rushed up and seized Logan's arm, just as +he was about to plunge the weapon into Steele's body again. He turned +on me, but I managed to keep him from wounding me until Tom and some of +the other prisoners came to my assistance. + +Steele lived only a few hours. The Sheriff placed the murderer in +solitary confinement, and chained him to the floor of his cell. His +ravings were something terrible to hear. He continually threatened +vengeance on any of his fellow prisoners who would tell how he had +slain his friend. + +After listening to these threats all night long we were in terror of +our lives, and when the inquest was held next day not a single prisoner +would admit that he had seen the killing. + +"Didn't you see this happen?" the Sheriff asked me. + +"No," I lied, "I was in my cell at the time, and don't know anything +about how Steele came to his end." + +"You lie!" shouted Logan, when he heard this. "If you hadn't interfered +I would have cut him up worse than I did. I will make you suffer for +sticking your nose into my affairs." + +The town was in a fever of excitement, and from the windows of our +cells we could see excited groups discussing the murder on every +corner. Feeling ran particularly high, because the dead man had been so +popular in the community while nobody liked Murphy Logan. + +Late that night Logan became so exhausted with his ravings that he fell +asleep. I was just preparing to try to get some rest myself when I +heard the tramp of heavy feet coming up the jail stairs. + +By the dim light of the one smoky kerosene lamp I saw a crowd of masked +men trooping into the corridor. The leaders carried heavy sledge +hammers, and with these, having been unable to make the Sheriff give up +his keys, they attacked the iron door of Logan's cell. + +It quickly fell to pieces before their sturdy blows. Then they broke +the murderer's shackles and dragged him, shrieking curses with every +breath, down the stairs and out into the street. + +They strung him up to a tree, riddled him with bullets, and left his +body hanging there in the moonlight in full view of my cell window. +This was too much for my overwrought nerves. I threw myself on my couch +and wept. Tom Bigelow did his best to console me, but I could not +sleep--my head ached and I trembled in every limb. + +About an hour later I heard that ominous tramp of feet again! This time +the masked men came straight to the door of my cell. + +"Is this where that woman is?" a rough voice called. + +I cowered in a corner, too frightened to reply. They pounded the door +down just as they had Murphy Logan's. A man seized me by the arm and +pulled me out, none too gently. + +They were going to lynch me--I was convinced of that. With tears +streaming down my cheeks I pleaded, as I never had before, that I was +innocent of any crime, and begged to be allowed to go back home to my +children. + +They took me downstairs into the Sheriff's office, where sat a man who +seemed to be the leader of the mob. + +"So you tried to save Charlie Steele's life, did you?" he said to me. + +Then for the first time it dawned on me that perhaps I was not going to +be hanged after all. I told the whole truth about what I had done when +I saw Logan waving his dagger over his victim. When I had finished the +leader said: + +"That's all we want to know, young woman. We liked Charlie Steele, and +we like you for what you tried to do for him. Now you're free to get +out of town--that's your reward for trying to save poor Charlie. We'll +see you safely to the depot." + +I was overjoyed. The leader handed me enough money for my traveling +expenses and permitted me to go up to Tom's cell and tell him of my +good fortune. Before day broke I was on a train for Detroit. + +These are only a few of the desperate risks which my husband, my +friends, and I were constantly facing during the years when I was +active in crime. + +If every business man and merchant faced prison, bullets, or a lynching +as a necessary risk of trade, would anybody regard business life as +attractive? + +The incidents from my own experiences give one more illuminative reason +why I maintain that CRIME DOES NOT PAY! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BEHIND THE SCENES AT A $3,000,000 BURGLARY--THE ROBBERY OF THE +MANHATTAN BANK OF NEW YORK + + +Of course, crimes, like business operations, are sometimes big and +sometimes small. They vary in importance from the pickpocket's capture +of an empty pocketbook to the robbery of a big bank. I will tell +you the secrets of the greatest bank robbery in the history of the +world--the robbery of $2,758,700 from the vaults of the Manhattan Bank +in New York, on the corner of Broadway and Bleecker Street, several +years ago. + +Every man in that remarkable gang of bank burglars was an associate +of mine--I knew them, knew their wives, was in partnership with them. +It was an extraordinary enterprise, carefully considered, thoroughly +planned, and ably executed; and it yielded nearly $3,000,000 in stolen +securities and money. There has never been a bank robbery of such +magnitude, either before or since. It was complicated by the difficulty +of disposing of the great bundles of valuable bonds, many of which I +had to look after. + +In my long and varied experiences in the underworld I have never been +associated with an enterprise so remarkable in so many different ways +as the Manhattan Bank robbery. There were altogether twelve men in this +robbery, and every single one of them, with the exception of one, got +into trouble through it--one, in fact, was murdered. And here, then, in +the biggest, richest robbery of modern times, we learn the lesson that +even in a $3,000,000 robbery CRIME DOES NOT PAY! + +Bank burglars, of course, are constantly casting about for promising +fields for their operations, and this great, rich Broadway bank had +long been viewed with hungry eyes by Jimmy Hope, Ned Lyons, my husband, +and other great professionals. But not only were its vaults of the +newest and strongest construction, but there was a night watchman awake +and active all night in the bank. This watchman was locked in behind +the steel gratings of the bank, and Hope and my husband could not +figure out any way to get at him and silence him. + +It remained for a thief named "Big Jim" Tracy to solve the difficulty. +Now the curious part of this is that Tracy was not a bank robber +at all. Tracy was a general all-around thief, and specialized more +particularly in second-story residence burglaries and highway +robberies. Tracy was not even a mechanic and was entirely ignorant of +the way to use safe-blowers' tools. But Tracy was ambitious and decided +to surprise his acquaintances in the bank burglary line by doing a job +which would give him standing among the high-class experts. + + +STALKING THE WATCHMAN + +Tracy had one great advantage--he had been a schoolmate of Patrick +Shevelin, one of the bank watchmen. Knowing Shevelin, he was able to +renew into intimacy his old acquaintance, and soon broached the subject +of the contemplated robbery. Shevelin was a married man, rather proud +of the trust reposed in him, and would not consent to have any part in +the scheme. If Jimmy Hope or my husband had approached the watchman he +would have exposed them to the bank officials, but he had a friendly +feeling toward Tracy. Tracy was persistent, held out pictures of a +fabulous fortune, and finally gained the watchman's consent. + +[Illustration: How Jimmy Hope and Each Member of his Famous Band Played +his Part. + +Jimmy Hope, the leader, had considered with minute care every possible +avenue of danger, and he placed his men on guard with the precision of +a general. Three living human beings were in the building in the rooms +over the bank--the janitor, his wife and aged mother-in-law. These were +quickly taken by surprise, bound and gagged. + +John Nugent (1), with drawn pistol, stood over Werkle, the janitor; +Johnny Hope (2), the very promising burglar son of the leader, was left +in charge of Mrs. Werkle with cocked revolver, while in the next room +Eddy Goodey (3) answered for the silence of the trembling old mother. + +Outside the bank was a more important work to be done. On the Broadway +front of the building the venerable Abe Coakley (4) was assigned to +duty. On the Bleecker street side George Mason (5) was on post. Just +inside the side door, to protect the line of retreat, stood Billy Keely +(6), with pistol in hand. + +There still remained a delicate matter. In the early hours of the +morning it was customary for the old bewhiskered janitor, Werkle, to be +seen busy sweeping up and dusting off the desks of the bank clerks. The +policeman on post always nodded to Werkle, and if he was not on the job +as usual that morning it might arouse suspicion. + +In Hope's gang was "Banjo" Pete Emerson, who had been an actor of no +mean ability. To him was assigned the job of playing the part of the +janitor. With a wig and whiskers made to imitate Werkle, and in shirt +sleeves, Emerson (7) busily dusted and re-dusted the desks, keeping +close to the street windows, where he could be seen by anybody passing +and where he could see and repeat any signals from Coakley and Mason, +who were on watch on the sidewalk. "Banjo" Pete played his part so well +that the policeman in going his rounds glanced up, saw what he was sure +was his friend Werkle dusting the desks, nodded "good morning" and +strolled on up Broadway. + +Jimmy Hope reserved for himself, Ned Lyons, and Johnny Dobbs the +delicate work of blowing the steel safes and taking care of the +$3,000,000 of plunder.] + +When all was agreed upon, Tracy decided to get an outfit of burglar's +tools and practice up for the job. By this time "Big Jim" was out of +money, and he ran up to Troy to pull off a job and put himself in +funds. He selected an out of town city because he didn't want any +trouble in the neighborhood of the scene of the projected bank robbery. + +It was in July that Tracy, with a fellow thief, "Mush" Reilly, followed +a man named John Buckley out of a bank in Troy, where he had drawn a +considerable sum of money. Mr. Buckley got on a street car and Tracy +and Reilly crowded in and began work. They were not able to get the +man's money without disturbing him, and the result was that Buckley put +up a fight. "Big Jim" and "Mush" fought back, but were surrounded by +other passengers in the car and arrested. They were tried, convicted, +and sent to Clinton Prison for five years. + +This misfortune to "Big Jim" Tracy put an end to his designs upon the +great Manhattan Bank. But the missionary work which Tracy had already +done with Shevelin, the watchman, was destined to bear fruit for +others. While "Big Jim" was serving his long sentence in Clinton Prison +for the Troy robbery, it became known somehow to Jimmy Hope that Tracy +and the watchman of the bank had arrived at an understanding. This was +very important news, and Hope at once started in to pick up the thread +which had been so suddenly broken by Tracy's mishap in Troy. + +But this was not so easy to accomplish. Shevelin had confidence in his +old schoolmate Tracy, but he was afraid of strangers. Jimmy Hope was +the Napoleon of bank burglars, and he had in his gang the foremost bank +experts of the whole world. Hope found a way to make the acquaintance +of Shevelin and he tried every device to win the watchman's confidence. +But the shock of "Big Jim" Tracy's long prison sentence had thoroughly +frightened the watchman. + +With great patience, Hope began a campaign to remove Shevelin's +misgivings and make him feel that with such partners he need have no +fear. One after another of Hope's great experts were introduced to +Shevelin. At dinner one day in a Third Avenue restaurant, Johnny Dobbs +was produced, and the exploits of this famous burglar were recounted. +Next was introduced George Howard, known as "Western George," and +Shevelin was told of this man's extraordinary skill on safes and +vaults. And then came George Mason and Ned Lyons, whose amazing +boldness and quickness with a revolver were already known to Shevelin. + + +NUGENT, THE POLICEMAN-BURGLAR + +A few days later, John Nugent, an able operator and a policeman in +good standing, was presented, and a little later on Abe Coakley, the +venerable cracksman, was introduced. Finally, the famous "Banjo Pete" +Emerson and Billy Kelly and Eddie Goodey were brought to bear on the +wavering fears of the watchman. + +Shevelin was finally overawed by this powerful aggregation of skill, +persistence, and audacity, and consented to join Hope's band of +operators. As I look back over that group of burglars, I am sure there +was never before gathered together on one enterprise such a galaxy of +talent. With such expert skill and such abundant experience as were +there represented and all under the able leadership of such a veteran +cracksman as Jimmy Hope, surely it was impossible that their enterprise +could fail. Shevelin finally realized this, and, as he gave his pledge +of help and loyalty, Jimmy Hope shook his hand warmly and said: + +"And if we get the stuff, Patrick, your share will be just a quarter of +a million dollars. And that's more than you will ever make working as a +watchman." + +Jimmy Hope now lost no time in setting about his plans for the robbery. + +While Shevelin's aid was absolutely necessary, it was only a very short +step in itself toward Jimmy Hope's goal, the currency and securities +lying in separate steel safes inside the great vault. The entire system +of steel plates and locks was the latest, most completely burglar-proof +devised. It was universally supposed to be not only burglar-proof but +mob-proof. It had been demonstrated theoretically that burglars working +undisturbed could not obtain access inside of forty-eight hours. +Indeed, it was the very impregnability of the vault which helped in its +undoing. + +Shevelin could give the band entrance to the building and could bring +them to the door of the great vault. But here, in plain view of the +street, it would be impossible to study out and assault the combination +lock. As the lock could not be studied inside the bank it was evident +that the problem must be solved outside. + +For this task Hope employed a woman very intimately related to one of +the band. While I do not care to give her name, as she is still alive, +I may say that she was considered a very attractive woman. + +Elegantly dressed she called at the bank and opened an account with +the deposit of a few hundred dollars. She made clear to everyone her +charming ignorance of banking. She was as amusing as pretty, and before +long she was talking to President Schell himself. + +It was in fact the president who proudly showed her the massive steel +doors and the mighty combination lock which would guard her small +deposit. With innocent baby stare she noted the make of the lock and +its date. + +Possessed of this information, Hope, who was nothing if not thorough, +proceeded to buy from the manufacturer a counterpart of the lock. As +soon as it arrived the lock was turned over to the inquiring eyes and +fingers of George Howard. Ensconced in a little house in a quiet part +of Brooklyn, "Western George" made an intimate investigation of the +lock's vitals. + +Howard undoubtedly was the greatest inventive genius in locks that +ever lived, unless, perhaps, Mark Shinburn, a burglar of a similar +mechanical turn of mind. He could have made no end of money designing +burglar-proof devices, but preferred demonstrating the weakness of the +existing ones in a practical way. Hope's confidence in Howard was not +misplaced. Within a few days George told the leader he could open the +lock by the simple procedure of drilling a small hole just below it and +inserting a wire. + +Hope watched Howard demonstrate on their own lock and at once planned +a prospective tour of the bank to see if the performance could be +duplicated on the lock in the Manhattan Bank. If so, they were in sight +of their goal. + +While the band was waiting for a convenient occasion when Shevelin +would be on duty at the bank and could admit them safely to test +Howard's grand discovery, a great blow fell upon the whole plan. It +was the mysterious murder of Howard himself. + +If, as some have suggested, the taking off of Howard was the hand of +Providence, I can only point out that the hand was a little bit slow. +If Howard had been killed two days earlier, I can't see how the band +could have gotten into the vault. Hope, with all his ingenuity and +executive ability, was no great mechanical genius on an up-to-date +lock, nor was any other member equal to the task. + +Howard was on bad terms with several very forceful members of the +underworld, at least one of whom was in the dozen who were secretly +besieging the Manhattan Bank. While the gang was rejoicing and waiting, +a letter came to Howard requesting his immediate presence on important +business at a place near Brooklyn. + + +OPENING THE GREAT VAULT + +The following week Howard's body was found in the woods of Yonkers, +with a pistol in his hand and a bullet in his breast. The suicide +theory was dispelled by finding another bullet in the back of his +head. Investigation brought to light that a wagon containing a heap of +sacking had been seen driving through the woods and had later returned +empty. + +Hope and others suspected Johnny Dobbs, of the gang, of doing the +shooting, but nothing was ever proved about it. + +Dobbs and Hope soon after were let in by Shevelin and they put +Howard's theory into practice. They bored a hole about the diameter of +a 22-caliber bullet just under the lock, inserted a wire, threw back +the tumblers, and had no trouble in getting into the vault. + +There stood the safes and from three to six million dollars in money +and securities. But this was only a prospecting tour and the two +burglars were careful to disturb nothing. Returning, they softly closed +the huge door and, Hope manipulating the wire, threw back the tumblers. +But Hope lacked the mechanical skill and fine sense of touch possessed +by the late lamented Howard, and he pushed one of the tumblers the +wrong way. He knew he had made a mistake but was unable to correct it. +This meant that the bank employees the next morning would be unable to +open the door. + +There was nothing to do but fill the hole with putty so that it would +not show from the outside and see what the morning would develop. Quite +naturally Hope assumed that the lock-tampering would be discovered +and his whole plan be ruined. The gang prepared to scatter, but as it +turned out they need not have worried. + +Sure enough, in the morning the doors refused to respond to the +cashier's manipulations. The makers of the lock were sent for, and +after infinite labor the door was opened. The experts from the factory +who performed the feat were curious to see what had gone wrong with +their mechanism. It was in "apple pie" order with the exception of one +tumbler which, for no apparent reason, had moved in the wrong direction. + + +A TIP TO THE POLICE + +Jimmy Hope's drill hole, puttied up and nicely hidden on the outside +showed black and conspicuous from the inside. The lock mechanics +observed the hole and asked the officers of the bank how the hole came +there. They all shook their heads and the subject was dropped. A portly +and prosperous looking gentleman who had been standing at the paying +teller's window after changing a one hundred dollar bill, heaved a sigh +and walked away. It was Jimmy Hope! + +"Boys," he said to the band, who were all prepared to abandon the +job, "it's a shame to take that money. Those simple souls have found +our hole and it doesn't even interest them. They are worrying about a +little $20,000 loan on some doubtful security, and here we are within a +few inches of from three to six millions." + +"Such faith is beautiful," said Johnny Dobbs, with mock piety, "let us +pray that it be justified." + +Nevertheless the job was postponed for a year on account of information +furnished by John Nugent. Nugent, being a member of the New York +police force in good standing, was able to keep in close touch with +headquarters. He learned that the presence of a dozen of the ablest +bank burglars in the world had become known to the police. Not that +the police had discovered their presence by detective work, for this +happens only in novels or detective plays. When the "sleuth" in actual +life gets any real information it is because somebody for fear, hatred, +or reward has told him. + +As I have said, there was bad feeling in the band and I think someone +interested in Howard's death gave the tip. At any rate, the band took +pains to scatter, and the various members were careful to record +themselves at different cities remote from New York. The New York +police were much relieved and promptly forgot the tip that "something +big" was to be "pulled off." + +Just about a year later Shevelin, who was not by nature intended for a +crook, looked up from a drunken doze at a saloon table into the keen +eyes of Jimmy Hope. Shevelin had neither the instinctive inclination +nor the nervous system which belong to the natural criminal. The bare +fact that he was connected with the projected robbery had made a +drinking man of him. + +He was in debt and in other trouble, and was genuinely pleased to open +negotiations again with the able and confidence-inspiring leader. +Everything was now in order to go on with the undertaking. There were +no dissensions in the gang, therefore the police had no inkling, the +bank was smugly confident of their steel fortress, and it only remained +to name the hour. + +Hope's operations were much embarrassed by the fact that Patrick +Shevelin was only a supplementary watchman. Daniel Keely, his +brother-in-law, was the regular night watchman, and absolutely honest, +as Hope knew, both from his own investigations and from Shevelin's +assurances. Shevelin's duty was as day watchman, chiefly during banking +hours. The only time when he did not share his watch with either Keely +or the equally incorruptible janitor of the building, Louis Werkle, was +on Sunday. Therefore, the morning of a beautiful October Sabbath was +chosen. + +Hope saw that the weak spot of the bank was also the vulnerable point +in his own operations, namely, the nervous and somewhat alcoholic +Shevelin. Hope decided it would be best for Shevelin to not be on duty +at the bank that Sunday, but to arrange with Werkle, the janitor, to +take his place. + + +THE NIGHT BEFORE + +Had Shevelin been of sterner stuff, the robbers would have bound and +gagged him and left him with a carefully rehearsed tale of a plucky +fight against fearful odds to relate to his rescuers. But it was more +than probable that Shevelin would betray himself in the inevitable +ordeal of hours and hours of tiresome examination. Therefore, it seemed +best to have him at home, sick, where he could establish an unshakable +alibi and answer, "I don't know" to all questions. + +Shevelin admitted the band Saturday night and concealed them in a +storeroom in an upper part of the building. There they sat crowded, +cramped, and uncomfortable through the entire night. They dared not +smoke nor even eat for fear Keely, the regular night watchman, who +occasionally poked his nose into the room during his rounds, might +notice an unaccustomed smell. + +This matter of smell illustrates how carefully Jimmy Hope worked out +the minutest details of his plan. He foresaw that ten men packed +into a rather small room would, even without food or smoke, make the +atmosphere seem close to the nostrils of the watchman familiar with the +usual empty smell of the place. + +For this reason Hope ordered his men to bathe before the job and wear +clean clothing without any scent whatever. No tobacco, drink, or onions +passed their lips on Saturday. As a last precaution, at Hope's order, +Shevelin broke a bottle of smelly cough medicine on the floor in the +presence of his brother-in-law. + +As I have said, the regular night watchman was Keely--an honest, +incorruptible man. Shevelin was day watchman. Shevelin worked from six +in the morning until six at night, when Keely came on duty for the +night job. + +The janitor of the building, who lived over the bank with his family, +was a worthy, honest man, named Werkle. Everybody trusted Werkle, and +so it had come about that Werkle was now and then made temporary day or +night watchman, whenever Shevelin or Keely were sick or wanted a day +off. + +Though, as I have said, the genius of "Western George" Howard in +discovering a simple and speedy method of opening the lock by inserting +a wire through a small hole bored beneath it was the one thing which +made Hope's plans feasible, yet, at the last minute, this method became +unnecessary. + + +CONSULTATION IN THE DARK + +As if the bank had not done enough in the way of kindness to the +burglars by ignoring their little hole, they gave Werkle, the janitor, +the numbers of the combination and keys to unlock it. Neither Keely nor +Shevelin were trusted to this extent, and Shevelin only learned of the +janitor's secret in time to tell Hope the night before the robbery. + +This new information was discussed in whispers throughout the night by +the gang. Hope had misgivings about using the wire and the hole. The +fact that he had failed to return one of the tumblers to its proper +place on the previous occasion worried him. It was quite possible he +might make a wrong move and, instead of opening the door, lock it +irrevocably. In that case it was not to be hoped that the easy going +bank officials would give him a third chance. + +On the other hand, forcing the janitor to surrender his keys and reveal +the combination had great disadvantages. It meant delay. He might +give the wrong set of numbers from fear or loyalty. At any rate he +was certain to hesitate. As it proved, time was worth about $100,000 +a minute, and ten extra minutes would have doubled the value of the +"haul." + +Shevelin went home with the understanding that Werkle, the janitor, +would take his watch in the morning, when Keely, the night watchman, +went off duty. At 10 o'clock, Werkle and his wife went to sleep +in their little bedroom above the bank, and Keely made his rounds +uneventfully. At 6 o'clock, Sunday morning, Keely waked Werkle, the +janitor, and departed by the back door. The closing of the back door +was the cue for the gang to take their places and they had no time to +lose. + +Jimmy Hope and Johnny Dobbs, with Billy Kelly and Eddie Goodey, Johnny +Hope, son of Jimmy Hope, Mason, and Nugent, and my husband, Ned Lyons, +rapidly but stealthily advanced upon the janitor's bedroom. To reach +it they had to pass through another bedroom, where slept the aged and +feeble-minded mother of Mrs. Werkle. + +While gagging and binding the old woman a slight amount of noise was +made. Werkle paused in his dressing and remarked that he would step in +and see what was doing. + +The robbers forestalled him by entering and covering him with their +revolvers. They presented a terrifying spectacle, each man wearing +a hideous black mask. Rubber shoes on their feet made their steps +noiseless. They were received in silent horror. + +The tableau was broken by a faint scream from Mrs. Werkle. Instantly +cold muzzles were placed to their temples and instant death threatened +in return for the slightest sound. Werkle's keys and the combination of +the lock were demanded. + +Poor Werkle attempted to delay complying, but a few savage prods in +his ear with the point of Hope's gun scattered the last thought of +resistance. He delivered the keys and told them the combination. +Hope had decided at the last moment that as long as he had to tackle +the janitor he might as well make him surrender the combination, if +possible, and save the trouble and uncertainty of working with the wire +and the hole which the bank had obligingly neglected to repair. + +Werkle volunteered the objection that the combination numbers would be +no use unless they knew how to operate them. Hope inserted a gag in the +janitor's mouth and assured him that he need not worry on that score as +he was in possession of all the information he needed. + +Leaving Johnny Hope and Nugent, the policeman, with cocked pistols +watching the bound and gagged janitor and wife and the silent +and mysterious Eddy Goodey mounting guard over the helpless old +woman, Jimmy Hope and Johnny Dobbs hurried downstairs to the vault, +accompanied by Ned Lyons. + +Lyons was always a desperate man, who could think and act quickly. +In emergency he was governed by instinct, which is quicker than the +quickest intellect. In time of trouble, Lyons was always a tower of +strength. He would not hesitate at murder, if necessary, and his sudden +hand would bolster up a hesitating member of the gang. For this reason +he was held in reserve and worked in the vault with Jimmy and Dobbs. + +Downstairs, they found, as expected, "Banjo Pete" Emerson in overalls +and false whiskers, armed with a feather duster and made up to look +exactly like the janitor, Werkle. "Banjo Pete," as his name implies, +was a musician, in fact had been a member of a negro minstrel troupe, +and was an actor of no mean ability. It was the ability to make-up +and act which made Hope cast him for the part of counterfeit janitor. +During the entire proceeding, he walked about the front of the bank in +full view from the street, dusting the furniture and keeping an eye out +for signals from old Abe Coakley, dean of the burglars, who had the +responsible position of watching all that went on outside. + + +FOOLING THE PATROLMAN + +A policeman was in sight of the bank during the entire activities, +and actually walked up and gazed in the window. "Banjo Pete" looked +up from his dusting and waved his hand to the policeman, who thought +he recognized his old friend Werkle, nodded "good morning," and then +passed on. + +Meanwhile, Billy Kelly had taken his place just inside the back door +with a pistol and a lead pipe and seated himself on the back stairs, +while George Mason was sauntering about outside the door to give +warning and prevent interruption from that point. + +All these men covered the operations of Jimmy Hope and Johnny Dobbs, +who opened the vault door with Werkle's key and combination, and fell +to work on the steel safes within. There were three, one on either side +and one in the back. With the sledge hammer and knife-edged wedges the +two burglars spread the crack of one of the safe doors wide enough to +force in the necessary explosive. Pausing only long enough to learn +from his confederates that the coast was clear, Hope touched it off. +A muffled reverberation reached the policeman across the street. He +glanced over at the bank. + +"Banjo Pete" dropped his duster, crossed to the window, and peered out +as if the explosion were from outdoors somewhere, and he were mildly +wondering. The policeman resumed his reflections and the work went on. +Fifteen minutes later another muffled boom marked the blowing of the +second safe. + +At this point Hope and Dobbs paused to collect the booty. It was more +than they could carry, so half a peck of bonds was passed out to the +vigilant Billy Kelly on the back stairs, as much more to the silent +Goodey, unwelcome watcher by the bedside of the feeble old woman. + +With bulging eyes, Mr. and Mrs. Werkle saw a few bags of gold tossed in +to their guardians and pocketed. The gang had been growing richer at +the rate of about a hundred thousand dollars a minute for some time. + +As Hope and Dobbs returned to attack the third safe, which stood in the +rear, there came a threatened interruption. George Mason, outside, +gave the signal to Billy Kelly, inside the back door, to be on guard. A +milk wagon stopped, the driver descended with a quart of milk, opened +the back door, and was about to ascend the stairs with it to deliver to +the janitor. + +Billy Kelly, on guard on the stairs for just such an emergency, +politely informed him that the janitor and his family had gone away and +would need no more milk for some time. The milkman replaced the bottle +in his wagon and went on, while Hope drove home his wedges. + +But now came a serious interruption, the wily old Coakley signaled that +the end of their operations had come. It was inevitable that Kohlman, +the barber, would soon open up his little shop beneath the bank. This +was what Coakley signaled to "Banjo Pete," who called the news to the +workers within the vault. + +Immediately Hope, Dobbs, and Lyons laid down their tools, put on their +coats, stuffed the remainder of the undisturbed plunder inside their +clothes, and told the band to quit. + +Johnny Hope and Nugent, with a last bloodthirsty threat, left the +Werkles. Eddy Goodey pocketed his revolver and joined the group +collecting around Billy Kelly on the back stairs, where "Banjo Pete" +was getting out of his overalls and pocketing his false whiskers. + +George Mason gave the "get away" signal on the outside, and one by one +the gang, carrying nearly $3,000,000 in money and securities, mingled +with the crowd and vanished. + +Coakley, on watch in front, stayed around and waited for further +developments. + +About ten minutes later the early customers of Kohlman's barber +shop heard someone leaping down the stairs from the bank. In burst +apparently a madman, half-dressed, his hands handcuffed behind him. + + +THE JANITOR'S ESCAPE + +A gag in his mouth added to his strange appearance. Unable to speak or +use his hands, he danced up and down and made growling sounds like a +mad dog. + +The barber shop emptied itself and Kohlman was not able at once to +recognize behind the gag and the jaunty disarray of clothing his old +friend Werkle, janitor of the bank. + +The gag removed, Werkle was able to blurt out the fact that the bank +had been robbed. The policeman across the street was summoned, and with +him came Coakley. They heard an amazing and somewhat incoherent tale. +The policeman, being rather young and inexperienced, listened open +mouthed and did not know what to do. + +Coakley, the elderly and rather distinguished looking gentleman, +suggested that the story sounded "fishy," and the policeman ought to +investigate. He did so. The whole party entered the bank and Coakley +was able to note that no telltale clues had been left behind. He +observed with regret that, while two of the safes gaped wide open and +the third contained several wedges, it was still shut tight. + +The policeman held the half-crazed Werkle prisoner and guarded the +safe while he sent Coakley to the police station to call out the +reserves. This errand Coakley neglected and, instead, looked up Jimmy +Hope, who, like most robbers, was leading a double life. He had a wife +and children in one part of the city, and in another a fashionable +apartment where he was known as Mr. Hopely, a retired capitalist, and +had quite a circle of friends, mostly prosperous business men. + +From this point, luck turned against the band. The tremendous +proportions of the robbery caught everyone's imagination. The +underworld was as much excited as the police, and talk and speculation +would not die down. The neglected hole in the lock came to view again, +and it was now appreciated in its full significance. + +The police recollected their tip about Hope and his gang which had +come to them at the same time as the discovery of the hole and their +suspicions began to grow against some of the real perpetrators. Still, +for many weeks, there was not an atom of evidence against any member. +Patrick Shevelin, the weak link of the chain, began to feel the +pressure. + + +THE WEAK SPOT + +Not only was he a man lacking in the robust nerves essential to a +successful criminal, and also one who drank too much, but he was +cruelly disappointed as well. He had been led to believe that a quarter +of a million dollars in cold cash would be handed to him within a day +or two after the robbery. He was going to buy a castle in Ireland and a +few other things with the money. + +Instead of all this, Hope gave him only $1,200. He explained at the +time that this was only his share of the cash stolen, and that the +balance of the quarter million would be forthcoming as soon as the +bonds and stocks had been converted into cash. + +But alas for poor Shevelin. The bonds never were converted and instead +of more money, Hope brought him bad news and actually forced him to +return half of the $1,200. He told Shevelin that a bill was being +prepared at Washington to compel the issuance of duplicate securities +in place of those stolen. This would, of course, make the originals +worthless and kill the sale of them and make the robbery a financial +failure. + +There was truth in Hope's plea, for the bill was actually passed, but +it is doubtful if poor Shevelin's $600 was used, as Hope promised, to +bribe Senators and Congressmen to obstruct the bill. + +The horse being stolen, the bank took pains to lock the barn door. +They not only rearranged their locks and filled up the hole, but +investigated Werkle, Keely, and Shevelin. Finding that Shevelin was +drinking and frequenting disreputable places, they were about to +discharge him. But the detectives persuaded the bank to retain him for +fear discharge might excite the suspicions of the gang. + +Detectives shadowed Shevelin night and day. Some of them became +acquainted with him under one guise or another. They even became +intoxicated with him. On one or two occasions he let slip remarks +that he was connected with some big secret affair. One day they saw +a bartender get a package from a drawer and hand it to Shevelin, who +opened it and took out some bills, and then returned the package. The +detective was able to see that the package contained several hundred +dollars. This was more than Shevelin, in all probability, would have +saved out of his small salary with all his bad habits. + +In spite of all this they knew Shevelin was not ripe for arrest. +Finally, in a maudlin moment he conveyed the information that he had +been the means of making a great achievement possible and that he had +been treated very shabbily. + +The detectives at once had the bank discharge him on some pretext +foreign to the robbery. This added to Shevelin's gloom. When, on top +of this, he was arrested, he was quite ripe to confess. That the gang +might not become suspicious, he was arrested for intoxication, taken to +court the next day, and discharged. As soon as he stepped out of the +courtroom he was rearrested, and this procedure was repeated day after +day. + +Still Shevelin refused to confess until a detective, telling him how +much the authorities knew about the case, informed him that all the +gang were rich beyond measure except Shevelin. + +"What a sucker you were, Pat," he concluded, "to accept a measly +$10,000." + +Shevelin leaped to his feet and shouted. + +"It's a lie. I never got any $10,000, so help me heaven. I never got +more than $600 for it." + +"I apologize," said the detective, "you are a ten times bigger fool +than any one supposed." + +Shevelin realized he made a hopelessly damaging confession and within a +few hours the police were in possession of the complete details of the +case. + + +THE WATCHMAN'S CONFESSION + +For fear anyone should not believe the actual amount that was taken +from the bank, I refer you to the following official list of just what +we got from the Manhattan Bank as it was announced by the president of +the bank: + + + NOTICE + + THE MANHATTAN SAVINGS INSTITUTION was, on the morning of Sunday, + October 27, robbed of securities to the amount of $2,747,700, and + $11,000 in cash, as follows: + + + THE STOLEN SECURITIES + + United States 5's of 1881, 8 of $50,000 each, 10 of + 10,000 each $500,000 + United States 6's of 1881, 20 of $10,000 each 200,000 + United States 10-40 bonds, 60 of 10,000 each 600,000 + United States 4 per cents, 30 of $10,000 each 300,000 + United States 5-20's of July, 1865; 26 of $500 each, + 35 of $1,000 each 48,000 + New York State sinking fund gold 6's, registered, + No. 32 32,000 + New York City Central Park fund stock, certificate + No. 724 22,700 + New York County Court House stock, 6 per cent. 202,000 + New York City, accumulated debt, 7 per cent. bonds, + two of $100,000 each, and one of $50,000 250,000 + New York City Improvement stock, 10 certificates of + $20,000 each 200,000 + New York City Revenue Bond, registered 200,000 + Yonkers City 7 per cent. coupon bonds, 118 of $1,000 + each 118,000 + Brooklyn City Water Loan coupon bonds, 25 of $1,000 + each 25,000 + East Chester Town coupon bonds, 50 of $1,000 each 50,000 + Cash 11,000 + ---------- + Total amount stolen $2,758,700 + + CHARLES F. ALFORD, Secretary. + EDWARD SCHELL, President. + + +If Hope had found ten minutes more time at his disposal he would have +entered the third safe, and, as it happened, come upon almost three +million more. However, as it stood, this was the greatest robbery ever +achieved, and, as things were, each man of the gang should have been +rich. + + +HUNTING DOWN THE GANG + +Now we will see how much crime, even in the most successful case, +profited the criminals. In the first place, Tracy was in prison before +it happened. "Western George," who solved the lock, was murdered. +Patrick Shevelin, the watchman, received, instead of the quarter of a +million, actually $1,200 in cash. Within a few days Jimmy Hope took +half of this back again on the plea that it was needed at Washington to +buy off legislators who were to pass a bill through Congress ordering +the issue of duplicates in place of the stolen securities. As an actual +fact, all Shevelin ever profited from this robbery was $600. + +Jimmy Hope and John D. Grady, the fence, quarreled over the disposition +of the bonds and stocks, which Hope spirited away and hid in the Middle +West. The dissension spread to other members of the gang and the +underworld began to hear details of the robbery. + +Hope failed in his efforts to prevent the passage of the bill canceling +the stolen securities, and then came the final blow--the confession of +Shevelin. + +Hope was caught in San Francisco, his son, Johnny Hope, was captured +in Philadelphia while trying to dispose of some of the bonds--and one +after another the gang was run down. + +Considered from a technical viewpoint, this robbery was the most +Napoleonic feat ever achieved. My husband, Ned Lyons, said Hope ought +to have managed without the aid of Shevelin or, if his aid was +absolutely necessary, he should have been killed. This point of view +regarding murder is one of the distinguishing differences between my +husband and Jimmy Hope. + +And thus we find that the greatest bank robbery in the history of the +world, which enlisted the time, brains, and special skill of a dozen +able men over a long period of time, resulted in failure to dispose +of the valuable securities, and landed sooner or later most of the +operators in prison. If an enterprise of such magnitude, successfully +accomplished, was not worth while, then surely CRIME DOES NOT +PAY! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BANK BURGLARS WHO DISGUISED THEMSELVES AS POLICEMEN, AND OTHER +INGENIOUS SCHEMES USED BY THIEVES IN BOLD ATTEMPTS TO GET THEIR PLUNDER + + +No honest man can accumulate a million dollars without constant +industry, self-denial, perseverance, and ability. + +The same is true of the professional criminal. In addition, he must +possess ingenuity, tact, and resourcefulness of a high order. + +I have mentioned a number of professional criminals who, in the course +of their careers, obtained over a million dollars apiece. Although +these men accumulated vast fortunes, there was not a single one of them +who really derived any lasting benefit out of his ill-gotten gains. +Many of them spent a large portion of their lives in jail. Behind +prison walls, their buried loot availed them nothing. Others dissipated +their fortunes almost as rapidly as they made them and their last years +were spent in poverty. Some of them died violent deaths. + +Yet every one of these men, as I have intimated, possessed valuable +qualities which, had they been put to a legitimate use, would +undoubtedly have brought them wealth without any of the penalties +incident to a life of crime. Living honestly they might not have +accumulated millions, but their skill, ingenuity, and perseverance +would undoubtedly have netted them large incomes, and they might have +enjoyed the peace of mind which none but the law-abiding can know. + +Without the ability which these men possessed, it would be useless +for anyone to hope to achieve the "success" which attended their +criminal operations. But anyone possessing their ability would be most +ill-advised to attempt to follow in their footsteps when their careers +have so clearly demonstrated that CRIME CANNOT PAY. Whereas, +if properly applied, such ability must inevitably bring success. + +I intend to give you some idea of the skill and resourcefulness these +men possessed by referring in detail to some of their more remarkable +exploits. + +In the course of a criminal career covering some forty years, Harry +Raymond, all-round burglar, committed several hundred important +burglaries. It was he who stole the famous Gainsborough painting, as I +have previously related. The magnitude of his crimes will be indicated +by the fact that his booty aggregated between two and three million +dollars. Yet, despite the number and importance of this man's offenses, +he was caught only once in the whole forty years, and then through the +carelessness of an accomplice. No better proof of the judgment and +resourcefulness of a professional criminal could be presented than such +a record as that. + +His robbery of the Cape Town Post Office will illustrate this point +more concretely. + +His first step was to cultivate the friendship of the Postmaster +of the Cape Town Post Office. He went at it very systematically +and patiently, but at the end of two or three months he had made +such progress that he readily found an opportunity to get temporary +possession of the post office keys. That was all that was necessary. He +made a wax impression of them and put the keys back without arousing +any suspicion. + +His next step was to prepare three parcels addressed to himself, and +mailed them by registered mail from out of town. He came in on the same +train with the packages. He waited until the registered mail sacks had +been delivered to the Postmaster and locked up for the night, and then, +just as his friend, the Postmaster, was leaving for the day, he stopped +hurriedly into the post office and explained that it was of great +importance for him to get that night certain packages he understood +were arriving by that day's registered mail. The Postmaster readily +consented and went back into the office with the burglar. He opened +the safe and ascertained that the packages Raymond had described were +there, and while he was making certain entries in his book, Raymond +succeeded in making wax impressions of the keys to the safe. + +Raymond now had wax impressions of the keys to the post office itself +and of the keys in which the registered mail and other valuables were +kept. Making the keys from the impressions was not a very difficult +task, although it required many subsequent visits to the post office +and the exercise of a considerable amount of patience before the keys +were properly fitted. Then Raymond waited for the diamonds to come from +the mines, his plan to get them into the post office safe having been +very carefully thought out. + +At one stage of the trip the diamond coach had to make, it was +necessary for it to cross a river. This was accomplished by means of +a ferry which was operated by a wire-rope cable. Raymond decided to +spoil this plan. Before the coach arrived at the ferry he succeeded in +severing the wire cable. There was a strong current running and the +ferryboat naturally drifted down the stream. + +When the coach arrived at the river, there was no ferryboat to take +it across, and there was no other means of fording the stream. As I +have mentioned, the schedule of the coach had been arranged so that it +would reach the docks just in time to catch the steamer for England. +The delay at the river resulted, as Raymond had known it would, in the +coach missing the steamer, and the next steamer wouldn't sail for a +week. In the meanwhile, the diamonds were deposited in the post office +safe. + +It was an easy matter for Raymond to get into the post office the +following night, and the keys he had made gave him access to the safe. +The diamonds and other valuables he had planned so cleverly to get were +worth $500,000. He abstracted them all and buried them. + +Instead of fleeing the country with his booty, his prudence dictated +that he was safest right there, and he remained there for months. +Subsequently, he disposed of the stolen diamonds in London, but he was +blackmailed out of a large portion of the proceeds by the accomplice +with whom he had made his first attempt to rob the diamond coach, and +who at once concluded when he heard of the successful robbery that it +was Raymond who had committed it. + +Although it netted the burglars only $100,000, the robbery of the +Kensington Savings Bank of Philadelphia was one of the most cleverly +arranged crimes of modern times. + +The theft was committed by a band of the most notorious bank burglars +of the time, including Tom McCormack, Big John Casey, Joe Howard, Jimmy +Hope, Worcester Sam, George Bliss, and Johnny Dobbs. No more competent +crew of safe cracksmen could possibly have been gotten together. + +On the day these burglars planned to rob the bank, the president +received, information that the crime was contemplated and would +probably be committed that night or the night following. + +This information came apparently from the Philadelphia Chief of Police, +the messenger stating that the Chief would send down half a dozen +uniformed men that afternoon, who were to be locked in the bank that +night. The president was told to keep the information to himself as it +was desired to catch the burglars red-handed, and it was feared that +word might reach them of the plan to trap them and they would be scared +off. + +That afternoon half a dozen uniformed policemen called at the bank +shortly before the closing hour. They were called into the office of +the president and introduced to the bank's two watchmen. After the bank +was closed the six men were secreted in different parts of the building +and the watchmen were told to obey whatever orders the policemen might +give. + +Nothing happened until about midnight, when some of the policemen came +out of their hiding places and suggested to one of the watchmen that it +might be a good idea to send out for some beer. One of the policemen +volunteered to take off his uniform, but changed his mind, saying that +it would perhaps be safer for one of the watchmen to go. + +"If the burglars see one of you fellows going out of the building," +he said to the watchmen, "they will suspect nothing, but if they see +a strange face leaving the bank at this hour they will know there is +something unusual going on." The watchmen agreed. + +No sooner had the watchman left the building than one of the policemen +raised his nightstick and brought it down with all his might on the +head of the other watchman. The man dropped to the floor like a log. He +was quickly bound and gagged and taken inside the cashier's cage. + +A few minutes later the other watchman returned with the beer, and as +he set foot in the room where the policemen were congregated he was +accorded the same treatment. + +The watchmen out of the way, the six policemen made their way to the +bank safe and there a remarkable scene was enacted. Attired in the +regulation uniform of the city police, with helmets, shields, and +nightsticks of the official style, the six "policemen" proceeded to +break into the bank safe. As their work progressed, some of the men +removed their hats and loosened their heavy coats, but there was +nothing to indicate to anyone who might have witnessed this remarkable +piece of work that the men engaged in the cracking of the safe were not +genuine policemen. As a matter of fact, of course, they were six of the +cleverest bank burglars in the business. + +[Illustration: SOON AFTER MIDNIGHT A STRANGE SCENE WAS ENACTED] + +When the safe was blown and the bank's funds, amounting to some +$100,000, removed, the "policemen" buttoned up their uniforms, put on +their hats and, opening the front doors of the bank with the keys they +took from the unconscious watchmen, they boldly marched in single file +into the public street. + +In planning out a bank robbery, or, indeed, any kind of robbery, a +great deal of time must be given over to study of the situation so that +when the day of the robbery comes the burglars will know just what to +do and be able to do it promptly. Oftentimes it is necessary to wear a +disguise so as to more surely carry out the prearranged plans. + +I remember once disguising myself as a Quaker farmer's wife when we did +a job in the section of Pennsylvania where the Quakers abound. We had +been over the territory very carefully and picked out a bank where a +considerable amount of money was on display, scattered around on the +different counters of the bank, and we decided that we could go into +that bank in broad daylight and get most of the cash. + +For several weeks we had studied the methods in vogue in the bank and +knew pretty accurately where the cashier and other employees would be +at certain hours, and which hour would be the most favorable for our +work. + +There were four of us working on this particular robbery, and it was +decided that I should disguise myself as a Quaker woman and pass +the bank at a certain hour. I went around the town for several days +studying the costumes of the women and finally rigged myself out in the +typical Quaker housewife style. + +I purchased a small milk can and, as its newness might attract +attention, I rubbed the can with dirt until it took on a time-worn +appearance. Then I secured one of the common baskets carried very often +by the women who go to market to dispose of small lots of vegetables. +For several days my pals and myself rehearsed the work we had to do so +that when the time of action came we were perfect in our parts. + +We had found out from our daily observations of the bank that the +cashier, who was a good deal of a dandy, went out every day at half +past twelve and returned about 1 o'clock. Several of the other clerks +in the bank went out for their lunch at the same time. At fifteen +minutes to one there were fewer clerks in the bank than at any other +period of the day, and if we were to do our work at all it must be +accomplished at that time. + +There was only one drawback to this arrangement--the cashier +occasionally came back at five or ten minutes to one, and we could +not be certain that he would stay out the full half hour on the day +we operated. If he came back before 1 o'clock our scheme would be +frustrated and we would probably be arrested. So it was decided that +I should lay outside the bank and intercept the cashier if he should +happen along before my pals made their get-away from the bank. + +On the day of the robbery we were near the bank at half past twelve, +and waited till a quarter of one, when we saw several other clerks go +out. Then the rest of my band hastened into the bank, and I kept my +eyes fixed on the direction in which the cashier usually came. The +robbers who went into the bank had a number of little formalities to +get over before it was possible to grab the money, and this took time. + +They had been inside nearly ten minutes when I spied the cashier +walking up the street toward the bank. As luck would have it, he was +getting back five minutes ahead of his usual time. I strolled leisurely +to meet him, dressed up, of course, as the Quaker housewife, with my +basket full of vegetables and can of milk on my arm. + +The cashier and I came together in the middle of the block, about +a hundred feet from the bank. I accosted him and asked for some +fictitious address, in a broken English kind of lingo, which he could +not at first understand. He was a very polite young man, and, of +course, stopped to help me out of my little difficulty. + +While I was engaging the cashier in this fashion, I kept my eyes +rambling to the bank to see if my pals were getting away, for if the +cashier had gone down at that moment he would see them in the act of +robbing, and all would be lost. + +After holding the cashier for a minute or two, he became impatient at +my unintelligible talk and said he was sorry he could not help me and +would have to be going. Now, under no circumstances could I permit that +cashier to leave then. If necessary I would have grabbed him about the +neck and held him by force until my companions escaped. But a better +scheme than this suggested itself; I deliberately spilled the can of +milk over the cashier's clothes, doing it, of course, in an apparently +innocent way. + +The nice white milk settled all over the young man's vest and coat, and +he looked a sorry sight indeed. He was exasperated at my awkwardness, +as he called it, and took out his handkerchief to wipe off the milk, +and I, full of sympathy for his deplorable plight, also took out my +handkerchief and gave my assistance. While we were trying to get rid of +the milk I saw the robbers hurry out of the bank and walk rapidly up +the street. Then I knew they had gotten the cash, and it was no longer +necessary for me to detain the cashier. I mumbled my apologies to the +poor, milk-bespattered cashier, and then hurried off down the street. + +I went into a doorway--which I had picked out in advance, of +course--and took off my Quaker disguise. Under the disguise I had on my +regular clothes. I left the Quaker outfit, milk can and all, in this +strange doorway and then hustled off to meet my pals at the rendezvous +previously agreed upon. We divided the money--we had obtained +$90,000--and stayed in the town a few days. + +In the papers the next morning there was a big account of the robbery, +and the additional statement that the robbers had overlooked another +package of money containing $150,000. We were shocked by this piece +of information, and the poor robber whose duty it was to collect the +money in the bank was roundly upbraided for getting a miserable ninety +thousand when he could also have taken the $150,000 if he had not been +such a bungler. He swore by every deity that the papers were wrong, for +he had searched very carefully and there was no other money in sight +when he left the place. However, we could never forgive this chap for +his oversight, because we believed the papers had the thing right, and +we disputed about the matter so much that the gang, or "party," as we +of the criminal fraternity call it, had to be disbanded, and we went +our separate ways, good friends, of course, but no longer co-workers. + +It is the custom among bank robbers to demand that each member of a +party do his work properly. If any one of them makes a failure, or +does not come up to expectations, he is discharged from the party. The +method of discharging a member is peculiar. The leader will say to him: +"When are you going home, Jack?" and he will hand him some money. "When +are you going home?" means we don't want you with us any more. I might +say, in concluding this experience, that one of the men who took part +in this robbery is now living in Philadelphia and highly respected. He +long since gave up his criminal associations and went into business for +himself and has made a great deal of money by his own honest efforts. + +The other man died in prison. His was the fate of many another +professional criminal. He had gambled away most of the money he +secured from his illegal trade and, in addition, he served twenty years +of his life behind prison walls. + +Not even the cleverest men in the business have profited by their +skill. They may prosper for a brief hour, but in the end they are +forced to the conclusion that CRIME DOES NOT PAY! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +PROMOTERS OF CRIME--PEOPLE WHO PLAN ROBBERIES AND ACT AS "BACKERS" FOR +PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS; THE EXTRAORDINARY "MOTHER" MANDELBAUM, "QUEEN +OF THE THIEVES," AND GRADY, WHO HAD HALF A DOZEN GANGS OF CRACKSMEN +WORKING FOR HIM + + +If there is any one familiar adage that fits every criminal in the +underworld it is "Easy come, easy go." Surely there is a curse on +stolen money. More than once in my former life I have received $50,000 +as my share in a Sunday morning bank burglary--and by the next Saturday +night not even a five-dollar bill remained. + +Professional thieves are rich one day and poor the next. The fact that +more money is always to be had without the hard labor which brings +honest reward makes thieves as improvident as children. All thieves +are gamblers--scarcely in all my acquaintances can I recall even one +exception. Sometimes the entire proceeds of a robbery are lost in a +gambling house within twenty-four hours after the crime. + +And this is how it has come about that all over the world, in every big +city, there are "backers" of thieves; men, and sometimes women, who +take the stolen goods off their hands, find hiding places for criminals +who are being pursued, advance money to them when they are out of +funds, and even pay the expenses of their families when the burglars +get into prison. + +Some of these friends of thieves are really promoters of criminal +enterprises. They name the banks and jewelry shops that are to be +robbed and select the residences of wealthy persons that are to be +entered. They are like the backers of theatrical enterprises who put up +the money for the necessary expenses and advance the salaries of the +actors; they are like the promoters in the mining world who pay for the +tools, the pack animals, and who "grub-stake" the miners to outfit them +on prospecting tours in the mountains. + + +QUEEN OF THE THIEVES + +Curiously enough the greatest crime promoter of modern times was a New +York woman, "Mother" Mandelbaum. Alas! I knew her well--too well. A +hundred, yes, perhaps near five hundred transactions I have had with +her, little and big. Many were entirely on my own account, oftentimes +I dealt with her in behalf of thieves who were in hiding or in need of +help or were in jail. + +[Illustration: "MOTHER" MANDELBAUM'S FAKE CHIMNEY AND SECRET HIDING +PLACE FOR STOLEN JEWELS.] + +Nobody anywhere did such a wholesale business in stolen goods or had +such valuable associations among big criminals. "Mother" Mandelbaum, +of course, cracked no safes, she did not risk her skin in house +burglaries, her fat hand was never caught in anybody's pocket, no +policeman's bullet was ever sent after her fleeing figure. Here, then, +we have a dealer in crime pretty shrewdly protected from the dangers +that beset criminals. And yet I shall once again prove to my readers +and from this very woman who was the uncrowned "Queen of the Thieves," +rich, powerful, and protected by the police--from this very "Mother" +Mandelbaum I shall again show that CRIME DOES NOT PAY! + +But was this woman exceptionally unlucky? No. I will recount to you +also the career of John D. Grady, her very remarkable rival in the same +field of criminal promotion--the man who financed the great $3,000,000 +Manhattan Bank robbery and had the famous Jimmy Hope and his band of +expert cracksmen in his employ. From Grady I will also prove the great +moral truth that surely CRIME DOES NOT PAY! + +"Mother" Mandelbaum's real name was Mrs. William Mandelbaum. She was +born in Germany of poor but respectable parentage. As a young woman +she arrived in America without a friend or relative. But her coarse, +heavy features, powerful physique, and penetrating eye were sufficient +protection and chaperone for anyone. It is not likely that anyone ever +forced unwelcome attentions on this particular immigrant. + +Arrived in New York she was compelled to pawn one or two gold trinkets +while looking for work. This brought her in touch with the flourishing +pawnshop business. + + +ENCOURAGING PICKPOCKETS + +The pawn shops were practically unregulated by law in those days and +the German girl's painful experience as a customer, instead of making +her angry, impressed her with great admiration. There was a field for +an ambitious person, and if ambition is a virtue none was ever more +virtuous in that particular than "Mother." + +But how to enter this profitable industry was the question. To be a +pawn-broker has always required capital. That is, it always has for +anyone but this woman, who had none. She made a hurried survey of the +pawn shops along the Bowery and elsewhere, and among others noticed the +place of one William Mandelbaum. + +William was unmarried, rather weak willed for a man of his calling, +lazy, and afflicted with chronic dyspepsia. He cooked his own +meals over a kerosene lamp, which was undoubtedly the cause of his +indigestion. "Mother" Mandelbaum introduced herself as Fredericka +Goldberg, and offered to cook and tend store at nominal wages. + +The "nominal wages" item secured her the position and the cooking made +her firm in it. Within a week, William's digestion was better than he +could ever remember since boyhood; he had gained seven pounds in weight +and business was growing beautifully--all on account of the capable +Fredericka. + +At the end of the week, William and Fredericka had a business talk. +Fredericka didn't want an increase in wages. She didn't want any +wages at all. It was partnership or nothing. William ate one meal +cooked by himself and then surrendered. Within a few weeks they were +married. Mrs. Mandelbaum forever afterward was the head of the house of +Mandelbaum. + +Among her customers Mrs. Mandelbaum noticed an occasional one who would +hurry in and get what he could on a miscellany of watches and small +pieces of jewelry. These hasty, furtive young men and boys took what +they could get and showed little disposition to haggle. Also, they +never returned to redeem their pledges. + +[Illustration: Mrs. Mandelbaum's Special Devices for Dealing with +Thieves, and the Secret Trap-Door Escape. + +If ever anybody lived in the proverbial "glass house," surely it was +"Mother" Mandelbaum--and she knew it. Her establishment was ostensibly +a general store and a pawnbroker's office, which she maintained in +the front room (B), but Mrs. Mandelbaum also dealt in stolen goods of +all kinds and planned robberies with thieves, and often sheltered, +protected, and hid thieves in times of trouble. + +"Mother" Mandelbaum was never seen in the front room (B), where a clerk +was always kept on guard. She kept out of reach behind the window +with the steel grating (A). Her false chimney and secret dumb-waiter +arrangement was at the point (C). In the room (D) "Mother" Mandelbaum +kept two or three employees busy removing stolen jewels from their +settings and engraving designs to cover up and hide monograms and +identification marks on watches, jewelry, and silverware. + +In the room (E) were kept bulky articles and stolen goods, such as fur +coats, etc. Here, too, the price tags, factory numbers and other marks +were always removed from stolen furs, laces and silks. The room (F) +contained beds where thieves were lodged when occasion demanded. The +room (H) was a store room, where crates and cases of stolen goods were +packed up for shipment to her customers. At the end of the passageway +leading to the room (H) was a secret trap door (G). In case of a +raid by the police, and if her front and back doors were guarded by +detectives, she could use the trap door (G) to let thieves escape down +through a hole in the basement wall, which led up into the house next +door, which "Mother" Mandelbaum also owned under another name.] + +The new head of the house encouraged these customers, who were, of +course, pickpockets. At first, through ignorance, and later, as a +matter of policy, Mrs. Mandelbaum was more liberal in her terms +than was customary. Some pawn-brokers would not accept anything +from a pickpocket if they knew it. The others took advantage of the +pickpocket's peril of the law to drive the hardest possible terms. + +It was not long before Mandelbaum's had the lion's share of the +pickpocket business. One who disposes of stolen goods is known as a +"fence," and Mrs. Mandelbaum soon became one of the most important +"fences" for pickpockets in the city. + +As the pawn shop grew more and more notorious, the weight of the police +grew heavier and heavier on the proprietress. She dealt less liberally +with pickpockets than before. She squeezed them to the last notch, but +they still remained her customers for she was no harder than the other +fences. + +In order to meet the ever increasing blackmail of the police, Mrs. +Mandelbaum found it necessary to steadily enlarge her business. +Carefully she developed a system for scattering her stock so that her +New York headquarters never contained a very large stock of stolen +goods. She kept men busy melting down gold and silver and disguising +jewelry and others ferreting out supposedly honest merchants who were +willing to buy her wares and ask no questions. + +It must always be borne in mind in these articles that crime cannot +be carried on by individuals. It requires an elaborate permanent +organization. While the individual operators, from pickpockets to +bank burglars, come and go, working from coast to coast, they must be +affiliated with some permanent substantial person who is in touch with +the police. Such a permanent head was "Mother" Mandelbaum. + +The field of usefulness to thieves of the big "fences" like "Mother" +Mandelbaum and Grady are infinite. Suppose you are a burglar and +last night's labors resulted mostly in jewelry and silverware, you +would have neither the time nor the plant to melt down the silver and +disguise or unset the stones. "Mother" Mandelbaum would attend to all +that for you on about a 75 per cent. commission. + +This wonderful woman kept certain persons busy on salary melting down +silver. Others worked steadily altering, unsetting, and otherwise +disguising jewelry. + +What would you do with a stolen watch which bore, deeply engraved on +the back, the name and address of its rightful owner? You might melt +down the case and get a little something for the works, but "Mother" +would do better. She would turn it over to one of her engravers +who would rapidly and not inartistically engrave a little scene or +decoration on the watch case, completely masking the name and address. + +A stolen automobile is the worst kind of a "white elephant" on your +hands unless you know where to take it. Every city has its plants where +a stolen car is quickly made over, usually into a taxicab, and so +well disguised that its former owner may pay for a ride in it without +suspicion. + +The force of artisans and mechanics employed on the fruits of +burglaries and pocket picking is several thousand in a city the size of +New York or Chicago. + +All burglars and thieves are busy with their own enterprises, and have +no time to look after all these matters. Somebody there must be who +will organize these first aids to the captured criminals--the "squarers +of squealers," the lawyers, the men to provide bail, etc. Such a one +was "Mother" Mandelbaum. + +Hacks, taxicabs, express wagons, and even moving vans must be readily +available. Peddlers are extremely useful. They prowl about wherever +they please and act as advance men for the burglars. Keeping peddlers +and tramps off your premises is one of the best forms of burglar +insurance. + +The army of enemies of society must have its general, and I believe +that probably the greatest of them all was "Mother" Mandelbaum. + + +ROBBING TIFFANY + +Of all the stolen things brought into her shop, Mrs. Mandelbaum +preferred diamonds. She rapidly became an expert on stones and they +presented few difficulties. + +A stone once outside its setting usually bears no "earmarks" by which +it can be identified. Nothing is so easily hidden nor so imperishable +as a diamond, and, as everyone knows, they have an unfailing market. +She exhorted her pickpocket customers to specialize on stickpins, and +doubtless they did their best to please her. + +While pickpockets are "pickers," they cannot always be choosers, and +the percentage of diamonds remained disappointingly low. This interest +in diamonds brought the "fence" to visit Tiffany's several times. She +stole nothing, in fact, I am sure "Mother" never stole anything in +her life. But it cost her nothing to examine and admire the beautiful +stones, and during one of her visits she was struck with an ingenious +idea which marked the second step in her career. She planned a robbery. + +In the rear of the Mandelbaum store a consultation was held between +the proprietress, a confidence man known as "Swell" Robinson, and a +shoplifter, just arrived from Chicago, by the name of Mary Wallenstein. + +Robinson, as his name would indicate, was a man of good clothes and +presence. He walked into Tiffany's, went to the diamond counter, and +spent a long time examining the big stones. After about twenty minutes +of questioning he was unable to make up his mind and decided to think +the matter over and return later. + +One of the stones valued at about $8,000 was missing, and the clerk +very apologetically asked Robinson to wait a moment while he searched +for it. A dozen employees hunted and counted the stones while Robinson +grew more and more indignant at the evident suspicion that he had taken +the stone. + +At last things came to a head and Robinson was led to a room and +searched. + +Nothing was found and the store, knowing they had been somehow robbed, +were compelled to let him go. The excitement had not quieted down when +Mary appeared. + +She went to the same counter and stood exactly where Robinson had +been. She examined one or two small diamonds and, like Robinson, she +concluded to go home and think it over. There was no objection made, +for there was nothing missing this time. An hour later she handed the +$8,000 gem to "Mother" Mandelbaum. + +The following morning the man who polished the counters at Tiffany's +found a piece of chewing gum wedged underneath the counter where nobody +would see it. Inspection of the gum revealed the impression of the +facets of a diamond of the general size of the missing stone. Then +everyone understood. The man had placed the gum beneath the counter +when he came in. At his first opportunity he stuck the diamond in it. +The girl coming in later had only to feel along the counter and remove +the gem to make the theft complete. + +This first robbery planned by "Mother" Mandelbaum was so delightfully +successful that the pickpocket industry seemed slow by comparison. The +chewing gum trick could not be worked again, because the jewelers' +association had notified all its members of the new scheme. It was a +short step from jewel-stealing to sneak-thief operations in banks. +Sneak thieves and confidence men began to frequent the back rooms of +the Mandelbaum establishment. It became a clearing house for crimes of +larceny--big and small. + +Many able and successful burglars are unimaginative, and, left to their +own devices, would never discover anything to rob. These earnest but +unimaginative souls hung about the premises as if it were an employment +agency waiting for the "boss" to find a job suited to their particular +talents. + + +DRY GOODS STORE THIEVES + +On the other hand, timid but shrewd and observant persons frequently +saw chances to steal which they dared not undertake. Servants of +wealthy New York families learned that "Mother" Mandelbaum paid well +for tips and plans of houses. + +Next came employees of wholesale and retail dry goods houses. + +To handle bales of silk and woolen, furs, blankets, and other bulky +but valuable merchandise presented new problems. To meet these Mrs. +Mandelbaum moved her establishment to larger quarters. She retained the +pawnbroking department, but added a miscellaneous store, in which she +carried for sale most all the articles found in a country store. + +She was now the mother of three children, two daughters and a +son--Julius. One of the daughters married a Twelfth Ward Tammany +politician. This political alliance was extremely valuable. It made +the police more moderate in their extortion for immunity, and was the +means of obtaining pardons, light sentences, and general miscarriage of +justice on the part of judges. + +I shall never forget the atmosphere of "Mother" Mandelbaum's place +on the corner of Clinton and Rivington Streets. In the front was the +general store, innocent enough in appearance; and, in fact, the goods +were only part stolen, and these of such a character that they could +not possibly be identified. + +"Mother" Mandelbaum led a life which left her open to many dangers from +many different directions. Every member of the underworld knew that +stolen goods of great value were constantly coming into her resort +and from time to time schemes were devised to plunder the famous old +"fence." + +Mrs. Mandelbaum always sat inside of a window which was protected by +strong steel slats. The door to the room was of heavy oak. It was +impossible, thus protected, for anybody to make a sudden rush and catch +"Mother" Mandelbaum off her guard. + +But, realizing that thieves might at any moment raid her establishment +and finally force their way into her den, she provided still another +safeguard. + + +THE SECRET OF THE CHIMNEY + +"Mother" Mandelbaum had a special chimney built in her den, where +she kept a little wood fire burning during the winter and kept the +fireplace filled with old trash during the hot season. This chimney +was peculiarly constructed, and had a false back behind the fire, +and in this cavity was hidden a little dumb-waiter. In front of the +dumb-waiter was a false iron chimney back on a hinge that could be let +down. She constructed a special brick wall so that it appeared to be +the regular wall of the house. + +In case of sudden emergency, "Mother" Mandelbaum could gather up any +diamonds or stolen goods which might be incriminating, pull down the +false chimney back, which fell down over the fire, stow away the +telltale valuable in the hidden dumb-waiter, push the dumb-waiter up +out of sight into the chimney, and push back into place the false +chimney back. This simple operation concluded, "Mother" Mandelbaum was +then ready to face a search or a holdup. + +If ever anybody lived in the proverbial "glass house," surely it was +"Mother" Mandelbaum--and she knew it. Her establishment was ostensibly +a general store and a pawnbroker's office, which she maintained in the +front room, but Mrs. Mandelbaum also dealt in stolen goods of all kinds +and planned robberies with thieves and often sheltered, protected, and +hid thieves in times of trouble. + +"Mother" Mandelbaum was never seen in the front room, where a clerk +was always kept on guard. She kept out of reach in an inside room, +behind the window with the steel grating. Her false chimney and secret +dumb-waiter arrangement, as already explained, was in this room. In +another room, "Mother" Mandelbaum kept two or three employees busy +removing stolen jewels from their settings and engraving designs to +cover up and hide monograms and identification marks on watches, +jewelry, and silverware. + + +"MOTHER'S" GLASS HOUSE + +In an adjoining room were kept bulky articles and stolen goods, such as +fur coats, etc. Here, too, the price tags, factory numbers, and other +marks were always removed from stolen furs, laces, and silks. One of +the back rooms contained beds where thieves were lodged when occasion +demanded. Still another room was a store room where crates and cases +of stolen goods were packed up for shipment to her customers. At the +end of the passageway leading to one of the rooms was a secret trap +door. In case of a raid by the police, and if her front and back doors +were guarded by detectives, she could use the trap door to let thieves +escape down through a hole in the basement wall which led up into the +house next door, which "Mother" Mandelbaum also owned under another +name. + +Gradually "Mother" Mandelbaum's clientele of crooks increased in number +and importance until she had only one real rival, John D. Grady, known +as "Old Supers and Slangs." + +Grady had a more distinguished body of bank burglars under his sway +than had "Mother." Bank burglars are the aristocrats of the underworld, +just as pickpockets are the lowest. + +When the Manhattan Bank robbery was planned and executed, "Mother" +Mandelbaum was much humiliated that she could not command the financing +and planning of the splendid project. It was Grady's funds which +financed the undertaking, and poor "Mother" lost her one pet and star, +"Western George" Howard. Howard, in many ways, was the greatest of bank +burglars, and he was rated by many as superior to Grady's Jimmy Hope. +In another chapter I told you how "Western George" made the Manhattan +Bank robbery possible and then was murdered. + +After Grady's tragic death, "Mother" Mandelbaum was the undisputed +financier, guide, counsellor, and friend of crime in New York. + +For twenty-five years she lived on the proceeds of other people's +crimes. During that time she made many millions. But these millions +slipped away for the most part in bribing, fixing, and silencing people. + +Still she was a very wealthy, fat, ugly old woman when the blow fell. +Mary Holbrook, a shoplifter and old-time ally of Mrs. Mandelbaum, had a +serious row with her. This row was the beginning of "Mother's" end. + +Soon after Mary was arrested, and, of course, applied for help from the +usual source. Not a cent would the old woman give her for bail, counsel +fees, or even for special meals in the Tombs. Mary was desperate, and +sent for the District Attorney. It just happened that District Attorney +Olney was an honest man. He listened to Mary's tale about "Mother" +Mandelbaum, and acted. + +"Mother" Mandelbaum, her son Julius, and Herman Stoude, one of her +employees, were arrested. + +"Abe" Hummel did his best, but the indictment held, and there was a +mass of evidence sure to swamp her at the trial. But "Mother" did not +wait for the trial. She and the others "jumped" their bail and escaped +to Canada. + +Here she lived a few years a wretched and broken figure, yearning and +working to get back to the haunts she loved. But neither her money nor +her political friends were able to secure her immunity. Once she did +sneak to New York for a few hours and escaped unnoticed. It was at the +time of her daughter's funeral, which she watched from a distance, +unable to attend publicly. + +Though "Mother" Mandelbaum had money when she died, yet she was +an exiled, broken-hearted old woman, whose money did her no good. +Unusually talented woman that she was, it took most of her lifetime for +her to learn the lesson that crime does not pay! + +And now let us take a look at Grady, Mrs. Mandelbaum's great rival. Did +this remarkable man find that crime paid in the long run? + + +GRADY THE DARING + +John D. Grady, known to the police and the underworld as "Old Supers +and Slangs," probably never handled as much money or had his finger +in quite so many crimes as "Mother" Mandelbaum. His career, too, was +somewhat shorter, but it made up for these defects in the unequaled +daring and magnitude of his exploits. + +"Mother" Mandelbaum "played safe." Not so John D. Grady. His was a +desperate game, well played for splendid stakes, with risks few men +would care to take, and with all the elements of romance and a tragic +death to cap it. + +Grady, like "Mother" Mandelbaum, was a "fence," but, while she dealt in +everything, Grady specialized in diamonds. He had an office opposite +the Manhattan Bank, which bore the sign, "John D. Grady, Diamond +Merchant." From the windows of this office, Grady, Jimmy Hope, and his +gang gazed hungrily across at the bank and plotted its ruin. Up to the +actual day of the robbery, Hope and Grady were in accord on all plans. +Afterward the two leaders quarreled over the disposition of the bonds. +Hope had his way and there is little doubt that had Grady taken charge +of the two million dollars of securities he would have succeeded in +selling them, whereas Hope failed. + +While "Mother" Mandelbaum was building up her trade with pickpockets +and shoplifters, Grady was carrying his business about in a satchel. No +man ever took greater chances. At all hours of the night this short, +stocky man went about the darkest and most dangerous parts of New York. +In the little black satchel, as every criminal knew, was a fortune in +diamonds. + +When a thief had made a haul, Grady would meet him at any time or +place he pleased and take the diamonds off his hands. Only once was +he "sandbagged" and robbed of several thousand dollars worth of the +stones. He took the misfortune in good part, said it was his own fault, +and never took revenge on the men who robbed him. + + +STEAM-DRILL BURGLARY + +While "Mother" Mandelbaum engineered house and dry goods store +robberies, Grady set his mind and energies on the great banks. As bold +as the Manhattan affair was his assault on a West Side bank. The vaults +of this bank were surrounded by a three-foot wall of solid concrete. + +Grady opened a first-class saloon next door, and as soon as he got +his bearings installed a steam engine in the cellar. This engine was +supposed to run the electric light dynamo and an air pump. In reality +it was there to drill a hole into the bank next door. + +Selecting a Saturday which happened to be a holiday, he commenced +operations Friday night, and there was every prospect of being inside +the vault long before Monday morning. But, unfortunately, a wide-awake +policeman of inquiring mind heard the unfamiliar buzzing out in the +street. He prowled around and finally discovered that something unusual +was going on in the cellar under the saloon. No answer coming to his +knocks, he burst in the door and descended to the cellar. The thieves +ran out, but two were caught in the street. Though Grady financed and +planned this scheme, he escaped untouched, for there was no evidence +against him. + +Criminals, successful and unsuccessful, rarely lack women to love them. +Strangely enough, this grim, daring, successful general of crime was +perpetually spurned and flouted by my sex. Finally there came to him +like an angel from heaven a very beautiful, well-bred daughter of the +rich. Of course, John fell in love with her--any man would have--and +things looked favorable for him. + +This woman was the young and almost penniless widow of a member of the +"four hundred." She had involved herself in a financial situation from +which there was no honest escape. Just as servants of the rich ran to +"Mother" Mandelbaum with their secrets, so this woman went to Grady +with her inside knowledge. + +A sort of partnership sprang up between them which was profitable to +both, but particularly to the woman, who used her sex unhesitatingly +to get the better of her bargains with the cunning old master of the +underworld. Grady's passion grew stronger and stronger, and the young +widow, who really despised him, found it harder and harder to keep him +at a distance. + +Finally things came to a head. Grady knew that the secret of the +Manhattan Bank was soon to come out and that his position in New York +would be no longer safe. He was ready to flee, but his passion for +the woman had become so completely his master that he would not move +without her. It was a peculiar duel of wits that followed. The woman +was financially dependent on Grady and dared not hide from him nor +pretend that she did not return his passion. + +The night came when she must either elope with him or lose his aid. The +thought of either was unbearable, yet she met him in his empty house at +midnight prepared. She knew that Grady would have his entire fortune +with him in the form of the diamonds and her plan was nothing less than +to murder him and take his jewels. She had brought a little vial of +poison with her and held it in trembling fingers within her muff. She +knew Grady had a bottle of yellow wine, and she knew it would not be +hard to have him drink a toast to their elopement. + +Grady produced the bottle but also only one dirty tumbler. They were +both to drink from that, it seemed. The woman, at her wits' ends, +glanced about the room and spied a battered tin cup. + +"There," she cried, pointing, "the very thing." + + +GRADY'S ROMANTIC DEATH + +While Grady went to get it she emptied the vial into the dirty glass. +Grady soon poured a quantity of the yellow wine on top of it, and then +filled the cup. But to her horror, he handed her the glass and took the +cup. + +"No, no, John," she gasped, "you take the glass. I'll drink from the +cup." + +"Why," asked Grady, his eyes aflame with sudden suspicion, "what's the +matter?" + +"Oh, only that I left a kiss for you on the glass," she faltered. + +Grady took the glass and slowly, very slowly, he raised it toward his +lips, all the while gazing unwinkingly at the woman. Just at his lips +the glass stopped and the woman could not avoid a shudder, she covered +her eyes and Grady, used to reading people's minds, read hers. He let +the glass fall and shouted: + +"So, it's murder you want--well, murder it shall be, but I'll do the +murdering." + +She saw death in his eyes as he seized her arm but before death he +would first have his way with her. She screamed and, pulling with the +strength of despair, twisted the arm out of Grady's grasp, leaving half +her sleeve in his hand. + +Still, there could surely be no hope for her, and yet at that very +instant when he poised himself to plunge after her again, his eyes +turned glassy; paralysis seized him, and he sank slowly into his chair +while the fainting woman tottered out of the door. + +The next day, it so happened, Shevelin, the watchman, confessed to his +connection with the Manhattan Bank robbery. The police were just taking +up the trail that led to Grady's connection with the affair when the +news came to headquarters that Grady was dead. + +He was found with the sleeve of a woman's dress grasped convulsively in +his hand. On the table were a bottle of wine and a cup. A broken glass +and spilled wine on the floor showed traces of poison. + + +CREED OF THE "FENCES" + +An autopsy performed on Grady's body showed no sign of poison. His +death had been caused by apoplexy. The woman who meant to kill him by +poison had actually done so by means of the furious emotions she had +aroused. She could have taken the diamonds had she only dared to wait. + +Thus died Grady, still free from the law, and with his great fortune +in diamonds in his pocket. Yet he died in an agony of furious +disappointment as miserably as it is the lot of man to die. For him, +as for "Mother" Mandelbaum, it was destined that the lesson should be +finally but tragically impressed--that crime does not pay! + +As a general thing the receiver of stolen goods is the greediest, +tightest-fisted individual who ever squeezed a dollar. The bargains he +drives are so one-sided that unless the thief is unusually shrewd he +will find his profits dwindling to almost nothing by the time he has +disposed of his plunder. The margin between what the thief gets for his +stealings and the price they finally bring is enormous, and even with +only a few thieves working regularly for him the "fence" finds it easy +to get rich in a very short time. + +The greed of the "fences" is one important reason why many criminals +find it difficult to reform. The more thieves a "fence" has working +for him the greater his profits, and naturally the longer they remain +in the business the more valuable they are. When a thief reforms, the +"fence" is put to the trouble and expense of training a new man--and +there is always the danger that the new member of the staff will prove +less capable or industrious than the one whose place he takes. + +The "fence," therefore, tries to make crime so attractive or so +necessary to the clever thief that he will continue stealing until +death or arrest overtakes him. He keeps close watch for signs of a +desire to reform, and does all he can to discourage it. + +The "fence" studies the special weaknesses of his thieves and +understands just how to play on them to his advantage. If a thief +suggests "turning over a new leaf," the "fence" pays him more liberally +for his next lot of goods, or loans him money to satisfy his craving +for liquor, drugs, fine clothes, or whatever may be his failing. + +This last is a favorite method of getting a thief into a +"fence's" power. The "fence" advances money freely, with the +"always-glad-to-help-an-old-friend" spirit. But he keeps careful count +of every dollar loaned, and when the inevitable day of reckoning comes +the debt is usually so large that the thief can never hope to pay it +except by crime. + + +SHINBURN AND THE "FENCE" + +After living an honest life for fifteen years, Mark Shinburn might +never have turned burglar again had he not fallen into the hands of one +of these avaricious receivers of stolen goods. + +Shinburn--as I will tell you in a later chapter--had accumulated from +his early robberies a million dollars. With this fortune he went to +Belgium, bought an estate and the title of count, and settled down to +the life of a prosperous country gentleman. + +But the evil fortune which seems to follow every thief never forsook +Shinburn. His mania for gambling and an unlucky series of speculations +in the stock market at last left him penniless. + +In the hope of restoring his fallen fortunes, Shinburn went to London. +There he met an old acquaintance of his--a wealthy receiver of stolen +goods. This wily trickster, eager to get Shinburn, the greatest of +burglars, to stealing for him again, received him with open arms. + +"Glad to accommodate you, Mark," said the "fence" when a loan was +suggested. "Your word is good for whatever you need--and pay it back +whenever you are able." + +The money Shinburn received in this way went where much of his original +fortune had gone--at Monte Carlo. He returned to the London "fence" for +another loan, and another--and all were willingly granted. But when he +sought money the fourth time he found the "fence's" attitude strangely +changed. + + +HE TURNS BURGLAR AGAIN + +"Really," said the "fence," "I don't see how I can let you have any +more money. It seems peculiar that you should be in such straitened +circumstances. In the old days you used to have all the money you +needed--why don't you use your wits and get some now?" + +After touching Shinburn's pride in this crafty way, the "fence" +casually mentioned an excellent opportunity which had come to his ears +for robbing a bank in Belgium. It was, he said, a rather delicate +undertaking, but there was a great deal of money involved--and Shinburn +was the one man in the world who could carry it through. + +Shinburn's shame at being obliged to borrow money made him an easy +victim of the "fence's" wiles. He went to Belgium, was caught in the +act of entering the bank, and was sent to prison for a long term. As +soon as he was released the London "fence" began pressing him for +money, and Shinburn became a confirmed criminal again, primarily to pay +this debt. + +And this same "fence," Einstein by name, paid the penalty of his +wretched practices with a bullet in his brain, which was sent there +by a desperate burglar who had tried vainly to reform but was held in +criminal bondage by Einstein. + +The promoter of crime is not always a receiver of stolen goods. +Sometimes he is himself a thief, who has mastered some branch of the +business so thoroughly that he is able to sit back and let others do +the active work. + +Such a man was "Dutch Dan" Watson, who was long considered one of the +most expert makers of duplicate keys in America. His specialty was +entering buildings and taking wax impressions of the keys, which he +often found hanging up in surprisingly convenient places. + +From these impressions Watson, in his own workshop, would make the +duplicate keys and file them away for future use. To each key he would +attach a tag bearing the address of the building and a little diagram +showing the exact location of the door which the key unlocked. + +"Dutch Dan's" active part in the proposed crime ended as soon as the +keys were made. Then, from the wide circle of criminals that he knew, +he would select a number of expert burglars and hand them a set of the +keys and diagrams, showing just how the robbery was to be carried out. + +If the burglars were successful they turned over to "Dutch Dan" 20 per +cent. of the proceeds. This mode of operation proved very profitable +for Watson, and I remember that he often had as many as eight different +parties of burglars working for him at one time. + +And Watson, like Einstein, was sent to his grave by a fellow criminal, +who had been discarded from his gang and killed him in revenge. + +Will any reader who has reviewed with me the lives of the famous +criminals recounted above dispute my assertion that, truly, CRIME +DOES NOT PAY? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SURPRISING METHODS OF THE THIEVES WHO WORK ONLY DURING BUSINESS HOURS +AND WALK AWAY WITH THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS UNDER THE VERY EYES OF THE BANK +OFFICIALS + + +One day before I was as well known to the police as I later became I +was walking down Broadway in New York when I met a prominent citizen of +the underworld with whom I had been associated in numerous burglaries. +So far as I knew at that time he was still a burglar. After we had +stood chatting for several minutes I was surprised to have him press a +hundred-dollar bill into my hand and say: + +"Just as the clocks strike noon to-day I want you to go into the +Manhattan Bank and have this bill changed. Walk right up to the paying +teller's window and ask for some silver and small bills. When he hands +you the money take your time about counting it, and keep his attention +engaged just as long as you can." + +"But what do I get for running errands for you?" I jokingly inquired. + +He refused to explain any further, and, as I was just dying with +curiosity to find out what sort of game he was up to, I agreed to do as +I was told. Of course, I knew it was some crime he was inveigling me +into, but just what it was, or what part I was playing in it, I had no +more idea than a babe unborn when I strolled into the bank promptly on +the stroke of twelve. + +The paying teller proved to be a very susceptible man, and I found no +difficulty in getting him into conversation. As there were few people +in the bank at that hour, he was glad enough to relieve the monotony of +his day's work by a little chat with a pretty young woman. + +Well, to make a long story short, we talked busily for fully fifteen +minutes, and during all that time I succeeded in keeping his eyes +riveted on me. When, at last, a man approached the window to transact +some business I put my money away in my satchel, gave the courteous +teller a parting smile, and strolled leisurely out of the bank. While I +was in the bank I had seen nothing of the man who had sent me on this +mysterious errand, and I did not see him until I called at his hotel +that evening. + +"We've done a good day's work, Sophie, and here is your share of the +profits," he said, handing me a fatter roll of crisp bank notes than +I had laid my hands on for several weeks. As I hurriedly counted the +bills over I was amazed to find that the roll contained $2,000. + +"While you were flirting so deliciously with the paying teller," my +friend explained, "I slipped into the bank by a side entrance, reached +my hand through a gate in the wire cage and grabbed a bundle of bills, +which I later found to contain $4,000." + +That was my introduction to the work of the "bank sneak"--a thief +whose methods were then in their infancy, but who developed ingenuity +and boldness so rapidly that he soon became the terror of the banks +and every business man who ever has to handle large sums of money or +securities. + +What I have to tell you to-day about "bank sneaks" and their methods +will furnish as good an example as anything I know of the fact that +CRIME DOES NOT PAY. + +The stealings of a clever "sneak" often run as high as $100,000 in a +single year. But what benefit does he get out of this easily acquired +wealth? It invariably goes as easily as it comes, and, after a few +months, he is as badly in need of money as he was before. I can count +on the fingers of one hand the "sneaks" who are getting any real +happiness out of life--and they are all men and women who, like myself, +have seen the error of their ways and reformed. + +If crime could ever prove profitable to any man, it would have proved +so to Walter Sheridan, long the foremost "bank sneak" in America. So +varied and far reaching were his adroit schemes that within twenty +years the gangs which he organized and led stole more than a million +dollars. He was a past master in the art of escaping punishment for his +crimes, and he was also a shrewd, close-fisted financier, who claimed +the lion's share of all the booty and carefully hoarded his savings. + +Yet what did all his cleverness avail this prince of "sneaks"? His +fortune was swept away, and he finally died a pauper in the prison cell +to which he was sent when he was picked up starving in the streets of +Montreal. + +Sheridan introduced many ingenious new methods in "bank sneaking," just +as Mark Shinburn did in burglary. He was the first to conceal a pair +of tweezers in the end of his cane and use them to pick up bundles of +money which were beyond the reach of his arms. + +This cane was a really wonderful device. To all appearances it was only +a fine, straight piece of bamboo, nicely polished and fitted with an +ivory handle--the sort of walking stick any prosperous man might carry. + +Only when you unscrewed its heavy brass ferrule was the dishonest +purpose for which it was intended revealed. The bamboo stick was +hollow, and in it were two narrow strips of steel which dropped down +below the end of the cane and could be operated like tweezers when you +released the spring, which was concealed under a heavy band of solid +silver just below the handle. + +When Sheridan was his natural self he was a stout, good looking man +of dignified presence and refined manners who would readily pass for +a well-to-do merchant or manufacturer. But when occasion required he +could change his appearance so that even his closest friends wouldn't +recognize him. + +Once when he was arrested in New York he effected in his cell in the +Tombs a transformation which mystified the authorities and nearly +resulted in his release on the ground of mistaken identity. + +He exchanged his expensively tailored suit and fine linen for the dirty +rags of a tramp who was locked up in the adjoining cell. With a broken +knife blade he hacked off every bit of his long flowing beard. He dyed +his reddish brown hair with coffee grounds and clipped and twisted it +to make it look a life-long stranger to comb and brush. By eating soap +he managed to reduce his portly figure to a thin, sickly shadow of skin +and bones. + +When the prison keepers came to take him into court for trial they +were amazed to find in place of the well-dressed, well-fed broker they +had locked up a few days before a repulsively dirty, ragged, emaciated +tramp, whose actions indicated that he was not more than half witted. + +This ruse of Sheridan's failed, however, through the persistence of +William A. Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Mr. +Pinkerton, who had been on Sheridan's trail for years, identified him +positively in spite of his changed appearance, and succeeded in having +him convicted and sentenced to five years in Sing Sing prison. + +It was from this wizard of crime, Walter Sheridan, that I learned the +value of the clever disguises which so often stood me in good stead +and which enabled my comrades and me to get our hands on hundreds of +thousands of dollars that didn't belong to us. + +Early in my career I conceived the idea of furthering my dishonest +plans by posing as a wealthy old widow, so crippled that she had to +transact whatever business she had with the bank from her seat in her +carriage. This plan succeeded beyond my fondest expectations, and I am +ashamed to think how many thousands of dollars I stole through this +simple but extremely effective little expedient. + +This ruse proved its merits the first time we tried it--in the daylight +robbery of a Brooklyn, New York, bank, where one of my two companions +walked away with $40,000 while I sat outside in my carriage listening +to the old cashier's advice about investing the money my lamented +husband had left me. + +But let me go back to the very beginning and show you just how this +bold robbery was planned and carried out. + +We had had our eyes on this bank for a week--Johnny Meaney, Tom +Bigelow, and I. Between the hours of 12 and 1 each day we found there +were few customers in the bank and the institution was left in charge +of the old cashier and a young bookkeeper. + +But the cashier, although over sixty years old, was a keen-eyed, +nervous man, whose suspicions were apt to be easily aroused. And, +besides, the window in the wire cage where he did business with the +bank's customers was so situated that he could always see out of the +corner of his eye the vault and the long counter where the money was +piled. + +We all agreed that it was not safe to attempt the robbery while the +cashier was in his usual place. If I could only devise some way of +getting him outside the bank for a few minutes it would be easy for +one of the men to hold the young bookkeeper in conversation at the +paying teller's window, which was so placed that while he stood there +his back was toward the vault. That would give just the opportunity we +needed for the third member of the party to step unnoticed through a +convenient side door and get the plunder. + +But how to lure the cashier out of the bank? That was the question, +and it was while I was racking my brains for some solution of the +difficulty that I blundered upon the idea of posing as a wealthy widow +who was too lame to leave her carriage when she called at the bank. + +During my stay in this city I had heard of the death in Europe of a +rich and prominent Brooklyn man. He had been living abroad for the last +ten years and had married there an English woman who had never visited +Brooklyn and was entirely unknown there except by name. + +Nothing could have suited my purpose better. I would pose as this +wealthy Brooklyn man's widow, and in this guise would induce the bank +cashier to come out to my carriage and talk with me. + +You may be sure that I laid my plans with the greatest care, for I knew +what a bold undertaking this was and that the least oversight on my +part would spoil everything. + +First I bought a silver gray wig to cover my chestnut hair. It was +a beautiful specimen of the wig-maker's art and cost me sixty-five +dollars. + +Then I made up my plump, rosy cheeks to look as pale and wrinkled as an +invalid woman's should at the age of seventy and dressed myself in the +gloomiest, most expensive widow's weeds I could find. + +[Illustration: POSING AS A WEALTHY CRIPPLED OLD WIDOW] + +A pair of hideous blue goggles and two crutches completed my +disguise. The glasses were to hide my bright eyes, whose habit of +roaming incessantly from side to side I had an idea often made people +suspicious of me; and the crutches were to bear out my story of +the paralyzed limbs which made my leaving my carriage except when +absolutely necessary out of the question. + +My costume was not the only detail which had to be arranged to make +my plan complete. I must have some visiting cards--cards with a heavy +mourning border and the name of the Brooklyn man's widow engraved on +them. + +I also didn't forget to place with these cards in my handbag some +worthless mining stock which had been my share of a western bank +robbery, and which even Ellen Peck's shrewd magic couldn't turn into +cash. This would be useful, I thought, in holding the old cashier's +attention. + +Then there were my horses and a carriage befitting my wealth which the +men hired from a livery stable. I called on two young thieves whom I +knew over in New York, and, by promising them a small percentage of +whatever we succeeded in stealing, induced them to dress up in some +borrowed livery and act as my driver and footman. + +At last everything was arranged and the day was set for the robbery. +The morning dawned warm and bright--just the sort of weather which +would make an invalid widow feel like venturing out to transact a +little business. + +I had not seen Bigelow and Meaney since the night before. They had +called then at my rooms to go over our plans for the last time. Bigelow +was to engage the attention of the bookkeeper, who would be left alone +in the bank after the cashier's departure, while wiry little Johnny +Meaney made his way through the side door and got the money. + +At a few minutes past twelve my carriage drew up in front of the bank. +Two or three of the officials were just going to lunch. If nothing +unexpected had happened to change the bank's routine, the cashier and +one bookkeeper were alone in the counting-room and the coast was clear. + +Through my blue glasses I could see Tom Bigelow's big form swinging +down the street as unconcernedly as if he had not a care in the world. +And from the opposite direction, although I could not see him, I felt +positive that Meaney was on his way to carry out his part in our crime. + +The footman jumped down and stood at attention while I fumbled +in my bag for one of my black bordered cards. With hands which +trembled naturally enough to give the last touch of reality to my +feeble appearance I handed him the card and tremulously whispered my +instructions. He bowed respectfully and disappeared inside the bank. + +Would the cashier be good enough to step outside and discuss a little +matter of business with a lady who was unable to leave her carriage? + +The cashier is very sorry, but he is extremely busy and, as he is +practically alone in the bank just now, it will be impossible for him +to leave his desk. Can't the lady arrange to step inside for a minute? + +Before the nervous footman has time to explain that the lady is a +cripple and cannot leave her carriage the cashier has taken another +look at the card, has recognized the name, and realizes that it is the +widow of a millionaire who is waiting outside for an audience with him. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon," he says nervously; "the light is so poor here +that I could hardly see that name. Tell the lady that I will be out +directly." + +As the footman walks out to report to his mistress that her wishes are +going to be fulfilled the cashier hurriedly changes the linen jacket +he wears at his desk for a solemn frock coat, gives his scanty hair a +quick part and calls to the bookkeeper to look out for things while he +is gone. + +All this time I am sitting primly there in the carriage trying as hard +as I know how to live up to the dignity of a millionaire's widow and to +conceal my fears that something is going to happen to disarrange our +carefully laid plans. + +But, the next instant, I am relieved to see the cashier coming toward +me all bows and smiles. And, as he comes out of the bank he almost +brushes elbows with Tom Bigelow, who, with a punctuality worthy of a +better cause, is going into the bank at that very moment. + +Yes, indeed, the cashier remembers my husband and he is proud of the +opportunity to be of some service to his widow. I can see the avarice +shining in his eyes as he thinks of the profits his bank will make if +he can get the handling of my property. + +Our interview is, of course, a tedious affair for I am very feeble +and have all sorts of difficulty in finding the mining stock about +which I want to consult him. But the cashier shows not the slightest +impatience and humors my whims with all the consideration my wealth and +position deserve. + +And, when he sees what a worthless lot of stock I have invested in, his +interest in me becomes all the greater. + +Out of the corner of my eye I can just see Tom Bigelow as he stands +talking with the bookkeeper inside the bank. And, by this time, if no +unforeseen difficulty has arisen, I know that Johnny Meaney is in the +vault making a quick but judicious selection of the cash and securities +which we can most easily dispose of. + +After what seemed an eternity, but was in reality only four or five +minutes, I saw Bigelow come out of the bank and stroll leisurely up the +street. This was the signal that the money had been secured and that +Meaney was making his escape in the opposite direction. + +Now everything depended on my holding the cashier just as much longer +as I could. Every minute he remained there talking with me meant that +much delay in the discovery of the bank's loss and the starting of the +police on our trail. + +Another five minutes dragged along before I had exhausted the supply of +questions which I wanted answered. Then I said good-bye, promising to +return on the next day, and told my coachman to drive on. The cashier +whom I had duped so successfully stood there on the sidewalk bowing and +smiling as my carriage rolled down the street. + +I went to the house of a friend, where I exchanged my disguise for +my ordinary clothes. Then I boarded a train for Montreal and there a +few days later Bigelow and Meaney divided with me booty amounting to +$40,000. + +It was nothing unusual for the clever bands of "bank sneaks" with +which I "worked" to steal as much or more than that in as short order. +But, as I have told you, a relentless curse followed our dishonestly +acquired wealth and, sooner or later, taught those who would learn the +lesson that honesty is the only policy and that CRIME DOES NOT +PAY. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +STARTLING SURPRISES THAT CONFRONT CRIMINALS--HOW UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS +SUDDENLY DEVELOP AND UPSET CAREFULLY LAID PLANS AND CAUSE THE BURGLARS +ARREST OR PREVENT HIS GETTING EXPECTED PLUNDER + + +Only one who has been, as I have, for years behind the scenes at all +sorts of crimes can appreciate how often every criminal is brought face +to face with the most startling surprises. + +No matter how clever a robber is he can never tell when arrest, serious +injury, or death will bring his dishonest career to a sudden end. And, +even if he escapes these fatal disasters, there are always a thousand +and one chances which may develop at any moment to spoil his carefully +laid plans and prevent his getting his plunder. Most of these are +things which it is absolutely impossible to foresee and guard against. +This is why only a small percentage of the crimes which are attempted +ever succeed and why their success hangs trembling in the balance until +the very last minute. + +The brains we criminals expended in saving some robbery from failure +or in escaping the consequences of our deeds would have won us lasting +success and happiness in any honorable pursuit--used, as they were, +for crime, they brought us in the end only disgrace and remorse. That +is the lesson which these experiences have taught me and which I hope +every reader of this page will learn. + +If there was ever a thief who planned his crimes with greater attention +to the smallest details than Harry Raymond, the man who stole the +famous Gainsborough, I never knew him. + +But even Raymond's painstaking care was not proof against all the +startling surprises which confronted him and his plans were often +completely ruined by one of these unexpected happenings. + +Raymond was always a restless man--never content to remain long in one +place. When stories of the rich gold and diamond mines in South Africa +reached his ears he began to cast longing eyes in that direction. Where +there was so much treasure he thought there surely ought to be an +opportunity to get his hands on a share of it. + +He tried to induce Mark Shinburn to go with him, but Shinburn had his +eye on several big robberies nearer home, and so Raymond set out alone. +On the way he met Charley King, a noted English thief, and the two +joined forces. + +Raymond hadn't been in South Africa twenty-four hours before he learned +that a steamer left Cape Town for England every week with a heavy +shipment of gold and diamonds on board. His next step was to find out +just how this treasure was brought down from the mines. + +As he soon learned, it came by stage each week, the day before the +steamer sailed. The bags of gold dust and uncut diamonds were locked +in a strong box which was carried under the driver's seat. There was +only one other man on the coach besides the driver--a big, powerful +Boer, who carried a brace of revolvers and a repeating rifle and had +the reputation of being a dead shot. + +There was just one difficulty in the way--Raymond really needed a third +man to assist King and him. Among all the criminals in Cape Town whom +he knew there was none he could trust, and so he at last decided to +ask a wholly inexperienced man to join the party. The man he selected +was an American sea captain who had been obliged to flee from his +native land after setting fire to his ship for the insurance. He was +desperately in need of money and was, therefore, only too glad of the +opportunity to share in the fortune Raymond proposed to steal. + +Raymond, with his customary caution, studied the proposition from +every angle. At last he was convinced that he had provided for every +contingency which could possibly arise to prevent his robbery of the +coach. + +This was his plan--to stretch a rope across some lonely spot in the +road and trip the horses. Before the driver and the guard could recover +from their astonishment and extricate themselves from the overturned +coach, Raymond and his companions would leap from their ambush and +overpower them. + +Half way up a long hill, down which the coach would come, the three +men concealed themselves--Raymond and the captain on one side of the +road, King on the other. + +Around a tree on either side of the road they fastened the rope with a +slip noose, letting its length lie loose on the ground directly in the +path of the coach. Carefully loading their revolvers they settled down +to wait for its approach. + +At last their ears caught the rumble of its wheels and presently the +four horses which drew the heavy vehicle and its precious contents +appeared above the crest of the hill. They were making good time on the +last lap of their long journey from the mines. + +On they came, until the hoofs of the leaders were within a foot of the +rope. Raymond gave a shrill whistle and his companions stretched the +rope tight across the road at a distance of about two feet above the +ground. + +As the forward horses struck the barrier they fell in a heap and the +ones behind came tumbling on top of them. The wagon pole snapped like a +pipe stem. + +The heavy coach stopped short, reeled uncertainly for a second, then +keeled over on its side, hurling both the driver and the guard several +feet away. + +The three robbers sprang from their hiding place and covered the +prostrate men with their revolvers. + +As they did so one of the fallen horses scrambled to his feet, broke +the remnants of the harness that clung to him and dashed down the hill, +furious with pain and fear. + +Not one of the robbers paid any heed to this incident--for who would +have suspected that a frightened stage horse could interfere with their +carefully laid plans? + +The driver was easily disposed of, but the guard showed fight and it +required the combined efforts of the three men to bind and gag him so +that he could do no harm. + +They were just knotting a piece of rope around his struggling legs when +a shot rang out and a rifle bullet whizzed by their heads--followed by +another and another. + +An instant before the moon had broken through the clouds. By its light +they saw six sturdy Boer farmers advancing up the hill, firing their +repeating rifles as they came. + +Resistance was useless--they were outnumbered two to one and they had +all been in South Africa long enough to have a wholesome respect for a +Boer's marksmanship. + +Covering their retreat with a few shots from their revolvers, they took +to their heels. In the rain of bullets which was falling around them +it was suicide to think of trying to take the heavy strong box with +them, and they had to leave it there in the coach with all its treasure +untouched. + +Raymond was completely mystified. He and his companions had not fired +a shot in their struggle with the men on the coach. How had those Boer +farmers, who lived in a house at the foot of the hill nearly half a +mile away, happened to be aroused just in time to spoil the robbery? + +The account the newspapers gave of the robbery cleared up the mystery. +It seemed that the frightened horse which had dashed down the hill had +plunged through the lattice gate in the front of the Boer's house. + +The crash of the woodwork and the wounded animal's cries of pain as +he struggled to free himself had awakened the farmers. As they rushed +out half dressed to see what the trouble was the moon shone out and +revealed to them the overturned coach on the hillside above and the +robbers struggling with the guard and driver. + +You see what a surprising thing it all was and how impossible it was +for Raymond to have foreseen that anything like this would happen. But +these two little incidents--the runaway horse and the moon's sudden +appearance--were all that was needed to snatch away $250,000 in gold +and diamonds just as Raymond thought he had it safely in his hands. + +Even more surprising was what happened when Tom Smith and I, with Dan +Nugent and George Mason, were trying to rob a little bank down in +Virginia. + +The fact that the cashier and his family lived on the floor above this +bank made it a rather ticklish undertaking. + +There was, however, no vault to enter, and the safe was such a +ramshackle affair that the men felt sure they could open it without the +use of a charge of powder. So we decided to make the attempt. + +As Tom Smith had sprained his wrist in escaping from a Pennsylvania +sheriff a few nights before he was to remain on guard outside the bank, +while I entered with Dan and George and rendered what assistance I +could in opening the safe. This was the first time I had ever been on +the "inside" of a bank burglary and I was quite puffed up with my own +importance. + +Dan opened one of the bank windows with his jimmy and held his hands +for me to step on as I drew myself up over the high sill. Then he +handed the tools to me and he and George climbed up. + +The bank in which we found ourselves was one large room. A door led +into it from the broad porch which extended along the front of the +building. At the rear was another door opening into a long passageway, +at the end of which was a staircase leading to the cashier's apartments +overhead. + +While the two men were looking the safe over I unlocked the front door +to provide an avenue of escape in case we should have to beat a hasty +retreat. + +I also opened the door at the rear and peered into the darkness of +the passageway. There was no sign of life--no sound except the heavy +breathing of the sleeping cashier and his family in the rooms above. I +closed the door gently for fear the rasping of the drills on the metal +of the safe would be heard. + +Just then my quick ears caught the sound of some one in the passageway. +I tiptoed over to the door and pressed my ear against it. + +I had barely time to draw away from the door before it opened wide and +I stood speechless with amazement at the apparition I saw standing +there within an arm's length of me. + +[Illustration: SURPRISED BY A SLEEP WALKER.] + +I am not a superstitious woman, but what I saw in that doorway set my +heart to thumping madly, and sent the cold shivers up and down my back. +And I am not ashamed to confess how startled I was, for Dan Nugent and +George Mason, the veterans of a hundred burglaries, later admitted that +nothing had ever given them such a scare as this. + +What we saw facing us, like a ghost, was a beautiful young woman. The +filmy white night robe she wore left her snowy arms and shoulders bare +and revealed her bare feet. + +Her face looked pale and ghastly in the light of the kerosene lamp she +carried high in one hand. The mass of jet black hair which crowned her +head and hung in a long braid down her back made her pallor all the +more death-like. + +Her eyes were shut tight. + +For a minute we stood blinking like frightened children at this +uncanny, white, silent figure. Then, gradually, it dawned on us that +this apparition was the cashier's eldest daughter, and that she was +walking in her sleep. + +As we recovered our senses it didn't take us long to see what a +dangerous situation we were in. At any moment our unwelcome visitor +might awaken. By the time we could bind and gag her the rest of the +family might discover her absence and start in search of her. + +The girl looked so innocent and helpless and so strangely beautiful +that, for my part, I was heartily glad when George Mason nodded his +head toward the door to indicate that we would better be going. + +The two men climbed out of the window and I made my escape by the front +door. The last I saw of the sleep-walking girl she was groping her way +across the bank with slow cautious steps, still holding the lamp high +above her head and looking more than ever like a graveyard specter. + +Whether anybody except ourselves ever knew what a strange chance +saved the bank from robbery that night I never heard. It was a costly +experience for us as, according to what we learned later from the +newspapers, that safe contained $20,000 in cash. + +We missed that tidy little bit of plunder just because a young woman +was addicted to the habit of walking in her sleep. + +And now another instance--the very remarkable chain of surprises which +resulted in the murder of a bank cashier, the blackening of a dead +man's reputation, and, finally, the imprisonment of two desperate +burglars for life. + +For many years the robbery of the bank in Dexter, Maine, puzzled +everybody. This was a job of national importance, because Mr. Barron, +the cashier of the bank, was accidentally murdered, and the detectives, +after failing to get any clue to the burglars, buncoed the bank +officials by inventing the theory that the unfortunate cashier had +murdered himself! + +They managed to fix up the books of the bank in such a way as to show +some trivial pretended defalcation, which amounted, as I remember it, +to about $1,100. On the strength of this barefaced frame-up the memory +of the poor cashier was defamed and the bank actually brought suit +against the widow for some small sum. + +The real facts I will now tell you. Jimmy Hope, the famous bank +burglar, first got his eye on the Dexter bank as a promising prospect, +and made all his plans to enter the bank when, to his disgust, he was +grabbed for another matter and given a prison term. In Jimmy Hope's +gang was an ambitious burglar named David L. Stain, and Stain decided +that there was no reason why the Dexter bank should escape simply +because Hope was serving a sentence. + +So Stain looked over the ground and decided to rob the bank with a +little band of his own, consisting of Oliver Cromwell and a man named +Harvey, and somebody else whose name I do not now recall. They selected +Washington's Birthday because it was a holiday, and there was every +reason to believe that nobody would be in the bank. + +Late in the afternoon Stain and his associates forced their way into +the building and sprung the lock of the back door of the bank. The +burglars stood for a moment to put on their masks and rubber shoes, and +then Stain moved forward toward the inner room of the bank, where the +bank vaults were. + +Just at the moment that Stain put his hand on the doorknob Cashier +Barron on the other side of the door put his own hand on the inside +knob as he unsuspectingly started to leave the inside room, where he +had been going over some of the books that were in the vaults. + +[Illustration: AS THE DOOR OPENED STAIN AND BARRON CAME FACE TO FACE] + +As the door opened Dave Stain and Cashier Barron suddenly came face +to face without the slightest warning. Barron stood paralyzed with +astonishment as he peered into the masked face of the leader. Stain, +with perfect composure, struck Barron a quick blow with a slung-shot, +landing the weapon exactly in the center of Mr. Barron's forehead. + +The cashier dropped to the floor stunned and Stain imagined that his +victim's skull was crushed, or that, if the blow had not been fatal, +Barron would come to his senses and make an outcry. In either case +the burglars realized that they had done a bad job. Murder was not +intended, and none of the gang had any stomach for going on with the +robbery, even though the doors of the big vault stood invitingly open. + +After a few moments' hasty consultation the cracksmen picked up the +unconscious but still breathing form of the faithful cashier and laid +it in the vault, and closed and locked the big doors. Stain and his +gang made their way noiselessly out of the building, strolling, one by +one, through the town and out into the country, where a span of horses +was waiting for them. They drove across country, keeping away from the +railroad, and made their escape without leaving a clue of any kind. + +When Cashier Barron failed to turn up at home at supper time a search +was made and somebody went to the bank. The cashier's hat and coat were +found in the inner room, and a faint sound of heavy breathing could be +heard from the interior of the closed vault. Blacksmiths were hastily +called, and, after several hours' work, succeeded in freeing the +imprisoned cashier--but, although Barron was still alive and breathing, +his face was black from his having breathed over and over again the +poisoned air of the vault, and he died without recovering consciousness. + +Several years later a clue to the real truth of the tragedy was picked +up by a newspaper reporter, who devoted several weeks of painstaking +work to piecing together the scraps of evidence he was able to +collect. This reporter then had himself appointed a Massachusetts State +detective and arrested Stain and Cromwell, brought them to Bangor, +Maine, was able to have them identified by several townspeople who had +seen them in Dexter on the day of the murder, and Stain and Cromwell +were both convicted of murder in the first degree, and the conviction +was unanimously confirmed by the Supreme Court of the State of Maine. +They were sentenced to life imprisonment. + +I could go on indefinitely recounting instances as surprising as any +of these of the unexpected things which are constantly happening to +prevent criminals succeeding in their undertakings. But these which +I have mentioned are enough to show any thoughtful man or woman how +hazardous and how profitless crime always is. + +Success in crime is achieved only at the risk of life and liberty. In a +few rare cases the criminal escapes these penalties, but, even so, his +ill gotten gains melt rapidly away and bring him no lasting happiness. +And, as I have shown here to-day, a large percentage of the crimes he +undertakes yield him nothing for all the time, thought, and effort he +has to give them. + +Each chapter of my own life, as I am now recalling it, and the lives of +all the criminals I have ever known, only give added emphasis to the +fact which I want to impress on you--that CRIME DOES NOT PAY. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THRILLING EVENTS WHICH CROWDED ONE SHORT WEEK OF MY LIFE--HOW I +PROFITED NOTHING FROM ALL THE RISKS I FACED + + +Not all the crimes the professional criminal commits are carefully +planned in advance. Very often they are committed on the spur of the +moment, when the opportunity to steal some article of value without +detection suddenly presents itself. The habit of wrongdoing becomes so +strongly developed that the thief is unable to resist the temptation +to steal even when he is not in need of money and when there is every +incentive for him to avoid the risk of arrest. + +This was exactly what happened to me in Springfield, Mass., one day. +The fact that I was unable to withstand the glittering lure of a tray +full of diamonds proved the starting point of one of the most eventful +weeks of my life. + +What happened to me during the week which began with my bold robbery of +a Springfield diamond merchant is as good an example as I can select +from my past career to give point to the lesson I have learned and am +trying to teach--that crime in the long run can never be made to pay. + +Just think of it--in the seven days that followed the unlucky moment +when I thrust my hand into that open showcase in Springfield I was +arrested three times, jumped my bail once, and successfully made my +escape from a Boston cell. During all that time I was never free from +fear of arrest--asleep or awake, I would start at the slightest sound, +fearful that it was a detective coming to snap those hateful handcuffs +on my wrists again. + +And what did I have to show for all the nervous strain, all the +suffering and hardship I underwent during that week? Worse than nothing +at all. Although I stole cash and valuables amounting to more than +seven thousand dollars, I was penniless when I finally succeeded in +getting back to New York. + +A good share of the money had gone to the lawyers. A thousand dollars +of it I had been obliged to leave behind when I made my escape from the +Boston police, and the trayful of diamond rings I had stolen was hidden +in Springfield, where I would not dare show my face for many months. +Even the rings on my own fingers had gone to pay my lawyers' fees and +my bail. + +But let me go back to the very beginning and explain just how all these +things came about. + +It was when I was on my way back from an unsuccessful bank robbing +expedition to a Canadian town. I was feeling tired, out of sorts and +generally disgusted with myself. "If I ever get back to my home in New +York," I said to myself remorsefully, "I will surely settle down to an +honest life." + +But alas for all my good intentions! Just before I reached Springfield +I happened to recall that this was where an old school friend of mine +lived. She was a thoroughly respectable woman, the wife of a hard +working tradesman, and I determined to stop off and surprise her with a +visit. + +As luck would have it, I found her house locked, and one of her +neighbors told me that she was away visiting her mother in Worcester. +Knowing no one else in Springfield, there was nothing for me to do but +kill time for two or three hours until another train left for New York. + +I was strolling leisurely along one of the main streets as innocent as +one of my babies of any intention of wrongdoing, when I happened to +notice something wrong with my watch. The hands had evidently stuck +together, and it had stopped more than an hour before. Just across the +street I saw a large jewelry store. I walked over there to see about my +watch. It was the noon hour and the store was deserted except for an +old man whom I judged to be the proprietor, and, at his bench far in +the rear, a lone watchmaker. + +The proprietor was arranging some trays of diamonds in one of the +showcases when I approached him and stated my errand. He said my +watch could be fixed in two minutes, and started off with it to the +watchmaker's bench. His back was no sooner turned than I took in the +fact that he had neglected to close the sliding door of the showcase. +Inside there, within easy reach of my long arms, were two, three, a +dozen trays of costly diamond rings, brooches, and necklaces. + +Forgetting all my recent resolutions and regardless of the +consequences I reached my hand across the showcase and down inside. +It took a powerful stretch of my muscles to reach the nearest of the +trays. But at last my fingers closed securely over its edge, and, with +a skill born of long experience, I drew my arm back and the tray of +rings came with it. + +This was an operation that required a good deal of care, because in +my position the tray was not an easy thing to handle without letting +some of its precious contents fall clattering to the floor and give +the alarm. In less time than it takes to tell, however, and before the +proprietor had fairly reached the watchmaker's bench, I had the tray +safely concealed in my handbag. + +The proprietor returned with my watch. It was only a trivial matter to +adjust it, he said, and there would be no charge whatever. I thanked +him and hurried out, shaking inwardly for fear he would discover the +absence of the tray of rings before I could lose myself in the streets. + +After getting his plunder a thief's first thought is to get it out of +his possession. What he wants is a temporary hiding place--a place +where he can conceal it until whatever outcry the theft may have caused +has had time to die down and he can safely dispose of his booty to +one of the numerous "fences" who are to be found in every large city. +Whenever possible, the prudent thief selects a temporary hiding place +before he actually lays his hands on his plunder, and loses no time in +getting it out of his possession, so that, in case the police arrest +him soon after the robbery, they will find nothing incriminating. + +This crime of mine, however, was so entirely unpremeditated that I had +not the faintest idea what I was going to do with my tray of rings +when I walked out of the store. Down the street a few blocks I saw +the railroad station, and this suggested a plan. I would check my bag +there and hide the check in some place where I could easily recover it +whenever the coast was clear. + +This was a plan I had often followed with success, and it is a favorite +with thieves even to this day. I saw by the newspapers that the +misguided young man who robbed the New York jewelry firm of $100,000 +worth of gems the other day went straight to the Pennsylvania Railroad +Station and checked the suitcase containing the plunder which had +tempted him to his ruin. + +By this time all intention of reform had left my mind, and I thought +only of the ways I could use the money the diamonds would bring. The +hurried inspection I had been able to give them placed their value at +fully $3,000. + +I walked quickly, but with no outward signs of excitement to the +station, where I locked my handbag and exchanged it for a brass check. +Then I walked out of the station and seated myself on a bench in the +public square. It was the work of only a minute to dig a little cavity +in the gravel under one of the legs of the bench with the pointed heel +of my French boot. A big red-faced policeman was standing uncomfortably +near all the while, but soon he turned his back. I bent over quickly, +placed the check in the little hole I had dug, and quickly covered it +with earth. I continued sitting there for some minutes, making a mental +photograph of the spot so that I would be able to locate it again, even +if I had to wait months. + +As I rose and crossed the square to a department store I realized that +I had not acted a bit too quickly, for I overheard some men discussing +the daring robbery of the jewelry store. It had just been discovered, +so they said, and the police were already scouring the city for the +thieves. + +I made haste to purchase a satchel very similar in appearance to the +one containing the diamonds. In this I placed a few trinkets and such +things as a woman might naturally carry, and returned to the railroad +station. I checked this satchel just as I had the other, and walked +away--my mind somewhat at rest. + +Walking along the main street I encountered a detective who was +convoying a couple of men to the station. The face of one of the men +was familiar, and he recognized me before I could turn away. Using a +store window as a mirror I was able to see that all three had stopped +across the street and were looking at me. I lost no time in getting +away, and the detective, of course, had his hands full. But I knew my +chances of getting out of town were mighty slim, and it was no surprise +an hour later when two detectives confronted me at the station. + +"How do you do?" said one; "do you live here?" + +"I live in New Haven," I said, rapidly adding a fictitious name and +address. I explained my visit to town, but they were not satisfied and +to the police station I went. + +In searching me the detectives held up my satchel check and hurried off +gleefully to the depot, quite certain that they had found the missing +diamonds. + +They returned crestfallen, but the captain had an instinct that told +him I had those diamonds and he ordered me locked up over night. + +From a neighboring cell the two men arrested earlier in the day called +out: + +"Hello, Sophie, how did you get in?" + +I did not answer, and pretended not to know them. The police unlocked +my cell door and invited me to come out and meet my friends, hoping, of +course, to learn something. + +But I said in a loud voice that I never saw the men before, and that +they must have mistaken me. The two men were good enough to take the +hint at this point that I was in trouble, and soon after I heard one of +them saying that from a distance I looked like Sophie Lyons. + +In the morning the police captain reluctantly released me. But he sent +a detective to make sure I got out of town, and he gave me his parting +promise to run me in if I ever came within his reach. + +There was nothing for me to do but to take the train and hope to return +some day for the diamonds. I got off at New Haven and sat in the +railroad station pondering ways and means. + +My thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Lizzie Saunders, a +woman criminal of no mean ability. From the effusiveness of her welcome +I suspected that she was "broke" and wanted a loan, as, indeed, proved +to be the case. + +I hadn't much to spare, and was forced to listen to her schemes. She +told me that the town of Holyoke was a splendid place to pick up money, +as it was crowded with farmers attending a fair. + +I was tired and disgusted and wanted to return to New York. Yet I did +not want to go so far from the diamonds, and, foolishly, I listened and +was persuaded. + +Arrived at Holyoke we investigated the banks, but saw no chance of +snatching anything. We were both very much in need of raising some +funds right away, and something had to be done. + +A sure-enough farmer cashed a large check, counted the money five +times, laid it in a huge wallet, and tied the wallet together with a +piece of string. Then he placed it in the breast pocket of his coat +and marched out. Of course, we followed. Lizzie, who was known as "The +Woman in Black," because she never wore anything else, kept a lookout +while I operated. + +The old man was watching the street parade, hands in his trousers +pockets, chin stuck out, and whiskers projecting a foot in front of him. + +I reached my hand into his pocket, got a grip on the wallet, and was +about to give the quick snap of the wrist and jostle, which is part of +the pickpocket's technique, when I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. I +knew instinctively that it was a detective. Quickly thrusting the bulky +wallet back into the old man's pocket, I threw my arms around his neck +and kissed him. + +[Illustration: I FELT A HAND ON MY SHOULDER] + +"Oh, Uncle Dan!" I cried between the kisses, with which I fairly +smothered the astonished old man; "where in the world did you come +from?" + +The old man almost got apoplexy, for I kissed him and hugged him with +a vehemence that made everybody forget the parade. I can remember the +sea of whiskers I dived into. + +"Gosh all hemlock, who are you?" he gasped when I let him go. "I ain't +Dan, I'm Abijah." + +The detective really believed that I knew Abijah, but he remembered +Lizzie and took her away. I was about to escape when a redfaced woman +arrived and shouted: + +"You hussy, what do you mean by hugging my husband?" + +The detective hesitated and looked back, but he would have let me go if +Lizzy hadn't been fool enough to call out: + +"Sophie, find me a lawyer and get me out of this." + +That was enough even for the thick-headed police detective, and he took +us both away. The old man refused to testify against us. He was afraid +he would not be believed and the scandal would get back to his home +town. He was right; it would have. + +Arrived at the station, no talk or acting was of the slightest avail, +and the judge next day held us each in $500 bail. + +We raised that amount on jewelry, and, of course, "jumped" it and +arrived at Boston together. + +I was thoroughly disgusted with Lizzie, but she stuck to me like a +leech, in spite of a dozen tricks that would have rid me of a detective. + +At last I succeeded in getting away from her and happened to meet an +all-round knight of the underworld known as "Frisco Farley." Together +we worked the soda fountain trick, which was new then, and which I +will explain in a later article. + +In the course of the day we took in considerable profits, which had not +been divided or even counted when we foolishly stepped into a jewelry +store, merely to look at a new-fangled thief-proof showcase. + +The first thing I knew, Farley was gone and I was arrested. It seems +Farley had operated in that store a year ago, had been noticed and had +escaped just in time. I was arrested as his accomplice. + +On the way to the station what worried me most was the fact that I had +in my pocket a ticket to New York. In Boston, for some reason, a ticket +to New York is looked upon by the police as conclusive evidence of +guilt. + +I burst into tears and wailed and sobbed at the shame and humiliation +of my arrest. By concealing the ticket in my handkerchief I managed to +get it into my mouth as I wiped away my tears. Long before we reached +the station house I had chewed up the small piece of pasteboard and +swallowed it. + +The story I told had only one weak spot. There was $400 more in my +pocketbook than I thought, and this one discrepancy made them lock me +up. + +That night I was placed in a cell with an intoxicated woman. I was able +to send out and get a bottle of whiskey, but not for myself. About +midnight the woman woke up and was glad of a drink. I not only gave her +one, but many, until she was in a stupor and made no protest when I +changed clothes with her. + +In those days, in Boston, it was usually the custom to let intoxicated +persons sleep in a cell and then to put them out on the street in the +morning without bringing them to court. + +In the morning I pretended to be half sober and protested violently +against being thrown out in the cold. But they pushed me out onto the +sidewalk, much to my outward grief and inward joy. + +I borrowed the price of a ticket to New York, leaving my money in the +police station and my jewels at Springfield. Thus a week of hard, +nerve-wrecking work netted me absolutely not one cent, but in reality +the loss of my jewels, my time, and considerable money. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +GOOD DEEDS WHICH CRIMINALS DO AND WHICH SHOW THAT EVEN THE WORST THIEF +IS NEVER WHOLLY BAD + + +A life of crime is a life of hard work, great risk, and, comparatively +speaking, small pay. Anyone who has followed these articles will agree +at once that whatever the criminal gets out of his existence he pays +very dearly for. Not only is he constantly running great physical +dangers--the risk of being shot or otherwise injured and of being +caught and imprisoned--but many of his most carefully planned criminal +enterprises are doomed to failure and he has only his labor for his +pains. + +Quite frequently bank burglars devote as much as three or four months +of hard labor in preparing for an important robbery and, in a large +percentage of cases, they find that, after all their patience and +industry, it is impossible for them to execute the robbery they have so +carefully planned and all their work goes for nought. Sometimes, too, +they are interrupted in their work and have to flee, leaving behind +their kits of valuable tools. Watchmen's bullets are ever threatening +their lives and prison walls constantly loom up before them. + +In view of these facts one would imagine that the money which the +professional criminal makes at such great risk and expense and with so +much difficulty would have an enhanced value in his eyes. But this is +not so. Not only is the professional criminal an inveterate gambler, +as I have repeatedly pointed out, but the great majority of them are +generous to a fault. + +While this generosity is almost universal in the underworld, those +unfamiliar with the workings of the criminal heart would give it very +little credit for such impulses. + +My experience in the underworld has thoroughly convinced me that no +criminal is wholly bad. I know that beneath the rough exterior of many +of the desperate criminals with whom I came in contact beat hearts that +were tender. To-day I shall relate some of the more striking incidents +which come back to me and which illustrate some of the good qualities +possessed by the notorious criminals with whom I associated. + +I am reminded of an experience I had with Dan Nugent, the bank burglar. +I may say incidentally that this man Nugent was absolutely fearless +and would resort to any measure, however desperate, to accomplish his +purpose. He was a man to be feared and it was dangerous to cross him. +But that this criminal had some very excellent qualities will appear +from the following incident, now told for the first time. + +While in Kansas City I robbed a bank, securing some four thousand +dollars. As I was leaving the bank--it was in the day time--I saw +Nugent going in. Evidently he had planned to rob the bank himself. We +did not speak. + +Within a few minutes after my departure the robbery was discovered. +The doors were at once closed and no one was allowed to leave without +first undergoing the scrutiny of the detectives who had been summoned +by telephone. Poor Dan was caught in the trap and his identity being +established he was at once arrested on suspicion of having been +implicated in the robbery, if not the actual perpetrator of it, +although the only evidence against him was the fact of being on the +premises. + +Dan was kept in custody for some hours, but at length the police were +compelled to let him go, being unable to strengthen their case against +him. + +Later that day I happened to run into him. + +"Sophie," he said threateningly, "you owe me two thousand dollars!" + +"How do you make that out?" I asked quite innocently, not knowing +to what he was referring. I didn't know then that the robbery I had +committed had been discovered and that Nugent had been arrested for it. + +"You got four thousand dollars in the bank this morning," he replied +bitterly, "and I got arrested for it." + +He seemed to be in a very ugly frame of mind and I knew he was not a +man to be trifled with. I asked him to step into a café and talk it +over. We entered the back room of a nearby saloon and Nugent ordered +some drinks. + +There were various persons seated at other tables in the place, but we +attracted no particular attention. After the waiter had served us and +left the room, Nugent took off his hat, held it across the table as +though he were handing it to me, and beneath the shelter it afforded +pointed a gun at me. + +[Illustration: "SOPHIE, IF YOU DON'T HAND ME $2,000, I'LL BLOW YOUR +HEAD OFF"] + +"Sophie, if you don't divide up on that job, I will blow your head +off!" he threatened in a low voice. + +I admit I was frightened, but I did not lose my head. Instead I began +to cry copiously. + +"Dan," I sobbed, "I declare by all I hold holy I didn't get any money +in the bank this morning. I've just gotten out of jail and I'm dead +broke. My poor children need lots of things I can't buy them. I wish +I had got that money at the bank this morning, but I didn't. It must +have been some one else who made a safe get-away, and I think it's +pretty mean of you to treat me this way," and I began to cry more +strenuously than ever. + +Dan looked at me a moment searchingly and then, deciding that my grief +was genuine, put up his gun. + +"Don't cry, Sophie. I thought you got the money, and I wanted my bit, +that's all. I'm sorry to have scared you. Forget it, old girl, and +cheer up." + +Nugent then asked me what the kids at home needed, and I told him +everything I could think of. He took me by the arm and marched me +into a dry goods store and made a number of purchases of the things +he thought the children would want, and gave them to me, along with a +little money for myself. We then parted, Nugent wishing me all kinds of +luck and firmly believing in my fairy tale. + +I really ought to have shared the money with Nugent because I had +stolen a march on him in robbing the bank before he got a chance, and +he got into trouble through me. But I knew he had made a big haul in a +bank a month previous, and I was practically without funds, so he could +more easily afford the loss of the two thousand than I could. But, like +most criminals, Nugent had a kind heart, and, when his finer nature was +appealed to, he could not help being noble and generous. + +As another illustration of the kindness of heart of some criminals, let +me tell of a letter I received from a world-renowned criminal, whose +name I will not now disclose. This unfortunate man is now serving a +term in a foreign prison for a daring bank robbery in which he was +caught through his anxiety to help a pal--although if he had thought +only of himself he would have been free. I will quote from his letter +to me and you will see the kindness that dwells in his big heart: + + + "MY DEAR PAL:--Now, I want you to do me a little favor. + Don't send me any money or presents at Christmas, but take the + money that you would use on me, and go out and buy some turkeys + and give them to some of the poor people who live around your + place. It will make them feel good, and it will be a better way to + use the money than to waste it by sending it over to me." + + +A man who can write such a thoughtful letter as the above and can +sympathize with others in distress is not entirely a bad man, even +though he is a convicted criminal. It is sad, indeed, to think that +such a large hearted man should have to spend most of his days behind +prison bars instead of being at some kind of labor where he could be +of service to mankind and do all the decent things which his kindly +thoughts of others would prompt him to do. + +Not because I want to convey the impression that I am better than any +of the other criminals whose exploits I am narrating, but, on the +contrary, because the incident I am about to relate is typical of what +notorious criminals are doing every day, I am going to tell of another +experience in which I figured. + +It was when I was in New York. One day, while loitering in a bank +in the vicinity of Broadway and Chambers street, I observed a woman +draw some money. She put it in a handkerchief and then placed the +handkerchief in her pocket. I was in need of money pretty badly just +then and decided to follow the woman and get the money. + +After she came out of the bank I got close to her and had no trouble in +taking out the handkerchief and the money. She was walking down toward +the river front and, having started in that direction, too, I had to +continue for a block or so in order not to excite suspicion by turning +back. I walked a little behind the woman, and, when we reached the +middle of the block, she stopped and spoke to me: + +"I beg your pardon, madame, but can you tell me where the French line +steamboats dock?" + +I directed her to the proper place and we got into conversation. She +told me that she was going home to her mother in France in order to +die there. She had been given up by the doctors here as an incurable +consumptive and had sold all her goods for a few hundred dollars with +which she was to pay her fare and give the rest to her mother. I became +interested in this, for it seemed to me that I had robbed a woman in +distress of her last dollar, and that was something I did not like to +do. + +I asked her if she had money besides the amount she drew out of the +bank (she had told me of taking the money from the bank), and she +said that was all she had in the world. I could not think of keeping +her money after that, because, when the poor woman reached the ticket +office and found her money gone and her trip abroad impossible, she +would probably have died of the shock. So I determined to put the money +back in the poor French woman's pocket. I walked along with her to the +ticket office and, while she was talking to the agent, I slipped the +money back in her pocket. She bought her ticket and went aboard the +boat and I felt pleased that I had not kept the money. + +That evening I told some of my criminal friends of the transaction, and +several of them seemed disgusted with me because I had not put in some +money of my own along with the small mite the woman had so that she +would be cheered up a bit. They thought it mean of me not to do more +than I did to help along a woman so unfortunate as this sick woman. + +On several other occasions I voluntarily returned stolen money to +people when I found out that they were more in need of it than myself. +I stole a satchel from a woman in a bank once and it contained a few +hundred dollars. The next day I discovered in the paper that the woman +was blind and I was referred to as the meanest kind of a thief. When I +learned this I hastened to return the money to the unfortunate woman. +I never could sleep easy if I thought that any really deserving person +suffered from my thieving. I tried to confine my work to people who +could afford to lose their money and would soon forget the affair. A +very poor person who loses the savings of a lifetime never gets over +the shock of his or her loss and it causes real suffering. It didn't +worry me any to make people feel resentful and indignant, but I could +not bear the thought of making anybody unhappy. + +I was in Paris many years ago and stopping at one of the most +fashionable hotels in the city. Mrs. Lorillard, the society woman, was +occupying rooms adjoining mine, and I was trying to get her jewelry. +She always carried a great amount of jewelry with her, and I knew the +prize was a good one. She had two maids with her, one of whom had to +keep watch over two satchels in which the jewelry was secreted. + +The maids were honest girls and we could not do any business through +them, but we followed the party from place to place expecting that +some time the girl would forget to take proper care of her satchels, +and then our opportunity to steal them would arrive. A few days after +Mrs. Lorillard had settled at this hotel she attended some reception in +Paris and, of course, her jewelry bags had to be taken from the hotel +safe, where they had been placed for safety. + +Mrs. Lorillard picked out the particular pieces of jewelry she wanted +to wear at the reception, and closed up the two bags, turning them over +to the maid to place in the safe. The maid came out of the apartment +with the two bags, and I met her in the hall and began to ask her +some trivial question. She stopped to talk with me and laid down the +bags. While I kept her engaged in conversation a comrade of mine +crept up, substituted another bag for one of the jewelry receptacles +and skipped off. I continued to talk a little longer and then the girl +and I parted, she going downstairs to the safe with the two bags, not +suspecting that I had deliberately held her in conversation while my +friend had taken one of the precious bags. + +My associate went to another hotel and concealed the jewelry, while I +stayed there in my room, not wishing to attract attention by leaving at +such a critical time, for, after the robbery was discovered, if it had +been found that I had left at the same time it would have been natural +for suspicion to be directed at me. + +The following day, when the bags were sent for in order for Mrs. +Lorillard to put back the jewels she had worn at the reception, it was +found that one of the bags was missing and there was great excitement. +Detectives by the score were sent for and the whole hotel was searched +top and bottom for a clew. + +That evening, after I had retired, I heard a woman sobbing in the +adjoining room, and, as the sobs continued for some time, I knocked +and asked if I could be of assistance to her. She opened the door and +invited me into her room. It was Mrs. Lorillard. She told me of the +robbery and said that it was not the jewelry she worried about but the +loss of a picture of her dead child which was very dear to her. She +thought more of the picture than the jewels and her grief over its +disappearance was pathetic. I consoled her as best I could, and told +her I had had some experience as a detective and thought I could secure +the return of the picture without any trouble, especially as it was +not valuable to the thieves. The following day I took back the picture +to the woman and she was overjoyed at its return. After remaining in +the hotel long enough not to excite suspicion by my departure, I left +to meet my pals and divide the proceeds of the job. The jewels we had +taken were the best in the Lorillard collection, and each one of the +party made a good profit on the transaction. A number of years after +this event Mrs. Lorillard committed suicide, which was induced by a +spell of melancholy, brought on probably by thoughts of her dead boy, +whom she dearly loved. + +I have already mentioned how Langdon W. Moore, the notorious bank +burglar, whose activities in New England made him more feared +throughout that section than any other criminal who ever operated, once +frustrated an attempt to rob a bank at Francetown, New Hampshire, after +having consented to participate in it, because the bank was located +near his own birthplace and he did not feel like robbing his parents' +old neighbors. + +This man Langdon, like many other criminals of the same caliber, made +it a rule of his life never to use violence. Frequently he abandoned a +contemplated criminal enterprise upon which he had spent months of hard +work because he found that he could not carry out his original plan +without injuring a watchman or other person. + +Of course, when hard pressed it was sometimes necessary for Langdon to +fight his way to liberty, in such cases he always made reparation to +the injured man as far as lay in his power. On one occasion, when he +had fractured the skull of an officer who had sought to capture him, he +caused $2,500 in cash to be sent to the injured man. + +Other criminals frequently exhibit similar noble qualities. + +Loyalty to his comrades is another trait found in almost every +professional criminal. "Honor among thieves" is a phrase commonly used, +but few realize upon what a strong foundation it rests. I know of +innumerable instances where criminals risked their own liberty and even +their lives in order to assist a comrade in danger. + +Mark Shinburn, the noted bank burglar, once displayed bravery +and loyalty of a character which is seldom excelled even on the +battlefield. He had participated with Eddie Quinn and a third bank +burglar in the robbery of a Western bank. Just as the three were +leaving the bank the watchman appeared upon the scene. There was +nothing to do but run. The watchman opened fire. Quinn dropped. Without +a moment's hesitation Shinburn stopped in his flight, although the +watchman was close upon them, and, lifting his fallen comrade to his +broad shoulders, continued his flight at reduced speed. + +Shinburn was a very powerful fellow and even with his wounded comrade +on his shoulders he was able to outrun the watchman. He soon caught up +with the third man of the party and they made for the woods. When they +lowered Quinn to the ground they found that he was dying. The burglar +had only a few minutes to live. Quinn was conscious and begged his +comrades to get a priest to administer the last rites, realizing that +his end was near. + +The two men with him knew it was impossible to get a priest, but they +wanted to make the last moments of Quinn's life as happy as possible. +To leave the woods at this time, however, was to invite capture, +for the watchman had undoubtedly aroused the neighborhood and the +woods would naturally be the first place searched for the fugitives. +Nevertheless Shinburn decided to take a chance and left the dying +man to comply with his last wish. He knew that it would be almost +impossible to get a priest, but he broke into a furnishing store on the +outskirts of the woods and went back to his dying comrade wearing a +costume very much like that of a priest. + +The approaching hand of death had dimmed the dying burglar's sight and +he had no suspicion that the "priest" was his big-hearted comrade. In +a slow, solemn tone Shinburn spoke words of encouragement to his dying +friend, and the unfortunate man passed away, comforted by what he +thought were the sacred words of a priest. + +But instances of noble deeds among criminals whose souls are generally +believed to be wholly black might be narrated without end. These men +and women who declare war against society only to find that CRIME DOES +NOT PAY are not without their redeeming qualities. + +Their evil deeds are published far and wide, but the good that they do +seldom comes to light. + +SOPHIE LYONS. + + + + +AN INTERVIEW WITH SOPHIE LYONS + +FORMER QUEEN OF CRIMINALS, WHO ANNOUNCES THAT SHE WILL DEVOTE THE REST +OF HER LIFE AND HER FORTUNE OF $500,000 TO SAVING FIRST OFFENDERS. + + +Sophie Lyons has turned reformer. + +With the mellowing influence of years, she is now 66, the erstwhile +queen of women criminals has decided that crime does not pay and +intends to devote her fortune and remaining days to saving others from +paths that have been hers. + +Her new resolution, she says, probably will alienate her husband, +"Billy" Burke, who recently completed a prison term in Stockholm, +Sweden. "I want to accomplish his reformation more than I do any +other person's, no matter what the cost," she declared. "He is weak +and easily tempted, and his criminal operations were not induced by +necessity, as were mine. If my plans will help to make him a good man I +shall feel they are not in vain." + +In her modest little home Mrs. Lyons-Burke, who for 40 years was known +intimately to the police of two continents and whose acquaintance +with the interior of jails and prisons is world-wide, outlined to a +representative her plans for the redemption of criminals. + +"I haven't a great many years to live and I am worth half a million +dollars," Mrs. Burke said. "I want to make amends as far as possible +for what I have done in the past. I have lived a straight life for 25 +years, and have accumulated much property by legitimate means. But +there is something I crave more than money. Do you know what that is? +It is the respect of good people. Maybe I can get some of this by +showing that I am not all bad and that I am sincere in my effort to +help others." + +Great tears coursed down Mrs. Burke's face as she told of recent +efforts to obtain the good-will and friendship of persons whose +respectability is unquestioned. One of these is a pastor of a Detroit +church, who, she said, had urged her to talk to his congregation on +the futility of a life of crime. She declined, feeling that she had no +right to intrude herself among church people. + +In her scheme for the saving of criminals, Mrs. Burke said that she +intends to pay particular attention to first offenders and will +exert every effort to prevail upon them to return to a life of +respectability. "You know how hard it is for a man or woman to secure +permanent work after leaving prison? I am going to help some of these. +They will find a friend in Sophie Lyons." + +Mrs. Burke said that she was considering an offer from a vaudeville +booking concern to give 20-minute talks from the stage. "Do you think +this would be a good idea?" she inquired eagerly. "I have had the same +proposition from a lyceum lecture bureau, but I believe I can better +reach those I want to reach in the theaters. If I decide to go on the +stage every cent of the money I get will go to carry out my plans for +reformation and to charity." + +That she has an ambition to accomplish much good and to die poor, was +Mrs. Burke's declaration. "My children are grown and self-supporting, +and all my money and real estate will go to save criminals and to +other charities," she said. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty +to Children was mentioned by Mrs. Burke as being one of her favorite +charities. "I am doing something for this organization right along," +she said, "and I expect to leave it a substantial bequest." + + + + +SOPHIE LYONS AIDS EVICTED FAMILY + +REFORMED CONFIDENCE WOMAN TAKES IN WHEELERS, WHO LIVED IN TENT + +VERSES IN JEWISH BIBLE INFLUENCE HER TO ACTION--WANTS TO SHOW CHARITY + + +Mrs. Sophie Lyons-Burke was reading a Jewish prayer book in her home +at 42 Twenty-third Street yesterday afternoon. She had just completed +the following, which is a prayer for joyful occasions, when she had a +visitor: + + + "Thou, O God, hast always been gracious unto me and hast often + sent me joys even when I least deserved them. For all this + abundance of Thy goodness I humbly thank Thee, and for the new + happiness that comes to me (and my household) my soul is filled + with gratitude. Let me not grow overbearing in prosperity nor + arrogant because of my success, but let me enjoy Thy blessings + with becoming gratitude and humility. Nor let me ever forget that + the most acceptable thank-offering is to bring light and joy to + those that sit in darkness and affliction, and give heed to the + hungry and comfort the broken-hearted. May I, by doing what is + pleasing to Thee, continue to find grace and favor in Thy sight." + + +Everybody knows Sophie Lyons. They know about her past and about her +present husband, who got into a Swedish prison through a little affair +over diamonds, causing Sophie to cross the sea to cheer him up. They +know of her utterance that a husband should be allowed an affinity +now and then to add to the zest of his life, but in this instance +she appears in a different light. Long ago she "squared it" with the +police. Now she is evidently trying to "square it" with a higher +authority. And this connects the prayer with the visitor. + +The man who rapped on her door was A. H. Jones, inspector for the city +poor commission. He was weary and almost discouraged, having been out +since early morning looking for a home for the Wheelers. The Wheelers, +husband, wife and six children, had been evicted from their residence +at 92 Calahan Street Monday, the owner desiring to sell and not to rent +the place. From then on they lived in a tent-like structure in a vacant +lot alongside the house they had inhabited. + +"You own a cottage at 51 Twenty-third Street?" asked Mr. Jones. + +"Yes," was the reply; "but it is rented, I guess. Anyway, a man has +agreed to take it." + +Then followed the recital of the troubles of the Wheelers, the attempts +of the city agent to find shelter, the offer of $10 a month for the +barn and the failure because of the children. + +Mrs. Burke thought for a moment. Then she smiled: + +"See here what I was reading," she said. "'The most acceptable +thank-offering is to bring light and joy to that sit in darkness.' You +may put that family in that house. It has been remodeled, and is just +about new. It has seven rooms and a bathroom, and will be all right, I +guess. I will tell you why I am doing this. + +"If I have all the world and have not charity I can never enter the +gates of heaven." + +The Wheelers moved to-day. Their furniture was all arranged about the +tent, so there was no taking up of carpets or anything like that, +loading into a van being all that was necessary. If it rains to-night, +the man, incapacitated from work, won't lie awake and shiver and wonder +how long it will take the downpour to soak through his shelter. He and +his will be safe beneath a roof, a roof belonging to Sophie Lyons-Burke. + + + + +SOPHIE LYONS RETURNS + +"CONFIDENCE QUEEN" ENDS HER TWENTIETH TOUR OF THE WORLD + + +Sophie Lyons, once called the "cleverest crook in the world" and the +Confidence Queen, arrived recently in the first cabin of the French +liner _La Lorraine_, attired in the latest Parisian style of dress for +an elderly woman, several trunks and a jewel case that the customs +men made her open, unwilling to take her word that there was nothing +dutiable in it. + +Sophie is worth a half million, she says, and she has been for the last +several years living "on the level" and looking over the world from the +viewpoint of one who has or believes she has a taste for literature. +Her trip on _Lorraine_ was the end, she said, of her twentieth tour of +the world. + +The customs men who insisted on the opening of the jewel case, made +fast by a padlock, were surprised to find nothing in it except a Jewish +prayer book. One of the prayers that Sophie had marked ran thus: + +"Thou, O Lord, hast always been gracious to me, and hast often sent +me joys when I did least deserve them. For all this abundance of Thy +goodness I humbly thank thee." + +Sophie said she was a Jewess, despite her name, which is supplemented +legitimately by Burke, Christian name Billy, who is in a Swedish +prison. Sophie admitted yesterday that she was 65, but the records give +her a few more years. She looks younger. She said she had spent the +last seven months in leisurely circling the globe, and that she was +engaged in writing another book to be called "Crime Queen," which would +be in a measure autobiographical. + +Sophie is the daughter of a Holland Jew named Van Elkan, she says, and +her grandfather was a rabbi. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59621 *** |