Show ROBBERS OF THE RHINE the robbers of the rhine flourished for quite half a century but their most remarkable work was done between 1780 and 1803 so successfully did they defy detection that the superstitious peasants of brabant holland and the banks of the rhine had long been of opinion that the robbers were not creatures of flesh and blood at all the stories told of these adventurous outlaws rival in point of romantic interest the recital of the exploits of robin hood and little john the court annals show that of robbers finally captured and condemned condemn el were jews and these latter displayed all the worst characteristics of a section of their race their cupidity and meanness being exceptional A jewish family living at Gro greningen groningen in friesland esland is stated to have sent out robber sons and grandsons literally by the score and some of the vilest acts of the criminal crew were traced to descendants of old jacobah Ja cobas the head of the family was called aromi nent mong their achievements was the murder of a woman and the mutilation of an infant which cried out in terror and it was the cry of popular lar indigena indignation t ion w which aich followed cese these outrages that led to the breaking up of the gang the family or tribe as it might almost be called possessed an amount of energy and skill that should have made its members wealthy without the aid of dis honesty old jacob was a skillful counterfeiter and many thousand livres were thus made by him in his humble home the women folks were comely and shrewd and their especial duty was to pass off the old L mans money in groups of two or three they would go on en trips to distant cities where they would make par purchases chases pass off the counterfeits and get good money as change the male members of the family managed M ed to get it plenty of money and jewels ewels tn in fact the whole might have lived in affluence and only ait robbed at intervals had they so desired ed it but they were professionals in every sense of the word and outrage and robbery were to them at once an occupation and a recreation U jan bos bosdech bech was a leading spirit in the gang and one of his hie special achievements was the murder of two unprotected ladies in a mansion near ghent jan and four relatives faced the two women and demanded money and jewels no resistance was offered but one of the victims trembled so that she could not remove her finger and ear rings as rapidly as he desired jan knocked her down and cutting off her fluge fingers ps and ears soon had the jewels to quiet her cries he mur derel derei her and then killed her companion for very wantonness one branch of the robbers made its headquarters at on the right bank of the river maas the outlaws lived among the citizens whose whom silence they bought partly by threats and partly by confining their depredations to strangers was a typical city of refuge V as it was right at the junction of iv six ix front frontiers lerv over any one of which T K 7 escape on the first alarm was easy quite an army of jewish peddlers visited the village at regular intervals and bought all the stolen property without asking any inconvenient questions at first the contingent avoided deeds of violence and made a specialty of sneak thieving and burglary houses were entered quietly valuables removed and no evidence left upon which a clue could be based long prior to 1780 these crimes were committed house after house was burglarized and valuables were seized but so smart were the thieves that they were never caught red handed and it began to be noised abroad that they were emissaries of satan and only partly human missing property could often eften be found at but no one could say how it got there and this fact served as a fresh proof of the handiwork of satan the heated mind soon formed a fable of witchcraft and the belief became general that the half human robbers took a fearful oath of compact over a bleeding corpse satan was paid to preside in in person over all meetings and to both plan the robberies and assist in their execution the fable further asserted that each member of the robber band had a black shaggy goat of great size on which he rode through the air in order to fetch his plunder from long 0 g distances and the goat was so heavily loaded at times that its heavy breathing could be heard half a league away justice was slow in those days and even when an arrest was made it was difficult to procure evidence so completely were the people convinced of the robbers connection with demons of vengeance but at last the situation became unendurable and the goat riders as the legend about the goats caused them to be called were mercilessly pursued their dwellings destroyed and scores of innocent as well as many guilty men tortured and execl executed ted in a barbarous manner but enough escaped to keep the band together er and at the commencement of the century was once more the headquarters of a band of robbers some robbed others spied out the nakedness or the richness of the land and others disposed of the spoils trade was good and many of the men built houses and accumulated small fortunes the brothers besbeck carried on a series of bold and reckless robberies in the rhine valley and ignored the traditions of the band houses were attacked openly th the e inmates overpowered and murdered if they resisted at the trials of captured robbers many extraordinary stories were told one of these related to a family named the band of robbers undermined der mined the yard wall carrying with them the wooden cross they had stolen from the village church with this they beat open one of the house doors and took possession was seized and tortured and his wife was treated in the same manner both protested there was no money in the house but the robbers kept up their tortures until the woman died and the man became insensible they stripped the house of everything eat cht all the food and drank all the wine they could find and then went off unmolested rumors reached the Bos becks that a money changer in culpen had a considerable sum of money deposited with him for safekeeping safe keeping that night they marched down the street of the rather populous town and shot down the money changers door the very successor success of this exploit nearly led to its failure for the money was in nine or ten sacks each so bulky and heavy that no one man could carry it the leader of the well disciplined gang was however equal to the emergency for he ordered the coins to be emptied into smaller bogs bags this was done and the robbers got away just as a crowd attracted by the noise was collecting they halted in a field near the town lit torches and commenced sharing the plunder the division was effected by filling hats with money the outcry caused by this remarkable robbery led to many arrests but no money was recovered the band had bad its headquarters at krefeld and worked prussian westphalia aJa as far as N envied New vied for ov over e r sj six x years this band had for its leader mathias weber or fetzer as he was generally called this man died under the guillotine at 25 but his youth did not impair his bis ability as a robber chief he was only of middle height and was very puny and weak disadvantages which he overcame by presence of mind and courage in early life he was a page but subsequently ran off enlisted in 1 holland and deserted while on the road he met one of the rhine robbers whose nickname nick name was the knife grinder this man told felzer how jolly a life the robbers lived and persuaded him to join 4 them for a while the two robbed 1 in concert but fetzer wanted a 1 change ran away to holland and 1 enlisted in the artillery fetzer and two messmates mess mates robbed a mail while with the regiment they followed the vehicle along the road and abstracted str acted the sacks without the driver knowing anything about it fetzer was not yet a skilled thief and after each had got dukats ducats for his share of the plunder it became necessary to dispose of the jewels found foulad with the mail and they were burnt suspicion rested on the criminals and a sergeants silence had to be bought at his own price fetzer deserted again and wen went to Nym wegen where he was arrested as a spy and put in jail he worked out a neat plan or of escape the iron grating over the door was broken and he crawled to the outer door seizing a favorable moment he got into the corridor and was walking along when he was met by a turnkey all seemed lost but fetzer summed up his courage and nodded good to the official the mans bearing saved him the turnkey imagining him to be a new official fetzer and a man named heckman led an attack on the house of the lutheran minister at mulheim on the rione A boat was procured for the safe removal of the plunder 1 and the robbers were ready all the village watchmen were seized and bound and then a small battering ram was brought to bear on the parsons pare ons door but there had bad been plundering I 1 soldiers in the town and t the hu e door had been so strengthened against them that it resisted the robbers best efforts the parson whose name was pith an believed in watching as well as praying and took in the situation at a glance he loaded his musket and fired repeatedly into the crowd until at last a panel in the door gave way and the robbers were inside the clergyman and his wife now esca escaped by the back door but were followed follone and seized and tortured the noise attracted attention and a detachment of cavalry swam the river and headed off the robbers as they were escaping with their plunder but the men were too much for the cavalry the they y seized a barge overpowered the crew and escaped in safety soon after and another man invaded the cell of a man who was a hermit and was supposed to be a miser as well those on guard were caught and bound and the cell was pillaged very little money was found faund but there was no lack of provisions A terrible storm coming up the robbers eat drank and were merry till morning when they hey went home well pa pleased with the adventure but disappointed di anted with the plunder for t this Is fetzer etzer was arrested but he succeeded suc sue deeded again in effecting his escape which he did without great trouble A wealthy jews house at was next pillaged many sacks of money mone v were found including one so heavy that fetzer could scarcely carry it they retired into a field to share up when the contents J of the heavy sack proved to be colossal sous coined by republican france out of brass gun metal again this successful jail breaker was arrested but once more he escaped and was able to lead his gang to a daring attack in 1798 he learned that a rich banker of nen weld in the fear of the french coming had sent all his money to his hie father in laws house at daden and hither the band proceeded this time the robbers of the rhine were summoned from all points by a special c messenger and an organized a tempt attempt made three hundred cartridges were obtained and parcelled par celled out among the thieves who at a given moment attacked the house admission was easily obtained but to their chagrin the robbers found they had been deceived the house was empty but they were in for spoil and plunder and meant to have both they attacked the tax collectors office opposite but were then surrounded by vill villagers 9 ers 4 they retreated to the woods etere where S they fought against great numbers of people and soldiers most of the gang sang were arrested but ferzers Fet luck ick helped him and he escaped the mail coach from cologne to elberfeld X was next robbed at langenfeld 7 the iron gates of the inn where the coach had bad been put up were broken in and the coach plundered blundered lun dered the proceeds of this robbery cy exceeding francs from this on burglaries were committed almost every night with petty pilfering during the day on one occasion fetzer accidentally stole a baby A woman was carrying a basket and the robber took it from her she was too frightened to speak but the infants cries soon undeceived the robber who dropped the basket and departed for parts unknown three times in three months the intrepid robber chief was arrested but he escaped each time without difficulty in fact his skill as a jail breaker was something quite extra ordinary then he had trouble at home and committed the only crime for which he was ever known to express remorse he had a rather bad tempered wife and one son coming home one day smarting under the defeat of a great plunder project he found his wife thrashing the child in a rage he killed her from this on he became more reckless than ever and expressed a termination to steal enough to Js ove ve the child an education at the ersuline convent although he had stolen thousands he differed so much from his hebrew assistants that he had saved scarcely a cent and lived in comparative poverty except just after a raid in a strange town he was arrested on suspicion of being another man and placed in a lockup lock up he planned escape for the other prisoners but declined to go himself so satisfied was he of his ability to prove an alibi this dare deviltry cost him his life for a few days later he was recognized as the celebrated robber chief convicted of over a hundred burglaries and sentenced to be executed he bore up bravely to the last and made some bold bids for liberty for the last time in his life he managed to break jail and would have escaped had bad not his shoes failed him while on the run at last the fatal morning came he expressed an intense yearning for a few hours liberty so as to be able to commit at least one more gigantic robbery the priest rebuked fetzer who replied that he was thinking only of his child who must now go to the dogs on the scaffold he objected to having his eyes blindfolded but otherwise faced death with a cool courage which was noble after his death the robbers of the rhine ceased to exist those that escaped capture left the valley of the rhine and were heard of no more st louis blouio globe democrat |