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Show Crafty but Not Smart THS perfect crime has never been planned or carried out. The evildoer always overlooks soma vital point and leaves behind him some bit of evidence that puts "the law" on his trail. Given time, police agencies eventually catch up . with him. It is because the criminal mind is below par. It can't think things through. It is a weak mind and its possessor msy be crafty, but not smart. A fugitive lacks the brain power to maintain a pose of innocence and one time or another he betrays himself. Over the week-end the community has had evidence of some of these odd quirks in action. If tha police reports reflect the facts, an ex-convict, ex-convict, who had his apprenticeship in a Washington Wash-ington reformatory before a bank robbery put him in tha state prison here, walked into a crowded store and at gunpoint robbed a cash register guarded by a mere slip of a girl, then disappeared into the crowds on the street. The girl was smart, was able to give a good description descrip-tion of the miscreant to the police, including information that he had one "good" eye and one that she called "goofy." A smart detective with a good memory recalled re-called an ex-convict with a goofy eye, remembered remem-bered that it resulted from an attempted escape from the prison in which he was stopped by a guard's shot that ruined one eye and necessitated substitution of one of glass. The detective had yen him around town, knew where he lodged, soon found him on a downtown street and took him to the station house. Locked up with two eyes In their sockets, he had only one when he appeared for the showup. Identification by his ictim was not complete until the police bought him another. Then she said, "That's the man." Crafty, but not amart, if he had had the necessary neces-sary sense ha would have been able to think through to the end of his stupid ruse. Once before he was as stupid. Robbing a bank with two companions In January. 1929, tha three were caught the next morning. He was sent up for "not less than five years" three weeks later. In prison less than 18 months, he attempted to escape. That's the time he lost an eye. Despite tha attempted escape, his "not less thsn five years" sentence was terminated July i. 1933 less than four and one-half years served. The clemency granted by a soft-hearted and sentimental board of pardons may be the reason why he trekked back here, feeling that he was coming back to a place that is soft for evil-doers, . was soft for him. probably would be again. His ease will be a good one for the new board to remember. The quick apprehension of this evil-doer earns credit for the police detectives walking about town with their minds on their work. |