OCR Text |
Show TP AT? AT T FT THE CRIMINAL Tells STILlILlJ&lu. 1 Hqw He pianned STORIES Deed and Sought to Close I a Ty-. Every Avenue of Knowl- 1 gf FAMOUS edge Leading to His Guilt, ft Tra V ff C The Detective Shws How I C K I M L 5 Futile These Efforts Were and I How the Old Adage, Murder I By HENRY C. TERRY Will Out, "Always Holds Good." (Copyright by P. L. Nelson THRILLING ADVENTURES OF TWO "SECOND-STORY MEN." jf-MONG the changes that jf may be noted In the meth-jfjt meth-jfjt ods of thievery in America ( none is more marked than y" passing of the "second-story "second-story man." He earned his title from the fact that his work always was done above the ground. While second story robberies still, and always will, occur, the great school of the past, of which "Big Frank" McCoy, Pete McCracken and "Kid" Kelly were leaders, is a thing of the past. The boldness with which "second-story "second-story men" operate makes it appear to the unprofessional mind that an unusual amount of risk is involved. As a matter of fact, the risk is not so great as in any number of other styles of robbery. In New York city there have been fewer convictions for second-story robberies than almost an" other, due in part to the difficulty of detection. r "Big Frank" McCoy went undetected undetect-ed until he pulled a coping stone loose while scaling the front porch of a house in Brooklyn and was crushed to death. Second story thievery languished lan-guished for a time after his death, and then the bright lights came out of the west and stirred things up in the big city until the police were at their wits' end. It is the story of one of them, Pete McCracken, the only real first class chief that Ohio, the maker of presidents, ever produced, that I started out to tell. f persons, no doubt, if it were necessary, neces-sary, to prove an alibi. "Success came bo easily our way that it made us bold, and we were led into temptation on a very extensive scale. I was a close student of the papers, and for several days I saw notices of the preparations Jhat were being made for the great Rogers wedding wed-ding in Thirty-fourth street. 'The Kid' and I went up to take a look at the house and see if it offered any inducements for us to make a try for it. A better place could not have been made for us. There was a vacant va-cant building in the rear of the house facing Thirty-third street. We found that an entrance could De forced in it easily. "It was merely taking a chance, fof there was no telling where the presents, pres-ents, which would certainly be given to '.he bride, would be kept. If they wt ;e taken upstairs, they would be our mutton; if not, we would have a little trouble for nothing. "On the night of the wedding reception re-ception we got into the vacant house. We could see from our watching place that the presents were on tables in the second-story. We keptuiet until un-til the party went downstairs to the wedding supper. Then it was time for us to begin our little act. It was a matter of shinning over a fence to get into the Rogers' back yard. While the barW was playing softly, 'The Kid' went up the back piazza like a cat. It was too high to jump out of the window in case of discovery, so 'The Kid' dropped a rope ladder from the second story to the ground in a place where it was hidden from view from the lower windows. "My instructions to 'The Kid' were to load up his pockets with everything that could be easily carried. Then, if he had time, to toss several of the more valuable bulky articles iut of the window to me while tho bajd was playing, to hide any sound that might come from a fall. " 'The Kid' kept at work until he heard footsteps on the stair, and then slid down the ladder. After; waiting a second to see If any alarmwould be given, we removed the bags to the vacant house. We then watched our chance, and got the stuff into a cab which was waiting on the corner for us. It was the slickest piece of work ever done in New York. The next day a how.l went up from the people for protection which must have given tho police a chill. 1 "We were satisfied to call quits, for we had picked' up stuff wrth over ?100,000, and it was all the kind which could be safely handled ia disposing bf it." I second-story thieves of any Importance Impor-tance had been doing business In thla city for-12 or 15 years.. I. hunted high and low, In all the dives, gambling gam-bling houses, sporting resorts and disorderly houses of all kinds, to get a trace or an Inkling from some of the old-time thieves as to who might be doing the trick here. "It was tjvident that local thieves capable oi doing this high class of work wera till In jail. It was, therefore, my opinion that the crimes were being be-ing cowmltted by thieves from other places. Reports were received from the chjjats of police of all the large cities cit-ies la the east and west, and Canada, as te t'he absence of first-class thieves fronj their bailiwicks, or as to the recent re-cent discharge from state prison of first-class thieves. "Many descriptions of thieves were sent to us, with names and pedlgreesi While we had plenty of work to do in looking for these outsiders, as it turned out afterward, no one had, given us a tip as to the right man. I was having a pretty sorry time, I tell you, looking up one or two new rob' berles every day. The only consols tion was that other detectives wera In the same boat. The attack upon the house of Colo nel Rogers was a staggerer. At tha time the robbery must have been committed, com-mitted, between 200 and 300 guests were in the liouse. Among thesa were Several well-known military men and others, who would have only been too glad to enliven the festivi' ties . with a little diversion with thieves. Yet the thieves had the nerve to enter, and they got away without a soul seeing them. "The entrance to the house was made from the rear, over a piazza which extended up to about five feet of the second-story window. It was my belief that the thieves had gotten got-ten to the yard from a vacant house in the rear on the next street Thera was, however, nothing In this house to show it had been entered at all, all the doors and windows being locked. "The roof of the piazza had been freshly painted. It showed the footprints foot-prints of but one man, who wore rubbers rub-bers or moccasins without heels. Thq marks on the paint, where the thiei clutched the top of the piazza to draw himself up from the pillar, were vers peculiar. The left hand showed foul finger prints, while the right hand showed only one. This was very puz zling. I thought perhaps it was du to the fact that the thief held a rop ladder with his other fingers. Thq piazza did not extend, the full length of the house, and the rope ladder was found hanging from one of the win dows. "The presents in the house had been left in charge of a servant. When th guests all went downstairs to the dim ing room she thought there would b no 'further use for her, so she went down to take a view of the decorations decora-tions In the parlor and dining hall, It was during her absence that th thief did the trick. She wasn't gone more than ten minutes. When shs, returned she did not notice that anyi thing had been disturbed. It was I couple of hours after the robbery be fore it was discovered. "The colonel offered a reward o) $15,000 for the recovery of the stolei goods and the capture of the thieves There was a great hustle amoni, thieves themselves to get a bit oi this $15,000. The fences would hav given up almost any thief for a whacl at It. But the thieves were cunning dogs. They had never pawned oi sold any of the stolen goods in thll city. "While I was cracking my skull t get a clue that would amount to some thing, I got a tip from Joe Foley, as; ex-convict, that 'Big Pete' McCracken and 'Kid' Kelly were in the city, and that the 'Kid' only had one finger oa) his right hand. This was the flrsl good news I had heard. "The case fairly haunted me. Ontj Friday afternoon I dropped into th Astor house for lunch. I glancefj around the room carelessly, and savi standing at the bar a tall, determine looking man, drinking with a man not bigger than a good-sized boy. Whea the little fellow raised his class t drink, I saw that ie had only hii, thumb and forefinger on his righi hand. You can bet I did not let thi pair of worthies get out of sight. Thes were given an excellent reputation a) the hotel; had never been out eve nings, and it was thought that thej ! were wealthy miners from the west. I got Joe Foley to take a peep at them; He identified them as being McCrackt en and Kelly beyond doubt. "They were booked for passage fot Europe on the following day, whlcl) was Saturday, under fictitious names, I went with them from the hotel t4 1 the steamer about an hour before tha steamer sailed to see if they had anj confederates in the city. No one mei ' them. When the bells rang to grj I ashore I placed Kelly and McCracken ! under arrest and took them off th j steamer. They made a terrible fuss, and protested innocence of any criminal crim-inal act. I kept a careful watch oij the pair of them while the police) were taking them away, and I saw Me Cracken drop a paper, which I picked up at once. It proved to be a bill oi lading, showing several boxes to hav been consigned to 'J. R, Wilson, London.' "The men were locked up at polio headquarters and were identified bj I several persons who had seen them near their homes prior to being robbed. rob-bed. They were identified by th chief of police of Cleveland as Mo Cracken and Kelly. "All of the loot from the Rogers' home was recovered, and McCracken and Kellx both went np the river for long terms. There wag a noticeable falling off In second-story robberies after they were landed." PETE M'CRACKEN'S STORY. "I gave this community," said Pete, "a great shaking up. They talk about the way in'which the gangs in the far west hold up railroad trains and walk away with safes from country coun-try banks as if they were really something some-thing to be proud of, but I tell you, my boy, they are nothing compared io the way in which 'Kid' Kelly and I held up New York and made hundreds hun-dreds of people pay tribute to our prowess and cunning. "I had been doing time in joliet, 111., for burglary, and I got out on the same day with 'Kid' Kelly, one of .he best thieves I ever met. He was 10 bigger than a 12-year-old boy, but be was as quick as greased lightning. There was nothing on the calendar that he would not tackle. He was the only person I ever met who was absolutely without fear. He seemed to have no idea of what fear miant. I remember on one occasion, when the 'Kid' and I got into close quarters in St. Louis, that he was shot through the hand. He neglected to take care of the wound. I took him to see a surgeon, who said that the only way to save 'Kid's' arm and life was fo amputate all of his hand except the thumb and forefinger. "The 'Kid' told the doctor to begin without delay, and the expert started to give him a dose of ether. '.But 'the Kid' refused to take it. He actually Bat down in a chair, held up his hand, Rnd watched the surgeon cut through ; 1 his flesh and snip off the bones with j a pair of forceps without a tremor. ! While 'the Kid' was getting orer this I kept easy, and read a great deal. One day I struck a story about the remarkable re-markable decrease in second-story robberies in New York, and it struck me that the time was just ripe for me to pay the big town a visit. The people peo-ple would be feeling secure, and that Is the time for a thief to get in his Dno work. " 'The Kid' and I got to New York in the latter part of September. We sjieut about threo weeks studying the houses and what appeared to be the best places to tackle. The field was the most promising on that I ever saw. Thero were few houses on Fifth, Lexington and Madison avenues, ave-nues, as well as on the cross streets, that could not be entered from the second story by either 'the Kid' or me. "We started in on Madison avenue. In 30 days we got into GO houses and picked up property that would make , an averago of more than $1,000 a house. "We did not have the slightest trouble trou-ble in any place. We came close to be seen by a woman who entered a room in which we were working on Twenty-ninth street and Madison avenue, ave-nue, but went away without seeing see-ing us. She never knew how closely close-ly she came to having her light put out. You never heard of such great excitement as there was in the city. The papers were filled with stories I bout the second-story work going on from day to day. The police were tibused for not catching the thieves. It was rare sport for us to read these stories and hear the comments upon them. "We were putting up at the Astor louse, living- in a quiet and modest style as became two gentlemen of elegant el-egant leisw-K. This public place was about iie s-fest spot we could have struck, as the work did not take more than an hour early in the evening. eve-ning. .The rest of the time we were su the hotel, and could have got 50 DETECTIVE M'CLOSKEY'S STORY. "The series of second-story robberies," robber-ies," said Detective McCloskey, "which wound up with the daring attack upon the residence of Colonel Rogers, on the night of the marriage of 1 '3 daughter, daugh-ter, which was attended by the leading lead-ing members of the Four Hundred, were the boldest and most puzzling crimes I ever was called upon to investigate. in-vestigate. "The excitement was at fever heat all the time. It is not putting it too slrong to say that between the hours of five and eight in the evening,' half a million persons were on the lookout look-out in the streets and in the houses to get a sight of the men who seemed to be from the fact that no one saw them at all more of the nature of Spirits than human beings. - The robberies rob-beries were not confined to any section, sec-tion, but spread in all directions in all parts of the city. It was evident from the style of the work, that in the Fifth avenue district there were two cr more very expert thieves engaged. en-gaged. In other parts of the city men were at work, probably imitators of these, who did not move with the same caution and certainty. "Thousands of robberies were reported re-ported from all sections of the city. It seemed to all those who were familiar fa-miliar with the old-time crooks, that 'Gig Frank' McCoy and "Long John' Garvel had returned to earth and started their notorious old gang on the road again. I was -placed upon these cases from the very start. I really felt ashamed to report day after day that I had got no track of the thieves. Their work was like lightning. You-never You-never could tell where it would strike. I was instrumental in sending 25 or 30 thieves to jail that I had run down in investigating these crimes, but they were all petty thieves. There wasn't one among them capable of carrying on the style of work going on in the uptown districts. "Other policemen made arrests in all sections of the city. In spite of all the vigilance exercised by the police and citizens, the big robberies went on night after night. The thieves seemed to have the strange facility of picking out the very houses to attack at-tack which were the least suspected and the worst guarded. It was utterly ut-terly impossible to get an accurate description de-scription of the men. In all the places which were attacked the description de-scription given by persons who had seen men loitering in tha neighborhood neighbor-hood before the robbery did. not tally. "At the time of these robberies no |