Latest / Mystery & Suspense Library / The Great Taxicab - James Collins
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Section one. This book has something to say about practical
- 0:05Speaker 1: results of wiser police administration in New York. It is
- 0:09Speaker 1: respectfully dedicated to Honorable William J. Gainer, Mayor of New
- 0:14Speaker 1: York City, the official who took the initiative in improving conditions. Preface.
- 0:23Speaker 1: There are several reasons for this little book, but the
- 0:26Speaker 1: best of all is the main reason that it is
- 0:29Speaker 1: a cracking good story and right out of life. The
- 0:34Speaker 1: characters will be found interesting, and they are real people,
- 0:38Speaker 1: every one of them. The incidents are full of action
- 0:41Speaker 1: and color. The plot has mystery, surprise, interplay of mind
- 0:47Speaker 1: and motive. Had a novelist invented it, the reader might
- 0:52Speaker 1: declare it improbable. This is the kind of story that
- 0:56Speaker 1: is fundamental, the kind mister Chesterton says, is so necessary
- 1:01Speaker 1: to plain people that when writers do not happen to
- 1:04Speaker 1: write it, plain people invented for themselves in the form
- 1:08Speaker 1: of folklore. But apart from the story interest, there are
- 1:13Speaker 1: other reasons. When the New York Police Department had run
- 1:17Speaker 1: down all the threads of the plot and accounted for
- 1:21Speaker 1: most of the characters by locking them up, they had
- 1:24Speaker 1: become so absorbed in the story themselves. As a story
- 1:29Speaker 1: that they thought the public would enjoy following it from
- 1:31Speaker 1: the inside. While the crime was being dealt with, the
- 1:36Speaker 1: police were subjected to pretty severe criticism. They felt that
- 1:42Speaker 1: the facts would make it clear that they knew their
- 1:45Speaker 1: trade and had been working at it diligently. The story
- 1:49Speaker 1: gives an insight into real police methods. These are very
- 1:54Speaker 1: different from the methods of the fiction detective and also
- 1:58Speaker 1: from the average citizen's idea of police work. They ought
- 2:02Speaker 1: to be better known. When the public understands that there
- 2:06Speaker 1: is nothing secret, tyrannical, or dangerous in good police practice,
- 2:12Speaker 1: and that our laws safeguard even the guilty against abuses,
- 2:16Speaker 1: there will be helpful public opinion behind officers of the law,
- 2:21Speaker 1: and we shall have a higher degree of order and security.
- 2:26Speaker 1: The directing mind in this case was that of Commissioner
- 2:29Speaker 1: George Doherty, executive head of the Detectives of the New
- 2:33Speaker 1: York Police Department. Thousands of clean, ambitious young fellows are
- 2:39Speaker 1: constantly putting on the policeman's uniform all over the country
- 2:43Speaker 1: and rising to places as detectives and officials. The manufacturer
- 2:49Speaker 1: or merchant may find himself in the police commissioner's chair.
- 2:54Speaker 1: Even the suburbanite with his bundles may be out at Lonesomehurst,
- 3:00Speaker 1: a member of the village council and thus responsible for
- 3:04Speaker 1: the supervision of a police force that, though it be
- 3:07Speaker 1: only two patrolman and a chief, is important in its place.
- 3:13Speaker 1: So in writing the story there has been an effort
- 3:16Speaker 1: to show how a first rate man like Commissioner Doherty works.
- 3:21Speaker 1: His methods are plain business methods. Most of his life
- 3:26Speaker 1: he has earned his living following the policeman's trade as
- 3:29Speaker 1: a commercial business. What he did in a case of
- 3:34Speaker 1: this kind and how and why are matters of general
- 3:38Speaker 1: interest and importance. Finally, the story throws some useful light
- 3:44Speaker 1: on criminals. It shows the cunning of the underworld and
- 3:48Speaker 1: also its limitations. To free the law abiding mind of
- 3:54Speaker 1: romantic notions about the criminal and show him as he
- 3:58Speaker 1: is is highly important, and the prevention of crime. The
- 4:04Speaker 1: cast Gino Montani, a taxi cab proprietor. Wilbur Smith, an
- 4:12Speaker 1: elderly bank teller. Frank Wordle, a seventeen year old bank
- 4:17Speaker 1: office boy. Eddie Kinsman alias Collins alias Eddie the Boob,
- 4:25Speaker 1: a hold up man, Billy Keller alias Dutch a hold
- 4:30Speaker 1: up man. Gene Splain a hold up man. Scottie the Lamb,
- 4:38Speaker 1: a thieves helper or stall. Joe Philadelphia alias the Kid,
- 4:45Speaker 1: a runner for thieves or lobby gow. James Pasqually alias
- 4:52Speaker 1: Jimmy the Push, keeper of Shady Resorts known as two
- 4:56Speaker 1: O eight and two thirty three. Bob Delio, partner of
- 5:02Speaker 1: Jimmy the Push, jess Albraso, a middleman formerly keeper of
- 5:08Speaker 1: the Arch Cafe, pal of Montani, Jimmy the Bush and
- 5:13Speaker 1: Bob Delio, Matteo Abrano, poly Gonzalez, Charles Cavenaro, The Three Brigands,
- 5:23Speaker 1: King Dodo A bowery character, Ryan lander Waldo, Police Commissioner
- 5:30Speaker 1: of New York, George S. Doherty, Second Deputy Police Commissioner,
- 5:37Speaker 1: Executive Head of Detectives, Inspector Edward P. Hughes, in command
- 5:44Speaker 1: of Detective Bureau. Police Lieutenant Dominic g Riley, aide of
- 5:50Speaker 1: Commissioner Doherty. Staff Detective Sergeant John J. O'Connell, official stenographer
- 5:59Speaker 1: the Detectives on Plants, Trailing, Surrounding, Arresting, etc. John P. Barron,
- 6:07Speaker 1: Edward Boyle, Frank Campbell, James Dalton, James J. Finnin, John W. Finn,
- 6:16Speaker 1: Joseph A. Daily, Daniel W. Clair, John Gaynor, Anthony Greco,
- 6:24Speaker 1: John P. Griffith, Daniel F. Hallahan, Edward Lennon, Henry Muggy,
- 6:32Speaker 1: Richard Oliver, Gustavus, J. Riley, James F. Shevlin, Joseph Toner,
- 6:40Speaker 1: George Trojan, James A. Watson, Swede, Annie Kinsman Sweetheart, Myrtle
- 6:49Speaker 1: Horn a pall of Annie Rose Levy, a newcomer in
- 6:54Speaker 1: Thompson Street. Jess Albrazo's girl, Miss Isabella Goodwin, a police matron.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Missus Sullivan, keeper of a West Side rooming house. Josie,
- 7:09Speaker 1: a lady of the Levy District. Chicago detectives, policemen, informants, witnesses,
- 7:17Speaker 1: denizens of the underworld, newspaper reporters, train men, ticket sellers, etc.
- 7:24Speaker 1: Et CETERA place chiefly in New York, with scenes in Chicago, Albany, Memphis, Boston,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and Montreal Time, February and March nineteen twelve, The Great
- 7:42Speaker 1: Taxicab Robbery, Chapter one. What the public heard about the crime.
- 7:50Speaker 1: On Thursday February fifteenth, nineteen twelve, the New York Evening
- 7:56Speaker 1: Papers had a startling news story between ten and eleven
- 8:01Speaker 1: o'clock that morning. Two messengers were sent in a taxi
- 8:05Speaker 1: cab from the East River National Bank at Broadway and
- 8:08Speaker 1: Third Street to draw twenty five thousand dollars in currency
- 8:13Speaker 1: from the Produce Exchange National Bank at Broadway and Beaver
- 8:17Speaker 1: Street in the downtown financial district and bring it up town.
- 8:23Speaker 1: This transfer of money had been made several times a
- 8:26Speaker 1: week for so long a period without danger or loss,
- 8:30Speaker 1: that the messengers were unarmed. One of them, Wilbur F Smith,
- 8:36Speaker 1: was an old man who had been in the service
- 8:38Speaker 1: of the bank thirty five years, and the other was
- 8:42Speaker 1: a mere boy named Wardle, seventeen years old. The taxicab man,
- 8:50Speaker 1: an Italian named Gino Montani, seemed almost a trusted employee, too,
- 8:56Speaker 1: for he operated two cabs from a stand near the
- 8:59Speaker 1: bank and was frequently called upon for such trips. While
- 9:04Speaker 1: the cab was returning uptown through Church Street with the money,
- 9:08Speaker 1: five men suddenly closed in upon it. According to the
- 9:13Speaker 1: chauffeur's story, a sixth man forced himself to slacken speed
- 9:18Speaker 1: by stumbling in front of the vehicle. Immediately, two men
- 9:23Speaker 1: on each side of the cab opened the doors. Two
- 9:26Speaker 1: assailants were boosted in and quickly beat the messengers into insensibility.
- 9:33Speaker 1: While their two helpers ran along on the sidewalk, The
- 9:37Speaker 1: fifth man climbed onto the seat beside the chauffeur, held
- 9:41Speaker 1: a revolver to his ribs and ordered him to drive
- 9:45Speaker 1: fast on peril of his life. This fellow seemed to
- 9:49Speaker 1: be familiar with automobiles and threatened the driver when he
- 9:53Speaker 1: tried to slacken speed. That is a busy part of
- 9:57Speaker 1: the city, yet nobody in the side sidewalks seemed to
- 10:01Speaker 1: notice anything out of the ordinary. The cab dodged vehicles
- 10:06Speaker 1: going at high speed for several blocks at Park Place
- 10:11Speaker 1: in Church Street. After a trip of eleven blocks at
- 10:15Speaker 1: a busy corner, the chauffeur was ordered to stop the
- 10:18Speaker 1: cab and the three robbers got down, carrying the twenty
- 10:23Speaker 1: five thousand dollars in a leather bag, ran quickly to
- 10:27Speaker 1: a black automobile without a license number, which was waiting
- 10:32Speaker 1: for them, and in a few moments were gone. That
- 10:37Speaker 1: was the substance of the story. Information came chiefly from
- 10:42Speaker 1: the chauffeur because the two bank employees had been attacked
- 10:46Speaker 1: so suddenly and viciously that they lost consciousness in a
- 10:50Speaker 1: moment when the chauffeur looked inside his cab after the crime.
- 10:55Speaker 1: He said he saw them both lying senseless and bleeding.
- 11:00Speaker 1: They could give no description of the assailants. Eye witnesses
- 11:06Speaker 1: were found who had seen men loitering in the neighborhood
- 11:09Speaker 1: where the cab was boarded shortly before the crime, but
- 11:13Speaker 1: their descriptions were not very useful. That night, the New
- 11:18Speaker 1: York evening papers published accounts of the crime under great
- 11:22Speaker 1: black headlines, and on the following morning, every news items
- 11:28Speaker 1: of a criminal nature was grouped in the same part
- 11:30Speaker 1: of the papers to prove that the city had entered
- 11:33Speaker 1: one of its sensational waves of crime, and for more
- 11:38Speaker 1: than a week the public read criticism and denunciation of
- 11:42Speaker 1: the police force. It was charged that the police had
- 11:47Speaker 1: become demoralized, and various changes of administrative policy introduced into
- 11:53Speaker 1: the department within the past eight months were blindly denounced.
- 11:59Speaker 1: The most important of these changes was that devised by
- 12:03Speaker 1: Mayor Gainer eight or ten years ago. Every uniformed policeman
- 12:08Speaker 1: in New York carried a club and often used it
- 12:12Speaker 1: freely in defending himself while making arrests. Abuses led to
- 12:17Speaker 1: the abolition of this means of defense, except for officers
- 12:22Speaker 1: patrolling the streets at night. There were still undoubted abuses, however,
- 12:28Speaker 1: and when Mayor Gainer came into office, bringing well thought
- 12:32Speaker 1: out opinions of police administration from his experience as a
- 12:37Speaker 1: magistrate on the bench, he took a determined stand from
- 12:41Speaker 1: more humane methods of making arrests and strict holding of
- 12:45Speaker 1: every policeman to the letter of the laws. Every case
- 12:50Speaker 1: of clubbing was prosecuted, the plain legal rights of citizens
- 12:55Speaker 1: or criminals upheld, and the police department began teaching it
- 13:00Speaker 1: its men new ways of defending themselves by skillful holds
- 13:04Speaker 1: in wrestling, whereby prisoners may be handled effectually and without
- 13:09Speaker 1: doing them harm. Sentiment against the use of the club
- 13:14Speaker 1: began to grow in the police department itself, it being
- 13:18Speaker 1: recognized that clubbing was an unskillful means of defense and
- 13:24Speaker 1: that special athletic devices were more workmenlike Now. However, the
- 13:30Speaker 1: newspapers published every chance opinion of discharged, retired and anonymous
- 13:37Speaker 1: police officers who objected to the new regulations. It was
- 13:42Speaker 1: alleged that criminals had got out of bounds because policemen
- 13:47Speaker 1: no longer dared club them into good behavior, and the editors,
- 13:52Speaker 1: without paying much attention to the many good points of
- 13:55Speaker 1: the new regulations, or trying to understand the merits of
- 13:59Speaker 1: a settled policy applied to an organization of more than
- 14:03Speaker 1: ten thousand men, set up a cry for the presumably
- 14:07Speaker 1: good old days of inspectors so and so and chief
- 14:11Speaker 1: this and that, when every known criminal was promptly struck
- 14:16Speaker 1: over the head on site and thereby taught to know
- 14:20Speaker 1: his place. If the files of New York journals for
- 14:24Speaker 1: those days following the robbery are examined, they will reveal
- 14:29Speaker 1: a curious exhibition of pleading for official lawlessness and autocracy.
- 14:35Speaker 1: Another point of criticism centered on a new method adopted
- 14:39Speaker 1: in the distribution of the detective force. This comprises more
- 14:44Speaker 1: than five hundred men. For years, they were all required
- 14:49Speaker 1: to report at police headquarters every day, coming from distant precincts,
- 14:54Speaker 1: and had an opportunity to see whatever professional criminals were
- 14:58Speaker 1: under arrest. Then they went back to different precincts to work.
- 15:04Speaker 1: This took too much time, it was found, and the
- 15:07Speaker 1: old fashioned line up of criminals was chiefly a spectacle,
- 15:12Speaker 1: the same offenders dropping into the hands of the police
- 15:15Speaker 1: with more or less regularity. So detectives were redistributed on
- 15:21Speaker 1: a plan that attaches a proper number of plain clothes
- 15:24Speaker 1: policemen to each precinct according to its needs, and in
- 15:29Speaker 1: those precincts the men live and become acquainted with local criminals.
- 15:34Speaker 1: Many of them work in sections where they were born,
- 15:37Speaker 1: and detectives speaking foreign languages are assigned to foreign quarters.
- 15:43Speaker 1: The newspapers charged that red tape had brought the police
- 15:47Speaker 1: department to such a low state that young detectives had
- 15:51Speaker 1: no idea what a real criminal looked like, and urged
- 15:55Speaker 1: the restoration of the old system, with its picturesque line up.
- 16:00Speaker 1: In the days of Inspector Burns, when practically all the
- 16:04Speaker 1: banking of the city was done around Wall Street, the
- 16:08Speaker 1: police established a deadline beyond which criminals were supposed not
- 16:13Speaker 1: to operate. In its day, the deadline was real enough, undoubtedly,
- 16:19Speaker 1: but it was not necessarily an ideal police measure, and
- 16:23Speaker 1: the growth of the city has long made it a
- 16:26Speaker 1: mere memory, living only in newspaper tradition. Today, banking extends
- 16:32Speaker 1: as far north as Central Park, and millions upon millions
- 16:36Speaker 1: of dollars are being carried about daily by people of
- 16:40Speaker 1: every sort. Despite the fact that the last loss of
- 16:45Speaker 1: money from a New York bank through professional criminals, apart
- 16:49Speaker 1: from fraud and forgery, dated back some fifteen or eighteen years.
- 16:55Speaker 1: The newspaper seemed to agree that life and property were
- 16:59Speaker 1: no longer safe in the city because this purely mythical
- 17:04Speaker 1: deadline had been disregarded by the robbers. There was other
- 17:09Speaker 1: comment of the same character, and it had an immediate
- 17:13Speaker 1: and grievous effect. On the day after the robbery, a
- 17:18Speaker 1: chance remark about a safe in an east Side bank,
- 17:22Speaker 1: coupled with the general excitement, led to a run of
- 17:26Speaker 1: its depositors, chiefly people of foreign birth. The bank was
- 17:32Speaker 1: solvent and the run was undoubtedly stimulated by gossip started
- 17:37Speaker 1: by criminals for their own ends, but the frightened depositors
- 17:42Speaker 1: insisted on drawing out their money and exposing themselves to
- 17:46Speaker 1: danger of robbery and assault. The situation was met by
- 17:51Speaker 1: careful police cooperation. About six months before the taxicab robbery,
- 17:59Speaker 1: the New York led legislature put into force a measure
- 18:02Speaker 1: known as the Sullivan Law, providing penalties for the carrying
- 18:07Speaker 1: of pistols and concealed weapons. This is unquestionably a wise
- 18:12Speaker 1: measure fundamentally and one that was badly needed for police
- 18:17Speaker 1: administration and public safety. It is perhaps open to certain
- 18:22Speaker 1: modifications to be made as actual conditions are encountered in
- 18:26Speaker 1: practical working of the law. Newspaper opinion drew a connection
- 18:32Speaker 1: between this law and the wave of crime, and its
- 18:36Speaker 1: repeal was urged so that every citizen might arm himself
- 18:40Speaker 1: as he pleased. Hundreds of persons who had felt safe
- 18:44Speaker 1: in going about their business unarmed, now applied for permits
- 18:49Speaker 1: to carry pistols. Fortunately, a sensation does not last long
- 18:54Speaker 1: in New York. Though the police department felt this criticism
- 18:59Speaker 1: caly and was hampered by it, pressure began to slacken.
- 19:04Speaker 1: In about a week other sensations came along. There was
- 19:09Speaker 1: nothing to publish about the taxicab case, as police information
- 19:14Speaker 1: was withheld for good official reasons. Presently, the town ventured
- 19:20Speaker 1: to joke about the case. At an elaborate public dinner
- 19:24Speaker 1: one night. Among other topical effects, a dummy taxicab suddenly
- 19:30Speaker 1: scooted out before the guests held up a dummy police
- 19:34Speaker 1: commissioner took his watch and scooted it away again. The
- 19:39Speaker 1: diners laughed, and that was fairly representative of the town,
- 19:44Speaker 1: which was now ready to have its joke about the
- 19:47Speaker 1: crime too. Had there never been any further action by
- 19:52Speaker 1: the police, the case would have quietly dropped out of sight.
- 19:56Speaker 1: But fortunately there was police action, and with that we
- 20:01Speaker 1: shall now deal. End of Section one, Section two, Chapter
- 20:10Speaker 1: two how the crime was handled by the police on
- 20:14Speaker 1: the trail. Now let us follow the police story. We
- 20:21Speaker 1: will begin at the very beginning, watch the incidents and
- 20:24Speaker 1: character unfold, and give quite a little attention to the
- 20:28Speaker 1: technical methods by which results were arrived at. For the
- 20:33Speaker 1: story is a study in clean, straightforward detective work, and
- 20:38Speaker 1: that work ought to be better known by the public
- 20:41Speaker 1: so that intelligent public opinion may back up honest police effort.
- 20:47Speaker 1: The story starts with a burly, genial man sitting in
- 20:51Speaker 1: a big office at police headquarters. The office is that
- 20:55Speaker 1: of the second Deputy Police Commissioner, and the man is
- 21:00Speaker 1: the commissioner himself, George S. Doherty. Commissioner. Dougherty dominates the story.
- 21:07Speaker 1: The taxicab robbers were caught by his methods, plans and supervision,
- 21:13Speaker 1: backed by the splendid teamwork of the men under him,
- 21:17Speaker 1: his own sources of information supplied the clues, and his
- 21:22Speaker 1: personal skill in examining criminals brought out the confessions that
- 21:26Speaker 1: saved the city the expense of trials with all but
- 21:30Speaker 1: one offender. It is far from the writer's wish to
- 21:35Speaker 1: indulge in hero worship, however, so these details will appear
- 21:40Speaker 1: in their proper place in the narrative. George Dougherty has
- 21:44Speaker 1: had nearly twenty five years experience in criminal work in
- 21:48Speaker 1: New York and over the whole country. Until his appointment
- 21:53Speaker 1: by Mayor Gayner in May nineteen eleven, he was connected
- 21:58Speaker 1: with the Pinkerton organization. Bank and financial crimes have long
- 22:03Speaker 1: been his specialty, so the taxicab case fell right into
- 22:08Speaker 1: his own province. He knows the ways of forgers, bank sneaks, swindlers, burglars,
- 22:15Speaker 1: and yeggmen, and is personally acquainted with most of the
- 22:19Speaker 1: criminals in those lines in and out of prison. He
- 22:24Speaker 1: has also had much to do with protecting the crowds
- 22:27Speaker 1: at races, ballgames, aeronautic meetings, and other big gatherings as
- 22:33Speaker 1: executive head of the Detective Bureau. Five hundred plainclothesmen police
- 22:39Speaker 1: scattered over Greater New York cover all crimes of a
- 22:42Speaker 1: local and routine nature and are subject to his call
- 22:47Speaker 1: when a special case like the taxicab robbery comes up
- 22:50Speaker 1: for his personal attention. On an ordinary quiet morning at
- 22:56Speaker 1: police headquarters, there will be a steady stream of people
- 23:00Speaker 1: passing into Dougherty's office. Several assistants guard the doors leading
- 23:06Speaker 1: from two ante rooms and marshal the visitors. Now a
- 23:11Speaker 1: group of detectives enters and hears a talk on methods.
- 23:16Speaker 1: Then two detectives come in, make a report and receive
- 23:20Speaker 1: further instructions. Then there will be an interruption, perhaps while
- 23:26Speaker 1: an assistant soothes and sends away a crank who occasionally
- 23:30Speaker 1: turns up with a purely imaginary affair of his own.
- 23:34Speaker 1: And two more detectives pass in, accompanied by a man
- 23:38Speaker 1: and a woman who look just like the people one
- 23:41Speaker 1: sees dining at a fashionable uptown restaurant. The woman's furs
- 23:46Speaker 1: are magnificent and her hat a costly fifth avenue creation.
- 23:52Speaker 1: A couple of taxpayers speculates the group of reporters waiting
- 23:57Speaker 1: outside to get a statement about some important case. Two
- 24:03Speaker 1: of the cleverest Czech swindlers in the country corrects a detective,
- 24:08Speaker 1: and presently the reporters are called in and Dougherty recites names, dates,
- 24:13Speaker 1: and facts connected with the gang to which these prosperous
- 24:17Speaker 1: taxpayers belong, gazing reflectively out of the window as details
- 24:23Speaker 1: come back in memory, and chuckling with the delighted journalists
- 24:28Speaker 1: as the pithy slang and professional names of the underworld
- 24:31Speaker 1: are jotted down on their pads. They fire a scattering
- 24:36Speaker 1: volley of questions at him and depart. And then his
- 24:40Speaker 1: secretary announces that the saloon keeper, who knows a good
- 24:44Speaker 1: deal about the blind puppy cafe case, is outside, but
- 24:48Speaker 1: refuses to talk to the police at all. Hello is
- 24:54Speaker 1: the Commissioner's offhand greeting as the cautious saloon keeper comes in,
- 25:00Speaker 1: and in two minutes the latter is answering questions freely.
- 25:05Speaker 1: Why say, he exclaims, I'll tell you anything. Then a
- 25:12Speaker 1: humble little woman in a cheap hat and a long
- 25:14Speaker 1: cloak is brought in for more than an hour. She
- 25:18Speaker 1: has been waiting outside with her eyes fixed patiently on
- 25:22Speaker 1: the door leading to the inner office stand there, says
- 25:28Speaker 1: the commissioner with gruff kindness, and he makes a formal
- 25:32Speaker 1: statement about her husband, who has been arrested with a
- 25:36Speaker 1: criminal gang and is pretty certain to go to prison.
- 25:41Speaker 1: He tells her what has been done in the case
- 25:43Speaker 1: and what will follow, and the little woman listens mutely.
- 25:49Speaker 1: When he finishes, her eyes fill with tears, but she
- 25:53Speaker 1: makes no reply nor any sound. The Commissioner winks fast
- 25:59Speaker 1: as he looks out of the window again, and then says, sympathetically,
- 26:05Speaker 1: that's the best that can be done. But don't you worry.
- 26:09Speaker 1: Come in and see me again. Keep in touch with me,
- 26:13Speaker 1: and don't worry yourself. Come in and talk with me.
- 26:17Speaker 1: Come in tomorrow. And she bravely wipes her eyes and
- 26:22Speaker 1: goes out with her trouble. The procession continues, police captains
- 26:28Speaker 1: and detectives and squads, prisoners and witnesses in twos and threes,
- 26:34Speaker 1: newspapermen in corps and singly, and occasionally a cautious gentleman
- 26:39Speaker 1: who wants to see the commissioner alone and is anxious
- 26:43Speaker 1: that nobody say anything about this visit to police headquarters,
- 26:48Speaker 1: for he is an informant. End of Section two, Section three,
- 26:56Speaker 1: Chapter two, Part two. The first alarm. The taxicab robbery
- 27:05Speaker 1: took place on a quiet morning like this. Suddenly, around
- 27:10Speaker 1: eleven o'clock on Thursday, February fifteenth, a brief message comes
- 27:15Speaker 1: from the second precinct stating that a robbery has been
- 27:19Speaker 1: committed in the Financial District. A little later there is
- 27:23Speaker 1: a fuller report over police wires. The details are few
- 27:28Speaker 1: as will be seen by the general alarm that presently
- 27:31Speaker 1: goes out over the City Police Department, City of New York,
- 27:37Speaker 1: February fifteenth, nineteen twelve. To all all burroughs, notify the
- 27:45Speaker 1: Patrol Platoon immediately arrest for assault and robbery. Three men.
- 27:52Speaker 1: Number one about thirty five years, five feet eight or
- 27:56Speaker 1: nine inches in height, one sixty or one one seventy pounds, small, stubbied,
- 28:03Speaker 1: dark mustache, dark complexion, medium build, dark suit and cap,
- 28:10Speaker 1: no overcoat. Number two about thirty five years, five feet
- 28:17Speaker 1: ten inches in height, slender build, dark hair, possibly smooth shaven,
- 28:25Speaker 1: light brown suit, no overcoat, wore a cap. No description
- 28:32Speaker 1: of Number three. Stole twenty five thousand dollars in five
- 28:37Speaker 1: and ten dollar bills contained in a brown leather telescope
- 28:41Speaker 1: bag twenty four inches long sixteen inches square from two
- 28:47Speaker 1: bank messengers in a taxi cab about eleven o'clock this
- 28:51Speaker 1: morning at Park Place and Chirp Street, and escaped in
- 28:56Speaker 1: a five or seven seated black touring car top up.
- 29:02Speaker 1: Look out for this car, bag and occupants on streets
- 29:06Speaker 1: at Ferry entrances, bridge terminals, railroad stations, in choir, at
- 29:13Speaker 1: all garages, automobile stands, stables, et ce. If found, notified
- 29:20Speaker 1: Detective Bureau before noon. The Commissioner had postponed appointments, assigned
- 29:27Speaker 1: routine business, and is engaged in an investigation that will
- 29:32Speaker 1: keep him busy until that morning twelve days later, when
- 29:37Speaker 1: the first arrests are made and the case is, in
- 29:40Speaker 1: police parlance broken. Where did the police begin in such
- 29:46Speaker 1: a crime? What do they start with when there is
- 29:49Speaker 1: apparently so little to work upon. In spite of the
- 29:53Speaker 1: wide popular interest in police and criminal matters, the average
- 29:58Speaker 1: citizen has no very clue. Even the newspaper reporter following
- 30:04Speaker 1: police activities every day is not well informed in technical details.
- 30:11Speaker 1: Some information is necessarily withheld from him, and he is
- 30:15Speaker 1: a busy young man with his own technical viewpoint, working
- 30:19Speaker 1: hard to get his own kind of information. This lack
- 30:24Speaker 1: of knowledge leads to a feeling of mystery, helplessness and
- 30:28Speaker 1: terror after a sensational crime, and to criticism of the
- 30:34Speaker 1: police they are at work skillfully honestly diligently, but results
- 30:41Speaker 1: take time. It would do little good to make arrests
- 30:45Speaker 1: without evidence. The citizen's sympathies are aroused by brutal lawlessness,
- 30:52Speaker 1: and he urges that somebody be caught and punished. If
- 30:56Speaker 1: results are not at once apparent, he jumps to the
- 31:00Speaker 1: conclusion that the police are demoralized. He would be startled
- 31:05Speaker 1: if he could see how quickly and persistently the underworld
- 31:09Speaker 1: takes steps to strengthen him in that conclusion and use
- 31:13Speaker 1: him to discredit the police. Sixty detectives are immediately called
- 31:19Speaker 1: into the case. Five of them go down to the
- 31:22Speaker 1: scene of the robbery with orders to work there until
- 31:26Speaker 1: further notice. They make a thorough search of the neighborhood,
- 31:31Speaker 1: following the route taken by Montani's taxi cab and questioning merchants,
- 31:37Speaker 1: news dealers, porters, truckmen and other persons likely to have
- 31:43Speaker 1: information as eye witnesses. They go through the streets that
- 31:47Speaker 1: may have been taken by the escaping robbers and work
- 31:51Speaker 1: over the whole ground. This search through one of the
- 31:56Speaker 1: busiest sections of New York in a busy hour, amid
- 32:00Speaker 1: the excitement created by the crime, may appear like hopeless business,
- 32:06Speaker 1: but as will be seen presently, it yields important results.
- 32:11Speaker 1: Other detectives search garages for the black automobile without a
- 32:16Speaker 1: license number, in which the robbers are reported to have
- 32:19Speaker 1: got away. Four uniformed policemen on beats along the route
- 32:25Speaker 1: taken by the taxicab are questioned. Other detailed inquiries of
- 32:31Speaker 1: the same nature are started. But the most important work
- 32:35Speaker 1: of the first day centers at police headquarters, where a
- 32:39Speaker 1: conference is held by Commissioner Doherty and his assistants, and
- 32:44Speaker 1: in the examination of Montani. The taxicab driver strip all
- 32:50Speaker 1: the labels off a suit of clothes and lay it
- 32:52Speaker 1: before a committee of tailors. In a few moments, certain
- 32:57Speaker 1: points would be agreed upon. It may be a new
- 33:01Speaker 1: suit or an old one, a fine piece of tailoring
- 33:04Speaker 1: or a cheap hand me down. The committee would often
- 33:08Speaker 1: identify the cheap suit and tell the name of its manufacturer,
- 33:14Speaker 1: while with a seventy five dollars suit it might be
- 33:17Speaker 1: possible to determine the maker's name. This holds true of
- 33:21Speaker 1: many other lines of work, and it is particularly true
- 33:25Speaker 1: of criminal investigation. Who cut and made that suit of clothes?
- 33:33Speaker 1: The conference sat down to determine this, judging the robbery
- 33:37Speaker 1: strictly as a piece of workmanship. Names of known bank
- 33:41Speaker 1: criminals were brought up one by one and details gone over.
- 33:47Speaker 1: It soon became clear that none of the men identified
- 33:51Speaker 1: with bank crime were likely to have the brain's skill
- 33:55Speaker 1: or organization to plan and execute so complicated a robbery.
- 34:01Speaker 1: The criminals had known the habits of the bank in
- 34:04Speaker 1: conveying cash up town. They knew the route and were
- 34:08Speaker 1: aware that the guard was only an elderly man and
- 34:11Speaker 1: a seventeen year old boy, both unarmed. They had boarded
- 34:17Speaker 1: the cab at the best point and evidently made arrangements
- 34:21Speaker 1: for stopping it. There was team work in every detail.
- 34:26Speaker 1: It showed marked insight, for instance, to provide additional men
- 34:31Speaker 1: to boost each assailant in at the doors. For young
- 34:36Speaker 1: wardle the bank employee had made a plucky attempt to
- 34:40Speaker 1: shove his robber out and shut the door, and might
- 34:43Speaker 1: have succeeded had there not been an outside man. Robberies
- 34:48Speaker 1: are committed under exciting conditions. They sometimes failed because criminals
- 34:55Speaker 1: bock that outside man was there not only to he
- 35:00Speaker 1: help his slugger into the cab, but to force him
- 35:03Speaker 1: in if he shrank and make certain he did his work.
- 35:08Speaker 1: Whoever planned such details, it was agreed at the conference,
- 35:13Speaker 1: possessed more cunning than the ordinary bank criminal. Montani is examined.
- 35:22Speaker 1: When Montani, the taxi cab driver, arrived at police headquarters,
- 35:27Speaker 1: he was willing to talk and seemed anxious to help
- 35:31Speaker 1: the police in every way. He knew suspicion might be
- 35:35Speaker 1: directed toward himself, but did not resent that. He talked
- 35:40Speaker 1: like a man confident of the truth of his story
- 35:44Speaker 1: and certain that he would be found blameless. Montani is
- 35:49Speaker 1: an Italian from the northern part of Italy, about thirty
- 35:53Speaker 1: years old, five feet six inches high, rather stout and
- 35:58Speaker 1: thick set, with very dark complexion. The striking feature of
- 36:04Speaker 1: his countenance his large, intelligent brown eyes. Commissioner Dougherty found
- 36:11Speaker 1: himself thinking of Napoleon in connection with Montani. The first
- 36:16Speaker 1: examination lasted all afternoon, Montani going out to lunch with
- 36:21Speaker 1: the commissioner. Hundreds of questions were asked, bearing on the robbery,
- 36:28Speaker 1: the appearance of the criminals, and Montani's past and personal affairs.
- 36:34Speaker 1: The story was gone over again and again, and different
- 36:38Speaker 1: questioners relieved each other. Yet the taxicab man never lost
- 36:44Speaker 1: his temper or patience, and did not contradict himself in
- 36:48Speaker 1: any important particular. Montani had been in this country since
- 36:54Speaker 1: the age of twelve, it appeared, had a wife and
- 36:57Speaker 1: two children, and was the own of two taxi cabs
- 37:02Speaker 1: operated from a stand at a hotel near the bank,
- 37:05Speaker 1: whose money he regularly carried. He had owned three cabs,
- 37:11Speaker 1: but lost one through business reverses. In fact, he had
- 37:16Speaker 1: passed through money troubles, and his story excited sympathy. Starting
- 37:22Speaker 1: originally as a truckman for a salvage company, his ambition
- 37:26Speaker 1: and intelligence had won him such confidence that this company
- 37:31Speaker 1: lent him money to set up trucking for himself. Still
- 37:35Speaker 1: more ambitious, he had become a taxi cab proprietor through
- 37:40Speaker 1: the trickery of an ill chosen partner. However, he had
- 37:44Speaker 1: lost some of his savings. He seemed a little bitter
- 37:49Speaker 1: about this, and it was a circumstance not likely to
- 37:53Speaker 1: escape an expert police examiner, for the loss of money
- 37:57Speaker 1: through fraud coupled with temptation is often the starting point
- 38:02Speaker 1: in crime. The Italian's former employers spoke highly of his character.
- 38:10Speaker 1: When questioned by detectives, he gave the names of chauffeurs
- 38:14Speaker 1: who had worked for him lately and of business people
- 38:18Speaker 1: who knew him, and careful investigation failed to disclose any
- 38:23Speaker 1: suspicious circumstances. Montani quite won the newspaper men, so much
- 38:29Speaker 1: so that when he was discharged in court a few
- 38:33Speaker 1: days later for apparent lack of evidence, the newspapers criticized
- 38:38Speaker 1: the police for having held him at all. And yet
- 38:43Speaker 1: before that first night, Montani himself, largely through simple answers
- 38:48Speaker 1: to questions, had become so involved that there was ground
- 38:53Speaker 1: for holding him under arrest. In the questions and cross
- 38:58Speaker 1: questions the Czechs counterchecks of a skillful examiner, there are
- 39:03Speaker 1: possibilities little suspected by those not familiar with that kind
- 39:07Speaker 1: of work. Montani had slowed down his cab at the
- 39:12Speaker 1: point where the robbers boarded in. He said that an
- 39:16Speaker 1: old man had suddenly got in front, and he had
- 39:19Speaker 1: slackened speed to avoid running over him. But detectives along
- 39:25Speaker 1: the route found eye witnesses who had seen the robbers
- 39:28Speaker 1: board the cab and who could testify that there had
- 39:32Speaker 1: been nobody in front of the vehicle. Both of his
- 39:36Speaker 1: cabs had stood in line near the bank that morning
- 39:39Speaker 1: the one driven by himself being second, and the other
- 39:44Speaker 1: in charge of an employee, was first. When the call
- 39:49Speaker 1: came from the bank, Montani answered it himself out of
- 39:53Speaker 1: his turn, sending the other cab uptown, as he explained,
- 39:58Speaker 1: to have some tires vulcanized. But it was not a
- 40:03Speaker 1: good explanation. He said that as soon as the robbers
- 40:07Speaker 1: left his cab he had raised a cry for help,
- 40:11Speaker 1: but eyewitnesses were found who denied this. Instead of running
- 40:17Speaker 1: north after the robbers automobile, when he had taken a
- 40:20Speaker 1: policeman aboard his cab, he ran south away from it.
- 40:25Speaker 1: This action, he maintained, was taken under orders from the policeman,
- 40:31Speaker 1: but the latter denied that. He was not able to
- 40:36Speaker 1: explain how the robbers had known where to post their
- 40:39Speaker 1: automobile so it would be waiting at the spot where
- 40:42Speaker 1: they finished their work. Interest centered in this mysterious black
- 40:48Speaker 1: automobile without a license number, for though Montani was an
- 40:53Speaker 1: experienced chauffeur and his replies to other questions showed that
- 40:58Speaker 1: he had seen both their rear and the side of
- 41:01Speaker 1: that car, he was unable to tell its make. Meanwhile,
- 41:07Speaker 1: it was learned that three men had hurriedly boarded an
- 41:10Speaker 1: elevated train near the scene of the robbery shortly after,
- 41:14Speaker 1: not waiting for change from a quarter. The ticket seller
- 41:19Speaker 1: was unable to describe them, but connected them with the
- 41:22Speaker 1: robbery when he heard about it. Montani was held in
- 41:26Speaker 1: the custody of the Commissioner that night, to be put
- 41:30Speaker 1: through further examination in the morning. But long before morning
- 41:35Speaker 1: the police were working on an entirely new development. End
- 41:42Speaker 1: of Section three, Chapter two, Part three, the first direct clue.
- 41:51Speaker 1: The law abiding citizen goes around New York with little
- 41:54Speaker 1: knowledge of the crowding underworld all about him. It is
- 41:59Speaker 1: perhaps just as well that he knows nothing of the
- 42:01Speaker 1: lives and morals of hundreds of people who elbow him
- 42:05Speaker 1: on the streets, sit beside him in the cars, and
- 42:09Speaker 1: scrutinize him with their strictly professional eye in many places.
- 42:14Speaker 1: Nor has he any clear conception of the relations that
- 42:17Speaker 1: a good police officer maintains with members of this underworld.
- 42:23Speaker 1: It is a world just as complete as that of
- 42:26Speaker 1: business or society, however, and much of the time of
- 42:30Speaker 1: a detective or police official is spent keeping track of
- 42:33Speaker 1: people in it, forming acquaintances and connections in various ways
- 42:39Speaker 1: and establishing the organization of informants that will help in
- 42:43Speaker 1: the direction and prevention of crime. A good detective is
- 42:49Speaker 1: like a good salesman. He keeps track of his trade.
- 42:54Speaker 1: Shortly after midnight of the first day, Commissioner Dougherty received
- 42:59Speaker 1: a message over the telephone that sent him uptown to
- 43:03Speaker 1: meet an informant. At two o'clock in the morning of Friday,
- 43:08Speaker 1: February sixteenth, he and this person had a talk at
- 43:12Speaker 1: a fashionable uptown hotel. Indeed, most of the meeting with
- 43:17Speaker 1: informants during this case were held at two well known hotels,
- 43:22Speaker 1: perhaps the last places in the city that anybody would
- 43:26Speaker 1: connect with such conferences. Informants are not always right, nor
- 43:31Speaker 1: always possessed of useful information, but this one had the
- 43:36Speaker 1: first real clue. On the afternoon of the robbery, it
- 43:41Speaker 1: was learned a fellow known as Eddie Collins had come
- 43:44Speaker 1: to his rooming house on the Lower West Side, told
- 43:48Speaker 1: a woman with whom he lived, known as Swede Annie,
- 43:53Speaker 1: to pack up and be ready to leave the city
- 43:55Speaker 1: in a hurry, and presently disappeared with her. He was
- 44:01Speaker 1: also reported to have a large roll of money, with
- 44:05Speaker 1: a rough estimate of the size of this role given
- 44:08Speaker 1: by the informant, and a dummy roll of stage money
- 44:12Speaker 1: made up for the purpose. The police were able to
- 44:16Speaker 1: judge that Collins must have had between three thousand and
- 44:20Speaker 1: five thousand dollars that would have been his probable share
- 44:25Speaker 1: in a division of the stolen currency among five men.
- 44:30Speaker 1: The house where Colin had lived was kept by a
- 44:33Speaker 1: Missus Sullivan. Steps were at once taken to surround this woman,
- 44:38Speaker 1: as the operation is known technically, for before a possible
- 44:43Speaker 1: source of information like missus Sullivan is followed up, it
- 44:47Speaker 1: is necessary to know something about it. The person in
- 44:51Speaker 1: question may be criminal or in league with the underworld.
- 44:56Speaker 1: On the other hand, he or she may be quite
- 44:59Speaker 1: inno and willing to aid the police. The surround is
- 45:05Speaker 1: an interesting operation. It is often made without the knowledge
- 45:09Speaker 1: of the person investigated. In many cases it takes time.
- 45:15Speaker 1: Missus Sullivan came through the ordeal handsomely. She proved to
- 45:20Speaker 1: be a wholesome, hard working landlady, keeping a house that
- 45:25Speaker 1: sheltered occasional suspicious characters, but entirely honest herself. She was
- 45:32Speaker 1: not only able to furnish information about her late lodgers,
- 45:35Speaker 1: but willing sure it's a good deal. I know about that, Collins,
- 45:41Speaker 1: as he calls himself, she said, and mighty little. That's good.
- 45:48Speaker 1: It seems that about two weeks previously, Collins had offered
- 45:52Speaker 1: to pay the landlady if she would appear in a
- 45:55Speaker 1: Brooklyn court and testify to the good character of a
- 45:58Speaker 1: criminal named Mulloy, who was being held for trial on
- 46:02Speaker 1: a charge of robbery. They're paying fifteen to twenty dollars
- 46:08Speaker 1: for character witnesses, said her lodger. And do you think
- 46:13Speaker 1: I'd take the stand and perjure myself swearing for a
- 46:16Speaker 1: man I never heard of, asked the indignant landlady. Oh
- 46:22Speaker 1: that's nothing to some of the things we do, was
- 46:25Speaker 1: the reply. Several days later, while she was putting some
- 46:31Speaker 1: laundry into Collins's bureau drawer, the landlady caught sight of
- 46:36Speaker 1: two new blackjacks. She asked Collins what he was doing
- 46:40Speaker 1: with such weapons. Ah, we use them in our business,
- 46:46Speaker 1: he said. Then, with the confidence often bred in criminals
- 46:51Speaker 1: by success, he told her he knew a gang that
- 46:54Speaker 1: was planning to rob a taxi cab that carried money
- 46:57Speaker 1: uptown to a bank every week. Missus Sullivan questioned him
- 47:03Speaker 1: as to details, and he assured her it would be
- 47:06Speaker 1: an easy job, for We've got it all fixed with
- 47:11Speaker 1: a chauffeur, he said. At that point, However, like many
- 47:16Speaker 1: an honest person who might aid the police with information,
- 47:20Speaker 1: missus Sullivan let the matter drop out of her mind.
- 47:25Speaker 1: It is a simple thing to mail a letter or
- 47:27Speaker 1: telephone to police headquarters giving such information, and the experience
- 47:33Speaker 1: of the detective bureau is such that the information can
- 47:36Speaker 1: be investigated without involving innocent persons. But perhaps missus Sullivan
- 47:43Speaker 1: concluded that in a big city like New York, it
- 47:47Speaker 1: is well for people to keep their mouths shut. Or
- 47:51Speaker 1: maybe she decided that Collins was merely boasting. On Friday,
- 47:57Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours after the robbery, a network
- 48:00Speaker 1: investigation was begun. Sixty detectives searched that part of the
- 48:06Speaker 1: city where Collins and Annie had lived, seeking further information.
- 48:12Speaker 1: Photograph galleries and other places were investigated on the chance
- 48:16Speaker 1: of finding pictures. Denizens of the underworld were talked with. Casually.
- 48:23Speaker 1: Professional criminals, prostitutes, dive keepers, receivers of stolen goods, and
- 48:30Speaker 1: other shady characters were brought before Commissioner Dougherty in couples
- 48:35Speaker 1: and half dozens for quick cross examination. By Saturday evening,
- 48:41Speaker 1: the police had some highly important information. It was learned
- 48:47Speaker 1: that Annie had been seen going away in the afternoon
- 48:50Speaker 1: of the robbery in a taxi cab, accompanied by two men,
- 48:55Speaker 1: one of whom was Collins and the other unknown. Good
- 49:00Speaker 1: descriptions were secured of Annie and her sweetheart, especially of
- 49:05Speaker 1: her hat, which was a cheap affair, but conspicuous by
- 49:10Speaker 1: reason of a row of little red roses. It was
- 49:14Speaker 1: also discovered that Collins had been a boxer, that he
- 49:17Speaker 1: hailed from Boston, and that his real name was Eddie Kinsman. Finally,
- 49:24Speaker 1: the police secured two photographs, one an indifferent picture of
- 49:29Speaker 1: Kinsman and the other an excellent portrait of Annie. These
- 49:34Speaker 1: were quickly put through the department's photograph gallery, where there
- 49:38Speaker 1: are facilities for making duplicates in a hurry, and more
- 49:42Speaker 1: than a hundred copies were soon ready for work, which
- 49:46Speaker 1: will be described in its proper place. The trail now
- 49:51Speaker 1: seemed to lead to Boston at all events. Further information
- 49:56Speaker 1: was to be secured there, and here came in a
- 49:59Speaker 1: lit refinement imparted by Commissioner Doherty's experience with the Pinkerton
- 50:04Speaker 1: forces for where this private detective organization works unhampered over
- 50:10Speaker 1: the whole country. The official police forces in most cities
- 50:15Speaker 1: confine their searches to their own territory. When it is
- 50:20Speaker 1: believed that criminals have left town, as in this case,
- 50:24Speaker 1: a general description is telegraphed to other cities. Doherty's method, however,
- 50:30Speaker 1: is always to send a man from his own staff
- 50:33Speaker 1: with detailed instructions. There are no local boundaries for him.
- 50:40Speaker 1: Late on Saturday night, Inspector Hughes of the Detective Bureau
- 50:45Speaker 1: slipped out of headquarters with Detective O'Connell and took a
- 50:49Speaker 1: train for Boston. Their departure was kept strictly secret. They
- 50:56Speaker 1: bid good night to associates, saying that they expected to
- 51:00Speaker 1: be up and at work again early next morning and
- 51:04Speaker 1: until their return on Monday. Everybody who asked for the
- 51:07Speaker 1: inspector was told that he is usually around the building
- 51:11Speaker 1: somewhere Montani points out King Dodo. All through Friday and Saturday,
- 51:20Speaker 1: while the Network investigation was going on, Commissioner Doherty continued
- 51:25Speaker 1: his examination of Montani. Some important information against him now
- 51:31Speaker 1: came from outside. It developed that Montani had been involved
- 51:37Speaker 1: several months before. In an insurance case claiming indemnity for
- 51:42Speaker 1: a burned automobile under a policy he had presented as
- 51:48Speaker 1: part of its value a bill for repairs amounting to
- 51:52Speaker 1: one thousand, three hundred and forty eight dollars. The insurance company, however,
- 51:58Speaker 1: had found that this bill was fraudulent, that the repairs
- 52:02Speaker 1: had never been made, and had obtained a statement to
- 52:06Speaker 1: that effect from the Italian chauffeur. Out of pity for
- 52:10Speaker 1: his wife and two children. The case was not pressed
- 52:14Speaker 1: against him now that he was involved in another crime. However,
- 52:19Speaker 1: the insurance people came forward and laid the facts before
- 52:23Speaker 1: the police. Of course, Montani knew nothing about this new development.
- 52:30Speaker 1: For two days, the chauffeur was questioned at intervals, and
- 52:34Speaker 1: the inquiry centered chiefly on the knotty points in his
- 52:38Speaker 1: story of the crime. He was particularly pressed for better
- 52:43Speaker 1: explanations of the slackening of his cab when the robbers
- 52:47Speaker 1: boarded it, but stuck to his original statement about a
- 52:51Speaker 1: man getting in front of the vehicle. He described this
- 52:55Speaker 1: person as an old man and said he must have
- 52:58Speaker 1: been in league with the criminal, as the police had
- 53:02Speaker 1: good evidence that there had been nobody in front of
- 53:05Speaker 1: the taxi cab. However, this point was returned to again
- 53:09Speaker 1: and again, and toward night on Saturday, February seventeenth, the
- 53:15Speaker 1: little chauffeur began to feel the strain. On his way
- 53:19Speaker 1: to supper that evening with the men from the detective Bureau,
- 53:24Speaker 1: Montani was taken through the bowery. Suddenly, he stopped dramatically
- 53:29Speaker 1: and exclaimed, there that is the old man who got
- 53:34Speaker 1: in front of my cab. His finger indicated a bowery
- 53:39Speaker 1: character as typical as anything ever seen in melodrama, a
- 53:43Speaker 1: ragged little old figure with an amazing set of whiskers,
- 53:48Speaker 1: engaged in picking up cigar butts along the gutters. He
- 53:53Speaker 1: was immediately taken to headquarters. No detail of his work
- 53:58Speaker 1: interests Commissioner Dora more keenly than his study of the
- 54:02Speaker 1: many picturesque characters who turn up as an important case unfolds.
- 54:08Speaker 1: He has a ready appreciation of everybody who appears, from
- 54:12Speaker 1: the society lady who lost her jewels to the typical
- 54:16Speaker 1: bowery loafer. He is as ready to look at facts
- 54:20Speaker 1: from a criminal's point of view as that of an
- 54:23Speaker 1: honest man. He has often gone half across the country
- 54:28Speaker 1: to get acquainted with a good burglar, and in this
- 54:32Speaker 1: warm human interest lies the basis of his skill as
- 54:35Speaker 1: an examiner of suspects. These details are set down not
- 54:41Speaker 1: in glorification of Doughty, but for the guidance of every
- 54:45Speaker 1: police officer interested in his methods. The moment Doherty laid
- 54:51Speaker 1: eyes on this new character with his magnificent whiskers, he
- 54:56Speaker 1: gave him a nickname, King Dodo, said the commissioner, and
- 55:02Speaker 1: by that name he was known in so far as
- 55:05Speaker 1: he figured in the case at all. King Dodo proved
- 55:09Speaker 1: to be entirely innocent, and nothing more than the victim
- 55:13Speaker 1: of a chance move of Montani's, who evidently thought that
- 55:17Speaker 1: he ought to produce something tangible to back up his
- 55:20Speaker 1: assertion that the cab had been intercepted by an old man.
- 55:26Speaker 1: King Dodo established a perfect alibi, proving that he had
- 55:30Speaker 1: been elsewhere at the time of the robbery, and after
- 55:34Speaker 1: being questioned and the truth of his story established, he
- 55:38Speaker 1: was released, there being no reason for holding him. I
- 55:43Speaker 1: feel safe, said the Commissioner, solemnly, in parolling you on
- 55:48Speaker 1: your own responsibility to appear again if wanted. There may
- 55:54Speaker 1: have been a heavier responsibility than had been put on
- 55:58Speaker 1: his shoulders in years, but he rose to it. Two
- 56:03Speaker 1: days later, a decently dressed, clean shaven, elderly gentleman came
- 56:09Speaker 1: in and asked for the Commissioner. He was all dulled
- 56:14Speaker 1: up in police parlance and looked like a retired small shopkeeper.
- 56:19Speaker 1: The staff did not recognize him for a moment, but
- 56:23Speaker 1: it was King Dodo doing his best to fill the
- 56:26Speaker 1: part of a minor figure in the Great Taxicab Mystery.
- 56:31Speaker 1: There being nothing for him to do, he dropped back
- 56:34Speaker 1: into private life. On his Sunday visit to Boston, Inspector
- 56:40Speaker 1: Hughes talked with Chief Inspector Watts of that city, learned
- 56:44Speaker 1: where Kinsman lived and that his family was a respectable one.
- 56:50Speaker 1: Found a bright patrolman named Dorsey who knew Kinsman and
- 56:54Speaker 1: gave more information about his personal appearance, habits, and career
- 56:59Speaker 1: as a box sir, desertion from the Navy, and so forth,
- 57:04Speaker 1: and made arrangements to have the Kinsman home watched so
- 57:08Speaker 1: that news of his return would be secured. Immediately it
- 57:12Speaker 1: was clear that Kinsmen had not returned to Boston. Discovery
- 57:18Speaker 1: of Kinsman's trail as soon as Inspector Hughes returned from
- 57:23Speaker 1: Boston on Monday morning. The Commissioner took steps to question
- 57:28Speaker 1: the crews of every train that had left New York
- 57:31Speaker 1: since one pm on the day of the robbery. Just
- 57:35Speaker 1: the other afternoon, the writer sat with a squad of
- 57:39Speaker 1: young detectives at police headquarters and heard a talk on
- 57:43Speaker 1: methods given by Doerty, and one point clearly brought out
- 57:48Speaker 1: was the usefulness to the thief catcher of routine information.
- 57:53Speaker 1: He began by relating an amusing incident some days before.
- 57:59Speaker 1: A detective had turned up at headquarters for instruction and
- 58:03Speaker 1: naively asked the Commissioner to lend him a pencil and
- 58:06Speaker 1: a slip of paper so he could make some notes.
- 58:11Speaker 1: Another detective was found who had only a hazy idea
- 58:15Speaker 1: of the location of New York's telephone exchanges. Taking these
- 58:20Speaker 1: as his text, the Commissioner explained the value to every
- 58:25Speaker 1: police officer of what might be called timetable information. Knowing
- 58:30Speaker 1: the depots and ferries, what roads run out of them,
- 58:35Speaker 1: the cities reached, the number and character of trains, the
- 58:40Speaker 1: general methods of dispatching trains, and so forth. The Commissioner
- 58:46Speaker 1: himself is as well informed on such matters as any
- 58:50Speaker 1: railroad man and thoroughly familiar with routine methods in many
- 58:55Speaker 1: other lines of work and business. How such knowledge can
- 58:59Speaker 1: be employed was shown by the next move in the
- 59:03Speaker 1: taxicab case. Detectives were sent to every railroad terminal to
- 59:09Speaker 1: secure lists of trains, learn the names of the crews,
- 59:14Speaker 1: and make out schedules of the time when each crew
- 59:17Speaker 1: would be back in the city. Then each man was
- 59:21Speaker 1: found and carefully questioned. His memory could be helped by
- 59:26Speaker 1: pictures of Kinsman and Annie, and by intimate details of
- 59:31Speaker 1: personal appearance and manner. The search bore fruit, though it
- 59:37Speaker 1: took time. On Wednesday, Detective Watson, who was a railroad
- 59:43Speaker 1: engineer before he joined the police, found that train number
- 59:47Speaker 1: thirteen on the New York Central had taken on three passengers.
- 59:52Speaker 1: Answering the descriptions on the afternoon of the robbery. They
- 59:57Speaker 1: had boarded the train at Peakskill, the town to which,
- 1:00:00Speaker 1: as it was subsequently learned, they had ridden in a
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: taxi cab. The conductor's attention had been drawn to Annie
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: by her smoking a cigarette on the sly in the
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: toilet of the day coach. He remembered her high cheekbones
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: and the black velvet hat with its little roses and
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: the athletic build of her men companions, who both appeared
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: to be boxers. It was also established that the trio
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: had gone to Albany, for one of the trainmen distinctly
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: remembered helping Annie down at that station. End of Section four,
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: Section five, Chapter two, Part four, Plant twenty one is established. Monday,
- 1:00:53Speaker 1: February nineteenth was an important day in more ways than one.
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: While the train investigation was going on, it was learned
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: that a woman known as Myrtle Horn, an intimate of Annie's,
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: had moved to a lower West Side rooming house, taking
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: Annie's trunk with her, as though Annie expected to return
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: to the city. After a preliminary survey, this house was
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: visited by Commissioner Dougherty in person. He explained that he
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: was a contractor about to build a section of the
- 1:01:28Speaker 1: new subway, and that he was looking for a quiet
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: room at a reasonable price where he might have some
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: of the comforts of home. After a little talk with
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: the landlady, it became clear that she was honest and trustworthy,
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: with no information of the new lodger who had taken
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: her front room in the basement arrangements were quickly made
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: to put this house inside and outside under constant surveillance.
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: Along in the evening, Missus Isabella Goodwin, a police matron,
- 1:02:03Speaker 1: was installed there. The commissioner brought her and carried her bundle.
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: The landlady and the matron had never seen each other
- 1:02:12Speaker 1: in their lives, but kissed ostentatiously and made considerable fuss
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: on the chance of being overheard. Missus Goodwin was planted
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: as the landlady's sister, who had come from Montreal to
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: live with her and help in the housework until she
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: could find a position in New York. The commissioner grumbled
- 1:02:35Speaker 1: a little about her stinginess in refusing to pay an
- 1:02:38Speaker 1: expressman to bring her bundle, and then took his departure,
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: explaining that the train had been late and the baby
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: was not well, and his wife, Aggie would be worried
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: about him, and so forth. Missus Goodwin established herself in
- 1:02:55Speaker 1: a room at the rear of the basement handy to
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: that occupied by Myrtle Horn, and kept her eyes and
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: ears open as she went about the housework, slipping out
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: to report when she had any information, and receiving instructions
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: outside surveillance. On this house was conducted from an empty
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: store across the street. Arrangements for the use of such
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: property are usually made by the police without difficulty, though
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: occasionally a close fisted owner expects rent. Blinds were put
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: up over the windows, peep holes made, and a few
- 1:03:34Speaker 1: hammers provided. With some nails and boards. Then six of
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: the best shadow men in the detective Bureau were stationed there.
- 1:03:45Speaker 1: They made a little noise occasionally in getting the store
- 1:03:49Speaker 1: ready for a big firm moving up from downtown, and
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: watched the house day and night. Whenever Myrtle went out,
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: she was followed. If if he had visitors, they were investigated.
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: This store was known by the code term of Plant
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: twenty one, so the reports could be sent without disclosing
- 1:04:10Speaker 1: police information. Montani goes free. On Monday, TiO Montani was
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: arraigned in court and discharged for what appeared to be
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: lack of any evidence against him. At this point, the
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: commissioner took the liberty of fooling the newspapermen for the
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: good of his case. Newspaper criticism for three days had
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: been particularly severe. Editors made many charges and were fertile
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: in suggestions as what ought to be done to reorganize
- 1:04:45Speaker 1: the presumably demoralized police department. The present writer feels confident, however,
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: that a careful search of the files for those days
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: will disclose hardly any suggestions likely to be at all
- 1:05:01Speaker 1: helpful to public servants in the discharge of duty. Many
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: questions with no real bearing on the case had been
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: brought up by the journalists, and the commissioner, who was
- 1:05:13Speaker 1: patient in answering the newspapermen, began to be a little tired.
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: On Sunday night, his big office was filled with reporters.
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: They sat about everywhere. He had admitted them because he
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: wanted them to see that he was working. From time
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: to time. They quizzed him in this fashion, Is it
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: true that you and Commissioner Waldo have quarreled? Is Waldo
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: going to resign? Do you favor the Sullivan law against pistols?
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: Will the deadline be maintained now? Hadn't the daily lineup
- 1:05:51Speaker 1: of criminals ought to be restored so the detectives will
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: know crooks when they see them. Hasn't mayor gain Or
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: tied the hands of the police, and so forth, and
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: so forth and so forth. Suddenly, on Sunday night, Dougherty
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: turned and read the newspaper mental lecture, He said that
- 1:06:13Speaker 1: he wanted them to understand that he was no spring
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: chicken at his business, that he was working eighteen hours
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: a day, and that he knew he would show results
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: if the people would only be patient and give him time.
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: His only recommendation in the way of new laws or
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: reforms was for a statute that would enable the police
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: to put known criminals without occupation or visible means of support,
- 1:06:41Speaker 1: at work mending roads. He outlined a plan which rather strangely,
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: did not get any attention in the newspapers at all.
- 1:06:52Speaker 1: His idea of dealing with idle criminals, he said, was
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: to have a cart with commissary and slip leaping quarters
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: for twelve men. As soon as twelve idle criminals with
- 1:07:05Speaker 1: records had been sentenced, they would pull this cart out
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: of town themselves under guard and go to work repairing roads.
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: If that plan were adopted, New York would not only
- 1:07:19Speaker 1: be as free from criminals as the district of Columbia,
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: where a similar measure is enforced, but the roads all
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: around the city would be so well cared for that
- 1:07:29Speaker 1: they could be used as roller skating rinks. The newspapers
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: next morning were quite certain that Commissioners Waldo and Dougherty
- 1:07:39Speaker 1: had quarreled, and when the journalists went down to report
- 1:07:43Speaker 1: Montani's examination in court, they were decidedly partial to the
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: taxi cab man. Dougherty had told the newspapermen beforehand that
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: he had evidence enough to have Montani held for trial.
- 1:07:59Speaker 1: He had made very positive statements about this. Montani would
- 1:08:04Speaker 1: be arraigned, he predicted, and if charged on one count,
- 1:08:08Speaker 1: would be immediately arrested on something else. If he was
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: discharged on that, he would still be arraigned on further charges.
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: It needs no very brilliant imagination, therefore, to picture the
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: effect upon the newspapers when Montani, after being arraigned on
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: the doubtful points in his own account of the crime
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: and those not too vigorously pressed, was discharged with comment
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: by the court upon the flimsiness of the police case.
- 1:08:42Speaker 1: There was one striking discrepancy in the evidence presented at
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: the examination, which, if pressed, should have resulted in the
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: holding of Montani for trial. He still insisted that he
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: had stopped his cab because an old man had got
- 1:08:59Speaker 1: in front of it, but this was denied by a witness.
- 1:09:04Speaker 1: That point was permitted to pass by Lieutenant Riley, who
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: appeared for the police. Montani could have been re arrested
- 1:09:13Speaker 1: on charges based upon his attempt to defraud the insurance company,
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: but he was permitted to go free. That course had
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: been decided on at police headquarters after some difference of opinion.
- 1:09:28Speaker 1: The newspapers were now more pessimistic than ever. In their
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: comment they contrasted this outcome with Doherty's promise that the
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: chauffeur would be re arrested. It was taken as a
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: confession of police incompetency and bewilderment, which, as will be
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: seen in its proper place, was very useful in its way.
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: Montani went free and was jubilant, calling on the Commissioner
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: next morning to thank him. But from the moment he
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: left court until he was arrested again, the Italian chauffeur
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: never got out of sight of the police department what
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: developed on a busy Tuesday. It was on the day
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: after Montani's release that Commissioner Doherty began to uncover more
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: interesting characters in the taxi cab drama, bit by bit
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: through points supplied by informants and persons who had come
- 1:10:29Speaker 1: in contact with him in various ways. A very good
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: working knowledge of the fugitive Kinsman was pieced together. It
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: appeared that he had come to New York the previous
- 1:10:42Speaker 1: summer from Boston, and, after a brief career as a boxer,
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: had gone to work in a sixth Avenue resort known
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: as the Nutshell Cafe, where he was a waiter. Among
- 1:10:55Speaker 1: his associates, there had been two characters who invited further inquiry.
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: The first of these was a fellow called Gene, described
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: as having a parrot nose and a criminal record. He
- 1:11:09Speaker 1: had been a close pal of Kinsmen and had also
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: introduced another intimate, a wily little Italian called Jess, who
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: had formerly owned a thieves resort, which he called the
- 1:11:22Speaker 1: Arch Cafe. A good description of Jess was secured. There
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: was some delay while the commissioner surrounded this last mentioned
- 1:11:33Speaker 1: resort to find out if it was a place where
- 1:11:36Speaker 1: any information might be obtained openly. The question was decided
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: in the negative, so a plain clothesman was quietly planted
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: there to pick up information. When a criminal is arrested
- 1:11:51Speaker 1: or falls, it is customary in the underworld to raise
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: a fund for his defense. The Arch Cafe was a
- 1:12:00Speaker 1: center for the deposit of such fall money. It was
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: learned that one hundred dollars had been raised for the
- 1:12:07Speaker 1: defense of a man named Clark alias Molloy, under arrest
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: in Brooklyn for robbery. This was the same Malloy to
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: whose fine character Kinsman had asked his landlady to swear
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: in court. The Italian named Jess had taken charge of
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: Molloy's defense fund, but squandered it in a spree, later
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: making it good. He had sent it over to Mlloy's
- 1:12:36Speaker 1: relief by Kinsman's pal Dutch and an Italian known as Matteo.
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: District inspectors of Police were then called upon to find
- 1:12:47Speaker 1: a detective who knew Jess, and an Italian plain clothesman,
- 1:12:52Speaker 1: Anthony Greco, who had grown up in that part of
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: New York where Jess had kept a cafe and who
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: knew the latter. Well was detailed with another detective to
- 1:13:03Speaker 1: look him up and keep him under surveillance. They found
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: that Jess, whose last name was Alberrazzo, had headquarters in
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: a tough resort in Thompson Street, kept by an Italian
- 1:13:17Speaker 1: named James Pascual, better known as Jimmy. The push from
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: that time, Jess was kept on tap to await further developments.
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: Then the Commissioner undertook to find out more about the
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: character called Gene. Working in New York as waiters and
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: bartenders were many members of a criminal band known as
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: the Forty Thieves of Boston. The Commissioner called in all
- 1:13:48Speaker 1: of them that he could find and sounded each for
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: information about this Gene. After the time of day had
- 1:13:56Speaker 1: been passed, the talk would turn on members of the
- 1:13:59Speaker 1: ban and criminals in general, and after curiosity had been excited,
- 1:14:06Speaker 1: Jane would be referred to casually. If the party interviewed
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: said he knew Gene, the commissioner would probably be skeptical,
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: ask his last name, press for details of appearance and habits,
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: and then passed to some other subject. It was found
- 1:14:26Speaker 1: that Jean's last name was splain, that he had served
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: a term in prison in Boston as a boy, and
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: that by his general description, he must be the third
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: fugitive accompanying Kinsman and Annie. When Detective Watson got better
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: descriptions of the third man at Albany, and comparisons were
- 1:14:49Speaker 1: made with sources of information in New York, it became
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: practically certain that Gene Splain was with kinsmen Annie shows
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: at Plant twenty one. It was on this day, too, Tuesday,
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: February twentieth, that Swede Annie suddenly stepped into police view.
- 1:15:11Speaker 1: Wearing a new hat. She turned up quietly at the
- 1:15:15Speaker 1: house where Myrtle Horn had moved with her trunk and
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: began living in the front basement room. Matron Goodwin and
- 1:15:24Speaker 1: Plant twenty one immediately reported her presence, and from that
- 1:15:29Speaker 1: time the shadowmen across the street had something to do
- 1:15:33Speaker 1: besides driving nails. For whenever Annie or Myrtle went out
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: of the house, they were followed. Shadowing is a highly
- 1:15:44Speaker 1: interesting kind of police work, at which some men have
- 1:15:47Speaker 1: exceptional ability. The general conception is that of a detective
- 1:15:53Speaker 1: following closely behind the suspected person, with his eyes glued
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: to him, and viciously crouching behind lamp posts and trees
- 1:16:03Speaker 1: when the victim turns suddenly, but that is far from
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: the real thing. The work is done in ways altogether.
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: Different shadow men operate in pairs as a rule, and
- 1:16:17Speaker 1: keep track of their party from vantage points not likely
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: to be suspected. They dress according to the character of
- 1:16:25Speaker 1: the case, always in quiet clothes changed daily, and with
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: absolutely no colors that will attract attention or lead to recognition.
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: Through the memory, they know how to follow when the
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: person under surveillance rides in cabs, cars, or trains, to
- 1:16:45Speaker 1: cover the different exits from a building into which he
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: or she may have gone, and to loiter several hours
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: around a given neighborhood if need be, without attracting the
- 1:16:56Speaker 1: attention of honest citizens. This work is done by shifts.
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: The operators relieve each other almost as regularly as office employees,
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: no matter how far the trail may have taken them.
- 1:17:11Speaker 1: They are in constant touch with headquarters for the purpose
- 1:17:15Speaker 1: of making reports and receiving instructions. In this branch of
- 1:17:21Speaker 1: detective work, as in many others, the chief requisite is resourcefulness.
- 1:17:27Speaker 1: The detective of fact wears little disguise apart from clothes
- 1:17:33Speaker 1: that fit the surroundings he moves in. But he has
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: an instant knack at accounting for himself as a normal
- 1:17:40Speaker 1: character who has happened quite naturally into the scene. Ready
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: wits do the trick, not false whiskers. Thus it came
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: about that whenever Annie and Myrtle were hungry and sat
- 1:17:55Speaker 1: down in a restaurant, what they said was noted by
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: a couple of fellows at as another table, who quickly
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: made a party of the chance patrons. They found there
- 1:18:05Speaker 1: discussing wages, or the Suffragettes, or if Annie used the
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: telephone in a drug store. A polite young man, turning
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: over the directory, said to her go ahead, lady, I'm
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: in no hurry, and listened. At the same time, Matron
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: Goodwin was reporting conversations from inside the house. It appeared
- 1:18:31Speaker 1: that Kinsman had sent Annie back to the city after
- 1:18:35Speaker 1: buying her a new hat and giving her one hundred
- 1:18:38Speaker 1: and twenty five dollars. He promised to write soon, but
- 1:18:43Speaker 1: did not tell her where he was going. Toward the
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: end of the week, as no letter arrived, Annie began
- 1:18:51Speaker 1: worrying and was talkative. She feared that Eddie no longer
- 1:18:56Speaker 1: loved her. She reproached herself for letting him go without
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: taking her along, and spoke of setting out to find him.
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: End of Section five, Section six, Chapter two, Part five,
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: The trail is taken up. It was now Wednesday, February
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: twenty first, and all the careful detail work began to
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: come together. It was this day that Detective Watson found
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: the crew of train number thirteen on the New York Central,
- 1:19:33Speaker 1: which had taken Kinsman, Annie and Splain aboard at Peakskill
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: the afternoon of the robbery, after they had ridden out
- 1:19:41Speaker 1: of New York in a taxi cab to avoid possible
- 1:19:45Speaker 1: police surveillance at the railroad stations, Commissioner Doherty dispatched Watson
- 1:19:52Speaker 1: to Peak Skill and Albany with thorough instructions. His motto
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: in working out a case is soup is half the battle.
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: When you get to Albany, he said, go to that
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: big hat store on Broadway near the station. I'll bet
- 1:20:11Speaker 1: that's where Annie's new hat was bought. They sell the
- 1:20:15Speaker 1: best millinery in the country outside of New York. Nothing
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: important was learned at Peak Skill, but at Albany, sure enough,
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: Detective Watson found the saleswoman right in that big hat
- 1:20:29Speaker 1: store who had sold the new hat and secured Annie's
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: discarded headgear. The new hat had cost twenty five dollars,
- 1:20:40Speaker 1: the old one looked as though it might have cost
- 1:20:42Speaker 1: ninety five cents a Division Street special. Its black velvet
- 1:20:49Speaker 1: was of the cheapest grade. The famous little red roses
- 1:20:53Speaker 1: proved to be on close inspection, nothing more than little
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: loops of pink cotton cloth, and the general state of
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: the hat indicated that it was about time Annie had
- 1:21:04Speaker 1: a new one. This interesting bonnet, however, seemed just then
- 1:21:10Speaker 1: more handsome than any costly article of millinery ever smuggled
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: over from Paris. It was immediately sent to New York
- 1:21:19Speaker 1: by express with a copy of the sales slip covering
- 1:21:22Speaker 1: the purchase. The saleswoman was able to add one or
- 1:21:26Speaker 1: two details of description, and remembered how after the woman
- 1:21:31Speaker 1: had selected a hat, the two men had joked about
- 1:21:34Speaker 1: who was to pay for it. She's your girl, said Splain,
- 1:21:40Speaker 1: and so kinsman had paid the bill with five five
- 1:21:44Speaker 1: dollar bills. Nothing could be learned as to the direction
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: in which the two men meant to travel. Detective Watson
- 1:21:52Speaker 1: now began a search among train crews running out of
- 1:21:56Speaker 1: Albany and commissioned Doherty in New York got the Albany
- 1:22:01Speaker 1: ticket sellers by long distance telephone. His knowledge of how
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: railroad tickets are sold, accounted for, taken up, canceled, and
- 1:22:11Speaker 1: checked by the auditing Department made it possible to sift
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: matters down to the strongest kind of probability. After considerable telephoning,
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: aided by Detective Watson on the spot. It was determined
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: that Kinsman and Splain had been the purchasers of two
- 1:22:31Speaker 1: consecutively numbered tickets for Chicago sold together on Friday morning,
- 1:22:37Speaker 1: twenty four hours after the robbery, and that they had
- 1:22:41Speaker 1: gone west on train number three, leaving Albany at twelve
- 1:22:46Speaker 1: ten PM. Their tickets were available for that train, and
- 1:22:51Speaker 1: the conclusion was strengthened by calculating Annie's movements, for it
- 1:22:56Speaker 1: was found that she had come back to New York
- 1:22:59Speaker 1: the same day between four and five in the afternoon.
- 1:23:04Speaker 1: She had kept out of sight until she appeared at
- 1:23:07Speaker 1: Myrtle Horn's lodging and was reported by Matron Goodwin and
- 1:23:12Speaker 1: Plant twenty one on Tuesday, but she must have taken
- 1:23:17Speaker 1: a train from Albany about the time that the men
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: were starting for Chicago, reaching New York at three forty
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: five p m. Commissioner Dougherty felt that the chances of
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: finding his men in Chicago were so good that, without
- 1:23:32Speaker 1: wasting time in an investigation of the crew of train
- 1:23:36Speaker 1: number three, he put Detective Daily and Claire aboard a
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: Chicago train that same night. Kinsman and Splain would both
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: find congenial company among the pugilists in Chicago. These detectives
- 1:23:53Speaker 1: were given names to conceal their identity and ordered to
- 1:23:57Speaker 1: report under the code term of orange Growers to eliminate
- 1:24:01Speaker 1: all flavor of police business. They received detailed instructions about
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: where to go and what to do again. The Commissioner
- 1:24:12Speaker 1: covered the trail when it led out of New York
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: by sending capable assistance instead of merely wiring the police
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: in other cities. Before the orange Growers departed, the boss
- 1:24:25Speaker 1: gave them a little talk about expenses. The detective attached
- 1:24:31Speaker 1: to a municipal police force is very often hampered by
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: fear of making unusual expenditures. A counting routine is strict.
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: Telegrams are often limited to the minimum of ten words,
- 1:24:45Speaker 1: where one hundred are needed to send a working description
- 1:24:49Speaker 1: or report. The long distance telephone is used as a
- 1:24:53Speaker 1: luxury and in many instances where the plain clothesmen can
- 1:24:58Speaker 1: get valuable information through informant, he pays the shot out
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: of his own pocket because there is no other way
- 1:25:05Speaker 1: of paying it, and trusts to the chance that this
- 1:25:09Speaker 1: private investment out of his salary will help him break
- 1:25:13Speaker 1: a knotty case. Commissioner Dougherty told the orange growers that
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: they would be kept on this trail if it led
- 1:25:21Speaker 1: all around the world. They must not consider expenditure when
- 1:25:25Speaker 1: there was vital information to put in the wire. He
- 1:25:30Speaker 1: expected them to turn to the long distance telephone whenever
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: they needed new instructions in a hurry. Briefly, he took
- 1:25:39Speaker 1: the blinders and shackles off them and sent them out
- 1:25:43Speaker 1: to do good work, and the outcome justified this far sightedness.
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: At that period of the winter, trains were delayed everywhere
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: by storms, so the orange growers had opportunities to make
- 1:25:58Speaker 1: inquiries at stateations and railroad restaurants all along the line
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: to Buffalo. They were in search of their brother, who
- 1:26:07Speaker 1: was described in terms of Kinsman's personal appearance, and was
- 1:26:12Speaker 1: supposed to be on his way somewhere with another man.
- 1:26:16Speaker 1: At Syracuse, an observant waitress remembered their brother distinctly, having
- 1:26:22Speaker 1: served both the men when their train stopped for supper. Finally,
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: the two orange growers got snowed up in Michigan for
- 1:26:32Speaker 1: a time, and there we will leave them for the present.
- 1:26:38Speaker 1: Montani quizzed once more. By Thursday, many loose ends of
- 1:26:44Speaker 1: the case were being brought together, so effectually that the
- 1:26:48Speaker 1: outlook seemed exceedingly bright, but only to the executive circle
- 1:26:54Speaker 1: in Doherty's office. Outside, all was dark. Newspaper criticism had
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: become more caustic than ever, and the public, after the
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: ingrained habit of New York, was turning its attention to
- 1:27:08Speaker 1: fresher news sensations. At a big annual dinner of police
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: officials held that evening February twenty second, the atmosphere of
- 1:27:18Speaker 1: gloom resting upon the department was most tangible. The fourteen
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: hundred guests, who were chiefly police inspectors, captains and lieutenants,
- 1:27:30Speaker 1: felt that a stigma lay upon the service with which
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: they were identified. They had no means of knowing, of course,
- 1:27:38Speaker 1: that one week from that night, the gloom would have lifted,
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: criticism be turned to praise, and that policemen generally would
- 1:27:46Speaker 1: be as a witty lieutenant put it back to our
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: official standing again, which never was so very high. Montani
- 1:27:56Speaker 1: had called at police headquarters repeatedly, companied by his unseen shadowers.
- 1:28:03Speaker 1: He professed to be anxious to furnish further information if
- 1:28:07Speaker 1: it lay in his power, and the Commissioner chatted with
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: him cordially, leading him to believe that he no longer
- 1:28:14Speaker 1: rested under the slightest suspicion. On Friday, Dougherty made an
- 1:28:20Speaker 1: interesting effort to break Montani. He now had a minute
- 1:28:25Speaker 1: physical description of Kinsman, as well as two photographs of him.
- 1:28:30Speaker 1: The chauffeur was asked to describe once more the man
- 1:28:34Speaker 1: who had sat upon the cab seat with him. The
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: questions went over details from head to foot, and were
- 1:28:42Speaker 1: prompted by details of Kinsman's real appearance. Montani said the
- 1:28:48Speaker 1: man had large brown eyes, which was true. He remembered
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: that he had talked with a good American accent and
- 1:28:56Speaker 1: used words not common to the criminal, which was also
- 1:29:00Speaker 1: more or less true. He suddenly recalled a gold filled
- 1:29:05Speaker 1: tooth in the robber's upper right hand jaw, a point
- 1:29:08Speaker 1: already furnished by informants. In fact, as this new examination
- 1:29:14Speaker 1: went on, it became clear to the commissioner that Montani
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: was actually describing Kinsman, changing only one detail. He said
- 1:29:24Speaker 1: that the robber had had a dark mustache, while it
- 1:29:28Speaker 1: was certain that Kinsmen had been smooth shaven. Suddenly, the
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: commissioner tried what is known as a shot. The examiner
- 1:29:37Speaker 1: in such an inquiry is often in possession of incriminating evidence,
- 1:29:43Speaker 1: Instead of producing it bluntly as evidence, however, he will
- 1:29:47Speaker 1: perhaps let it slip out bit by bit, as though
- 1:29:50Speaker 1: by awkwardness, meanwhile maintaining an appearance of absolute confidence in
- 1:29:56Speaker 1: the suspect's integrity. US example of this device is found
- 1:30:02Speaker 1: in the Russian writer Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. The skillful
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: shot is usually far more disconcerting than evidence produced openly
- 1:30:12Speaker 1: to overwhelm, for the suspect assumes that the examiner really
- 1:30:17Speaker 1: knows nothing and is merely blundered. So he is on
- 1:30:22Speaker 1: his guard outwardly, but he also worries inwardly, and this
- 1:30:27Speaker 1: trying conflict between inner doubt and the need for keeping
- 1:30:31Speaker 1: up outer calm will often break him down completely. Doherty's
- 1:30:38Speaker 1: shot was a photograph of Kinsmen. By pre arrangement, an
- 1:30:43Speaker 1: assistant came into the office and began turning over some
- 1:30:47Speaker 1: papers on the commissioner's desk. The photo of Kinsman popped
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: out where Montani could see it plainly, and then was
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: hurriedly put out of sight again. The commissioner scolded his assistant,
- 1:31:01Speaker 1: and the latter stood shamefaced and silent. But in this
- 1:31:06Speaker 1: instance the device failed, Montani not only betrayed no interest
- 1:31:12Speaker 1: in Kinsman's picture, but took the awkward assistance part and
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: asked the commissioner not to scold him. Montani had planned
- 1:31:22Speaker 1: his crime, fitted the plan with men, laid out every
- 1:31:26Speaker 1: detail in his mind, and arranged his story beforehand. He
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: expected to be arrested and said so. He admitted that
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: there were inconsistencies in his story, but hoped to clear
- 1:31:40Speaker 1: them up. He had discussed the crime with Jeffs and
- 1:31:44Speaker 1: Dutch and had not been seen in the company of
- 1:31:47Speaker 1: the other criminals, So having settled on his story, Montani
- 1:31:53Speaker 1: stuck to it without variation under every form of pressure.
- 1:31:58Speaker 1: Others forgot what they had arranged as their defense, or
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: departed from it, or broke down and confessed, but not Montani.
- 1:32:08Speaker 1: He alone went to trial and stuck to his story
- 1:32:11Speaker 1: until the end end of Section six, Chapter two, Part six,
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: The Orange Growers in Chicago. When Daly and Claire, the
- 1:32:27Speaker 1: two New York detectives working as the Orange Growers, arrived
- 1:32:32Speaker 1: in Chicago, they went to police headquarters in that city,
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: made inquiries about Kinsmen and Splain, and secured the aid
- 1:32:41Speaker 1: of Chicago detectives. Then they put up at a hotel, where,
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: by arrangements with the house detective, they occupied a room
- 1:32:50Speaker 1: on the second floor, handy to a little used stairway
- 1:32:53Speaker 1: leading to a side street, which would make it easy
- 1:32:57Speaker 1: to slip in and out without going through the law.
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: On the trip from New York, both of them had
- 1:33:04Speaker 1: neglected shaving, and Daily was an especially tough looking citizen,
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: for his beard grows out stiff and bristly, with black
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: and red intermixed, and a little green to help the
- 1:33:17Speaker 1: general effect. With suits of old clothes and sweaters, they
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: were so little like their official selves that for several days,
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: though they went rather freely around resorts frequented by crooks
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: who knew them in New York, they were not recognized.
- 1:33:36Speaker 1: The orange growers now became a pair of hardened yeggmen
- 1:33:40Speaker 1: or bank robbers, and for three days were busy visiting
- 1:33:45Speaker 1: thieves haunts all over the city, from the Levee district
- 1:33:49Speaker 1: to the stockyards. It was found that Kinsman and Splain
- 1:33:54Speaker 1: had put up at a high class boarding house in
- 1:33:56Speaker 1: a fashionable residence. Section seemed to be doubtful about the
- 1:34:01Speaker 1: impression Splain might make there, though in the opinion of
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: the police Splain was by far the more intelligent of
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: the pair, so he took the landlady aside and asked
- 1:34:14Speaker 1: her privately if she had objections to a prize fighter
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: in her house. The landlady replied, why no, if he
- 1:34:23Speaker 1: is a gentleman. Many prize fighters are just like other people.
- 1:34:29Speaker 1: Thereupon Kinsman undertook that Splain should behave himself. He also
- 1:34:35Speaker 1: wanted to know if valuables were safe there, and the
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: astonished landlady assured him that her house was like a home,
- 1:34:43Speaker 1: that the guests were like one big family and seldom
- 1:34:47Speaker 1: locked their doors, and that mister Smith, well known as
- 1:34:52Speaker 1: an officer in one of the leading banks, had lived
- 1:34:55Speaker 1: there for years. The pair had spent considerable time in
- 1:35:00Speaker 1: criminal haunts, but had now disappeared. Kinsman, as it was
- 1:35:06Speaker 1: learned later, had returned to New York. Splain was apparently
- 1:35:11Speaker 1: in Chicago, still spending his money, but the two orange
- 1:35:15Speaker 1: growers seemed never to catch up with them. Their man
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: had always gone around the corner within the past hour. Finally,
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: they planned a ruse with the aid of two Chicago detectives.
- 1:35:30Speaker 1: Splain had been intimate with a certain woman of the
- 1:35:32Speaker 1: underworld known as Josie. Claire went to her, represented himself
- 1:35:39Speaker 1: as a stick up man, said he and his partner
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: were after that guy with all the money and diamonds,
- 1:35:45Speaker 1: meaning Splain, and that they meant to rob him. If
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: Josie worked with them like a good girl, she would
- 1:35:53Speaker 1: come in for her third of the plunder. Josie professed
- 1:35:58Speaker 1: ignorance was sure so help her might cross her heart,
- 1:36:04Speaker 1: that she knew nothing about no gent with any money
- 1:36:07Speaker 1: or diamonds. No such a party had been near the
- 1:36:11Speaker 1: house in months. Worse luck, Claire argued awhile with no results,
- 1:36:17Speaker 1: and then said he would come back a little later
- 1:36:20Speaker 1: and bring his pal. Then Daley was introduced to Josie
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: as the extremely undesirable citizen who would do the strong
- 1:36:29Speaker 1: arm work, but Josie still insisted that she had no
- 1:36:34Speaker 1: idea what they were talking about. They went out, and
- 1:36:39Speaker 1: within a few minutes the two Chicago detectives Dempsey and
- 1:36:43Speaker 1: mc farland, known by Josie as officers, came in, described
- 1:36:49Speaker 1: the disguised Claire and Daily as two of the most
- 1:36:52Speaker 1: desperate yegmen in the country, said that they had warrants
- 1:36:56Speaker 1: for them, and asked if they had been seen Josie
- 1:37:01Speaker 1: crossed her heart again and said that there had been
- 1:37:04Speaker 1: nobody around there all evening. Believe her, it was like
- 1:37:08Speaker 1: living the simple life, and if things kept on beIN
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: so quiet, she had blow the town and go back
- 1:37:15Speaker 1: to Kiakuk. Then enter the two orange growers once more,
- 1:37:21Speaker 1: to be warned by the fair. Josie say, the bulls
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: here are after you boys, and you'd better pull your freight,
- 1:37:30Speaker 1: cause if you stay round here, they're gonna get you.
- 1:37:35Speaker 1: Ah hell was the reply. We'd just as live kill
- 1:37:39Speaker 1: a copp or anybody else. We stick in this house
- 1:37:42Speaker 1: till you tell us where we can reach that guy
- 1:37:45Speaker 1: with the money and the diamonds. Understand. Then Josie broke
- 1:37:50Speaker 1: down and told them Splain had been there early in
- 1:37:53Speaker 1: the evening but had gone away to take a train
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: out of town. She did not know the real road,
- 1:38:00Speaker 1: and urged them to leave. This was evidently the truth,
- 1:38:05Speaker 1: so they hurried to police headquarters, telegraphed descriptions to other
- 1:38:10Speaker 1: cities with a request that arriving trains be watched, and
- 1:38:15Speaker 1: went to bed to get a little sleep so that
- 1:38:17Speaker 1: they could be at work early the next morning. But
- 1:38:21Speaker 1: in the morning word came from the Memphis police that
- 1:38:25Speaker 1: Splain had been arrested there on alighting from a train,
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: and they thereupon notified New York, went to Memphis, secured
- 1:38:34Speaker 1: Splain on extradition papers, and brought him back to the metropolis.
- 1:38:41Speaker 1: The traps are sprung. On Saturday afternoon, February twenty fourth,
- 1:38:48Speaker 1: while most of the energy of the detective Bureau was
- 1:38:51Speaker 1: centered on the taxicab case, a brutal murder was committed
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. Word came that a Flatbush merchant had been
- 1:39:00Speaker 1: found dead in his store, shot by unknown criminals whose
- 1:39:04Speaker 1: motive was robbery. They had taken his watch and five
- 1:39:09Speaker 1: safety raisers. Inspector Hughes was sent to the scene of
- 1:39:13Speaker 1: the crime, and Commissioner Doherty quickly followed. The murder occurred
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: about one pm. By six o'clock the same day, the
- 1:39:25Speaker 1: number of the watch had been learned through a canvas
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: of jewelers in the neighborhood, it being on record by
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: one of them who had repaired it, and the watch
- 1:39:34Speaker 1: and two of the safety raisers had been found in
- 1:39:37Speaker 1: pawn shops. Descriptions of the murderers were obtained, and by
- 1:39:43Speaker 1: three o'clock Sunday the following day, their identity had been established.
- 1:39:49Speaker 1: Within thirty hours after the crime. These men had been arrested,
- 1:39:54Speaker 1: positively identified as the ponders of the stolen articles, and
- 1:39:59Speaker 1: completely with their own statements. At half past nine Sunday night,
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: while the Commissioner, Inspector Hughes and Captain Coughlin, in charge
- 1:40:10Speaker 1: of Brooklyn Detectives, and Lieutenant Riley were winding up their
- 1:40:14Speaker 1: work on this murder case, words suddenly came over the
- 1:40:18Speaker 1: telephone to Commissioner Dougherty from an informant that Eddie Kinsman
- 1:40:23Speaker 1: had been seen in New York with Swede Annie, and
- 1:40:27Speaker 1: that he was accompanied by an unknown man wearing a
- 1:40:30Speaker 1: red necktie, supposed to be Gene Splain. At the same time,
- 1:40:37Speaker 1: Matron Goodwin, stationed inside Annie's lodgings, telephoned that she had
- 1:40:43Speaker 1: information indicating the Kinsmen had returned to the city. When
- 1:40:48Speaker 1: the Commissioner motored over to New York, he found his
- 1:40:52Speaker 1: men covering a hotel on Third Avenue, not far from
- 1:40:56Speaker 1: forty second Street. Kinsman and d Annie were inside. The
- 1:41:03Speaker 1: Commissioner hurried to the eighteenth Precinct police station and sent
- 1:41:07Speaker 1: out a call for twenty five detectives teamwork on the case.
- 1:41:12Speaker 1: Had developed to such a degree by this time that
- 1:41:16Speaker 1: though the men came from many stations, they were all
- 1:41:20Speaker 1: on hand in record time, a matter of twenty or
- 1:41:23Speaker 1: thirty minutes. Then a squad of these plain clothesmen was
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: sent to watch every railroad station and ferry house, each
- 1:41:33Speaker 1: accompanied by one of the men from Plant twenty one,
- 1:41:36Speaker 1: familiar with Annie from having followed her movements for a week.
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: Surveillance on the hotel was strengthened, and steps taken to
- 1:41:46Speaker 1: ascertain whether the unknown man in the red tie was
- 1:41:49Speaker 1: really splain. While making these arrangements, a curious incident occurred,
- 1:41:56Speaker 1: showing how small is New York after all, with its
- 1:41:59Speaker 1: five million people. As Doherty sat in the eighteenth Precinct station,
- 1:42:06Speaker 1: Detective Rain brought in a prisoner arrested for shooting a citizen.
- 1:42:11Speaker 1: He was drunk and extremely disagreeable, and gave his name
- 1:42:15Speaker 1: as Steegel, living at ninety eight Third Avenue. Something in
- 1:42:21Speaker 1: this address echoed to something in Doherty's memory. A keen
- 1:42:25Speaker 1: one for names, dates, addresses, and facts generally, he investigated
- 1:42:32Speaker 1: further and found that this prisoner was no other than
- 1:42:35Speaker 1: the criminal Molloy, whose urgent need of character witnesses had
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: played so important a part in furnishing the first information
- 1:42:44Speaker 1: in the taxicab case. By some mischance, these operations came
- 1:42:50Speaker 1: to the ears of the newspaper men. Word went about
- 1:42:55Speaker 1: beginning in Brooklyn that important arrests were to be made.
- 1:43:00Speaker 1: The reporters followed the commissioner in a crowd when he
- 1:43:03Speaker 1: refused to make a statement. They not only hampered the
- 1:43:07Speaker 1: work but greatly endangered the outcome. On the following day, Monday,
- 1:43:14Speaker 1: the papers published information about the police activities of the
- 1:43:17Speaker 1: night before the hazard. Here may be appreciated when the
- 1:43:23Speaker 1: reader is told that Kinsman had been a persistent reader
- 1:43:26Speaker 1: of newspapers from the day of the robbery, and that
- 1:43:29Speaker 1: it was largely the pessimistic newspaper comment upon Montani's release
- 1:43:34Speaker 1: in court that led him to return to New York.
- 1:43:39Speaker 1: Deceived by the newspaper chorus of police demoralization and the
- 1:43:44Speaker 1: easy way in which Montani had got free, he concluded
- 1:43:48Speaker 1: that the taxicab investigation had been given up as hopeless.
- 1:43:54Speaker 1: Kinsman was arrested in the Grand Central station at half
- 1:43:58Speaker 1: past eleven Monday morning, with Swede Annie and the unknown
- 1:44:02Speaker 1: in the red Tie. They were about to set out
- 1:44:06Speaker 1: for Boston. There were some amusing circumstances in the arrest.
- 1:44:12Speaker 1: Kinsman's immunity overnight and police precaution in deferring the arrest
- 1:44:18Speaker 1: until the last moment on the chance that other persons
- 1:44:21Speaker 1: would join the party gave him a false confidence. He
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: afterward admitted that ideas of a pinch at that time
- 1:44:30Speaker 1: were far from his mind. When a criminal thought to
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: be dangerous is to be arrested in a crowded place
- 1:44:38Speaker 1: like the Grand Central Station, police officers operate by methods
- 1:44:43Speaker 1: that prevent a struggle. As two detectives closed in on
- 1:44:47Speaker 1: the party, Kinsmen watched one of them out of the
- 1:44:50Speaker 1: corner of his eye. While a waiter at the Nutshell Cafe,
- 1:44:56Speaker 1: he had often thrown objectionable guests out onto the sidewalk.
- 1:45:01Speaker 1: He now fancied that one of the detectives resembled a
- 1:45:05Speaker 1: man he had once bounced and was ready to fight
- 1:45:08Speaker 1: if attacked. I was just folding it up, he said,
- 1:45:14Speaker 1: referring to his fist and getting ready to land on him.
- 1:45:18Speaker 1: When one had me from behind and the other in front,
- 1:45:23Speaker 1: then I knew there were cops. Annie was gorgeously dressed
- 1:45:28Speaker 1: in a new blue suit, and fine fur coat bought
- 1:45:32Speaker 1: out of the taxi cab money. The unknown man proved
- 1:45:37Speaker 1: to be Kinsman's brother, who had come down from Boston
- 1:45:40Speaker 1: with him. Kinsman had visited his native city before returning
- 1:45:45Speaker 1: to New York, but had escaped the police net there
- 1:45:49Speaker 1: by stopping at a hotel and sending for his brother.
- 1:45:53Speaker 1: He sent a grip home by this brother, and it
- 1:45:57Speaker 1: was afterward found to contain three packages of bills of
- 1:46:01Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars each in the original wrappers
- 1:46:05Speaker 1: of the bank. As soon as words of these arrests
- 1:46:10Speaker 1: was telephoned to police headquarters, the other traps were sprung.
- 1:46:15Speaker 1: Detectives brought in Montani, jess Albrazzo, and Myrtle Horn, the
- 1:46:21Speaker 1: latter with Annie being held as witnesses. End of Chapter two.
- 1:46:29Speaker 1: End of section seven. Chapter three, Part one, How the
- 1:46:35Speaker 1: crime was handled by the police. The confessions now begins
- 1:46:41Speaker 1: some of the most interesting work connected with the taxicab case,
- 1:46:46Speaker 1: the examination of the first prisoners which led to confessions,
- 1:46:50Speaker 1: the implication of other guilty persons not yet under arrest,
- 1:46:55Speaker 1: and the voluntary pleas of guilty in court, which saved
- 1:46:59Speaker 1: costly trial in all but Montani's case, This sort of
- 1:47:04Speaker 1: work is familiar under the term of third degree. It
- 1:47:09Speaker 1: is popularly supposed to be accompanied by force and sometimes brutality,
- 1:47:15Speaker 1: and in the wrong hands often is Commissioner Dougherty's experience
- 1:47:21Speaker 1: with a commercial detective agency, however, has led him to
- 1:47:25Speaker 1: develop intelligent methods. The commercial detective organization is none of
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: the authority of an official police force, and at the
- 1:47:34Speaker 1: same time, through its national operations and the general character
- 1:47:38Speaker 1: of its work, deals chiefly with the most accomplished criminals. Therefore,
- 1:47:45Speaker 1: tact and legal subtlety are depended upon in examining suspects,
- 1:47:50Speaker 1: and the Commissioner long ago learned to get his results
- 1:47:54Speaker 1: mainly by straight question and answer. He puts his own
- 1:47:58Speaker 1: wits against those of the suspect, backed by experience. In
- 1:48:02Speaker 1: many other cases, he has a practical grasp of criminal psychology,
- 1:48:09Speaker 1: as well as many ingenious ways of using evidence to
- 1:48:12Speaker 1: the best purpose, overwhelming the suspect and breaking down stolidity
- 1:48:18Speaker 1: and deception. Doherty is not only opposed to force in
- 1:48:22Speaker 1: the third degree, but knows that it is of absolutely
- 1:48:26Speaker 1: no use. The first prisoner examined was Eddie Kinsman. When
- 1:48:33Speaker 1: he was brought to police headquarters Kinsmen appeared to be
- 1:48:36Speaker 1: thoroughly satisfied with himself and confident that no policeman would
- 1:48:41Speaker 1: get anything out of him. He proved to be a
- 1:48:45Speaker 1: good looking young fellow of athletic build and by no
- 1:48:49Speaker 1: means a fool. Methods of examination are never twice alike,
- 1:48:55Speaker 1: for they depend upon the case and the suspect. As
- 1:48:59Speaker 1: a rule. However, when the criminal first sits down to
- 1:49:03Speaker 1: answer Commissioner Dougherty, he is astonished by that gentleman's apparent
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: lack of guile and ignorance of worldly knowledge. When Dougherty
- 1:49:13Speaker 1: composes himself for an inquiry, he is rather a heavy
- 1:49:17Speaker 1: looking citizen, not unlike a country magistrate, and his first
- 1:49:22Speaker 1: questions put for the purpose of determining the suspect's character
- 1:49:26Speaker 1: and previous surroundings usually relate to bald routine matters such
- 1:49:32Speaker 1: as name, age, residence, education, family, and so on. G
- 1:49:39Speaker 1: thinks the suspect, this guy is the biggest lobster I
- 1:49:43Speaker 1: ever got up against. I wonder how he ever got
- 1:49:47Speaker 1: to be a police commissioner. He must have a strong
- 1:49:50Speaker 1: political pull. Kinsman was ushered into a large, quiet office,
- 1:49:57Speaker 1: where this bureaucratic official began by asking his name, birthplace,
- 1:50:01Speaker 1: and other details. Will you kindly stand up a minute
- 1:50:06Speaker 1: while I get your height, asked the questioner, and Kinsman
- 1:50:10Speaker 1: did so in a patronizing way. Then the dull looking
- 1:50:14Speaker 1: gentleman turned back Kinsman's coat and looked at the little
- 1:50:18Speaker 1: label sewed in the inside pocket. I see that you
- 1:50:23Speaker 1: have been in Chicago recently, he observed. This suit was
- 1:50:27Speaker 1: made by a tailor there. You ordered it February seventeenth,
- 1:50:32Speaker 1: two days after the robbery. He looked into Kinsman's hat.
- 1:50:38Speaker 1: That was bought in Chicago too. He examined the label
- 1:50:42Speaker 1: on Kinsman's tie. This was also bot in Chicago. He
- 1:50:49Speaker 1: turned up the label at the back of the neck
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: of the new silk underclothes worn by the prisoner. Those
- 1:50:56Speaker 1: were bought in State Street, Chicago, and from a very
- 1:51:00Speaker 1: good store too. I know it well. Kinsmen now began
- 1:51:05Speaker 1: to be pugnacious and defiant. See here, he said, you
- 1:51:10Speaker 1: must take me for a boob. Yes, I think you
- 1:51:15Speaker 1: are a boob, replied the commissioner. You might as well
- 1:51:19Speaker 1: have made your getaway with a brass band as to
- 1:51:21Speaker 1: take sweet Annie with you to Albany, attracting attention all
- 1:51:25Speaker 1: the way, and then sent her back to New York
- 1:51:29Speaker 1: with one hundred dollars to tell the police where you
- 1:51:31Speaker 1: had gone. Suddenly, Lieutenant Riley personal aid walked into the
- 1:51:38Speaker 1: Commissioner's office carrying a cheap article of millinery, a shabby
- 1:51:43Speaker 1: black velvet hat with a row of little red roses
- 1:51:47Speaker 1: across the front. Commissioner Doherty apparently grew very angry. What
- 1:51:54Speaker 1: do you mean by bringing that thing in here now?
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: He exclaimed, I am not ready for that. Take it away.
- 1:52:02Speaker 1: This shot had been previously arranged, of course, but Riley
- 1:52:07Speaker 1: pretended to be injured when called by his superior. Cripes
- 1:52:12Speaker 1: exclaimed Kinsman, Annie's old hat. How did you get that
- 1:52:17Speaker 1: so quick? Oh, that is only one thing we've got
- 1:52:22Speaker 1: on you, replied the commissioner. We know that you went
- 1:52:26Speaker 1: to Peak Skill in a taxi cab with Annie and
- 1:52:29Speaker 1: splain on the afternoon of the robbery. We know that
- 1:52:33Speaker 1: you took train thirteen to Albany, and where you stopped
- 1:52:37Speaker 1: that night, and where you bought Annie's new hat, and
- 1:52:41Speaker 1: how much you paid for it, and what train you
- 1:52:44Speaker 1: took to Chicago Friday noon. Suppose you tell me something
- 1:52:49Speaker 1: more about your movements. Kinsman became scornful. If you know
- 1:52:56Speaker 1: all that, he said, maybe you know more about where
- 1:53:00Speaker 1: where I went and what I did, then I do myself.
- 1:53:03Speaker 1: So what would be the use of me telling you anything?
- 1:53:08Speaker 1: While certain people were being found outside, the commissioner worked
- 1:53:13Speaker 1: upon the prisoner along another line. Enough of Kinsman's personality
- 1:53:18Speaker 1: was now disclosed to show that he was vain and egotistical.
- 1:53:24Speaker 1: This side of his nature was therefore fed with flattery.
- 1:53:28Speaker 1: He was assured that the taxi caab robbery had been
- 1:53:31Speaker 1: a wonderful stick up. Everybody in New York had been astonished.
- 1:53:37Speaker 1: The whole country was talking about it and about him.
- 1:53:41Speaker 1: He must be an awfully bright, cunning fellow to have
- 1:53:44Speaker 1: planned and carried out such a piece of crime. Kinsmen
- 1:53:49Speaker 1: warmed up genially under this admiration, and seemed to be
- 1:53:53Speaker 1: more confident than ever that so shrewd a young man
- 1:53:56Speaker 1: as himself would have little difficulty in fooling the police.
- 1:54:02Speaker 1: But presently self satisfaction was subjected to shock after shock.
- 1:54:08Speaker 1: Detectives were bringing in Montani Myrtle Hoyt Rose Levy, Missus Sullivan,
- 1:54:15Speaker 1: the landlady with whom Kinsman had lived, and her housekeeper,
- 1:54:20Speaker 1: Jessel Brazzo, was under arrest. Kinsman's brother was there for examination,
- 1:54:26Speaker 1: and Inspector Hughes and Lieutenant Riley were bringing in startling
- 1:54:31Speaker 1: intelligence every few minutes. The housekeeper was ushered in and
- 1:54:37Speaker 1: told how Kinsman had given her five dollars from a
- 1:54:40Speaker 1: huge roll of bills before leaving for Peak Skill. Commissioner
- 1:54:45Speaker 1: Waldo came in and sat while missus Sullivan told her
- 1:54:49Speaker 1: what she knew about her late lodger. Kinsman's brother gave
- 1:54:53Speaker 1: information about the former's movements from the time he had
- 1:54:57Speaker 1: arrived in Boston until he brought him to to New
- 1:55:00Speaker 1: York to have a good time, and Kinsman knew that
- 1:55:04Speaker 1: at the home of his parents in Boston the police
- 1:55:07Speaker 1: would surely find money in the original wrappers of the bank.
- 1:55:13Speaker 1: The prisoner was put under pressure to explain how a
- 1:55:16Speaker 1: man like himself, known to be working as a waiter
- 1:55:19Speaker 1: in a cheap resort, could suddenly have come into possession
- 1:55:23Speaker 1: of such sums. Statements from the women in the case
- 1:55:27Speaker 1: had been secured and were produced, and finally Kinsman was
- 1:55:32Speaker 1: brought to detailed admissions. One by one. He agreed that
- 1:55:37Speaker 1: it was true he had gone to Peak Skill in
- 1:55:39Speaker 1: a taxicab with Annie and splain that he had gone
- 1:55:43Speaker 1: to Albany, had bought Annie a hat there, had gone
- 1:55:47Speaker 1: to Chicago, and so forth opportunities were given him to
- 1:55:51Speaker 1: see Montani and Jess under arrest. Nothing but the truth
- 1:55:57Speaker 1: was told him. Yet by degree he was led to
- 1:56:01Speaker 1: see himself surrounded on all sides by evidence and confessing accomplices.
- 1:56:08Speaker 1: At last he broke down completely, his vain self confidence destroyed,
- 1:56:14Speaker 1: and made a detailed confession. Kinsman's story brought up fresh
- 1:56:19Speaker 1: circumstances and new actors in the taxi cab case. He
- 1:56:25Speaker 1: told how he had come to New York nine months
- 1:56:27Speaker 1: before to have a good time and make money, and
- 1:56:31Speaker 1: how after going penniless and hungry and getting a few
- 1:56:35Speaker 1: dollars for taking part in a boxing match, he had
- 1:56:39Speaker 1: become a waiter at the Nutshell Cafe. There he soon
- 1:56:44Speaker 1: made the acquaintance of criminals, meeting Gene Splain, Dutch Keller,
- 1:56:49Speaker 1: Joe the Kid, Scottie the Lamb, and other characters who
- 1:56:54Speaker 1: were afterward to assist in the taxi robbery. There he
- 1:56:59Speaker 1: also met Swede Annie and became her sweetheart, and finally
- 1:57:04Speaker 1: Jess Albrazzo, a dark little Italian who seemed to exert
- 1:57:09Speaker 1: marked influence over all the others. It was from Jess
- 1:57:14Speaker 1: that Kinsman first heard about the plan to rob a
- 1:57:17Speaker 1: taxi cab carrying money to a bank. This swell job
- 1:57:22Speaker 1: was discussed, and Jess told him he had a friend
- 1:57:26Speaker 1: named Montani who carried the bank's cash and would cooperate
- 1:57:31Speaker 1: in stealing it. The job would be easy because Montani
- 1:57:36Speaker 1: would run the cab through a side street and the
- 1:57:39Speaker 1: only guard was an old man and a boy, neither
- 1:57:43Speaker 1: of them armed. One Sunday night, two weeks before the crime,
- 1:57:49Speaker 1: Jess took Kinsman and other accomplices over the route after
- 1:57:54Speaker 1: all had drunk themselves into optimistic mood, and pointed out
- 1:57:58Speaker 1: the bank from which the money was drawn, the streets
- 1:58:01Speaker 1: through which Montani would run, the place where the gang
- 1:58:05Speaker 1: could board the cab, and the point at which they
- 1:58:08Speaker 1: could leave it and escape up town. Details were discussed.
- 1:58:15Speaker 1: There was a difference of opinion as to methods, and
- 1:58:18Speaker 1: the plotters parted that night with the understanding that each
- 1:58:21Speaker 1: would submit his own ideas of how the robbery could
- 1:58:25Speaker 1: be most effectively and safely carried out. Eventually, there was
- 1:58:30Speaker 1: a definite agreement as to boarding the cab, preventing an outcry,
- 1:58:35Speaker 1: making the getaway, and splitting up the money. According to
- 1:58:41Speaker 1: Montani's information, the bank messengers usually carried between seventy five
- 1:58:46Speaker 1: thousand and one hundred thousand dollars. When the day for
- 1:58:51Speaker 1: the robbery had been set, words suddenly came that there
- 1:58:55Speaker 1: would not be so large a sum. This was disappointing,
- 1:59:00Speaker 1: but the gang decided to put their project through. Nevertheless.
- 1:59:04Speaker 1: Kinsman was busy at the cafe where he worked until
- 1:59:08Speaker 1: four o'clock on the morning of February fifteenth, and Dutch
- 1:59:12Speaker 1: called for him several times, asking if he was going
- 1:59:16Speaker 1: to lay down on the job. Finally, Kinsman got away,
- 1:59:22Speaker 1: went to a room in a lodging house taken by Dutch,
- 1:59:26Speaker 1: and found the gang all there smoking and drinking. At
- 1:59:30Speaker 1: five o'clock they all went to sleep. At eight, everybody
- 1:59:35Speaker 1: was awakened. Dutch and Splain took Blackjack's and offered Kinsman
- 1:59:41Speaker 1: a revolver, which he refused, saying he could take care
- 1:59:45Speaker 1: of himself with his hands, being a boxer. There were
- 1:59:50Speaker 1: six in the party, Kinsman, Dutch, Splain, Joe the Kid, Jess,
- 1:59:57Speaker 1: and Scottie the Lamb, whose part was to stumble in
- 2:00:01Speaker 1: front of Montani's cab at the place selected for the boarding,
- 2:00:05Speaker 1: and thus give the chauffeur a colorable reason for slackening
- 2:00:09Speaker 1: speed if eye witnesses afterward called his honesty into question.
- 2:00:15Speaker 1: The gang had breakfast in a cheap restaurant, stopped for
- 2:00:19Speaker 1: a drink at the saloon of Jimmy the Push in
- 2:00:22Speaker 1: Thompson Street, where the booty was to be divided, and
- 2:00:26Speaker 1: proceeded downtown after parting with Jess. The latter was the
- 2:00:32Speaker 1: organizer and took no part in the robbery, As he explained,
- 2:00:37Speaker 1: he was known as a friend of Montani's and wanted
- 2:00:40Speaker 1: to arrange so that he could prove an alibi if suspected,
- 2:00:45Speaker 1: proving that he had not been near the scene of
- 2:00:47Speaker 1: the crime when it was committed. At that saloon, they
- 2:00:52Speaker 1: had met a trio of Italian criminals known as the
- 2:00:55Speaker 1: Three Brigands, who said they were not to take part
- 2:00:58Speaker 1: in the robbery, but would be on hand to see
- 2:01:01Speaker 1: that it was vigorously put through. Arrived upon the ground
- 2:01:07Speaker 1: at Church Street and Trinity Place, Splain and Kinsman waited
- 2:01:11Speaker 1: on the west side of the thoroughfare, while Dutch and
- 2:01:15Speaker 1: Joe the Kid stood on the opposite side. Scotty, the
- 2:01:19Speaker 1: lamb posted himself fifty feet off. As Montani's cab came
- 2:01:25Speaker 1: speeding along, Dutch raised his hat as a signal. Scotty
- 2:01:31Speaker 1: the lamb did not have time to step in front
- 2:01:33Speaker 1: of the vehicle before it slackened and the robbers were aboard.
- 2:01:39Speaker 1: Dutch opened one door and struck the old bank teller,
- 2:01:42Speaker 1: Wilbur Smith, and Joe the Kid boosted Splain in on
- 2:01:46Speaker 1: the other side, where he assaulted young Wardle. Kinsman mounted
- 2:01:52Speaker 1: the seat beside Montani, and the latter put on full speed,
- 2:01:57Speaker 1: telling Kinsman to point his finger at his side as
- 2:02:00Speaker 1: though he had a revolver. The cabs slipped past trucks
- 2:02:05Speaker 1: and dodged pedestrians. Kinsman said he seemed to see policemen
- 2:02:10Speaker 1: everywhere and was dazed. When the vehicle stopped at Park
- 2:02:14Speaker 1: Place in Church Street, all the criminals got off there,
- 2:02:19Speaker 1: Dutch lugging the brown bag containing the money. Splain and
- 2:02:24Speaker 1: Dutch were both covered with the bank guard's blood. Taking Kinsmen,
- 2:02:30Speaker 1: they jumped aboard a street car. It was crowded. Several
- 2:02:35Speaker 1: passengers noticed the bloody men, but were told that there
- 2:02:39Speaker 1: had been a fight and the occurrence was not reported
- 2:02:42Speaker 1: to the police. After riding two or three blocks, they
- 2:02:47Speaker 1: got off, boarded an elevated train, rode to Bleeker Street
- 2:02:52Speaker 1: and went to a back room in Jimmy the PUSH's
- 2:02:55Speaker 1: saloon where the money was to be divided. Here they
- 2:02:59Speaker 1: fed Jess and the three brigands and the Ladder now
- 2:03:04Speaker 1: set up a claim for a share of the booty. Mateo,
- 2:03:09Speaker 1: leader of the trio, pulled out a revolver and there
- 2:03:13Speaker 1: was a discussion. Finally, the bag was opened and found
- 2:03:18Speaker 1: to contain twenty five thousand dollars. There were three packages
- 2:03:23Speaker 1: of five thousand dollars each and one of ten thousand dollars.
- 2:03:29Speaker 1: Mateo grabbed the ladder package, saying that his gang was
- 2:03:33Speaker 1: to get three thousand dollars apiece and that the odd
- 2:03:36Speaker 1: one thousand dollars would go for fall money to get
- 2:03:40Speaker 1: Molloy out of jail in Brooklyn. The robbers then divided
- 2:03:45Speaker 1: the remainder, just taking three thousand dollars for himself and
- 2:03:49Speaker 1: another three thousand dollars for Montani Splain getting three thousand dollars.
- 2:03:56Speaker 1: Kinsman two thousand, seven hundred and fifty, the Kid two
- 2:04:01Speaker 1: hundred and fifty, and Scottie the lamb nothing. Kinsman then
- 2:04:07Speaker 1: told how he had called for Swede Annie and left
- 2:04:11Speaker 1: town in a taxi cab, going as far as Peak
- 2:04:14Speaker 1: Skill to avoid the police. At the Grand Central Station.
- 2:04:20Speaker 1: End of section eight, Chapter three, Part two, Jess confesses
- 2:04:27Speaker 1: and assists. The next prisoner examined was Jess Albrazzo, a
- 2:04:33Speaker 1: dark little Italian who appeared to be somewhat ignorant. In
- 2:04:38Speaker 1: this examination, the commissioner had ample outside proof, and he
- 2:04:43Speaker 1: also employed what he calls his psychological study. Years ago
- 2:04:48Speaker 1: in dealing with Negro suspects in Southern crime, Dougherty devised
- 2:04:53Speaker 1: a little instrument which he dubbed his lie watch. This
- 2:04:58Speaker 1: was a dial with a needle hung around the suspect's neck.
- 2:05:02Speaker 1: If the latter told the truth, the needle presumably pointed
- 2:05:06Speaker 1: to truth, and if he didn't, it pointed to lie.
- 2:05:11Speaker 1: Being out of the suspect site. It had a strong effect.
- 2:05:16Speaker 1: From that, Dougherty went into studies of the mental states
- 2:05:20Speaker 1: of suspects under examination and found rough physiological indications which
- 2:05:26Speaker 1: he uses as a guide to the integrity of the suspect.
- 2:05:31Speaker 1: Investigations of European criminal experts like Professor Hans gross amply
- 2:05:37Speaker 1: demonstrate that there is a real scientific basis for such methods.
- 2:05:42Speaker 1: Dougherty took it a little easier with Jess. They sat
- 2:05:47Speaker 1: down and the Commissioner went over the Italian's movements for
- 2:05:50Speaker 1: the past few months, showing him how thoroughly he was implicated.
- 2:05:56Speaker 1: Jess had worked for Montani and been intimate with the
- 2:05:59Speaker 1: rest to the taxi cab mob. He and Montani were
- 2:06:04Speaker 1: confronted with each other, and points brought out in Kinsman's
- 2:06:08Speaker 1: confession were skillfully used. At one point in this examination,
- 2:06:14Speaker 1: the commissioner rose from his desk, took the lobe of
- 2:06:18Speaker 1: Jess's ear between his thumb and finger, pinched it slightly,
- 2:06:22Speaker 1: looked at the ear closely, and then walked out of
- 2:06:25Speaker 1: the room. Jess was all on edge with curiosity. Why
- 2:06:32Speaker 1: did he pinch my ear? He asked of Lieutenant Riley.
- 2:06:36Speaker 1: To see if you are telling the truth was the answer,
- 2:06:40Speaker 1: and in a moment the commissioner came back and examined
- 2:06:43Speaker 1: that ear again. Yes he's lying, he declared, look at
- 2:06:49Speaker 1: his ear, can't you see it yourself? Others were invited
- 2:06:54Speaker 1: to look at Jess's ear, and the little Italian became
- 2:06:57Speaker 1: so curious that he actually tried to look around the
- 2:07:01Speaker 1: side of his skull and see his own ear. This
- 2:07:05Speaker 1: psychological study was backed up with abundant proof that Jess
- 2:07:09Speaker 1: had not told the whole truth. Presently, he weakened and confessed.
- 2:07:16Speaker 1: He told how he had handed two thousand dollars in
- 2:07:19Speaker 1: a collar box to Jimmy the Push on the day
- 2:07:22Speaker 1: of the robbery, which was to be taken to a
- 2:07:25Speaker 1: Bowery bank and put in a safe deposit vault for Montani.
- 2:07:30Speaker 1: He agreed to accompany the police to Jimmy's place in
- 2:07:33Speaker 1: Thompson Street, and late that evening a party made up
- 2:07:38Speaker 1: of Commissioner Dougherty, Inspector Hughes, and Lieutenant Riley went there,
- 2:07:43Speaker 1: taking Jess along. Jimmy the PUSH's Place is one of
- 2:07:48Speaker 1: the most picturesque thieves resorts in Lower New York, typical
- 2:07:53Speaker 1: of the Old Village, as Dougherty puts it. In fact,
- 2:07:57Speaker 1: this whole case has a strong flavor of the little
- 2:08:00Speaker 1: old village of New York. Jimmy was out when they
- 2:08:05Speaker 1: got there, but this saloon was in charge of the
- 2:08:08Speaker 1: biggest swarthiest Italian bartender in town, a tough hercules weighing
- 2:08:14Speaker 1: somewhere around three hundred pounds. The room was crowded with
- 2:08:19Speaker 1: motley characters drinking beverages known to the neighborhood as shocks
- 2:08:25Speaker 1: and high hats for their edification. A tramp magician was
- 2:08:31Speaker 1: taking coins out of his ears, his nose and the air.
- 2:08:36Speaker 1: Jess was not known to be under arrest and immediately
- 2:08:39Speaker 1: sent a boy called Ready to fetch the proprietor, who
- 2:08:43Speaker 1: had known the three police officers for years. Presently, Reddy
- 2:08:49Speaker 1: came back and said that Jimmy would come in about
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: half an hour, as he was playing cards and had
- 2:08:55Speaker 1: a fine hand. Reddy was sent back to impress upon
- 2:09:00Speaker 1: Jimmy that Jess wanted to see him right away, it
- 2:09:03Speaker 1: was very important. In about two minutes, just as the
- 2:09:08Speaker 1: commissioner had bought a high hat for everybody in his party,
- 2:09:12Speaker 1: Jimmy appeared. He was told that Jess had got into
- 2:09:16Speaker 1: trouble in connection with the taxi cab robbery and asked
- 2:09:20Speaker 1: about the money in the safe deposit vault. Jimmy the
- 2:09:25Speaker 1: Push with his partner Bob Dilio, had by this time
- 2:09:29Speaker 1: been implicated themselves, for it was clear that the money
- 2:09:33Speaker 1: had been divided in their resort, and that probably they
- 2:09:36Speaker 1: had taken part in the planning and the decidedly one
- 2:09:40Speaker 1: sided division of the spoils. Jimmy was led to believe
- 2:09:45Speaker 1: that he did not rest under suspicion, however, and that
- 2:09:48Speaker 1: he was only asked to aid the police. He said
- 2:09:53Speaker 1: Jess had handed him a collar box on the day
- 2:09:55Speaker 1: of the robbery, asking him to put it in a
- 2:09:58Speaker 1: vault in his own name, but that he had had
- 2:10:01Speaker 1: no idea what the box contained and had left it
- 2:10:05Speaker 1: lying behind the bar for a couple of days before
- 2:10:08Speaker 1: he got a chance to go to the bank with it.
- 2:10:11Speaker 1: He readily promised to appear at headquarters the following morning,
- 2:10:15Speaker 1: bring the key to the safe deposit box and help
- 2:10:18Speaker 1: recover the money. Thereupon, the police officials bade him good
- 2:10:24Speaker 1: night and went away, but no chances were taken on
- 2:10:28Speaker 1: Jimmy the push. From that moment he was shadowed that
- 2:10:34Speaker 1: Monday was a busy day. In many other ways, developments
- 2:10:39Speaker 1: came thick and fast. Kinsman's home in Boston was visited
- 2:10:45Speaker 1: and seven hundred and fifty dollars of the bank money
- 2:10:48Speaker 1: recovered in the original wrappers it had laid in his grip.
- 2:10:53Speaker 1: Unknown to the honest Kinsman family, Swede Annie Myrtle Horn
- 2:10:59Speaker 1: and a girl named Rose Levy were examined, quickly broke
- 2:11:03Speaker 1: down and made tearful statements to be used in evidence.
- 2:11:09Speaker 1: These women were held only as witnesses, and as the
- 2:11:13Speaker 1: case cleared up after a few days detention, were released.
- 2:11:18Speaker 1: The girl Rose Levy greatly attracted the commissioner. She was
- 2:11:23Speaker 1: only nineteen years old, a mild mannered little jewess with
- 2:11:28Speaker 1: jet black hair and very remarkable eyes. The Commissioner went
- 2:11:34Speaker 1: into details of her personal story. It seems that she
- 2:11:38Speaker 1: had left her home in Brooklyn two months before after
- 2:11:42Speaker 1: a quarrel with her mother, and had come to New
- 2:11:44Speaker 1: York looking for a position, but she quickly fell into
- 2:11:49Speaker 1: the lower world, became known as Jess's Girl, and was
- 2:11:54Speaker 1: ambitious to be one of the gang. After a fatherly talk,
- 2:11:59Speaker 1: she waited to return to her home and live a
- 2:12:02Speaker 1: decent life, but within a week she was back in
- 2:12:06Speaker 1: New York again in her old haunts, trying to raise
- 2:12:10Speaker 1: money to help Jess, for whom she told the Commissioner
- 2:12:14Speaker 1: she would willingly work for the rest of her days.
- 2:12:18Speaker 1: Before visiting Jimmy's saloon, The Commissioner called up the orange
- 2:12:23Speaker 1: growers in Chicago had a long talk with them, told
- 2:12:27Speaker 1: what progress was being made, and put new life into them.
- 2:12:33Speaker 1: More money recovered. True to his word, Jimmy the Push
- 2:12:39Speaker 1: walked into police headquarters at nine o'clock Tuesday morning, February
- 2:12:43Speaker 1: twenty seventh, closely followed by his unseen Shadowers. He produced
- 2:12:49Speaker 1: the key of the safe deposit vault and went with
- 2:12:52Speaker 1: officers to see the money recovered. There was two thousand dollars,
- 2:12:58Speaker 1: as Jess had stated, still in the wrappers of the bank.
- 2:13:03Speaker 1: Jimmy was still permitted to go free under the impression
- 2:13:06Speaker 1: that he had come through the ordeal clean, while fresh
- 2:13:10Speaker 1: evidence was being obtained against him. That morning, the Commissioner
- 2:13:15Speaker 1: also took Kinsman down over the route of the robbery
- 2:13:19Speaker 1: to have him explain it in his own way. This
- 2:13:23Speaker 1: was done to strengthen the case against Montani and upset
- 2:13:27Speaker 1: his story in court. Then Scotty the Lamb was located, arrested,
- 2:13:34Speaker 1: brought to headquarters, and led to confess. Scotty the Lamb
- 2:13:39Speaker 1: was in some respects a pathetic figure in the case
- 2:13:43Speaker 1: and also a humorous one. He had been in charge
- 2:13:47Speaker 1: of the lunch kitchen at the Arch Cafe when Jess
- 2:13:50Speaker 1: owned it, and later worked as a dishwasher in a
- 2:13:54Speaker 1: Washington Square hotel. A Scotch youth from Glasgow, he had
- 2:14:00Speaker 1: been in this country about four years, and while no
- 2:14:03Speaker 1: criminal record appeared against him, he was plainly in the
- 2:14:07Speaker 1: company of thieves most of the time. According to his statement,
- 2:14:12Speaker 1: he had been promised twenty five dollars for doing some
- 2:14:15Speaker 1: work for Jess, and without inquiring into the nature of
- 2:14:19Speaker 1: it at all, had shown up with the gang and
- 2:14:22Speaker 1: gone along to do his minor part of a stall,
- 2:14:26Speaker 1: stumbling in front of the cab. But before he could
- 2:14:30Speaker 1: get out into the street, the cab had been boarded.
- 2:14:34Speaker 1: So poor Scotti, the lamb, without a nickel for carfare,
- 2:14:38Speaker 1: plotted all the way uptown again to the saloon where
- 2:14:41Speaker 1: the money was to be divided, and got nothing whatever.
- 2:14:46Speaker 1: He was a cheerful soul, however, and the life of
- 2:14:50Speaker 1: the party when the gang was locked up, cracking jokes
- 2:14:54Speaker 1: and taking the view that as sentences ought to be
- 2:14:57Speaker 1: proportioned to the amount of money each member of the
- 2:14:59Speaker 1: gang had got in the division, and he had got nothing,
- 2:15:04Speaker 1: he might be let off with six months imprisonment. Scotty,
- 2:15:09Speaker 1: haven't you got any overcoat, asked Inspector Hughes sympathetically as
- 2:15:14Speaker 1: they were going to court one brisk morning. Did you
- 2:15:18Speaker 1: ever have an overcoat, Scotty? No, sir, I never had
- 2:15:23Speaker 1: an overcoat, replied Scottie, And then as he thought of
- 2:15:28Speaker 1: his prospects for going to prison, added DROLLI and now
- 2:15:33Speaker 1: I don't expect, sir, that I ever will the fine
- 2:15:38Speaker 1: Italian hand. The next step in the case was that
- 2:15:43Speaker 1: of arresting Jimmy the Push and his partner, Bob Dilio.
- 2:15:48Speaker 1: Another phase of the robbery now began to come out plainly.
- 2:15:53Speaker 1: Up to the present time, the main burden of proof
- 2:15:56Speaker 1: pointed to the four hold up men of American birth
- 2:16:00Speaker 1: as the chief actors in the crime, Montani and Jess.
- 2:16:05Speaker 1: The two Italians appeared to be accessories. But as the
- 2:16:10Speaker 1: tangled threads were unraveled one by one, it was found
- 2:16:14Speaker 1: that the Italians involved outnumbered the American thugs, and that furthermore,
- 2:16:20Speaker 1: they had outwitted them. When Bob Delio was arrested, he
- 2:16:25Speaker 1: drew two hundred and fifteen dollars in five dollar bills
- 2:16:29Speaker 1: out of his pocket and handed it to the police,
- 2:16:32Speaker 1: admitting that it was part of five thousand, five hundred
- 2:16:35Speaker 1: dollars of the stolen money. The rest, he asserted, had
- 2:16:40Speaker 1: just been paid for rent of the two resorts operated
- 2:16:43Speaker 1: by Jimmy the Push and himself. Jimmy and Bob were
- 2:16:48Speaker 1: taken to police headquarters and examined with Jess present Commissioner
- 2:16:54Speaker 1: Doherty played one against the other so skillfully with cross
- 2:16:59Speaker 1: questions and under pressure that in a little while each
- 2:17:02Speaker 1: was excitedly telling tales of his two companions with the
- 2:17:07Speaker 1: desperate hope of clearing himself, and denunciations flew back and
- 2:17:12Speaker 1: forth among the trio as evidence came out that was
- 2:17:16Speaker 1: likely to send them all to prison. Their confessions were
- 2:17:20Speaker 1: obtained and used in a new effort to break down Montani,
- 2:17:25Speaker 1: but this was without results. The little Italian chauffeur still
- 2:17:31Speaker 1: stuck doggedly to his original story. From these new confessions,
- 2:17:36Speaker 1: it appeared that the Italians had planned the crime and
- 2:17:40Speaker 1: listed the American hold up men to carry out the
- 2:17:43Speaker 1: dirty work, and laid a counterplot for holding them up
- 2:17:46Speaker 1: in turn. When the money was divided, the three brigands
- 2:17:51Speaker 1: were ostensibly offered a chance to take part in the
- 2:17:55Speaker 1: actual robbery, but refused on the plea that it would
- 2:17:58Speaker 1: be too risky and that they did not believe Montani
- 2:18:02Speaker 1: could carry it out successfully. On the morning of the crime,
- 2:18:07Speaker 1: they walked north over the route. When they met the
- 2:18:11Speaker 1: taxi cab coming south with a policeman on the seat
- 2:18:14Speaker 1: beside Montani and two unconscious bank messengers inside, they knew
- 2:18:21Speaker 1: that the project had succeeded, so the three brigands hurried
- 2:18:26Speaker 1: uptown to Jimmy the PUSH's saloon. They got there so
- 2:18:30Speaker 1: quickly that they were ahead of the robbers. Jess made
- 2:18:34Speaker 1: a rehearsed protest when they insisted in sharing in the plunder,
- 2:18:38Speaker 1: but the three brigands drew revolvers, threatened to make a
- 2:18:42Speaker 1: disturbance that would bring in the police and finally help
- 2:18:46Speaker 1: themselves to ten thousand dollars. When the thugs who had
- 2:18:51Speaker 1: done the actual work left the saloon, they had only
- 2:18:54Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars. All told, the Italians who had played
- 2:18:59Speaker 1: safe at every point had seventeen thousand dollars. One of
- 2:19:05Speaker 1: the brigands comes in. The actual whereabouts of the three
- 2:19:11Speaker 1: brigands was not known to the police then, but there
- 2:19:14Speaker 1: were certain channels through which news might reach at least
- 2:19:18Speaker 1: one of them. Word was sent through those channels. Therefore,
- 2:19:23Speaker 1: that it might be best for them to appear and
- 2:19:25Speaker 1: give an account of themselves. And on Friday March first,
- 2:19:30Speaker 1: just at the time Splain had been brought back from Memphis,
- 2:19:34Speaker 1: the little leader of the brigands, Matteo Arbrano, an undersized
- 2:19:39Speaker 1: Italian wearing spectacles, who had carried out the job of
- 2:19:43Speaker 1: robbing the hold up men, surrendered himself to the district attorney.
- 2:19:49Speaker 1: Arbrano said that he had divided his ten thousand dollars
- 2:19:53Speaker 1: with his two companions, Gonzalez and Cavaco, and immediately left
- 2:19:58Speaker 1: New York, taking a steamer from Mexico by way of Havana.
- 2:20:04Speaker 1: At the latter city, he stopped over night, met a
- 2:20:07Speaker 1: woman and accompanied her to a resort, was drugged and
- 2:20:11Speaker 1: robbed of two thousand, seven hundred dollars, and woke on
- 2:20:15Speaker 1: the prado with only one hundred dollars, left a single
- 2:20:19Speaker 1: bill that had been concealed in his shoe. With that
- 2:20:24Speaker 1: he returned to New York. The story is regarded by
- 2:20:28Speaker 1: the police as more picturesque than convincing. It is probable
- 2:20:32Speaker 1: that Matteo's share of the plunder, with that of other
- 2:20:36Speaker 1: Italians involved, has been carefully planted. Poll Gonzalez, another of
- 2:20:43Speaker 1: the brigands, was traced to Vera Cruz, Mexico, in the
- 2:20:47Speaker 1: present state of that country. However, it was found impossible
- 2:20:51Speaker 1: to arrest and extraditem upon the evidence at hand. Three
- 2:20:57Speaker 1: other persons concerned in the robbery are still at large
- 2:21:00Speaker 1: at this writing Dutch Keller, Joe the Kid, and an
- 2:21:05Speaker 1: unknown whose identity is concealed for police reasons. Montani pleaded
- 2:21:12Speaker 1: not guilty and stood trial after two days exactly a
- 2:21:17Speaker 1: month and a day subsequent to the robbery, he was
- 2:21:21Speaker 1: convicted by a jury and sentenced to not less than
- 2:21:24Speaker 1: ten years and not more than eighteen years and two
- 2:21:28Speaker 1: months in prison with hard labor. A word must be
- 2:21:33Speaker 1: said about the prompt action of the District Attorney's office
- 2:21:37Speaker 1: in the taxicab case. Where crime has had such publicity,
- 2:21:42Speaker 1: there is an opportunity to make a demonstration of great
- 2:21:46Speaker 1: value by pressing the prosecutions. It was not lost. Under
- 2:21:52Speaker 1: Assistant Charles C. Nott Junior. Evidence was succinctly laid before
- 2:21:57Speaker 1: judges and juries trials finished in a matter of hours,
- 2:22:02Speaker 1: and convictions and sentences secured within six weeks after the robbery. Furthermore,
- 2:22:10Speaker 1: the various sentences were just being carefully graded according to
- 2:22:14Speaker 1: the part played by each offender, his character and previous record,
- 2:22:19Speaker 1: and his individual effort in facilitating justice. Gino Montani arrested
- 2:22:27Speaker 1: February twenty sixth, nineteen twelve. Pleaded February twenty ninth, nineteen twelve.
- 2:22:34Speaker 1: Sentenced March sixteenth, nineteen twelve. Sentence not less than ten
- 2:22:41Speaker 1: years nor more than eighteen years two months. Judge Seabury
- 2:22:47Speaker 1: Edward Kinsman arrested February twenty sixth, nineteen twelve. Pleaded March first,
- 2:22:55Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. Sentenced April ninth, nineteen twelve. Sentence not less
- 2:23:02Speaker 1: than three years nor more than six years. Judge Crane
- 2:23:09Speaker 1: Eugene Splain arrested March second, nineteen twelve. Pleaded March fourth,
- 2:23:16Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. Sentenced March twenty fifth, nineteen twelve. Sentence not
- 2:23:24Speaker 1: less than seven years six months nor more than fourteen
- 2:23:28Speaker 1: years six months. Judge Seabury Robert Delio arrested February twenty eighth,
- 2:23:36Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. Pleaded March fourth, nineteen twelve. Sentenced March twenty ninth,
- 2:23:44Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. Sentence not less than two years six months
- 2:23:50Speaker 1: nor more than four years two months. Judge Seabury James
- 2:23:56Speaker 1: Pascually or Jimmy the Push arrested February twenty eighth, nineteen twelve.
- 2:24:04Speaker 1: Pleaded March fourth, nineteen twelve. Sentenced April eighth, nineteen twelve,
- 2:24:11Speaker 1: sentence six month penitentiary. Judge Davis, Joseph Lamb or Scottie
- 2:24:20Speaker 1: the Lamb arrested February twenty seventh, nineteen twelve. Pleaded March eighteenth,
- 2:24:28Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. Sentenced March twenty ninth, nineteen twelve. Sentence intermediate
- 2:24:36Speaker 1: sentence Almira. Judge Seabury Matteo Arberano arrested March second, nineteen twelve.
- 2:24:47Speaker 1: Pleaded April third, nineteen twelve, sentence two to four years.
- 2:24:54Speaker 1: Judge Davis Jesse Albrazzo arrested in March twenty sixth, nineteen twelve.
- 2:25:02Speaker 1: Pleaded March eighteenth, nineteen twelve. Sentence three to six years.
- 2:25:10Speaker 1: Judge Davis. End of Section nine final A word about
- 2:25:17Speaker 1: the New York Police. It has been the writer's good
- 2:25:22Speaker 1: fortune to look into the work of both the London
- 2:25:24Speaker 1: and the New York policeman recently. Within the same year,
- 2:25:29Speaker 1: A somewhat embarrassing point arose in London. The Bobby was
- 2:25:34Speaker 1: anxious to know which police force the writer considered best.
- 2:25:39Speaker 1: The Bobby gets his ideas from the New York cop
- 2:25:43Speaker 1: from such accounts as filter through the cable dispatches from
- 2:25:46Speaker 1: our newspapers. He hears chiefly the worst and pictures the
- 2:25:52Speaker 1: cop as a lawless individual wielding pistol and club indiscriminately
- 2:25:57Speaker 1: with whom it is not safe to pass a soon
- 2:26:00Speaker 1: a word. So when he puts his little question about
- 2:26:04Speaker 1: the respective merits of the two organizations, he reserves the
- 2:26:09Speaker 1: right to keep his opinion that the London force is best. Anyway,
- 2:26:14Speaker 1: In New York it is much the same. The cop
- 2:26:18Speaker 1: has heard just enough about the Bobby to regard him
- 2:26:21Speaker 1: with mild tolerance. He pictures him as a policeman servile
- 2:26:26Speaker 1: to the last degree, thankfully accepting sixpenny tips from pedestrians,
- 2:26:32Speaker 1: and occupied chiefly with unarmed thieves and harmless political offenders.
- 2:26:39Speaker 1: When one has good friends in both forces, the question
- 2:26:43Speaker 1: which do you think best? Is to be met with
- 2:26:46Speaker 1: tactful evasions, And the more one thinks it over, the
- 2:26:51Speaker 1: more it becomes clear that there is really little difference.
- 2:26:54Speaker 1: At bottom. Both police organizations are made up of good
- 2:26:59Speaker 1: men following the same trade along the same lines, and
- 2:27:04Speaker 1: dealing with about the same general conditions. The London Bobby, however,
- 2:27:10Speaker 1: enjoys excellent leadership, is governed by a definite administrative policy,
- 2:27:16Speaker 1: has the backing of the courts, and therefore comes in
- 2:27:20Speaker 1: for a general public good will which is exceedingly useful
- 2:27:24Speaker 1: to him in the performance of duty. The New York
- 2:27:28Speaker 1: cop rather lacks public good will. Administrative policy has not
- 2:27:34Speaker 1: been well defined. In the past, the courts do not
- 2:27:38Speaker 1: always accept his evidence, much less back him up, and
- 2:27:42Speaker 1: he has been made the scapegoat for various shortcomings in leadership.
- 2:27:47Speaker 1: But to day, the New York policeman is working on
- 2:27:50Speaker 1: an entirely new basis. Before long his public is certain
- 2:27:55Speaker 1: to understand and like him as thoroughly as London does
- 2:27:59Speaker 1: its Bobby. The change began with Mayor Gainer, who insisted
- 2:28:05Speaker 1: that both policemen and citizen have plain legal rights. Until
- 2:28:11Speaker 1: the citizen has committed a crime, the policeman may not
- 2:28:14Speaker 1: arrest him. The policeman has plain rights. The law empowers
- 2:28:20Speaker 1: him to use all necessary force in making arrests in
- 2:28:24Speaker 1: grave cases, but force must not be used for minor offenses.
- 2:28:30Speaker 1: Confusion existed on these points to such a degree that
- 2:28:35Speaker 1: when the Mayor began insisting upon them, many people thought
- 2:28:39Speaker 1: he was putting into effect some of his personal whims.
- 2:28:43Speaker 1: But they are all in the statute books, and many
- 2:28:47Speaker 1: of them were there before the mayor was born. Because
- 2:28:50Speaker 1: they are constitutional. The present Police Commissioner Ryan Lander Waldow
- 2:28:57Speaker 1: is not only administering the department along the strict legal
- 2:29:01Speaker 1: line pointed out by the Mayor, but is effecting improvements
- 2:29:06Speaker 1: of organization and method that must favorably alter the whole
- 2:29:11Speaker 1: future of the service. Commissioner Waldo is a soldier with
- 2:29:16Speaker 1: a record of service in the United States Army and
- 2:29:20Speaker 1: the army's fine standards to guide him. In some ways.
- 2:29:25Speaker 1: The administration of the New York Police Department is a
- 2:29:28Speaker 1: soldier's job. If the ten thousand members were mobilized, they
- 2:29:34Speaker 1: would make quite an impressive little standing army, with eight
- 2:29:39Speaker 1: or ten full regiments of patrolmen, a brigade of cavalry,
- 2:29:43Speaker 1: a small transport corps, a little navy, and so forth.
- 2:29:49Speaker 1: As in an army, too, the men are enlisted and
- 2:29:53Speaker 1: may only be discharged for serious offenses. It is afore
- 2:29:59Speaker 1: scattered over them. Three hundred square miles of territory. The
- 2:30:03Speaker 1: leader must be skillful in laying down regulations and handling
- 2:30:08Speaker 1: men in the mass rather than by personal contact. He
- 2:30:13Speaker 1: must define duty plainly, hold everybody to it, eliminate departmental
- 2:30:19Speaker 1: politics and abuses. Every man, wherever he is stationed, must
- 2:30:25Speaker 1: feel that the general knows his business, that he lays
- 2:30:29Speaker 1: down regulations for good reasons, and that day by day
- 2:30:33Speaker 1: he is taking the organization somewhere. For years, every police
- 2:30:39Speaker 1: commissioner has asked for more men to keep pace with
- 2:30:42Speaker 1: the growing city. When Waldo took charge, he asked too
- 2:30:49Speaker 1: while he was waiting. However, he overhauled the organization and
- 2:30:53Speaker 1: got one thousand additional patrolmen by cutting off men detailed
- 2:30:57Speaker 1: for clerical and other special Every large working force tends
- 2:31:04Speaker 1: to create superfluous routine work. The useless routine was eliminated
- 2:31:10Speaker 1: by better accounting methods, and the men sent back to
- 2:31:13Speaker 1: do the street duty for which they originally enlisted. Then
- 2:31:18Speaker 1: Waldo's system of fixed posts was introduced. Complaints that policemen
- 2:31:24Speaker 1: were hard to find at night had become common, so
- 2:31:28Speaker 1: the platoon on duty from eleven p m to seven
- 2:31:31Speaker 1: a m was distributed by a plan under which the
- 2:31:35Speaker 1: men work in pairs, one patrolling a given beat and
- 2:31:39Speaker 1: the others standing on a street intersection. Each hour they
- 2:31:44Speaker 1: changed places or oftener in severe weather. The fixed posts
- 2:31:50Speaker 1: are about one thousand feet apart all over Manhattan and
- 2:31:54Speaker 1: parts of Brooklyn. The system has been indiscriminately criticized, but
- 2:32:00Speaker 1: produces its results. Fire losses were cut down the first
- 2:32:06Speaker 1: six months. Night crime has decreased, and many notable arrests
- 2:32:11Speaker 1: are due to the fact that policemen stand all over
- 2:32:14Speaker 1: town like checkers through the night. The exposure is no
- 2:32:19Speaker 1: greater than that endured by traffic men. The men have
- 2:32:24Speaker 1: better opportunities to advance themselves by making meritorious arrests, and
- 2:32:30Speaker 1: the commissioner knows that as citizens see the police on
- 2:32:34Speaker 1: duty night after night and crime decreases, there will be
- 2:32:39Speaker 1: a growing good will for the department. The detective Bureau
- 2:32:43Speaker 1: has not only been reorganized so that plain clothesmen are
- 2:32:47Speaker 1: distributed over the whole city, but a new spirit has
- 2:32:51Speaker 1: been introduced. Formerly, when the patrolman rose to detective rank,
- 2:32:57Speaker 1: he felt that he had arrived no longer wearing the
- 2:33:01Speaker 1: uniform or keeping scheduled hours. He was in danger of
- 2:33:06Speaker 1: going to sleep to day, however, the detective has not
- 2:33:11Speaker 1: a job but an opportunity. He must maintain his rank
- 2:33:16Speaker 1: by results or be reduced. To help him do this,
- 2:33:21Speaker 1: he has taught methods in the school for Detectives, but
- 2:33:25Speaker 1: he knows that hundreds of ambitious men in brass buttons
- 2:33:29Speaker 1: are working to attain that rank in an organization of
- 2:33:34Speaker 1: ten thousand men. It would be strange if there were
- 2:33:37Speaker 1: not some intriguing In politics. New York policemen are exceptionally shrewd,
- 2:33:44Speaker 1: and occasionally they will try to put one over on
- 2:33:47Speaker 1: the Commissioner, going around his authority. But Commissioner Waldo has
- 2:33:53Speaker 1: proved singularly resourceful. He meets such an emergency with the quickness, certainty,
- 2:34:00Speaker 1: and impartiality of a natural force like gravity, and the
- 2:34:05Speaker 1: department has found it out. He has laid out a
- 2:34:09Speaker 1: clear path for advancement all through the department. The newest
- 2:34:14Speaker 1: uniformed patrolman understands that for meritorious work he will have
- 2:34:20Speaker 1: a chance of promotion. If he makes a commendable arrest,
- 2:34:25Speaker 1: he is sent to the detective Bureau, given instruction, and
- 2:34:29Speaker 1: tried at detective work. If he makes good, he stays.
- 2:34:35Speaker 1: If unfitted for playing clothes duty. He has still had
- 2:34:38Speaker 1: his chance. What is just as important, the Detective Bureau
- 2:34:43Speaker 1: has had a chance to see him. Under Commissioner Waldo
- 2:34:48Speaker 1: and Deputy Commissioner Dougherty, the so called black hand crimes
- 2:34:54Speaker 1: among Italians have been checked and will be stopped. Many
- 2:34:59Speaker 1: of these case were traced to sensational reporting of ordinary
- 2:35:03Speaker 1: quarrels and assaults, and others to business rivalries. In the
- 2:35:09Speaker 1: serious cases, arrests have been made and conviction secured. Another
- 2:35:16Speaker 1: well known form of law breaking in New York is gambling.
- 2:35:21Speaker 1: This is particularly difficult to check because of ingenuity in
- 2:35:26Speaker 1: concealing evidence developed by long experience on the part of
- 2:35:30Speaker 1: the lawbreakers, and also the strong political alliances of gambling housekeepers.
- 2:35:37Speaker 1: But after several experiments in dealing with it, the Commissioner
- 2:35:41Speaker 1: now feels confident that he has a method which will
- 2:35:44Speaker 1: result in the suppression of gambling, and that, as he says,
- 2:35:50Speaker 1: when you put a crimp into things of that sort,
- 2:35:53Speaker 1: they don't generally come back. In other directions, red tape
- 2:35:59Speaker 1: has been abolished and economies brought about. The way has
- 2:36:04Speaker 1: been opened for individual merit in all ranks. Steps have
- 2:36:08Speaker 1: been taken to develop and teach better methods. The work
- 2:36:12Speaker 1: of the department has been brought closer to the public.
- 2:36:17Speaker 1: There is a new spirit in the New York Police
- 2:36:19Speaker 1: Department today, a spirit certain to develop the public good
- 2:36:24Speaker 1: will and appreciation that is so necessary to the best
- 2:36:28Speaker 1: order of public service. Some interesting facts about the Police
- 2:36:34Speaker 1: Department of the City of New York. The Police Department
- 2:36:38Speaker 1: of the City of New York is made up as
- 2:36:41Speaker 1: follows Commissioner and four deputy commissioners, nineteen inspectors, twenty five surgeons,
- 2:36:51Speaker 1: ninety five captains, six hundred and twenty four lieutenants, five
- 2:36:57Speaker 1: hundred eighty six sergeants, eight thousand, five hundred eighty five patrolmen,
- 2:37:05Speaker 1: one hundred ninety one dormen, sixty nine matrons, one superintendent
- 2:37:12Speaker 1: of Telegraph, two assistant superintendents of Telegraph, one chief lineman,
- 2:37:21Speaker 1: five linemen, two boiler inspectors. Ten thousand, two hundred seven
- 2:37:28Speaker 1: total uniform force. Of this number, five hundred are detectives
- 2:37:34Speaker 1: in civilian dress. In addition, there are over two hundred
- 2:37:39Speaker 1: forty seven civilians employed in clerical capacity. There are six
- 2:37:45Speaker 1: automobiles and one hundred sixty one other vehicles, including patrol
- 2:37:51Speaker 1: wagons used by The department also six hundred seventy nine
- 2:37:57Speaker 1: horses for mounted patrolmen. The harbor squad numbers one captain,
- 2:38:04Speaker 1: seven lieutenants, nine sergeants, thirty six patrolmen, two doormen, besides
- 2:38:12Speaker 1: civilians employed as engineers, firemen, oilers, deckhands, et cetera. It
- 2:38:19Speaker 1: is provided with one vessel of two hundred thirty five tons,
- 2:38:23Speaker 1: five launches, two dories, and six boats. These boats patrol
- 2:38:29Speaker 1: about three hundred forty miles of water front. End of
- 2:38:36Speaker 1: Section ten