PANEL HOUSES AND PANEL THIEVES.
_The Inmates--The Victims--The Gains--Complete Exposure of the Manner of
Operations, and how Unsuspecting Persons are Robbed._
Some years since respectable New York was startled and horrified by the
recitals of criminal life, which, in the fulfillment of a disagreeable
public duty, the daily newspapers printed in their news columns. The
stirring appeal for the suppression of the evil then made by the press
to the moral sentiment of the community, was backed by the judiciary, by
the money and influence of wealthy and patriotic citizens, by the
various charitable organizations, and by the whole police force.
Consequently, the foul Augean stable of vice and iniquity, for the time
being, at least, was in a great degree cleansed and purified. The
leaders of that foul army of vicious men and women were gradually rooted
out and driven away from their noxious haunts. Some found a congenial
haven in the State prison, a few reformed, and many died in want. The
plague being temporarily stayed, and popular indignation a matter of
record, New York, as is its invariable custom, permitted its vigilance
to go quietly to sleep, with a fair prospect of it being rudely awakened
to find history repeating itself. That this awakening cannot safely be
much longer deferred, it is partly the mission of the present chapter to
show. For it is useless to deny that we have in this city to-day, a
condition of affairs very similar to that which aroused the indignation
and called for the severe repressional measures of our immediate
predecessors. Up-town, in many instances closely contiguous to the
dwellings of people of the highest respectability, there are dens as
vile and infamous as ever disgraced any civilized community. Hardly a
street, however apparently exclusive and fashionable, can boast that it
is free from gambling, prostitution or panel houses.
Some time since, a journalist connected with a prominent morning paper,
took great pains to collect statistics concerning houses of prostitution
in New York. The article in which the results of his investigation were
given, estimates that over $15,000,000 was invested in that business,
and that the yearly amount spent in those houses averaged over
$10,000,000. In this chapter, however, the reader's attention is more
particularly invited to the class of assignation and prostitution
bagnios, known as panel houses.
The name "panel house" was originally derived from a false impression
prevalent in the community, that the rooms occupied by the inmates were
fitted with sliding panels in the walls and partitions, through and by
means of which most of the robberies were committed. But, as will be
seen hereafter, the term is a misnomer, so far as the fact is concerned.
But they had to have some distinctive appellation, and "panel house" is
a convenient generic term.
The proprietors of panel houses, in years gone by, were nearly all
professional gamblers, a fact which is more or less true to-day, where
the real, genuine house of that character exists, but there are hundreds
of women who work the "panel game" upon their victims, who hire a simple
room in some furnished-room house. If detected the entire house has
conferred upon it the name of panel house, and is ever afterwards
described and known as such in police and court records.
The real, Simon-pure panel thief is generally a young and pretty female,
who has been initiated into the mysteries of the game by either a
gambler or a lover, and of whom she is the mistress. It is the
conception of a man's brain, needing the assistance of an attractive
woman to carry out the scheme, and was probably originally devised by
some broken-down gambler to secure enough funds wherewith to resume
play. No woman would ever have dreamt of practicing such an intricate
and bold robbery, for she could never have carried it out. There are
many women engaged in these robberies who are neither young nor
handsome, but they are adepts and make up in knowledge and experience
what they lack in charms; but the most successful are young and
attractive. They succeed better when they are winsome, for reasons which
require no explanation.
Strange as it may appear, there are instances on record in which some of
the professional females engaged in this panel game have preserved
intact their virtue, so far as men generally were concerned, and have
remained steadfast and true to their lovers, through all vicissitudes.
They have solicited and accompanied men to their rooms, yet still have
so contrived and maneuvered, as to have their male companion robbed
without indulging in any of the other apparently necessary concomitants
to the success of the undertaking. But these women are rare--very rare
indeed. The fact of their occasional existence merely proves that the
sole object of all women engaged in the nefarious game of panel thieving
is robbery--first, last and all the time.
From the well-known dislike of the victims of this game to making their
names and losses known by figuring prominently in a court of justice,
panel-house thieves escape the punishment they justly deserve and thrive
more successfully, perhaps, than other professional robbers. Besides,
the game is practiced more particularly upon the most respectable
element of the community. Men of families, strangers visiting the city,
men of advanced years, and even clergymen are sometimes caught in the
net. As may be imagined, people of this class prefer to lose their money
rather than have their names made public, and so long as such victims
are to be found, panel houses will thrive and thieves become rich.
Instances are on record where as much as eight thousand dollars have
been secured from a single victim, who, from his prominence in social
and business circles, allowed the matter to drop, although he was
acquainted with the thief.
A man and a woman are essential to the execution of the panel game. The
woman's part consists in "cruising," a term applied to walking the
streets to pick up men. The man has two parts to enact, as "runner" and
"robber." The first role consists in being on the street watching his
female decoy. If he sees a man partially under the influence of liquor,
he informs the decoy, who places herself in the way of the obfuscated
citizen. Or, in the event of the woman securing a customer herself, the
"runner" observes it, and when she and her new-found friend proceed
towards the house, the "runner" rapidly goes ahead and unobserved slips
in first to make arrangements for the second role in the drama, and
which in some cases has ended in a tragedy.
The foregoing more particularly concerns panel thieves, that is,
"couples" who adopt the business on their own account. There are regular
panel houses, by which is meant houses of ill-fame, with perhaps from
ten to twenty girl inmates, where nearly every room in the house is
perfectly arranged for systematically pursuing this kind of robbery, and
where the moment a girl retires to a room with a gentleman, the
proprietor is notified, and when the chance occurs, completely cleans
the unconscious victim of every cent he may have about him. These
houses, however, are not now as plentiful as they were immediately after
the close of the war. The victims of these houses were many, for
outwardly they did not differ from ordinary gilded palaces of sin, and,
being situated in streets well known to contain respectable seraglios,
were frequently visited in the orthodox way by gentlemen in search of
the "elephant."
The game, however, is played in precisely the same way in all cases,
whether by a "loving couple" on their own account or by one of the many
girls in a regular house instituted for the sole purpose. And this is
the way it is done: A pretty female, young, with entrancing eyes, an
elegant form, richly and fashionably attired, is noticed daintily
picking her steps on a street crossing. She is more frequently noticed
in the act of crossing a street, as it affords her an opportunity of
rendering herself still more attractive and seductive by practicing
those apparently aimless little feminine arts that prove so fascinating
to the coarser sex. The skirts are just lifted high enough to discover a
beautiful foot; perhaps a glimpse of an ankle bewitchingly smothered in
lace frills is revealed; while a warm scintillant glance of invitation
is thrown at the interested beholder, who, perhaps, follows and engages
her in conversation. More than likely he is agreeably surprised to find
how lady-like and attractive her manners are, and by his own suggestion
or her invitation he readily accompanies her to her home; not, however,
without being previously warned that she is married, that her husband is
very ugly and jealous, and a big, strong, quarrelsome fellow, to boot.
The room to which she conducts him is apparently an ordinary room,
furnished in an ordinary way. It is, however, usually a front room,
separated by folding doors from the room in the rear. It is in
connection with these folding doors that mystery and danger lurk. These
folding doors are a study. Some are so constructed that instead of
opening in the center, one of them opens upon hinges which are placed on
that portion of the doors where the lock is usually situated, so that it
opens at the woodwork on the side. If a chance visitor to one of these
rooms should have his suspicions aroused by any act of his companion,
and should closely examine the doors, he would find a bolt on the inside
securely fastened, but he would not be likely to see that it barely
rested in the socket, and thinking everything was all right, his
suspicions would be disarmed. As there would be but one other door in
the room--that by which he entered--and as he locked that himself,
privacy would apparently be insured.
In the folding doors are several minute holes, through which a person
behind them can watch all that goes on in the front room. These holes,
however, are frequently dispensed with, and a cough or other understood
signal by the female gives the thief warning when all is ready for his
entrance.
After the lapse of perhaps five minutes the female coughs or makes some
understood signal, the door noiselessly opens at the side, a man enters
unseen, secures the victims clothing, disappears into the next room,
takes the money out of a pocket-book or pocket, replaces the pocket-book
in the clothes, takes the watch, the studs out of the shirt, everything,
in fact, of any value, and replacing the clothing, softly closes the
door again. Now comes the scene: A knock is heard on the other
door--that by which the victim entered. With a slight scream the female
remarks, that the person knocking is her husband, and with great haste
proceeds to dress, all the while telling her now frightened companion
that he will kill him if he sees him, hurriedly assists him to dress and
half pushing him, forces him out of the room, down the stairs into the
street.
Another phase of this trick is when, in the absence of folding doors,
the lock or bolt is so arranged that socket and bolt are both upon the
door. Another is to fill the socket with some substance, a cork for
instance, so that when the bolt is pushed forward, it fails to enter the
socket.
An instance is related of an elderly man coming into one of these rooms,
and casually remarking to his female friend, "I hope I won't be rapped
out of this room by anyone, for I have been in two places to-night and
was rapped out of both." That gentleman was robbed in the first house he
entered, and must have remarked in the second one that he was "rapped
out" of the first, for his companion in this last affair knew what had
happened in the other cases, and that he would not have been treated in
that manner unless they had secured his money. And so his remark being
again overheard, he was unceremoniously "rapped out" of this third and
last house. Here is a case from the records which probably illustrates
the method as well as any other:
An elderly man, about sixty years of age, entered a panel-room with a
dark-haired, flashily-dressed woman, who immediately requested him to
bolt the door. This he did, but he might have saved himself the trouble,
for the door was no more closed then than it was before. These bolts are
very ingenious. The catch on the jamb of the door into which the bolt
slides has three false screw-heads in it. In reality it is not attached
to the door-casing at all, but is fastened to the body of the bolt by an
unseen plate. Consequently, when the door is opened, the catch goes
forward with the remainder of the bolt. This, of course, was not noticed
by the man, as the gas was not turned up by the woman till after the
door was closed. While the man was bolting the door the woman hurried to
the dressing-table and hastily laid her hat on one chair and her cloak
on the other. This action compelled the man to place his clothes on the
couch or on one of the chairs by the folding doors. When all was ready,
one of the operators scratched lightly on the door with his finger-nail,
to warn the woman he was about to enter the room. The next moment the
man boldly opened the door wide, removed the chair out of his way, and
glided rapidly to the other chair, on which the man's clothes lay. At
this moment the woman redoubled her fascinations, for the purpose of
distracting the attention of her companion, in which intent she was
eminently successful. The work of going through the man's pockets, and
what is technically known as "weeding" his pocket-book, was quickly
over, the chair was quietly replaced, the panel-door closed, and the
thief appeared with a roll of bills in his hand. The whole thing was
done in from twenty to twenty-five seconds. Immediately after the
closing of the door the man went outside, and, knocking on the
passage-door of the bedroom, said in a loud whisper.
"Jenny, here's Joe; hurry up."
"My God!" exclaimed the girl, jumping up, "you must get away as fast as
you can. That's my lover. He's dreadful jealous, and would shoot you as
soon as look at you."
It is needless to say that the victim required no urging. He jumped into
his clothes as fast as possible, only too glad to get out of the way
before the appearance of the terrible imaginary lover, and apparently
without the slightest notion that he had been robbed.
The victims of these thefts have really no redress. It is so hard to
find the guilty woman afterwards, or even to locate the house, for
unless the pleasure hunter suspects some trap he pays no particular
attention to the kind of house, its situation, or its number. In the
case of a stranger he never seeks the thieves again, but "pockets his
loss." If an elderly man, he does likewise. But if he be really an
obstinate man, determined upon catching the thieves and prosecuting
them, he will invariably be approached and his money and valuables will
be returned to him upon condition that he withdraws his complaint.
Convictions are very rarely obtained in any case from the difficulty of
identifying the parties.
Many of these women never see a penny of the plundered money, the man,
in most cases, retaining the whole of the loot. It sometimes happens
that a victim discovers that he has been robbed before he leaves, and
makes what is called in the vernacular a "kick"; if so, it also
sometimes happens that he is unmercifully beaten by the lover and his
pals, but it has occurred that when "the kicker" was a man about town,
that he has gotten away with his assailant in a manner calculated to
make the heart of a Sullivan beat with pleasure.
There is quite a different feature of this panel-game, but which more
properly belongs to black-mail, in which, through the peep-holes in the
doors, the face of the man or woman in the adjoining room is studied,
waited for on the outside, followed to his or her home, and in a few
days threatened with exposure, if the sum demanded is not forthcoming.
Couples have been known to ply the panel-game very successfully in some
of the most prominent hotels in the city. The lady would make her
conquest upon the streets in the ordinary manner and the game would be
worked in two rooms of the hotel as already described. This enterprise
was carried on successfully by a scoundrel and his wife at one time in
one of the best hotels, and although it was generally known, there never
was any one to complain against them. It was only by the proprietor
specially employing several detectives that they were finally
discovered, arrested and punished.