Preliminary Generalities.
To enumerate all that a competent detective should know, would be to
say that he should know everything. But as this is impossible, a man or
woman desiring to engage in this interesting and lucrative profession
should at least acquire as general a knowledge of things as possible.
The pursuit of the profession itself, I have found, affords
multitudinous opportunities for learning, and as each new case
undertaken generally involves different circumstances, no better field
for broadening the mind or enriching a person’s experience can be
found.
A detective, once he becomes qualified to act as such, is thrown in
contact with all manner of life and conditions, and what experience he
necessarily gains in one case is frequently of much value to him in
attempting the solution of another.
In my personal experience, and from my wide acquaintance among
detectives, I have found that the greatest asset a person engaged in
this line of activity can possess is close observation and deduction.
Men and women are engaged in all lines of activity, and among these is
to be found the professional thief. The professional thief, and this
may be a woman as well as a man, devotes as much time and studious
effort to crime as professional persons in other walks of life devote
to their respective occupations.
In this country, as well as other countries, during the past few years
there has developed many different criminal societies. Frequently these
societies and their members are known to the police and detective
agencies, but it is not always easy to capture them.
The ideals of professional criminals are quite the opposite of what
is usually supposed. They admire cleverness and skill but despise
violence,--the forger or swindler commands their respect while they
scorn the yeggman or “gorilla” as they term all those who commit
crimes of violence. These ideals give rise to the idea of caste or
social position among them, the counterfeiter, swindler and forger
being placed at the top, while the burglar and highway robber are at
the bottom. They are scrupulously careful to do nothing to disgrace
themselves and lose caste in the eyes of their comrades. Thus a
pickpocket would never commit a highway robbery, or a forger stoop to
commit a burglary. Generally they practice at some particular type
of crime until they become expert at it and seldom change or attempt
anything outside of their own line. They consider it bad taste to kill
anyone unless in cases of absolute necessity, but an exception must be
made to this among the more desperate element of yeggmen, who seem to
consider it an honor to kill an officer of the law, especially one in
uniform; and they will sometimes, but not often, go out of their way to
kill an officer and thus acquire glory in the eyes of their comrades.
The aversion of the more intelligent crooks to violence is probably to
some extent due to the fact that it is not profitable and aggravates
the offense, insuring a longer term in prison if caught.
A professional thief, as a rule, generally confines his or her criminal
operations to some one particular line of activity. Pickpockets or
“dips” as they are known in police parlance, have no thought of
robbing houses or turning burglars. A safe blower looks down upon the
common highwayman, while the latter considers his occupation far more
dignified than that of the yegg.
A professional forger is usually a drug fiend and considers himself too
clever to associate with a “second story worker”. A “confidence man”
has no respect for the “penny weighter”. The latter, it might be said,
is the description given to diamond sneak thieves and their methods
will be explained later.
In addition to the individual professional crook, the police of all
larger cities must deal with what is known as crook organizations.
Frequently as many as fifty or more thieves will be identified in a
series of bold robberies, and so cleverly is this organization effected
that it is almost impossible to obtain evidence indicting “the men
higher up”.
For instance, the coming of the automobile has resulted in an organized
system of thievery. Thousands of automobiles are stolen every year in
this country. The cars are taken apart, reassembled, and finally the
altered product is sold by some apparently reputable dealer.
This business of stealing automobiles by organized gangs of crooks has
assumed gigantic proportions within the last few years. Although the
police everywhere have made many arrests, yet cars are being stolen
daily.
This system is one of the most elaborate ever adopted by professional
thieves. One man is singled out to steal an automobile and he is
instructed as to what kind of a car to steal. For this he generally
receives $50.00 or whatever price may be agreed upon.
He steals the car and turns it over to a second person. The second
thief drives the machine to some other city and there delivers it to a
third person who has been designated to receive it, and who is probably
unknown to the first two thieves.
Thus exchanges are made from one party to another, a small financial
transaction taking place each time, until the car finally arrives at an
assembling plant or garage where the owner acts as a “fence”. Here the
car is take apart, all the parts are changed around and with parts from
other cars it is assembled again, re-painted and placed on the market
as a second-hand machine.
The final destination of the stolen automobile is generally not known
to the thief who originally stole it. All he knows is that a certain
person paid him $50.00 for the automobile and what became of the car
after that is usually of no interest to him. The second thief perhaps
knows that he received $100.00 for the same car from a third person,
and there his interest ceases.
It is because that the majority of professional thieves confine their
operations to some one particular line that the detective soon learns
to associate the commission of a certain criminal act with a certain
criminal or gang of crooks.
My experience has taught me that reformatories generally do not reform
young men, correction houses do not correct men and penitentiaries do
not make men penitent. I am speaking now of the professional crook.
Society does not build these institutions to punish those who violate
the laws, but to protect society from the operations of this gentry.
A short term in prison for the average crook is only a part of the
game. Immediately upon his release he again resumes the old criminal
method in trying to get a living. I have never been able to understand
why a professional crook will devote so much time, thought and study in
the commission of a crime for a certain competence it is to bring him,
when the same amount of effort and labor spent in an honest direction
would result in ten-fold benefit. The professional crook is a menace
to society and the detective is the bulwark to stand between the thief
and society, protecting the latter from the many schemes devised by
the criminal who foolishly imagines his futile efforts will get him
something for nothing. No matter how clever the thief may be, sooner
or later he is caught in the toils of the law. The legal machinery
grinds relentlessly. The more intelligent the thief the greater will
be his suffering. All professional crooks acknowledge that they make
interesting reading, that in the long run it does not pay to commit
crime.
In my own experience among detectives I can recall many cases wherein
it would have been possible to lay hands on the real offender, but not
having sufficient evidence it was impossible to take criminal action,
and the guilty persons sometimes take this advantage and are never
apprehended.
But all skilled detectives bide their time. They know that sooner or
later the man whom they want will “slip a cog” and they will apprehend
him, convict and send him to the penitentiary.
The commission of any criminal act sets in motion all the human forces
to uncover the culprit and bring him to justice. These forces are
working constantly in every civilized country on the globe.
Police departments and detective agencies everywhere co-operate.
They are in one gigantic combine to run to earth the evil doer. Woe
betide the man, woman or organization that seeks to continue criminal
operations.
In the past ten years there have been many wonderful and startling
changes in the methods of crooks and persons of the underworld. The
old time burglar with his dark lantern and gun has practically passed
away. Burglaries nowadays, for the most part, are committed by young
men or boys who act impulsively or on the suggestion of evil minded
companions. The highwayman at the present time is very active, due
somewhat to the conditions of our country. The streets of all large
cities are so well patrolled and economic conditions have become so
changed that the field of operations for the highwayman is very limited.
Then, again, the offense is punishable by so severe a sentence in a
state prison, and the danger of being caught is so great, that the
professional crook prefers to devote his efforts to less hazardous
crimes. The professional crook, I have found, is the one who steals
money, or that which can easily be converted into money. Only the
occasional thief or petty crook bother with stealing articles the
disposition of which might prove difficult. Every professional thief
realizes that nothing is worth stealing unless it can be easily and
readily converted into cash without fear of detection. The man or woman
who steals any article of value and carries it to the nearest pawn
shop in the hope of realizing a little ready cash, might just as well
walk into police headquarters after committing a theft and make a full
confession. There is a law in most states making it compulsory for
the owner of a pawn shop to co-operate with the detective and police
departments in all their daily transactions. The pawn broker is too
wise to permit his license to become revoked or to be hauled into court
on a charge of receiving stolen goods.
The pawn broker makes a mental note of every person who would do
business with him, and to the detective and police divulges any
valuable information that he may have. In some large cities pawn
brokers are furnished with a list describing stolen articles, and there
is an electrical sign or signal connected from the store to police
headquarters to be used in an emergency.