"Joe" Killoran, alias "Joe" Howard, a rather picturesque type of
criminal, came from good old New York stock, was a rather brainy
planner of bank robberies, and was usually the one of a band to engage
an employe in conversation while the "sneak" committed the robbery.
Killoran had the appearance of a well-to-do business man, such as
might negotiate a loan from the bank, representing himself as from
some firm of brokers. He has frequently played the part of the sick
man seated in the carriage with a crutch, and not able to go into the
bank. He is notorious as escaping from the Ludlow Street jail, July
4, 1895, with Harry Russell and Charles Allen, then United States
prisoners. He was in many "sneak" robberies in the United States, and
one which I especially recall was the theft of $22,000 by him from
the First National Bank, Plainfield, N. J., on July 2, 1895. He was
accompanied by George Carson, "Sid" Yennie and Little Patsy Flannigan.
Yennie, Carson and Killoran held the attention of the employes while
Flannigan committed the robbery. After Killoran's escape from Ludlow
Street jail he fled to Europe, and, strangely enough, met with an
accident which necessitated the amputation of one of his legs, which
made him in reality carry a crutch until those he operated with
supplied him with a wooden leg.
He was arrested about two years ago in New York City, decidedly broken
in health, and was sent to Illinois to serve a term for robbing the
government postoffice at Springfield. After his release he returned to
Europe, and was, in September, 1905, arrested at Vienna for stealing
$100,000 from a depositor in front of the paying teller's window in
the bank in that city, and was, on March 19, 1906, sentenced to six
years in an Austrian prison. It looks as though he had committed his
last robbery, and that this crime will cause him to end his days in
prison.