STARTLING SURPRISES THAT CONFRONT CRIMINALS--HOW UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS
SUDDENLY DEVELOP AND UPSET CAREFULLY LAID PLANS AND CAUSE THE BURGLARS
ARREST OR PREVENT HIS GETTING EXPECTED PLUNDER
Only one who has been, as I have, for years behind the scenes at all
sorts of crimes can appreciate how often every criminal is brought face
to face with the most startling surprises.
No matter how clever a robber is he can never tell when arrest, serious
injury, or death will bring his dishonest career to a sudden end. And,
even if he escapes these fatal disasters, there are always a thousand
and one chances which may develop at any moment to spoil his carefully
laid plans and prevent his getting his plunder. Most of these are
things which it is absolutely impossible to foresee and guard against.
This is why only a small percentage of the crimes which are attempted
ever succeed and why their success hangs trembling in the balance until
the very last minute.
The brains we criminals expended in saving some robbery from failure
or in escaping the consequences of our deeds would have won us lasting
success and happiness in any honorable pursuit--used, as they were,
for crime, they brought us in the end only disgrace and remorse. That
is the lesson which these experiences have taught me and which I hope
every reader of this page will learn.
If there was ever a thief who planned his crimes with greater attention
to the smallest details than Harry Raymond, the man who stole the
famous Gainsborough, I never knew him.
But even Raymond's painstaking care was not proof against all the
startling surprises which confronted him and his plans were often
completely ruined by one of these unexpected happenings.
Raymond was always a restless man--never content to remain long in one
place. When stories of the rich gold and diamond mines in South Africa
reached his ears he began to cast longing eyes in that direction. Where
there was so much treasure he thought there surely ought to be an
opportunity to get his hands on a share of it.
He tried to induce Mark Shinburn to go with him, but Shinburn had his
eye on several big robberies nearer home, and so Raymond set out alone.
On the way he met Charley King, a noted English thief, and the two
joined forces.
Raymond hadn't been in South Africa twenty-four hours before he learned
that a steamer left Cape Town for England every week with a heavy
shipment of gold and diamonds on board. His next step was to find out
just how this treasure was brought down from the mines.
As he soon learned, it came by stage each week, the day before the
steamer sailed. The bags of gold dust and uncut diamonds were locked
in a strong box which was carried under the driver's seat. There was
only one other man on the coach besides the driver--a big, powerful
Boer, who carried a brace of revolvers and a repeating rifle and had
the reputation of being a dead shot.
There was just one difficulty in the way--Raymond really needed a third
man to assist King and him. Among all the criminals in Cape Town whom
he knew there was none he could trust, and so he at last decided to
ask a wholly inexperienced man to join the party. The man he selected
was an American sea captain who had been obliged to flee from his
native land after setting fire to his ship for the insurance. He was
desperately in need of money and was, therefore, only too glad of the
opportunity to share in the fortune Raymond proposed to steal.
Raymond, with his customary caution, studied the proposition from
every angle. At last he was convinced that he had provided for every
contingency which could possibly arise to prevent his robbery of the
coach.
This was his plan--to stretch a rope across some lonely spot in the
road and trip the horses. Before the driver and the guard could recover
from their astonishment and extricate themselves from the overturned
coach, Raymond and his companions would leap from their ambush and
overpower them.
Half way up a long hill, down which the coach would come, the three
men concealed themselves--Raymond and the captain on one side of the
road, King on the other.
Around a tree on either side of the road they fastened the rope with a
slip noose, letting its length lie loose on the ground directly in the
path of the coach. Carefully loading their revolvers they settled down
to wait for its approach.
At last their ears caught the rumble of its wheels and presently the
four horses which drew the heavy vehicle and its precious contents
appeared above the crest of the hill. They were making good time on the
last lap of their long journey from the mines.
On they came, until the hoofs of the leaders were within a foot of the
rope. Raymond gave a shrill whistle and his companions stretched the
rope tight across the road at a distance of about two feet above the
ground.
As the forward horses struck the barrier they fell in a heap and the
ones behind came tumbling on top of them. The wagon pole snapped like a
pipe stem.
The heavy coach stopped short, reeled uncertainly for a second, then
keeled over on its side, hurling both the driver and the guard several
feet away.
The three robbers sprang from their hiding place and covered the
prostrate men with their revolvers.
As they did so one of the fallen horses scrambled to his feet, broke
the remnants of the harness that clung to him and dashed down the hill,
furious with pain and fear.
Not one of the robbers paid any heed to this incident--for who would
have suspected that a frightened stage horse could interfere with their
carefully laid plans?
The driver was easily disposed of, but the guard showed fight and it
required the combined efforts of the three men to bind and gag him so
that he could do no harm.
They were just knotting a piece of rope around his struggling legs when
a shot rang out and a rifle bullet whizzed by their heads--followed by
another and another.
An instant before the moon had broken through the clouds. By its light
they saw six sturdy Boer farmers advancing up the hill, firing their
repeating rifles as they came.
Resistance was useless--they were outnumbered two to one and they had
all been in South Africa long enough to have a wholesome respect for a
Boer's marksmanship.
Covering their retreat with a few shots from their revolvers, they took
to their heels. In the rain of bullets which was falling around them
it was suicide to think of trying to take the heavy strong box with
them, and they had to leave it there in the coach with all its treasure
untouched.
Raymond was completely mystified. He and his companions had not fired
a shot in their struggle with the men on the coach. How had those Boer
farmers, who lived in a house at the foot of the hill nearly half a
mile away, happened to be aroused just in time to spoil the robbery?
The account the newspapers gave of the robbery cleared up the mystery.
It seemed that the frightened horse which had dashed down the hill had
plunged through the lattice gate in the front of the Boer's house.
The crash of the woodwork and the wounded animal's cries of pain as
he struggled to free himself had awakened the farmers. As they rushed
out half dressed to see what the trouble was the moon shone out and
revealed to them the overturned coach on the hillside above and the
robbers struggling with the guard and driver.
You see what a surprising thing it all was and how impossible it was
for Raymond to have foreseen that anything like this would happen. But
these two little incidents--the runaway horse and the moon's sudden
appearance--were all that was needed to snatch away $250,000 in gold
and diamonds just as Raymond thought he had it safely in his hands.
Even more surprising was what happened when Tom Smith and I, with Dan
Nugent and George Mason, were trying to rob a little bank down in
Virginia.
The fact that the cashier and his family lived on the floor above this
bank made it a rather ticklish undertaking.
There was, however, no vault to enter, and the safe was such a
ramshackle affair that the men felt sure they could open it without the
use of a charge of powder. So we decided to make the attempt.
As Tom Smith had sprained his wrist in escaping from a Pennsylvania
sheriff a few nights before he was to remain on guard outside the bank,
while I entered with Dan and George and rendered what assistance I
could in opening the safe. This was the first time I had ever been on
the "inside" of a bank burglary and I was quite puffed up with my own
importance.
Dan opened one of the bank windows with his jimmy and held his hands
for me to step on as I drew myself up over the high sill. Then he
handed the tools to me and he and George climbed up.
The bank in which we found ourselves was one large room. A door led
into it from the broad porch which extended along the front of the
building. At the rear was another door opening into a long passageway,
at the end of which was a staircase leading to the cashier's apartments
overhead.
While the two men were looking the safe over I unlocked the front door
to provide an avenue of escape in case we should have to beat a hasty
retreat.
I also opened the door at the rear and peered into the darkness of
the passageway. There was no sign of life--no sound except the heavy
breathing of the sleeping cashier and his family in the rooms above. I
closed the door gently for fear the rasping of the drills on the metal
of the safe would be heard.
Just then my quick ears caught the sound of some one in the passageway.
I tiptoed over to the door and pressed my ear against it.
I had barely time to draw away from the door before it opened wide and
I stood speechless with amazement at the apparition I saw standing
there within an arm's length of me.
[Illustration: SURPRISED BY A SLEEP WALKER.]
I am not a superstitious woman, but what I saw in that doorway set my
heart to thumping madly, and sent the cold shivers up and down my back.
And I am not ashamed to confess how startled I was, for Dan Nugent and
George Mason, the veterans of a hundred burglaries, later admitted that
nothing had ever given them such a scare as this.
What we saw facing us, like a ghost, was a beautiful young woman. The
filmy white night robe she wore left her snowy arms and shoulders bare
and revealed her bare feet.
Her face looked pale and ghastly in the light of the kerosene lamp she
carried high in one hand. The mass of jet black hair which crowned her
head and hung in a long braid down her back made her pallor all the
more death-like.
Her eyes were shut tight.
For a minute we stood blinking like frightened children at this
uncanny, white, silent figure. Then, gradually, it dawned on us that
this apparition was the cashier's eldest daughter, and that she was
walking in her sleep.
As we recovered our senses it didn't take us long to see what a
dangerous situation we were in. At any moment our unwelcome visitor
might awaken. By the time we could bind and gag her the rest of the
family might discover her absence and start in search of her.
The girl looked so innocent and helpless and so strangely beautiful
that, for my part, I was heartily glad when George Mason nodded his
head toward the door to indicate that we would better be going.
The two men climbed out of the window and I made my escape by the front
door. The last I saw of the sleep-walking girl she was groping her way
across the bank with slow cautious steps, still holding the lamp high
above her head and looking more than ever like a graveyard specter.
Whether anybody except ourselves ever knew what a strange chance
saved the bank from robbery that night I never heard. It was a costly
experience for us as, according to what we learned later from the
newspapers, that safe contained $20,000 in cash.
We missed that tidy little bit of plunder just because a young woman
was addicted to the habit of walking in her sleep.
And now another instance--the very remarkable chain of surprises which
resulted in the murder of a bank cashier, the blackening of a dead
man's reputation, and, finally, the imprisonment of two desperate
burglars for life.
For many years the robbery of the bank in Dexter, Maine, puzzled
everybody. This was a job of national importance, because Mr. Barron,
the cashier of the bank, was accidentally murdered, and the detectives,
after failing to get any clue to the burglars, buncoed the bank
officials by inventing the theory that the unfortunate cashier had
murdered himself!
They managed to fix up the books of the bank in such a way as to show
some trivial pretended defalcation, which amounted, as I remember it,
to about $1,100. On the strength of this barefaced frame-up the memory
of the poor cashier was defamed and the bank actually brought suit
against the widow for some small sum.
The real facts I will now tell you. Jimmy Hope, the famous bank
burglar, first got his eye on the Dexter bank as a promising prospect,
and made all his plans to enter the bank when, to his disgust, he was
grabbed for another matter and given a prison term. In Jimmy Hope's
gang was an ambitious burglar named David L. Stain, and Stain decided
that there was no reason why the Dexter bank should escape simply
because Hope was serving a sentence.
So Stain looked over the ground and decided to rob the bank with a
little band of his own, consisting of Oliver Cromwell and a man named
Harvey, and somebody else whose name I do not now recall. They selected
Washington's Birthday because it was a holiday, and there was every
reason to believe that nobody would be in the bank.
Late in the afternoon Stain and his associates forced their way into
the building and sprung the lock of the back door of the bank. The
burglars stood for a moment to put on their masks and rubber shoes, and
then Stain moved forward toward the inner room of the bank, where the
bank vaults were.
Just at the moment that Stain put his hand on the doorknob Cashier
Barron on the other side of the door put his own hand on the inside
knob as he unsuspectingly started to leave the inside room, where he
had been going over some of the books that were in the vaults.
[Illustration: AS THE DOOR OPENED STAIN AND BARRON CAME FACE TO FACE]
As the door opened Dave Stain and Cashier Barron suddenly came face
to face without the slightest warning. Barron stood paralyzed with
astonishment as he peered into the masked face of the leader. Stain,
with perfect composure, struck Barron a quick blow with a slung-shot,
landing the weapon exactly in the center of Mr. Barron's forehead.
The cashier dropped to the floor stunned and Stain imagined that his
victim's skull was crushed, or that, if the blow had not been fatal,
Barron would come to his senses and make an outcry. In either case
the burglars realized that they had done a bad job. Murder was not
intended, and none of the gang had any stomach for going on with the
robbery, even though the doors of the big vault stood invitingly open.
After a few moments' hasty consultation the cracksmen picked up the
unconscious but still breathing form of the faithful cashier and laid
it in the vault, and closed and locked the big doors. Stain and his
gang made their way noiselessly out of the building, strolling, one by
one, through the town and out into the country, where a span of horses
was waiting for them. They drove across country, keeping away from the
railroad, and made their escape without leaving a clue of any kind.
When Cashier Barron failed to turn up at home at supper time a search
was made and somebody went to the bank. The cashier's hat and coat were
found in the inner room, and a faint sound of heavy breathing could be
heard from the interior of the closed vault. Blacksmiths were hastily
called, and, after several hours' work, succeeded in freeing the
imprisoned cashier--but, although Barron was still alive and breathing,
his face was black from his having breathed over and over again the
poisoned air of the vault, and he died without recovering consciousness.
Several years later a clue to the real truth of the tragedy was picked
up by a newspaper reporter, who devoted several weeks of painstaking
work to piecing together the scraps of evidence he was able to
collect. This reporter then had himself appointed a Massachusetts State
detective and arrested Stain and Cromwell, brought them to Bangor,
Maine, was able to have them identified by several townspeople who had
seen them in Dexter on the day of the murder, and Stain and Cromwell
were both convicted of murder in the first degree, and the conviction
was unanimously confirmed by the Supreme Court of the State of Maine.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment.
I could go on indefinitely recounting instances as surprising as any
of these of the unexpected things which are constantly happening to
prevent criminals succeeding in their undertakings. But these which
I have mentioned are enough to show any thoughtful man or woman how
hazardous and how profitless crime always is.
Success in crime is achieved only at the risk of life and liberty. In a
few rare cases the criminal escapes these penalties, but, even so, his
ill gotten gains melt rapidly away and bring him no lasting happiness.
And, as I have shown here to-day, a large percentage of the crimes he
undertakes yield him nothing for all the time, thought, and effort he
has to give them.
Each chapter of my own life, as I am now recalling it, and the lives of
all the criminals I have ever known, only give added emphasis to the
fact which I want to impress on you--that CRIME DOES NOT PAY.