Evening sentinel, Monday, September 4, 1922 · page 10

 

 

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Formerly Deputy Police Commis-
sioner of New York.

It was on a Thursday in Febrfidry
hat the “great taxicab robbery" took
We in New York city. At 10:30
o'clock that morning two trusted
messengers
Hational Bank, at Broadway and
Third street. in a taxicab to draw
$25,000 from the Produce Exchange
Bank. downtown. at Broadway and
Denver street. W'ilbur Smith, one
messenger, had been in the employ
1* his bank forty years. The other.
Wardle. had made many such trips.
Smith and ‘Vardle did not think it
necessary to go armed. ‘

The taxicab driver was an ltillbn.
Geno Montani. He was customarily.

b the messengers.
“fiveymen suddenly swooped down
upon the cab as it was on its willy
so the bank with the money. T e
unarmed messengers were beaten
until they were unconscious. On;
man compelled the driver to 5pc:
out of the neighborhood. when all t e

left the cab.
“Saintly, all this had taken place
in a mirly crowded street and noone
seemed to notice it. The cab driver
remembered only that the robbers
antered a green automobile, bearing
no license number, after they fled the
ca(gar information came principally
mm )lnntnni, the driver, for the two
messengers had been attacked so
ludtienly and so (iUiCkly beaten into
unconsciousness they could give no
description of their assailants. Mon-
lnni did give rather vague descrip-
tions of the man who sat beside him
on the driver's seat. but his descrip-
tion was so indefinite that it was of
little use. There had been a good
many eyewitnesses, casual pedes-
trians, who had seen much of the
incident but who were not alert
enough to attach any significance _
with" the three robbers had left
his cab Montuni sought a policeman.
In it few minutes we hind the meager
dC-SCrlpllnns in~ gave us. and as soon
IS pOssilrit-t'tftcr that. I sent out a.
general alarm. The descriptions we '
find and l’u‘ozidmstt-d might have been
of any three of :1 hundred thousand
men in Now Ym'k. But it was worth
while to s nil out the order, for the
chance of iinrlinc our robbers among
a group of suspicious characters
rounded up “as to bt- considered.
" “Stole $25.01.”) in five and ten dollar
bills. Contained in a ltather telescope
brig, 24 inches long, 16 inches square,
from two bank messengers in a taxi-
cab, about 11 A. M., at Park place
and Church street, and escaped in a
fit'e or seven seated touring car,
top up.” .

That information was, of course,
included ll] the broadcast, and it was
our best chunvo. The patrol platoons
were instructed to watch out for this
car at i'crry entrances, bridge ter-
minuis and railroad stations. Traffic
policvmcn were told to keep a sharp
lookout. .

They (lid watch closely,, but no
trace of the car was seen. That left
one other clue to follow. It was up
to us to find the trail of the quantity
0' fill!) and ten dollar bank notes and
to seek the key to the mystery
through that means. Perhaps it is
of interest to the reader to consider
the bar-“inning made by investigating
ofllcers when so little information is
‘3 ham" Certainly we could not sit
“d wait and twiddle our thumbs
until an unusual quantity of five and
Don dollar bills turned up in circula-
tion. Winn there is obviously such
I little bit of evidence to work on,
how do officials start to "open" such
.- case of the taxicab mystery?

First. I called BlXtY detectives into
"19 lnvestlsation. An hour after the
“port of the case five of these sixty
were at the scene of the robbery,
fleeing the career of Montani’s taxi-
ash from Third street to Beaver

,dreet and back again, questioning

news stand and fruit stand dealers
nnd‘open air merchants along the
route to try and discover whetn-n
any of them had seen any important
--: of the holdup. These five that
Thursday afternoon covered an
' They went
ugh all streets whichmight pos-
my have been taken by the cacao- '
'm. robbers, inquiring of porters.
men and merchants along the
. _ any of ”them had seen
Mr‘k‘ touring'car without a. license
number. Other detectives searched
garages all over towp. made inqui-
1!» at all gasoline filling stations.
whither detectives were sent out
into the undertworid" to learn "What
my could of underworld gossip.
While the detectives were working
WW hunting tor eyewitnesses
"and seeking to uncover a pretty well
hidden trail we Were having a con-
ueenee back at Police Headquarters,
flapping out a plan of action. First
' tecalled_ all. bank robbers
My “men we thought capable at
done this piece of work,
criminal or group'of criminals
its style of warhead it the
es. of police officers to me
- with the distinctions in
‘ We agreed after awhile that
b had'been done by none of
, hWB-ymen or bank bandits
over deal: with.
was a complicated, well planned .
. . Brains had been in back
- (such brain's.- bank robber: in
do not/possess. Moreover.

left the East River,

andrself. Hisfirstbusinesa

,.with at

 

the taxicab robbers had had knowl-
edge. They knew the methods of
the bank in transferring cash. They

knew when the taxica bearing the.

messengers would make its trip, and
they knew the route. What is more.
they knew that an old man, and a
1303'. both unarmed. the mes-
sengers. Their plans had been de-
tailed. A man had stumbled in front
of the cab, according ,t° Montani's
story, in order to make it slacks:
speed. ~Four men had rushed to the
doors. and on each side a man had
pushed another man into the cab-—
making sure that the‘ messengers
would not be able to push their as-
sailants out. and perhaps lending
moral support to the attackers.
Young Wardle had actually tried to
push his man out, but the pressure
from the outside had made that
impossible.

All that was cunning—unusual
cunning.

After that conference we exam-
ined Montani in detail. He was will-
ing to tell all he knew to help the po-

 

lice. He Was frank and straightfo:-
ward and confident of himself. Mon-
tani was an Italian. about 30, heavy
set, medium height His face was
intelligent, particularly his big black
eyes. . .

I questionel him all afternoon, re-
lieved now and then by other exami-
ners. We asked him a thousand ques.
tions—ofvhimself, of what he had
seen of the robbers. of the appear-
ance of the criminals-—of many
things which apparently had no hear-
ing at! all on the robbery. Montanr
Was patient. ‘ -

He had been in this country since
he was twelve. He had a. wife and
two children. Before. he had gone.
into the taxicab business he had
been a truckman. For several years
he had been in the employ of a
trucking company, and his employer ,
had started him in business for him-
but he had boldmut and gone'into tho
taxicab business ,with a partner.
They‘ had bought three cars. but
through misplaced trust in his part-
ner he met a. reverse and had
to dispose of the third car to make
settlement. Much of, his story was
verified. his former employers weak.

Jab most highly'of .1:15 We“ and

oral chauffeurs whom Montahi
1‘83 emblored' 01" been associated
_. one time or another caning
of their good opinion of him.

The newspaper men» were "01.1

s

was tru ok‘in'g, '

t

over by Montani's personality as
well as his story. They set out at
once to defend him and to setup
criticism of the police for having
held him—for we did hold whim.

After he was discharged in court"

after a preliminary hearing a few
days afterward the police were con-
demned rather severely.

But, as a fact. the newspaper men
did not understand all they knew.
And they didn't know everything.

For on that first day Montani, "

through his answers. got himselt so
deeply into the use that we could
have held him in spite of his dis—
charge at the hands of the magis-
trate—who, 'lncidentally,_ reprimand-
ed the police—but we let him go for
the time being. .
Montani had said he slowed down

, his cab to keep from running over

an old man who got into the Way.
But detective“: the scene of the
robbery found eye-witnesses who
swore that such was not the case.
that the cab had slowed without
apparent reason. He had’said.‘too,

 

. a; , .,
out infermanis.‘ Three-fourths of
the solved mysteries as. ”broken”
by them. At about 1 o'clock Friday
’morning I‘ .recelved :‘a‘ message on
the telephone. I rushed uptown to
a. hotel and met the man who had
telephoned, arriving there at 2
o'clock. This informant hadreal in:
formation. Sometimes informants
do; frequently they don't.

The man lived at a lower West Side

lodging house. On the afternoon of

ledger by the name of Eddie Collins
had hurried home and told a woman
known as “S eds Annie," witmwhom
he lived, to hurry and pack their be-
longings. Then they had left to-

gether. The informant. said also that

he had seen a hand bag: filled with
bills in Colll‘hs's possession.

Early the next morning .agve took
careful steps to approach the‘fandlady
9f the rooming house to discover
whether she was in or out of sympa-
thy with Collins. It was learned
without difficulty that she was hon-
est and reliable. One of the detec-

'.w' v

the robbery, .at about 3. 2.. fellow‘

 

into the underworld and talked cas-
ually with, divekeepers. criminals,
shady women andlother characters
of that realm." By the end of the
Week we had learned that Annie and
Collins had taken a taxicab Thurs-
day afternoon. accompanied by a.
secend‘nl'an, and had left the lodging
house to go uptown. “A good descrip-
tion of her companions‘was obtained.
It was also learned that the real
name of Cdilins was Eddie Kinsman,
that he had been a prizefighter, and
that-he.,had come to New York from
Boston. Annie had worn a cheap
little hat with a row of red roses
adorning it. Also the police got a
good picture of .Annie' and a fair
photo of Kinsman. ' These pictures
were reproduced in a hundred copies
and sent all over the country.

I believed that Eddie and Annie
and their unknown friend had gone
to Boston. Here I introduced a. de-
parture from custom. Instead of
telegraphing the Boston police to in-
tercept them, I sent. two detectives

One of the band opened the bag in the rooms of “Swede Annie.”

that his own cab with himself driv-
ing had answered the summons from
the bank that morning, although
the other one was first in line, be-
cause the other cab had been sent
up town to have a. tire vulcanized.
Investigation by detectives proved
that that had not been so—that no
tire had needed vulcanizing and none
had been vulcanized.

He testified he had raised a cry ,
for help as soon as the robbers lest
his mb. \Witnesses said that was
not true. He admitted that he had ,
gone south away from the robbers’
automobile after he had taken a
policeman aboard instead of going
north following it, explaining that
that, was according to the police-
man's orders. The policeman denied

".this.

A ticket seller came forward mean-
while to tell that three men had
taken ah elevated train at his sta-
.tion -;near the robbery scene that
mornbxg.:They had carried a. leather
big, he said, and had not waited for
change from a quarter. He could not
describe them except to say that
two of them had blood spots on ,_
their clothing. _ '

Montani was in my custody that.»

night, but before morning we had
more .0! lem‘ forgotten him and
were working on awlew that was as
new and unexpected

 

, police because she decidédVCollins
—was beastly - ng. . . - 1 '

 

tives asked her outright what she
knew of Collins. ,

“Sure, and I know a. lot about him."
Mrs. Sullivan replied, "but little
that's good." '

Then she told how, two weeks be-
fore, he had approached her and of-
fered to pay her if V‘s would appear
as a. character with, 53 in a Brook-
lyn court for a criminal named Mol-
loy being “held thery charged With
robbery. Mrs. Sullivan had refused
to perjnre herself, having never
heard of the than.~

Then, after a few days, one morn-
ing while she was tidying up his.
room she saw two blackjacks i Col- .
lins's bureau drawer. She asks him
why he needed the weapons.

"We need 'em in our, business." he
replied. . ’ i ' ' _

"What is your business?" Mrs.
aunlvah‘auestgoned. Then. assuming
that arrogant, . confident bearing,

Which has ,proved the modeling of,
more crriminals than all detectines
have ever cauaght, mama her of. a
plan 01 1118 sW'to robs. taxicab
that carried money from one.bs.nk
to another, evsry week. '~ I
, "It’ll be easy." he said. "wove got
'11: all fixed with the dashfleurf ,
Mrs. Sullivan did not notify. the

 

night Inspector Edward P. Hughes,
in charge ”of the Detective Bureau.
and Detective Sergeant John J.

O'Connell left New. York for Boston. ,

Nobody in the department except
myself knew them gone. '
Saturday I resumed my‘eixamina-
tion of Montani. An insurance com-
pany had come forward with the in-
formation tl'lat Montani had several
months before presented a fraudu-
lent blll for'repairs on'a burned war.
which had never been repaired. The
company had not pressed the matter,

7 , but had got a. written Confession from

the chauffeur. that the bill was fraud-
ulent. We told Montani nothing of
what we had- learned.

Saturday night while Montani and
I Were _walking together on the

:Bowery on our way .to, Supper he

stopped suddenly and pointed at an .
old .Bowery beggar. ,

“There is the oid,man_m.who got in
front of my car," he said: " ‘3

The old man was a ., typical char- '
acter "of K,‘he ' slums—rags and
whiskers. He was picking up cigar"
ette butts with astonishing agility. I
immediately. dubbed“ him . ‘i‘King

Dodo:- and mayberheis sun known ,

 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

from our own forces there. Saturday‘

 

 

 

 

.TP

 

 

 

4. GREAT EXXI-

 

CAB ROBBERY » '

 

and brushed up to an astonishing
transformation. his whiskers neatly
' combed. V " ‘ ,

Kinsman had not gone to Boston.
Inspector Hughes found out where
his family lived-—a very respectable
family. by: the way—and learned
many things about Kinsman's life in

Boston. But we had to take up a
new trail. 'Monday morning I ar-'

ranged to question conductors of all
trains that left New York on the
afternoon of the day of the robbery.
For two days nothing was learned of

consequence, but on Wednesday De- ‘

tective Watson. formerly a railroad
engineer, learned that a train of the
New York Central had carried three
passengers to Albany On the day of
the robbery who answered the de-
scription of the three sought. These
three had taken the train at Peel-:-
skill. Evidently they had driven in
the taxicab to that station. The con—
ductor who gave the information re-
memberedAnnJe, because he caught
her smoking a. cigarette in the’lava—
tovry of the day coach. Another of

x

the Eraiiimen remembered assisting
her to alight at the Albany station.
Detective Watson was sent imme-
diately to Albany with instructions.
To tell what his, instructions were it
will be necessary to go back from
Wednesday to Monday.

We'learned Monday morning that '
a woman known as Myrtle Horn, 2.
friend of Annie’s, had moved from
Lip—Sullivan’s rooming house to

- another place, taking a double ‘room

there: that she had carried Annie’s
trunk with her. Our deduction from‘v
that was that “Swede Annie" was
due to come back to New ~York. I
went to this house in person. as a:
contractor, and soon found that the
landlady was trustworthy. I told her ‘
what I wanted, and we worked out
a plan. That evening Police Matron
Isabella Goodwin movEd “into the
lodging house. I carried her bundle, '
and. when she and the landlady
caught sight of each other they
Vrushed'together and kissed noisily. '
making much-talker the long time
since they had seen each other. Mrs.
Goodwinwas‘posing as the landlady’s
sister from; Agontreal. The pseudo

515me assigned torthe‘ room ad- '

jacent to: that: of 'Myrtle Horn. Out.—
' ' “ "kept on the.house.

a
\.

mers and nails, “fitting up the
for a new firm."

Tuesday “Swede Annie"
wearing a. new hat.

But I'm not through with
yet. On that (lay Montani
rajgned and dismisse' ' d for
evidence.

In addition to “Swede Annie's“
turn Tuesday brought out new d
velopments of importance. V63: b:
gan to complete the must of the pm“,
We had started by tracing the Q“.
tive Kinsman's career. learning )
he had come to New York the i
vious summer. engaged in n-
fight and then had got a
waiter in the Nutshell Cafe. or,
avenue. We learned of m
associates there who need ,3
gadon. One of his friends
fellow known as "Gene." :1 mm, with
a hooked nose. The Otl‘u’r was 3
little Italian known as W .9,
had once‘been proprietor of a H
and criminals' hang out n.

8101‘s
game back
MC ndny
Was ar-

“‘3 “i of

3‘6.

 
 
 

as a
Sixth
O of his

LIiYéSEi-

“its a

(ll l'.

 

:Ifin’d :i’;

Arch Cafe. '

It was an easy matter to bar:

who “JESS" “'85. Vt'e inn-it'- C'lll'
tious _approach to the

Arr“ ‘-
planting a man there to . q him
Dosible information. '1‘ t
he was there he learntn 1
named Clarke, alias Mic;
under arrest in Brookty
the inspiration for a (3
collected among
Italian, "Jess." last :2. .
20,” had been plum-.1 g3. ‘35,;
fund, and had S‘£Iltilii,li_'[‘td
spree. He had made
and sent it over to Mr
man known as “Dutch" :12;
‘ian named “Matteo."

EIolloy, incidentally, was f’.:~: same
man whose good Charm
Sullivan was asked to w 2‘

An officer who knew
sought. He was found in l
Antony Grieco. Grieco and
officer were put on Jess‘s traiE. T2191:
learned that Jess was accustomed to
stop in 3. Thompson- street saloon
kept by another Italian, James PaSc
qualo, better Known as “Jimmie the
Push.” They kept Jess under close
surveillance and ‘waited.

By roundabout methods and un-
witting informants we learned that
the "Gene" who was one of Kins-
man‘s associates was Gene Splaine
of Boston, an ex—convict. From his
description we figured him as tine
man who had left with Kinsman and
"Swede Annie.”

\Veil, on Tuesday “Swede A2:
turned up with her new hat.
took the front baSement room :.-~..\t
to Myrtle Horn. From that ti;. ,
she and Myrtle were never ins:
of.

Wednesday Detective \‘t' .
found the conductor who r:
hered Annie and her trio}
day he set out {or Albany with i..-
str actions.

“In Albany." I suixl, "go to the ‘33;
hat store on Broadway near the su-
tiou. Maybe that‘s Where Annie got
her new hat."

Detective Watson found the sales-
womrtn in that hat shop who had
Sold Annie her hat. Also he found
the old hat there, the cheap affair
with the row of red zoses. He sent it
to me by express and I was glad to
get it. ,It was a cheap thing, but it
looked mighty dear to me just them.

The saleswoman told Watson that
tlieltwo men had playfully argued
about who was to pay the 25 for
Annie’s new hat. .. She remembered
one of them (Splaine) had settled the
argument by saying to the other
(Kinsman): “She's your girl." And
Iiinsman had made payment with $5 '
bills. ' '

Unquestionabiy the two men had
left Albany, but we had no way of
knowing when or where they it“:
gone. Detective Watson made
quiries at Albany and l sought 2:
formation by telephone from the
ticket salesmen in Albany, and we
learned after a while that two men
answering the description hat: ‘2"o '!
tickets for Chicago Friday tn.
We concluded that they had It}: ~
the next fast train, at 11‘. i
noon. That conclusion was strs
ened when Policewoman Goodni: .
~p0rted that she had learned Arnie
had~come back to New York : a!
night and had hidden‘ out until Tues-
day. 'Kinsman had given her $135-

50 that night Detectives Clare and
Daly took a fast train from New
York to Chicago. I gave them un-
limited expense privileges, false
names and a. telegraph code title of
“Orange Growers." I told them they
were to stick to tha trail if it lasted
all over the world. There had been
heavy snows that winter and the
train on which the detectives trav-
eled was delayed at many stations.
Everywhere the “Orange' Growers”
alighted and made queries at the

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

~.' 6‘.
Bus .1

a

 

 

 

. mm

{her

 

/

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

stations for a. man of Kinsman’s
description. explaining that they
were searching for their brother. At

Syracuse a waitress remembered
Kinsman, who had dismounted when
the tr‘ain was delayed to get supper-
They knew they were on the trail.
Disguise is seldom necessary, but the
"Orange, Growers" thought it advis-
able, so taking advantage of their
_ ' 'sbeing snowed under in Michi-
gait and ofrthe n erous delays of
the journey they et their boards
grow. When they arrived in Chicago

. ‘ theyhrirere not recognized by crimi-

nals they hadrknown for years. Firs‘