The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Taxicab Robbery, by James H. Collins This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The Great Taxicab Robbery A True Detective Story Author: James H. Collins Release Date: September 25, 2016 [EBook #53145] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT TAXICAB ROBBERY *** Produced by ellinora and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected. Spelling variations have been kept as in the original. The cover has been created by the transcriber from elements in the book and has been placed in the public domain. cover THE GREAT TAXICAB ROBBERY RHINELANDER WALDO Commissioner of Police, New York City THE GREAT TAXICAB ROBBERY A True Detective Story BY JAMES H. COLLINS WRITTEN FROM RECORDS AND PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF THE CASE FURNISHED BY THE NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXII Copyright, 1912, by JOHN LANE COMPANY This book has something to say about practical results of wiser police administration in New York. It is respectfully dedicated to HON. WILLIAM J. GAYNOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY the official who took the initiative in improving conditions PREFACE There are several reasons for this little book, but the best of all is the main reason— that it is a cracking good story, and right out of life. The characters will be found interesting, and they are real people, every one of them. The incidents are full of action and color. The plot has mystery, surprise, interplay of mind and motive—had a novelist invented it, the reader might declare it improbable. This is the kind of story that is fundamental—the kind Mr. Chesterton says is so necessary to plain people that, when writers do not happen to write it, plain people invent it for themselves in the form of folk- lore. But apart from the story interest there are other reasons. When the New York police department had run down all the threads of the plot, and accounted for most of the characters by locking them up, they had become so absorbed in the story themselves, as a story, that they thought the public would enjoy following it from the inside. While the crime was being dealt with, the police were subjected to pretty severe criticism. They felt that the facts would make it clear that they knew their trade and had been working at it diligently. The story gives an insight into real police methods. These are very different from the methods of the fiction detective, and also from the average citizen’s idea of police work. They ought to be better known. When the public understands that there is nothing secret, tyrannical or dangerous in good police practice, and that our laws safeguard even the guilty against abuses, there will be helpful public opinion behind officers of the law, and we shall have a higher degree of order and security. The directing mind in this case was that of Commissioner George Dougherty, executive head of the detectives of the New York Police Department. Thousands of clean, ambitious young fellows are constantly putting on the policeman’s uniform all over the country, and rising to places as detectives and officials. The manufacturer or merchant may find himself in the police commissioner’s chair. Even the suburbanite, with his bundles, may be, out at Lonesomehurst, a member of the village council, and thus responsible for the supervision of a police force that, though it be only two patrolmen and a chief, is important in its place. So in writing the story there has been an effort to show how a first-rate man like Commissioner Dougherty works. His methods are plain business methods. Most of his life he has earned his living following the policeman’s trade as a commercial business. What he did in a case of this kind, and how, and why, are matters of general interest and importance. Finally, the story throws some useful light on criminals. It shows the cunning of the underworld, and also its limitations. To free the law-abiding mind of romantic notions about the criminal, and show him as he is, is highly important in the prevention of crime. 7 8 9 10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Rhinelander Waldo, Commissioner of Police, New York City Frontispiece George S. Dougherty, Second Deputy Police Commissioner 20 Edward P. Hughes, Inspector in Command of Detective Bureau, and Dominick G. Riley, Lieutenant and Aide to Commissioner Dougherty 40 Geno Montani, Eddie Kinsman, Gene Splaine, “Scotty the Lamb” and John Molloy 60 James Pasquale, Bob Delio, Jess Albrazzo, and Matteo Arbrano 80 “Scotty” Receives Final Instructions 110 “The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up Men for Theirs 126 11 THE CAST Geno Montani, a taxicab proprietor. Wilbur Smith, an elderly bank teller. Frank Wardle, a seventeen-year-old bank office boy. Eddie Kinsman, alias “Collins,” alias “Eddie the Boob,” a hold-up man. Billy Keller, alias “Dutch,” a hold-up man. Gene Splaine, a hold-up man. “Scotty the Lamb,” a thieves’ helper, or “stall.” Joe Philadelphia, alias “The Kid,” a runner for thieves, or “lobbygow.” James Pasquale, alias “Jimmy the Push,” keeper of shady resorts known as “208” and “233.” Bob Deilio, partner of “Jimmy the Push.” Jess Albrazzo, a middleman, formerly keeper of the Arch Café, pal of Montani, “Jimmy the Push” and Bob Deilio. Matteo Arbrano, } Pauli Gonzales, } The “Three Brigands.” Charles Cavagnaro, } “King Dodo,” a Bowery character. Rhinelander Waldo, Police Commissioner of New York. George S. Dougherty, Second Deputy Police Commissioner, executive head of detectives. Inspector Edward P. Hughes, in command of Detective Bureau. Police Lieutenant Dominick G. Riley, Aide of Commissioner Dougherty’s staff. Detective Sergt John J. O’Connell, Official Stenographer. The Detectives on “Plants,” “Trailing,” “Surrounding,” “Arresting,” etc.: John P. Barron, Edward Boyle, Frank Campbell, James Dalton, James J. Finan, John W. Finn, Joseph A. Daly, Daniel W. Clare, John Gaynor, Anthony Grieco, John P. Griffith, Daniel F. Hallihan, Edward Lennon, Henry Mugge, Richard Oliver, Gustavus J. Riley, James F. Shevlin, Joseph Toner, George Trojan, James A. Watson. “Swede Annie,” Kinsman’s sweetheart. Myrtle Horn, a pal of Annie. Rose Levy, a newcomer in Thompson street, Jess Albrazzo’s girl. Mrs. Isabella Goodwin, a police matron. Mrs. Sullivan, keeper of a West Side rooming house. “Josie,” a lady of the Levee district, Chicago. Detectives, policemen, informants, witnesses, denizens of the underworld, newspaper reporters, trainmen, ticket sellers, etc., etc. Place—Chiefly in New York, with Scenes in Chicago, Albany, Memphis, Boston and Montreal. Time—February and March, 1912. 13 14 O The Great Taxicab Robbery CHAPTER I WHAT THE PUBLIC HEARD ABOUT THE CRIME n Thursday, February 15, 1912, the New York evening papers had a startling news story. Between ten and eleven o’clock that morning two messengers were sent in a taxicab from the East River National Bank, at Broadway and Third street, to draw $25,000 in currency from the Produce Exchange National Bank, at Broadway and Beaver street, in the downtown financial district, and bring it uptown. This transfer of money had been made several times a week for so long a period without danger or loss that the messengers were unarmed. One of them, Wilbur F. Smith, was an old man who had been in the service of the bank thirty-five years, and the other was a mere boy, named Wardle, seventeen years old. The taxicab man, an Italian named Geno Montani, seemed almost a trusted employee, too, for he operated two cabs from a stand near the bank, and was frequently called upon for such trips. While the cab was returning uptown through Church street with the money, five men suddenly closed in upon it. According to the chauffeur’s story, a sixth man forced him to slacken speed by stumbling in front of the vehicle. Immediately two men on each side of the cab opened the doors. Two assailants were boosted in and quickly beat the messengers into insensibility, while their two helpers ran along on the sidewalk. The fifth man climbed onto the seat beside the chauffeur, held a revolver to his ribs, and ordered him to drive fast on peril of his life. This fellow seemed to be familiar with automobiles, and threatened the driver when he tried to slacken speed. That is a busy part of the city. Yet nobody on the sidewalks seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. The cab dodged vehicles, going at high speed for several blocks. At Park Place and Church street, after a trip of eleven blocks, at a busy corner, the chauffeur was ordered to stop the cab, and the three robbers got down, carrying the $25,000 in a leather bag, ran quickly to a black automobile without a license number which was waiting for them, and in a few moments were gone. That was the substance of the story. Information came chiefly from the chauffeur, because the two bank employees had been attacked so suddenly and viciously that they lost consciousness in a moment. When the chauffeur looked inside his cab after the crime, he said, he saw them both lying senseless and bleeding. They could give no description of the assailants. Eye-witnesses were found who had seen men loitering in the neighborhood where the cab was boarded shortly before the crime, but their descriptions were not very useful. That night the New York evening papers published accounts of the crime under great black headlines, and on the following morning every news item of a criminal nature was grouped in the same part of the papers to prove that the city had entered one of its sensational “waves of crime.” And for more than a week the public read criticism and denunciation of the police force. It was charged that the police had become “demoralized,” and various changes of administrative policy introduced into the department within the past eight months were blindly denounced. The most important of these changes was that devised by Mayor Gaynor. Eight or ten years ago, every uniformed policeman in New York carried a club, and often used it freely in defending himself while making arrests. Abuses led to the abolition of this means of defense except for officers patrolling the streets at night. There were still undoubted abuses, however, and when Mayor Gaynor came into office, bringing well-thought-out opinions of police administration from his experience as a magistrate on the bench, he took a determined stand for more humane methods of making arrests, and strict holding of every policeman to the letter of the laws. Every case of clubbing was prosecuted, the 15 16 17 18 19