The Great Taxicab Robbery 1

The Great Taxicab Robbery 1

The Great Taxicab Robbery

A True Detective Story

 

Author: James H. Collins

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.

 

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

FACING

PAGE

 

Rhinelander Waldo, Commissioner of

Police, New York City

 

_Frontispiece_

 

George S. Dougherty, Second Deputy 20

Police Commissioner

 

Edward P. Hughes, Inspector in Command 40

of Detective Bureau, and Dominick G.

Riley, Lieutenant and Aide to

Commissioner Dougherty

 

Geno Montani, Eddie Kinsman, Gene 60

Splaine, “Scotty the Lamb” and John

Molloy

 

James Pasquale, Bob Delio, Jess 80

Albrazzo, and Matteo Arbrano

 

“Scotty” Receives Final Instructions 110

 

“The Brigands” “Stick-up” the Hold-up 126

Men for Theirs

 

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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.

 

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The

Great Taxicab Robbery

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER I

WHAT THE PUBLIC HEARD ABOUT THE CRIME

 

 

On 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.