HOUSE BREAKING.
HOUSE
BREAKING AS A FINE ART.
House Breaking as a Fine Art. A
Quotation from Dickens. — The English and American Professional Contrasted. — Preparations
and Places—A Kit of Tools. — Gaining an Entrance. — The Jointed Key. —Large
Footprints. — Servants as Accomplices. — “over the Garden wall."
AMONG the numerous branches
of criminal practice in existence at the present day, there is one that seems
destined never to die out or to fall into disuse if humanity abides in
habitations. From the very first inception of crime, this class, i.e.: the
house burglars and midnight robbers, existed, and their operations reach all
classes of the community. Anyone, be they of high or low degree, who may
unfortunately possess anything worth stealing, is liable to the unexpected and
unwelcome visits of the housebreaker and the burglar. Locks and chains, bolts,
and bars, alike are of no avail in preventing the entrance of these
midnight robbers. When darkness and silence are brooding over the city, when
happy families have composed themselves for the peaceful slumbers which a day
of toil has earned, the cracksman sallies forth, and while a world is wrapped
in dreams, he noiselessly pursues his ignoble calling. Silently he plunders his
-unconscious victims and then stealing away he leaves to the light and sunshine
of another day the discovery of his visit and the losses which have followed
his intrusion.
Dickens has immortalized Bill Sykes and a Toby
Crackitt, and through his wonderful genius we have learned much of the social
life of this class of criminals, and it is a lamentable fact that these two
characters are not isolated instances or mere creatures of the imagination.
Every city is swarming with a horde of these reckless men who live by
plundering their unfortunate neighbors in the darkness of the night.
Sleeping or carousing during the day, when honest men
are toiling for the rewards of their labor, and the sustenance of life—these
desperate prowlers crawl from their lairs when the midnight bells are tolling,
and like the wolves of the forest seek their prey.
To prevent the depredations of these thieves seems to be
almost impossible, and incessant vigilance and prompt punishments when detected
have proven to be the only safeguards against their successful operations.
While therefore, I am unable
to prescribe the infallible ounce of prevention, I may at least suggest the
homely pound of cure, and by acquainting the public with the mode of operation
of these criminals, I may serve to promote the detection of the offenders by
showing how their depredations are committed.
Romance and tradition have for a long period of time,
accredited the cracksmen with being the most expert in their profession, but
the experiences of late years have dispelled this delusion, and English and
American detectives alike, have conceded that for perfect and ingenious work
the American housebreaker is far more expert and daring than his transatlantic
competitor. This distinction is by no means an honorable one, but that it is
justly deserved, the records and detective experiences of both countries
abundantly prove.
The English burglar spends more time in watching and
locating the police officers and guards upon the outside of the premises he
designs to enter, and in getting his numerous and superfluous tools ready for
manipulation, than the American would require doing an entrance and rob an
entire house. The English thief, like his more honest compatriot, is
slow, methodical, and a devotee to rule and precision. The American, on the
contrary, only considers the quickest practical way of securing his object and
adopts it at once. The Briton invariably travels with his gang of three and
often four members, while the Yankee in any case never requires, and will not
accept the services of more than a single partner. The case has yet to be
recorded where an English cracksman ever attempted a midnight robbery alone and
unassisted, but the instances are numerous where an American burglar has
repeatedly gained hazardous operations without aid or help from anyone. These,
of course, are cases in which the most expert or the most reckless have
distinguished themselves, but as a rule the American housebreakers travel in
couples and their work is usually quickly, cleverly, and thoroughly executed.
Of late years, through the vigilance of the police and
detective authorities, the residents of large and populous cities have rarely
been troubled by these unwelcome visitors, but those of the larger towns and
villages are perpetual sufferers from their unexpected incursions. American
burglars of the advanced type of the present day, have been known to
deliberately plan a complete tour of burglaries, and their track could be
legibly traced from New York to Chicago, and the more ambitious and thriving villages
of the far West. It must not be imagined that these are mere random selections,
or the result of ignorant guess work. On the contrary, every house that has
been entered along the route has been carefully examined in advance, and the
preliminaries arranged with a nice regard for successful and fruitful results.
The usual plan
of these knights of darkness, who decide to work their way through the country,
is to delegate one of their number to travel in advance, and by stopping a day
or two in each place, and making ingenious inquiries from the keepers of
saloons, hotel clerks and others, gain a complete knowledge of the wealth and
habits of the most prominent residents of the localities in which he may rest.
Obtaining this necessary information, this advance agent awaits the arrival of
his partners, and when they appear upon the scene he points out to them the
most available objects of attack, acquaints them with the details he has
acquired, and then leaves the town himself, upon the next train. The reason for
this is that should the mysterious appearance and questions of this man lead to
his being suspected, should he be hunted down in the event of a pursuit, he can
readily prove that at the time the robbery was committed, he was far distant
from the scene, and quietly enjoying himself at a hotel in an entirely different
locality.
Under these circumstances it would be
impossible to connect him with the crime, and his innocence is clearly
established.
Another consideration of importance to the thieves is
to select a town where a railroad train will pass through during the early
hours of the morning, as this enables them to get safely away, frequently
before the robbery is discovered. and certainly, before suspicion attaches to
them. As they are not burdened with any number of superfluous tools or baggage,
and never carry away any stolen articles but money, bonds or valuable jewelry,
their appearance would not be noticeable, and their baggage would be light.
 |
If the burglars have secured lodgings in the block,
they commence operations as early as possible after the inmates have retired to
rest. The man who is to enter the building dresses himself in soft woolen
clothes, they make little or no noise in the apartment of the sleepers upon
whom he intends to work. It has been demonstrated that in the stillness of
midnight or the early hours of the morning, the rustling noise made by a
starched white shirt has frequently aroused the sleeper, particularly if a female,
from a sound slumber, and has often led to detection. On entering the house,
the burglar immediately discards his shoes and operates on his stocking feet.
Once
preparations are complete, the individual assigned to handle the external tasks
discreetly exits their room and proceeds downstairs to unlock the back door.
Ascertaining that the coast is clear, he gives the signal to his companion,
who, taking his folding ladder and other tools with him, also descends to the
yard of the premises they occupy.
Preferring to
work as far away from their own quarters as possible, they scale several
intervening fences or light walls, until they reach the desired house, and then
commence their work upon the back door. If this door is not bolted an entrance
is gained in a moment, but if it is thus secured, they have recourse to the
window—and if that can be readily opened with the glazing knife, they gain
admittance to the house as quickly as they could do had they used their nippers
upon the lock of the door.
If the window, however, is
tight or swollen, and the glazing knife cannot be used, and if the wind is
favorable, they noiselessly raise their folding ladder to the sill of the
window upon the next floor. This occupies but a few minutes, and as these windows
are seldom fastened, many of them not being supplied with any fastening, they
speedily enter. As soon as they have entered the building in this manner, the
thief makes his way downstairs and quietly unfastens the front parlor window
and shutters. This is done in order to deceive the inmates of the house and the
police authorities, for when an examination takes place, they invariably arrive
at the conclusion that the robbers must have gained an entrance from the
front—never for a moment suspecting any of their neighbors, as the back door
and rear part of the house is always found intact.
His next move
is to unbolt the back door, and if the fences can be scaled easily or there is
an alleyway in the rear of the house, he folds up his ladder and sends it back
to their lodgings by the outside worker. As soon as the outside man has
returned the ladder safely to his quarters, he hurries back and is then
stationed at the front door on the inside. Drawing the bolts, he stands with
the key in his hand ready for an alarm. Should the inside thief give this while
he IS at work upstairs, his companion instantly unlocks the front door and
throws it open, and then quickly and noiselessly springs for the back door.
Opening this door and stepping into the yard he inserts his nippers over the
key from the outside, and when his disturbed partner appears and comes out, he
closes the door gently and locks it from the outside with the nippers-. They
then sneak away and return to bed as quietly and easily as though nothing
unusual had occurred.
If a police officer is attracted by the alarm and
makes an investigation, on finding the front door open he naturally infers that
the burglars have escaped by that means of exit, and in this view he is
sustained by the inmates of the house who have found the back doors and windows
securely locked and fastened.
After a thief has entered a house and commenced to
work, the first and most important question is to discover where the valuables
are kept. As the front sleeping-room on the second floor is usually occupied by
the head of the family, this is the first point of attack. If the door is
simply locked, the nippers are brought into play and the key is turned as
softly as though operated upon the other side, and the door is opened.
Sometimes the door is fastened with a bolt and then the “jointed key “is used.
This instrument is shaped and formed as follows:
A represents the stock—B the inside lever—C the joint—and D is a wire attached to the end of the lever to draw it down when inside the door.
Obtaining the
location of the bolt a hole is bored through the door, sufficiently large to
admit the key. The joint then having passed through the door, the wire is
drawn, and the lever is thus brought to a right angle with the stock of the
key, and directly against the handle of the bolt. A “simple twist of the wrist
“is all that is necessary, and the bolt is shot back.
Some people,
however, have this doors fastened with a bolt and chain, a staple being
fastened in the door post to hold the end of the chain and the other end of the
chain being placed in a slide, which is fastened upon the inside of the door.
This chain admits of the door being opened a certain distance, but not
sufficiently wide to permit a man to enter. The burglar's methods of overcoming
this obstacle are simple and invariably successful. He simply opens the door
wide enough for him to obtain the location of the bolt, and then boring a small
gimlet hole over the spot strong thin wire is inserted through the hole and
attached to the knob of the slide. The door is then closed and a gentle pull
upon the wire draws the chain from the slide, and it drops down, thus allowing
free and uninterrupted entrance to the ingenious burglar.
Once in the
room the clothing of the gentleman of the house is carefully searched. Bureau
drawers are noiselessly opened with the aid of lockpicks, and pillows are
carefully examined for hidden valuables. Thus, from one room to another, the
thief makes his tour of the inviting portions of the house, and when he has
finished his investigations, he joins his pal at the front door.
They then
take their departure by the back door, which they carefully lock behind them,
and should time permit they will try to see another house in the same locality.
Sometimes in
working on houses, that are surrounded by soft and yielding ground, in which
the shoes they wear would make an impression which might lead to detection,
they wear extraordinarily large shoes, and after getting a short distance from
the spot, throw them into a neighboring well. As a general thing, should the
footmarks be noticed, suspicion falls upon some black person, as a white man
would scarcely wear such mammoth foot covers as those whose impressions are
left in the ground.
The devices
resorted to by the house breaker are both numerous and ingenious and vary from
the ideas given above, as the necessity of the emergency requires. Sometimes
their entrance is gained through the scuttle in the roof, which they are
enabled to reach by securing an unoccupied house in the vicinity, and then by
crawling over the roofs of the intervening houses, reach their points of
attention without attracting anyone to the street. In these cases, as in all
others, measures are at once taken to provide a means of escape, and before
operations are commenced, the front door and other points of exit are carefully
prepared for their departure. In case of detection while at work, the thief
will never retire through the roof but will endeavor to mislead both the police
and the inmates of the house, by opening the front door and escaping at the
rear.
Back windows
are frequently pried open with the aid of the strong and ingeniously
constructed “jimmy,” and in some cases the burglar obtains admission to a house
in the daytime and conceals himself in some unoccupied room until the family
have retired, when he issues from his place of hiding and ransacks the
premises. Dishonest servant-girls too, have proven of valuable assistance to
these thieves, and through their efforts, burglars have gained an entrance into
premises which otherwise would have resisted their most persistent efforts. It
has frequently been developed that these girls have been the wives, mistresses,
and relatives of the thieves, and that they have engaged service for no other
purpose than to further the efforts of the men with whom they were associated.
to plunder the families who have employed them.
Of course, there are innumerable other methods adopted
by this fraternity of dishonest men and women, and their processes vary
according to the skill and ability of the parties engaging in the work. From
boys in their teens to men whose hairs are whitened with age, the ranks of the
housebreakers are filled, and their efforts against the public safety are
unceasing.
I have thus described the general mode of work of the expert
housebreaker of the present day, although much of their success depends upon the quick and noiseless
movements of the thief himself, which are impossible of description and must be
left to the imagination of the reader. To be able to pick a lock, to open a
bureau drawer and rifle its contents, to search beneath the pillow of a
sleeping victim, are all points of the profession upon which I cannot dilate
intelligently, but that these men are constantly plying their vocations is
fully proven by the records of our daily journals.
To
house-keepers, therefore, I say, do not neglect the proper safe-guards before
retiring for the night, and in case of detecting robbers in your house, do not
search for your thief from the front door, because you find it open, or upon
the street; but rather seek the rear of your premises, and the chances are
largely in favor of finding the disturbers of your sleep and the plunderers of
your home, engaged in the attempt of scaling your fence and escaping by that
means, to their convenient hiding-place in the immediate vicinity
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