"SILK MASK JIM" PASSES OUT

Evening Star, Issue 17394, 2 July 1920, Page 5

"SILK MASK JIM" PASSES OUT

TRAGIC FATE OF HEAD OF " BURGLAR TRUST."

Quite by accident "Silk" Mask Jim," the notorious'head of one- of the most'Temaikable criminal organisations that ever existed, was run to earth by the Chicago police. He fell dead from a score of bullet wounds after a desperate pistol duel with his captors. It seems that for months past the police had been' hunting for Jimmy Harriean. who was chief of a j gang who constituted what was virtually a burglar trust. This man, it has now been proved, applied modern business methods to the calling of a master-bur- | glar, and worked on, a gigantic scale. He i rented a large warehouse for the storage jof his loot, which comprised anything | from an electric welding machine, weighing a ton, to a woman's vanity case, and employed a staff, including a "number of women, on whom he depended for information, which he developed in a highly specialised intelligence service. He always, however, attended to big jobs himself. For months the police had been hunting for him, and after his tragic death, they, found in his office an elaborate card index of likely places to rob in Chicago's "gold coast" territory, which includes the homes of some of the wealthiest residents. They also discovered details of his extensive methods of operation. A secret chamber of his warehouse was found to harbor 150 Oriental rugs, valued at £B,OCO. and an undetermined amount of furs, jewellery, and silverware. He was the master mind behind a series ot burglaries, the booty in which amounts to over £IOO.OOO. The encounter with the police that resulted in Harrigan's death was a simple atfair. . A constable, Frank Weimar, was passing in plain clothes through a residental district, when he saw.a man emerge from a dark entry between two buildings. He questioned the stranger, who laughed' good-naturedly and exhibited the badsre of a special police officer. He told Waimar in a fraternal way that he was looking for his girl, whom he "had to meet on the quiet," and asked for the policeman's assistance on the ground that he was a fellow-con-stable and unable to find the right house. Weimar hesitated, and eventually asked the stranger to accompany him to the police station. There Harrigan repeated his tale with the utmost assurance. Ha had almost convinced the officer in charge when Weimar suggested the advisability of searching him. The suspect, who had unconcernedly been smoKing a- cigarette, made a motion to flick tne.ashes off, but instead he suddenly dropped the " smoke," drew a pistol, and immediately began firing, Jbacking towards the police station door. Half a score of constables opened a return fire, but Harrigan escaped into the street, where a running ovuel ensued, the pobee firing in the dark at the flashes of the desperado's pistol. Dodging behind a •srall. Harrigan stumbled and fell, but at once picked himself up and continued the battle. The police made a concerted rusb, only to be met by another fusillade, in which three fell wounded. Reinforce ments came and opened fire again at the suot where Harrigan was" last seen. No answering fire came, and cautiouslv the ponce advanced. They found Harrigan fatally wounded. He died without making a statement. His fellow-members of Chi" cago"s under-world, wfto while he lived remained silent, have since told the authorities with a certain pride of Harrigan's methods of operations. It is revealed that he was a mysterious man frequently seen in a limousine with two beautiful women, touring a residentai district ia search of likely places for robbery.' The identity of the owner of this car had been a mystery to the police for months. It was found in a garaee at the rear of Harriganjs boarding-house. The master-bur-glars books and card index reveal him as the engineer of more than 700 robberies in and about Chicago during the past year. Already the booty has advanced in value, so that the owners will receive back goods worth nearly double what they were when they were stolen.