THE MAN HUNT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 23 May 1919, Page 2

THE MAN HUNT

; POLICE DRAQ-NET ENCIRCLES THE WORLpw $ ' ‘ ‘■' C-PJME”itILLfc r nNS. The iron pin that waits ■ for sin I Hqi caught their, in its snare. The 1 meshes “cf the policy,. . drag-net r ire very fine, . Even, should he ,ci?p I Trough the fir&fe cast, the modern,- crime ,g aal must .sleep and eat after his coup »~ith loins girded and bag in hand" if s re would confound the. elaborate system c which, within a few weeks, piasters the I police offices of towns a world’s width. ,t from: the scene of his crime with des- v rriptive bulletins, photograpim, Bertil- . s ion measurements, telltale finger-prints, j :qid the even more telltale Aberrations c >f charactr and appearance that, might f betray,. ' _ ( These tmlletins are dispayed in, -cou- j( siderable numbers in the, Dunedin de- ( tective office, says the;; Star, New York ’• City is a specially prolific source, and ' the crimes described are preponderantly -fj Crimes of violence—-hold-ups, gunmen killings, and’ the like. , ( One ,of the very latest dated , from ; f New York, December 16, iMR S is quite ® typical; .It. 4 eßc ”® es a crimp' th el > hut J three‘days old, the _ of ; which Were aV yet ‘ unidentified' ; j — ■ ” At about 2.15 p.m. Friday, Decern- "> her 13. 1918, two men entered the , East Brooklyn Savings Bank, at ' Myrtle andi Franklin avenues-,. Byook- $ lyn, this' city; The taller of the two* i went to the paying teller’s window,. I and, pointing a revolver at the pay- -i ; ing teller, Dewitt 0. Peal, commanded , him to throw up his hands. Upon h l ® i • failure to comply with this comipapd -j i the map. shot and instantly , killed. •] him. The assistant treasnrerj of the | hank, Ho»ry.*Wi'' CtopPs, ''Wlrne ;endeavr ounng to turn on a switch ...to give . , the alarm, was also shot and killed , by the same man. ! In the ; meantime the other man ■ crawled through l an opening in the;.’ office partition, made his way to the paying teller's de®k» and’ stole 13,350 ' . dbl, in bills of five, tek apd twenty , ! dollar denominations, which he plac- ‘ ed in a black leather of a very cheap quality and measuring 16 in long by> Khn in height. Both men then fled iVom the bank and lentered a wanting taxi-cab i n which they- had-come to the vicinity- , of the bank. They were pursued by ; a detective 'of this; department, and : as the man designated l >as No ,1. here- | uhdfef was about to enter the car he ; shot and wounded the officer. The : two men were, then driven away and ■.'^escaped., / •’ An elaborate description- of the men follows, presumbaly furnished by bank officials, and a curious mixture of correct and; faulty observation when corona red with the authentic description of No, 1 fliurderer ’furnished 'from, police records when the miscreant’s identity Was ascertained eight days .later. The “snap” bulletin of December 16, described him as from .30 to ye?w. s > hkowiv Kair, lf>kie eyes, cleary' looking. skin. ' long face, inclined to -be -thin; spoke with a Western *a6ceTft'f may be of- Scandinavian- extraction;, wore tan-coloured .raincoat that was not new and reached to about Sin knees, white muffler which protruded above the collar of the raincoat, brown Alpine hat,’and dark clothes; he discarded the 1 raincoat- and- muffler n the taxi-cab. No. 2 was depicted as about 25 years, sft 6in, stocky .build', alr ut 1451b, smooth face,.-small blue , scar on . ridgo of nose, Jewish type of npso;. wore dark fedora hat, overcoat, and clothes. ■ • ' . ; , - •The authentic description of e-gnt days later had No." 1 focussed, claimed, I and described, and heralded film' in black-face type: Arres^. for .murder and assault‘and 1 robbery,'- Roy Tyler, alias Roy Taylor alias Robert E- jPhdbpS alias Thompson alias Canfield, age 29 years, height sft 9in, weight 1501b, -medium chestnut hair, .brown eyes, smooth face, medium . ' completion,, gold /tooffi ; centfe' upper jaw, scare right side; of neck ap,d on , back of left hand near tyase of thumb; letters, T.R.T. tattoofed oil right arm. To which; is, Appended r , Hyler is Of roving deposition; cjnently cabaret shows.” "Where Tyler has roved since; whether, sloughing off all traces of his Work, he made good fiis “getaway,” or whether, • caught in, the snare, he made his final journey' to the execution shed, and, bound with father thongs to the great yellow chair, fplt the hideous klsa of th cold electrode upon the shaven proWh^ofhead-4 •i$ purely conjectural. The important' 1 point is that by February 1, just six weeks after the event, his full description was in the hands of every police headquarters in every country in which i by then he could have act furtive feet, j : It may be thought that the chances, of ,a, foreign police picking up a> man, on ' shcb descriptions are slender, ' but th’s is to forget the of the criminal. The professional will return, to; his trade, j be his new sanctuary in New pr elsewhere. He may be , arrested for sjoem minor'offence and upon conviction the most casual comparison of his finger prints would lead to the unearthmept o| his whole career, in the case of ;No. 1, for example, the numerous, markings mentianed in the' description would in* snare him once he was subipTted to examination on the most triy'H charge. This point is stressed in the descript’on of another New t York murderer, one Jacob Obhen, s, villain•cits fookiing felV>w, wanted for tfhe killing of Patrolman Samuel Rosonfeld; who was killed while attempting to arrest two hold-up. men in Brooklyn. In a black-type postcript to the descriptjon the Commissioner' warns detec* tives, “that, Cohen frequents F ize hghta and gambling places, and. wi]| probably bo arresfed for, some minor offence.” Not very long ago a man wanted in Texas for grand larceny or Some such offence was actually located in a New Zealand city, where he had settled with -his family, and was apparently making his way in business. Me was innocently betrayed by his children at school. No arrest was possible at the moment, and' during the, interchange of cables between New Zealand and the States he must; have received some warning. Between a night gndf a moming'he and, b.fe- family <Hsappe#4#h for have been heard of since, j An interesting exhibit of crime nearer home is a master key made by a butglaiv Who • operated success fully in Auckland, and who had a long, Australian record. He was an electrical engineer by occupation, and a skilled nWehajnic, hi* ingenious instrument--it is not a kev-jdemonstratefi.. It is ,i merely a tube of split steel ‘ bound by two thumb screws. He operated largely' in hotojs. Inserting the Jnstrumenc into any door with a key in it, he manipulated it until the 'steel tube found the upse of the key. He then turned the thumb screws till the nose of the key was gripped' firmly. when y of course, it was easy to turn the key, and'the contents oi the room were at hi 9 disposal. This man was something of a' gaol-breaker too, his career including two escapes. i : .;'v ; : , '