INTELLECTUAL CROOK

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 15 (Supplement)

INTELLECTUAL CROOK

RISKS WORTHY OF A HUMAN FLY. Albert Edward Young, a criminal gymnast has just been sentenced to five years of servitude in London. He was the champion rope thief of the West End. It was with a deftly fashioned rope that he bewildered Scotland Yard and carried out some of the boldest jewel robberies. With his wonderful agility and nimble, supple body he took risks in scaling houses worthy of a human fly. "Young was one of the most hunted crooks of which Scotland Yard has record. Scores of detectives were on his trail day and night. One criminal authority described him as an exceedingly intellectual criminal. He had no partners to betray him, preferring to work alone, and he did not tell his secrets to women. He had fastidious taste regarding jewellery and scorned jobs beneath his ability. Once the police surrounded the house in which he lived in Norwood. Young did not know the detectives were on his track and a surprise arrest had been planned. Detectives gathered at the batk of his house, while others- stole quietly to the room where Young was believed hiding. But Young heard their footsteps and running to a balcony window jumped to a drain pipe and slid down hand over hand a distance of nearly fifty feet to the ground. A fall would have meant death, for there were large spikes on a fence below. Another time he was captured and detectives started to take him to Scotland Yard in a taxicab, but when they approached the gloomy building he vaulted from the taxicab and disappeared before a pursuit could be organised. Young’s policy was to keep a house under observation for weeks before he raided it, familiarising himself with all the details of its construction. He watched a fashionable Park Lane residence for six weeks, and then one night while a dinner party was in progress he scaled the walls with his trusty rope, gained access to the dressing room and stole £5OOO worth of gems in less than a minute. Then letting himself down by the rope he disappeared before the robbery was detected.