ELUSIVE BURGLAR

Southland Times, Issue 22063, 10 July 1933, Page 12

ELUSIVE BURGLAR

“GIMLET JIMMY’S CRIMES”

ARREST EVADED FOR 11 YEARS

“Gimlet Jimmy,” the most daring and elusive burglar in England, whom detectives have been trying to capture for 11 years, carried out two robberies, involving £l3OO in cash early one morning recently with lightning swiftness.

The problem facing the police in their hunt for “Jimmy” is that they have no notion of his appearance. Nor has he ever left behind him a single clue, which, in the event of his capture would definitely establish his identity with his previous crimes. Only once has a glimpse been caught of him. That was seven years ago, when, in carrying out the greatest coup of his career—the raiding of a bank at Deansgate, Manchester—the night watchman saw “Jimmy” for a fleeting instant as he ran past a door in making his escape. “Jimmy,” who nearly always confines his activities to the north of England, has invariably one method of approach. For weeks he watches and learns the habits of his intended victim, usually a wealthy shopkeeper. Then comes the night when “Jimmy” begins to work. First a visit to his victim’s house for the keys of the shop and any valuables in the home safe. Afterward armed with the keys, there is the raid on the shop. On the latest occasion “Jimmy” entered the home of Mr. W. Smith, of Ashton-on-Mersey, and without waking the owner, took a bunch of keys from the bedside and opened a safe in the house, from which he took £3OO. Half-an-hour later he had taken another £lOOO from the safe of Mr. Smith’s shop at Gorton. “Jimmy,” whose name of “Gimlet” comes from his peculiar method of entering a house through a window, is estimated to have secured more than £lOO,OOO by his burglaries.