Joe Killoran's Smooth Work.
"Joe" Killoran, alias "Joe" Howard, a rather picturesque type of criminal, came from good old New York stock, was a rather brainy planner of bank robberies, and was usually the one of a band to engage an employe in conversation while the "sneak" committed the robbery. Killoran had the appearance of a well-to-do business man, such as might negotiate a loan from the bank, representing himself as from some firm of brokers. He has frequently played the part of the sick man seated in the carriage with a crutch, and not able to go into the bank. He is notorious as escaping from the Ludlow Street jail, July 4, 1895, with Harry Russell and Charles Allen, then United States prisoners. He was in many "sneak" robberies in the United States, and one which I especially recall was the theft of $22,000 by him from the First National Bank, Plainfield, N. J., on July 2, 1895. He was accompanied by George Carson, "Sid" Yennie and Little Patsy Flannigan. Yennie, Carson and Killoran held the attention of the employes while Flannigan committed the robbery. After Killoran's escape from Ludlow Street jail he fled to Europe, and, strangely enough, met with an accident which necessitated the amputation of one of his legs, which made him in reality carry a crutch until those he operated with supplied him with a wooden leg.
He was arrested about two years ago in New York City, decidedly broken in health, and was sent to Illinois to serve a term for robbing the government postoffice at Springfield. After his release he returned to Europe, and was, in September, 1905, arrested at Vienna for stealing $100,000 from a depositor in front of the paying teller's window in the bank in that city, and was, on March 19, 1906, sentenced to six years in an Austrian prison. It looks as though he had committed his last robbery, and that this crime will cause him to end his days in prison.
The Hotel Sneak.
The Use of False Keys.
"Hod" Bacon is an illustration of the professional "sneak" who confines his operations more particularly to the rooms of hotel guests. He works systematically and prepares his plans as the skilled detective works to capture the expert criminal. This thief frequently would follow a victim thousands of miles to commit a successful robbery. He would watch hotel guests continuously for several days, until he observed them purchase theater tickets or going out for the evening, first determining how many (if a family) occupied the apartment, and how many servants they had, and assuring himself before committing the robbery they were all absent. He enters the rooms with false keys, locks himself in, and works at his leisure; also unlocks, with false keys, the trunks, bureau drawers, etc., abstracting from them such valuables as he considers worth taking. He invariably takes from the ladies' trunks some ladies' wearing apparel, endeavoring to cast the suspicion that the theft was committed by a chambermaid or other employes in the hotel having access to the apartment. On one occasion Bacon robbed a traveling jewelry salesman's trunk in a Chicago hotel. Not satisfied with the valuable loot of jewelry he obtained, he stole the salesman's overcoat, after which he secured sleeping car passage from Chicago to Pittsburg via Pennsylvania railroad. On the same evening's train, it so happened that the salesman he robbed was then enroute east, and, peculiarly enough, had been assigned a berth opposite the thief, in the same car. After the train left Chicago, observing his stolen overcoat hanging in the thief's section, he telegraphed to Pittsburg, and on arrival of the train the thief was arrested, and identified as "Hod" Bacon.
CASE OF TOOLS AND RELICS COLLECTED BY DETECTIVE WOOLDRIDGE
CAPTURED BURGLARY IMPLEMENTS AT CENTRAL POLICE STATION