On the afternoon of the robbery, it was learned, a fellow known as “Eddie Collins” had come to his rooming house, on the lower West Side, told a woman with whom he lived, known as “Swede Annie,” to pack up and be ready to leave the city in a hurry, and presently disappeared with her. He was also reported to have a large roll of money. With a rough estimate of the size of this roll, given by the informant, and a dummy roll of “stage money” made up for the purpose, the police were able to judge that Collins must have had between $3,000 and $5,000. That would have been his probable share in a division of the stolen currency among five men.
The house where Collins had lived was kept by a Mrs. Sullivan. Steps were at once taken to “surround” this woman, as the operation is known technically. For before a possible source of information like Mrs. Sullivan is followed up, it is necessary to know something about it. The person in question may be criminal, or in league with the underworld. On the other hand, he or she may be quite innocent, and willing to aid the police. The “surround” is an interesting operation. It is often made without the knowledge of the person investigated. In many cases it takes time.
Mrs. Sullivan came through the ordeal handsomely.
She proved to be a wholesome, hard-working landlady, keeping a house that sheltered occasional suspicious characters, but entirely honest herself. She was not only able to furnish information about her late lodgers, but willing.
“Sure, it’s a good deal I know about that Collins, as he calls himself,” she said, “and mighty little that’s good.”
It seems that about two weeks previously Collins had offered to pay the landlady if she would appear in a Brooklyn court and testify to the good character of a criminal named Molloy, who was being held for trial on a charge of robbery.
“They’re paying fifteen to twenty dollars for ‘character’ witnesses,” said her lodger.
“And do you think I’d take the stand and perjure myself swearing for a man I never heard of?” asked the indignant landlady.
“Oh, that’s nothing to some of the things we do,” was the reply.
Several days later, while she was putting some laundry into Collins’ bureau drawer the landlady caught sight of two new blackjacks. She asked Collins what he was doing with such weapons.