The housekeeper was ushered in, and told how Kinsman had given her five dollars from a huge roll of bills before leaving for Peekskill.
Commissioner Waldo came in and sat while Mrs. Sullivan told what she knew about her late lodger.
Kinsman’s brother gave information about the former’s movements from the time he had arrived in Boston until he brought him to New York to have a good time, and Kinsman knew that at the home of his parents in Boston the police would surely find money in the original wrappers of the bank.
The prisoner was put under pressure to explain how a man like himself, known to be working as a waiter in a cheap resort, could suddenly have come into possession of such sums. Statements from the women in the case had been secured, and were produced, and finally Kinsman was brought to detailed admissions, one by one. He agreed that it was true he had gone to Peekskill in a taxicab with Annie and Splaine, that he had gone to Albany, had bought Annie a hat there, had gone to Chicago, and so forth. Opportunities were given him to see Montani and Jess, under arrest. Nothing but the truth was told him, yet by degrees he was led to see himself surrounded on all sides by evidence and confessing accomplices. At last he broke down completely, his vain self-confidence destroyed, and made a detailed confession.
Kinsman’s story brought up fresh circumstances and new actors in the taxicab case.
He told how he had come to New York nine months before, to have a good time and make money, and how, after going penniless and hungry, and getting a few dollars for taking part in a boxing match, he had become a waiter at the “Nutshell Café.” There he soon made the acquaintance of criminals, meeting Gene Splaine, “Dutch” Keller, “Joe the Kid,” “Scotty the Lamb” and other characters who were afterward to assist in the taxi robbery. There he also met “Swede Annie” and became her sweetheart, and finally, Jess Albrazzo, a dark little Italian who seemed to exert marked influence over all the others. It was from Jess that Kinsman first heard about the plan to rob a taxicab carrying money to a bank. This “swell job” was discussed, and Jess told him he had a friend named Montani who carried the bank’s cash, and would cooperate in stealing it. The job would be easy, because Montani would run the cab through a side street, and the only guard was an old man and a boy, neither of them armed.
One Sunday night, two weeks before the crime, Jess took Kinsman and other accomplices over the route, after all had drunk themselves into optimistic mood, and pointed out the bank from which the money was drawn, the streets through which Montani would run, the place where the gang could board the cab, and the point at which they could leave it and escape uptown. Details were discussed. There was a difference of opinion as to methods, and the plotters parted that night with the understanding that each would submit his own ideas of how the robbery could be most effectively and safely carried out. Eventually there was a definite agreement as to boarding the cab, preventing an outcry, making the getaway and splitting up the money.
According to Montani’s information, the bank messengers usually carried between $75,000 and $100,000. When the day for the robbery had been set, word suddenly came that there would not be so large a sum. This was disappointing, but the gang decided to put their project through, nevertheless. Kinsman was busy at the café, where he worked until four o’clock on the morning of February 15, and “Dutch” called for him several times, asking if he was going to “lay down on the job.” Finally Kinsman got away, went to a room in a lodging house taken by “Dutch,” and found the gang all there smoking and drinking. At five o’clock they all went to sleep. At eight everybody was awakened. “Dutch” and Splaine took blackjacks, and offered Kinsman a revolver, which he refused, saying he could take care of himself with his hands, being a boxer. There were six in the party—Kinsman, “Dutch,” Splaine, “Joe the Kid,” Jess and “Scotty the Lamb,” whose part was to stumble in front of Montani’s cab at the place selected for the boarding, and thus give the chauffeur a colorable reason for slackening speed if eye-witnesses afterward called his honesty into question. The gang had breakfast in a cheap restaurant, stopped for a drink at the saloon of “Jimmie the Push” in Thompson street, where the booty was to be divided, and proceeded downtown, after parting with Jess. The latter was the organizer, and took no part in the robbery; as he explained, he was known as a friend of Montani’s, and wanted to arrange so that he could prove an alibi if suspected, proving that he had not been near the scene of the crime when it was committed.
