From Boniface to Bank Burglar; Or, The Price of Persecution: How a Successful Business Man, Through the Miscarriage of Justice, Became a Notorious Bank LooterWhite, George M. (George Miles)
History
From Boniface to Bank Burglar; Or, The Price of Persecution: How a Successful Business Man, Through the Miscarriage of Justice, Became a Notorious Bank Looter
White, George M. (George Miles)
Bank robberies -- United States; Criminals -- Biography; White, George M. (George Miles)
As to the money paid to McCord for George Elder, the latter claimed he
never received it. The five hundred dollars to Browne was paid after
he had been bounced from the police force, and while he was runner for
Mayor Oakey Hall. This money was not paid to Browne for services, but
for the following reason: He came to me some time after the robbery,
and, pleading poverty, said that he should have been “seen” in the
Ocean Bank affair. I told him that I did not know what I had to do
with that. He tried a bluff, but it didn’t work. Finally he came
down, said he was in trouble over a girl, and that she would have
him arrested if he did not give her five hundred dollars. Purely out
of compassion--more for the woman than for him--I paid her the five
hundred dollars and she released him. Later, Browne tried to hold me
up again--this time for one thousand dollars. We had some rather hard
words and he got nothing, and we have not been friendly since.
Many and varied were the episodes that grew out of this great robbery,
owing to the great notoriety it gained throughout the country. Messrs.
Linenthal and Co., wholesale tobacconists, had two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in government bonds on deposit with the bank as
security in a lawsuit they had pending with the government. Linenthal
and Co. sued the bank for the value of the bonds, claiming that the
robbery was put up by some of the bank officials. To prove this claim
they obtained a pardon for a convict in Sing Sing who claimed to be
one of the burglars. He knew absolutely nothing about the robbery, and
what, if any, testimony he gave I do not know. But he got his pardon.
At another time a crook named John Irving, being stranded in San
Francisco and desirous of coming East, “confessed” that he was one of
the burglars. The New York police were notified, and the Commissioners,
not being in the “know,” ordered Captain Irving to go West after his
namesake. Consequently he started, accompanied by Detective Dusenbury.
About a month later I was at Suspension Bridge, on my way to attempt
the robbery of a bank at Goodrich, Canada. A train from the West had
just arrived, when I heard my name called. On looking up, I saw Captain
Irving on the platform of a car of the east-bound train.
“Come over here, George,” he said. I walked across to the car and shook
hands with him.
“Come inside,” said he. “I have something to show you.”
Together we went into the car, where we found a man handcuffed to
Detective Dusenbury.
“This,” said Irving, pointing to the prisoner, “is, it is claimed, one
of the Ocean Bank burglars.”
“You don’t mean it!” I replied. “How did you catch him?”
“Oh, he confessed, out in San Francisco, and the Commissioners sent
us out after him. But by the time we got out there he had changed his
mind and put up a fight. We have him, however; though, to tell you the
truth,” said Irving, winking, “I don’t believe he did it. His story
don’t sound right.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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