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WHY CRIME DOES NOT PAY-
No. 5 of a Series of Extraordinary Revelations
Written by SOPHIE LYONS Ht
The Most Famous and Successful Criminal of Modern Times, Who Made a
Million Dollars In Her Early Criminal Career and Lost It at Monte Carlo, and ^
Has Now Accumulated Half a Million Dollars in Honorable Business Enterprises O /
Written by Sophie Lyons
Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company.
ROM the moment when he commits
his first crime the professional crim
inal never hnows what it is to enjoy
real peace of mind. Hla crimes hang over
him like the sword of Damocles, and un
less be reforms he can never be free from
Ihe fear of some day being found out and
•ent away to prison for a long terra.
And arrest is not the only thing he has
!| to fear—he is continually face to face
! With the danger of serious Injury or death.
! Whatever the crime he undertakes he
muBt run the most desperate risks—he has
to stake not only his liberty hut life itself
on the narrowest of margins.
The powerful explosive he is liking to
blow open 8 safe may go off prematurely,
as W did one night when George Mason
and I were robbing a bank in Illinois, and
leave the robber half dead.
Perhaps an indignant mob may decide
to take Justice into its own hands by
lynching the criminal. This is what hap
pened to one of my comrades in Kentucky.
They had the noose around his neck and
Were alt ready to string htm up when I
arrived in the nick of time to save his life.
Perhaps he will be caught in the act at
one of his crimes and shol down like a
dog, as my husband, Ned Lyons, was In
Connecticut one night. That was the nar
rowest escape my husband ever had—I
saw it with my own eyes, and if I live to
be a hundred f shall never forget the
agony of it all
At the time of this Ihrllling adventure
the police wanted us so badly for our share
In Reveral famous robberfes that Ned and
I did not dare to undertake any operations
In the large cities whicli usually formed
our most profitable fields. So. being In
need or ready money, we had decided to
take a little trip through come of the
smaller towns of New England. The
amount of cash to he had from the banks,
stores and poslolTices in these places waa
not large, but, on Ihe other hand, tt wan
not hard to get and we thought we ought
to be able to spend two or three weeks
quite profitably in the nearby towns of
Connecticut and Massachusetts.
As my health that Summer was not very
good and Ned did not want me to take any
very active part in the robberies, we In
vited George Mason to go along with us.
Prom the start we seemed to be ill-fated.
Ned and George succeeded in getting into
a bank in Fitchburg, Mass., but were
frightened away by a watchman before
they had time to open the safe. From the
postofficc in a little village just outside
Fitchburg we secured only eight or ten
dollars to pay us for our trouble. Quite
discouraged and desperately (n need of
money we went on to Palmer, Mass.
There I scouted around and discovered
that the most likely place for us to rob
was G. L. Hitchcock’s drug store, which
was also the village postofTice. A storm
came up to hide the full moon, and this
enabled us (o make the attempt that very
night. Tt was not the easiest job in the
world, for Mr. Hitchcock and his family
lived directly above the store and the
least noise was sure to rouse them.
How We Robbed a Store
Shortly after midnight I took up my
position in an alley in the rear of the
store to stand guard while Ned and George
removed a pane of glass from a cellar
window. Through this opening the men
squeezed, and presently the dim reflection
of their dark lanterns showed me that they
had safely reached the store above.
1 had been standing (here in the rain
for nearly twenty minutes when a low,
rumble from Inside the store made me
prick up my oars. Just as I was puckering
my lips to whistle a shrill warning to my
comrades I saw them appear at the back
door of the store carrying between them
s small iron sarfo It was this safe rolling
over the floor which I had heard
The safe was a small affair, hut so well
made that it had successfully resisted all
their efforts to drill it open. Finding it
was not too heavy to be carried they had
derldod to take It outside the town, where
they could blow it open without fear of
arousing the sleepihg village.
'Vc must have made a strange proees
non as we trudged along through the dark
ness—the two men partly carrying and
partly roiling the safe along, and all of us
wading through mud half way to our
knees.
At last we reached a meadow far enough
removed from any houses for our purpose.
George Mason filled one of the holes he
had drilled with black powder and wrapped
the safe with some old sacks to protect
the fuse from the wet and also to muffle
the noise of the explosion.
Ned touched a match to the fuse and we
scurried to a safe distance. The charge
went off with a dull boom—the shattered
door of the safe flew high Inlo the air and
landed several yards away.
Waiting a few minutes to make sure
that no one in the village had been awak
ened. we hurried back to get our plunder.
There were $350 In cash, a diamond ring,
some gold pen's and fifteen or twenty dol
lars' worth of postage stamps. With the
tew dollars the boys had taken from the
till tlfis made a trifle more than four hun
dred dollars for oUr night’s work—a piti
fully small sum compared with wbat some
of our bank robberies brought us, hut
enough to support us until we could plan
some more ambitious undertaking.
Just as we were dividing our plunder
into three equal shares a freight train
whistled in the distance.
"George and I will Jump on this train, ’
said my husband, giving me a hurried kiss.
"It's safer than for the three of us to stick
together. Good-bye—and take care of
yourBelf. We'll meet, you in South Wind
ham, Conn., late tonight or early to
morrow."
Wet, bedraggled and so tired that I
could have fallen asleep standing up, i
groped my way to the railroad station and
curled myself up on a bench to snatch
what rest I could. Just before daybreak
a milk train came along. I boarded this
and (ravelled by a roundabout route to
South Windham.
My Husband Is Shot
I reached there late in the afternoon and
went straight to the postoffice. This was
always the accepted rendezvous for pro
fessional criminals when no other place
had been agreed upon. Detectives in every
city might very profitably spend more of
their time watching the postoffice, for
wherever the criminal is he makes a point
of calling there at least once every twenty-
four hours to keep appointments with his
friends or in the hope of running across
soene acquaintance.
iNed and George wore there waiting for
me. and mighty glad they were to see me,
for they had heard vague rumors of a
woman having been arrested on suspicion
that she knew something about the Palmer
robbery.
The best opportunity the sleepy little
town afforded seemed to be a general store
run by n man named Johnson. 1 dropped
in there late one evening and, on the pre
text of buying a crochet hook, saw the old
proprietor locking the day's receipts -
quite a respectable bundle of money—in a
ramshackle safe which offered about as
much security as a cheese box.
We got everything in readiness to break
into the store the following night. It was
a foolhardy time for such a job. as there
was a bright moon—but we were hungry
for money, and one more good haul would
supply enough to keep us in comfort until
we could lay our plans for some robbery
really worthy of our skill.
There was really little 1 could do to help
the men, but I could not bear to be left
behind. Just after midnight l stole out of
the railroad station, where I had been
waiting ostensibly for the night train to
New York, and hid myself in the doorway
of a livery stable, where I had a good view
of the store we were going to rob.
Pretty soon I saw my two comrades
come cautiously down the main street from
opposite directions. They met underneath
a window of the store on the side which
was in the dark shadow of a tree.
The window was so high above the
ground that my husband had to climb up
on George Mason's shoulders to feach it.
1 could hear the gentle rasp of his jimmy
as it worked against the fastenings.
At last he raised the sash gently and
stepped into the store. Then he leaned far
out across the sill and stretched his
brawny arms down toward his companion.
Mason gave a leap, caught hold of Ned's
wrists and. with the agility of a circus per
former. swung himself up into the window.
All was as silent as the grave. The only
sign of life 1 could see in the peaceful
street were two eats enjoying a nocturnal
gambol on a nearby piazza roof. I shivered
for fear they might start yowling and
awaken somebody to spoil our plans.
Just at that instant one of the cats upset
a flower pot which stood at a window
opening on the porch roof. To my horror,
that pot went rolling down the roof with
a tremendous clatter, hung suspended for
a second on the eaves, then fell to the
stone steps with a crash that woke the
echoes.
At once the whole town awoke. In every
direction I could hear windows being
thrown open, children crying and sleepy
voices asking what the trouble was.
At a window directly over the store
where my two Iriends were a night-capped
head appeared and a frightened woman
screamed, "Help! Burglars!" at the top of
her lungs.
That completed the havoc which the
playful cats and the flower pot had begun.
From every house halt dressed men armed
with rifles, shotguns and all sorts of weap
ons poured into the street.
All this racket had started too suddenly
for -me to give Ned and George any warn
ing. I could only crouch farther back in
the shadow of my doorway and trust to
Providence that the villagers would over
look me in their excitement
"There goes the burglar now!” some one
shouted, and Just then I saw my husband
dash past my hiding place so close that I
could have touched him He was headed
for the open country 'beyond the railroad
tracks and was running faster than I had
ever supposed a man of his weight could.
"Stop, or I'll shoot!” yelled an old white-
whiskered farmer who stood, rifle in hand,
not a dozen yards away.
But Ned. if he heard the command, made
no move to obey. Instead, he only ran all
the faster, hunching his head down be
tween it is shoulders and zigzagging back
and forth across the road as if to make his
bulky form a less favorable target.
The old farmer raised his rifle as delib
erately as if lie had been aiming at a
squirrel instead of a fellow man. Three
shots blazed out in rapid succession.
The first shot went wild. At the second
my husband stumbled. At the third he
threw up his hands and pitched forward
headlong in the road.
"We've got him!" the crowd shouted
with what seemed to me fiendish glee and
rushed up to where Ned's body lay in a
quivering, bloody heap.
I supposed he was dead, but whether
dead or alive I knew there was nothing I
could do to aid him. Nervous and trem
bling at the awful sight I had seen, I
slipped out of town unnoticed.
What Came of Our Crimes
I saw nothing of George Mason and for
months afterward did not know how he
had escaped. With better judgment than
my husband showed, he had remained
quietly in the store after the outcry started.
He saw the shooting, and in'the confusion
which followed he found little difficulty
in getting out of town
Friends of mine in New Ixmdon aided
me to return to the hospital in Hartford,
where Ned had been taken after the shoot
ing. His recovery was slow, for there was
a bullet imbedded nine inches deep in ms
back which the surgeons were unable to
remove. As soon as he was able to stand
trial, he was sentenced to three years in
State prison, and when he had completed
this term he was given three years in
Massachusetts for the robbery at Palmer.
This was the result of our crimes in New
England—my husband nearly killed and
sentenced to six long years in prison. Can
you wonder why 1 have learned the lesson
that crime does not pay?
But k to nty sorrow; 1 did not learn the
lesson then—no, not for many years after
that. With my husband in prison the sup
port of my little ones fell wholly on my •
shoulders, and I promptly turned to bank
robbing as the easiest way I knew of
making a living.
My early training under such expert
bank robbers as Ned Lyons, Mark Shin-
burtt and Harry Raymond made me ex
traordinarily successful in this variety of
crime. The cleverest men in the busi
ness began to have respect for my judg
ment and were continually inviting me to
take an important part in their risky but
very profitable ventures. Soon, as I am
going to tell you. my reputation for skill
in organizing the most daring robberies
and carrying them through without detec
tion had spread even beyond the limits of
the underworld.
One day, when' I was trying to enjoy the
novel experience of living honestly for a
few weeks, a distinguished looking gentle
man called at my home. He saw my look
of incredulity when he announced himself
as a bank president and promptly pro
duced a heavy engraved card which con
firmed the truth of his statement.
Instantly I was on my guard. In those
days my house was the headquarters for
all sorts of strange persons—receivers of
stolen goods, professional bondsmen, crim
inal lawyers, escaped prisoners—but I had
never before been honored by a visit
from a hank president What ori earth
could the president of a bank want of a
bank robber?
"I understand that you are one of the
most successful hank robbers in America,"
he said without any delay in coming to the
point. "! tvanl your advice in a little
undertaking I have in mind, and. If pos
sible, your help.”
“My advice and help!" i exclaimed,
thinking the man must be out of his head.
“That's exactly what I want,” he re
plied coolly. “I want you to~tell me how
! can have my bank robbed, and, if pos
sible, I want you to take charge of the
robbery yourself."
As lie explained, he was more than
$150,000 short in his accounts. He had
taken this amount from the bank within
the past year and lost every dollar of it
in speculation. He could not return this
money and it was only a matter of a few
weeks before his embezzlement would be
discovered.
Being a man of prominence in his com
munity—a deacon in the church, his wife
a society leader, his children in college—
running away was out of the question.
For months he'had been racking his brain
for some way of averting the ruin which
he had brought upon himself.
The plan he had finally devised for re
taining his good name and keeping out of
prison was to have his bank robbed. On
the night of the robbery he would leave
$50,000 in the vault to pay the robbers for
their trouble, but when he came to an
nounce the robbery to the police and the
newspapers he would declare that $200,000
had been taken.
In this way his thefts would be covered
up and he could continue to enjoy the
respect and confidence of the community
where he had always lived.
A Banker Hires Us to Rob
I whs amazed at the bold ingenuity of
this plan and the matter-of-fact way in
which he presented it to me. This was
the first 1 had eve r heard of a bank being
robbed by request of one of its officials.
Later I came to know that It is not an
uncommon thing for dishonest presidents
and cashiers to conceal their thefts by
hiring robbers to break into their banks.
The difference between what is actually
taken in one of these robberies by request
and what the police and the newspapers
say Is taken covers the amount which the
embezzling official has lost in Wall Street
or some other speculation.
At that time such an idea wag so new
to me that all sorts of suspicions crowded
into my mind. Probably it was trap for
me, I thought, and I positively declined to
have anything to do with it.
But the old banker would not take no
for an answer. He urged me to think it
over, and a week later he called again.
By this time the fear of the disgrace
which threatened him and his family had
made him a nervous wreck. He begged
so piteously for me to help him save his
good name that my womanly sympathies
got the better of me, and 1 finally con
sented.
All my feeling for him, however, did not
quite free my mind of the fear that the
whole affair might be a trick, and 1 deter
mined to protect myself and ttie robbers
who would assist me with all the shrewd
ness I could,
“We must have a written agreement,” I
said at the very start.
The banker objected to this, fearing, I
suppose, that I might use the paper against
him later for blackmail. But 1 insisted
that I would not do a thing until I had it.
"If cou can’t trust me to that extent, I
can’t trust you," I said firmly—and at last
he told me to draw up the paper and he
would sign it.
According to the contract which I pre
pared, the banker paid five thousand dol
lars down and was to pay me an equal
amount as soon as 1 had completed my
arrangements and set the date for the rob
bery. He further agreed that there should
be at least $50,000 in cash in the bank
vault on the night of our visit.
It was further provided that the banker
should co-operate with me and my fellow
robbers In every possible way. and that
he should do nothing to aid in our arrest
or conviction for the crime, which, as was
expressly stated, was committed at his
suggestion and not ours. In case the rob
bery was interrupted before we could get
inside the vault the banker was to pay us
$25,000 in cash In addition to the $10,000
already advanced.
I agreed to leave no stone unturned to
carry out the robbery and promised to re
turn the agreement to the banker as soon
as all its provisions had been fulfilled.
All this I set down on paper in as 'busi
nesslike way as I knew how. It was a
document which would have made the
poor old banker’s ruin even greater than
his thievings had done if I had been the
sort of woman to break faith with him.
With trembling fingers he signed it and
counted out $5,h00 in bills.
From the banker 1 had gained a good
idea of the bank aud the sort of vault we
would have to enter. Now to get some
good, reliable men to help me do the job.
Of all the bank burglars in my acquaint
ance George Mason seemed best fitted
for this particular crime. He was a cool,
resourceful fellow and had had wide expe
rience in blowing open bank vaults.
George readily agreed to join me. and
for the rest of the party he recommended
two younger men—Tom Smith and Frank
Jones. I wilt call them, although those
were not their names. I do not like to
reveal their identity here because they
later reformed and led honest lives.
Right here let me say that T never told
these three men of my arrangements with
the banker or that I was to receive from
him $10,000 in addition to what we ex
pected to find in the vault. If they are
alive to-day and read these lines they will
learn here for the first time that the bank
in Quincy, III., which they helped Sophie
Lyons rob was robbed by request of its
president.
Boring Into the Bank Vault
I sent word to the hanker that we were
ready and he came to my house and paid
me $5,000 more. Then, by different routes,
George Mason, the other two robbers and
I proceeded to Quincy.
I was the first to arrive. I went to the
leading hotel, announced my plan to add
a patent medicine laboratory to the town’s
industries and began to look around for a
suitable location for my enterprise. As 1
believe I mentioned in a previous chapter,
this ruse of the patent medicine laboratory
was one I had borrowed from my friend,
Harry Raymond—he had used it to splen
did advantage in his robbery of the Boyl-
ston Bank in Boston.
Of course, it was a part of my pre
arranged plan with the banker that the
quarters I should finally find best suited
for my purpose would be a room on the
second floor of the bank building, directly
over the vault we were going to rob.
I made several visits to the bank before
1 completed my arrangements with the
president—partly to carry out my role of
the cautious business woman and partly
to study the construction of the vault and
see where we could best bore our way
into it.
By the time the lease was signed the
three men who were to be associated with
me in the new business arrived. With
their help 1 secured a quantity of bottles,
labels, jars of chemicals, chairs, desks,
fables and other things we would need if
we were really making patent medicine.
Among the articles of furniture we
moved in was an unusually large oak ward
robe. We removed the bottom from this
and placed it over the exact spot in the
floor where we planned to dig our opening
into the bank vault.
Then, while one of the men and I osten
tatiously pasted labels on endless 1)011168
of ‘Golden Bitters,” the other two men
crawled into the wardrobe where no
chance visitor could see them and day
after day continued the work of removing
the layers of brick and timber which sepa
rated us from the vault. We stored the
debris as it accumulated in bags and car
ried it away every night.
It was a long job and a hard one. The
floor timbers were seasoned oak and be
neath Rhem were two layers of brick.
In fche cramped space Inside the ward
robe it was hard to work to the best ad
vantage and, besides, the men never knew
Just how far they had progressed and
were in constant fear that an extra vig
orous blow would loosen a big strip of
plaster in the ceiling of the bank.
To our disgust we found after we had
passed through the floor itself that the
vault had a sort of false roof composed of
short lengths of railroad iron placed ir
regularly In a setting of mortar and
brick. This made our task three days
longer than we had expected.
Late, one afternoon George mason
cleared away a space which left only a
thin layer of lath and plaster between us
and the inside of the vault.
There was too mifeh danger of the gap
ing hole we had dug under the wardrobe
being discovered to admit of any further
delay. We made our arrangements tr rob
the bank that very night.
While the rest of the town was going
to bed we waited impatiently for it to
get late enough for us to lay our lands
on the $50,000 which I had every reason
to believe was watting below that! thin
layer of lath and plaster. Luckily enough
the bank’s watchman was at a christen
ing party that evening and was not likely
to return until the wee small hours. This
prevented the necessity of my remaining
on guard outside.
Shortly after midnight we turned out
our lamps and lighted our dark lanterns
I peered out of the window—the streets
were deserted.
George Mason took a small sledgeham
mer and with one or two well dimeted
blows opened up the hole in the .floor
wide enough to admit his body. Thin he
tied one end of a long rope under his
arms and we lowered him down intp the
vault.
My
Comrade’s Narrow Estjape
To the best of my knowledge and be
lief the cash which had been profiled
would be found right on the shelvls of
the vault, and all George would hale to
do would be to stuff it into his p4ket3
and climb back up the way . he hjS|
But, whether through Intent or t!
sight on the president’s part, that sf liot
the case. For several minutes we v* ted
breathlessly listening to George as Mpum-
bled around the vault by the light df his
dark lantern. Then we heard him call in a
hoarse whisper: (
“Sophie, it’s just as I was afraid >.t jioiUd
be. Every cent of the money is idjckid pp
in the small steel safe. I’ll have to come
back up and get my tools.”
It is the custom in big bank vaults to
have a small and separate steel safe to
put -the actual cash into. Leases, docu
ments, account books and sometimes ttonds
and stock certificates are kept in the big
vault, but money and things of special
value are usually locked up in the inside
steel compartment.
With same difficulty we hauled .him
back up. From his bag he selected the
drills he thought he would need and from
a bottle poured out what seemed to me
an extra generous quantity of Mack
powder.
“Be careful and not use too much of
that stuff," I called as he disappeared
again through the hole. “Ned always
said that was your worst tailing.”
“Don’t you worry, Sophie," he replied;
ing to the i
the door of t
tug on the r
haul him ui
lighted mate
the fuse.
We pulled
worth but
within two t
there came a
an explosion
Although c
'blinded by tt
ous fumes wl
hole, we mai
the rape and
out of the dea
ture explosio
“George!” 1
from under t
swered and I
that we laid g
and eyebrow
off, his face i
‘ coal and he
wound in the
We forgot
we forgot the
our anxiety fc
of the men 1
to force a. d
throat. It set
to his senses,
and roughly ]
"It went off
“but don’t be i
minute. Look
roused the to
I looked ou
sight. The t
fact that it si
any other bi
vented the ex]
We Get tl
Although su
insisted on g<j
It was no eas
full of suffoca
time to lose, :
turn at any n
After a few
for the third I
“That charge
ters, but here's
he said, bandii
bills.
I counted t
work to cone
found there w
Mason thought
with his life a
seemed well sa
said nothing.
We started a
a few days la !
As I had expe
placed by the r
large reward w
of the robbers,
that the presidi
taken and of
"it will take a good big dose to open this w t,i ch the affait
safe.
be generally ac
For several minutes we sat there listen- After the exci
Our Exciting Adventure
A« I entered the aquare I could aee Tom’* fami
form looming above the head* of the yelling mob wl
surrounded him. He was mounted on a soap box un
an oak tree, which stood in front of the court hous<
I shall never forget how he looked—pale ac a sh<
his feet tied with rope, his am* securely bound beh
him. He was bareheaded, aid they had removed
coat and collar in order to adjust the noose which hi
around his neck.
I shuddered to think that enless I could devise so
plan of action Tom Bigelow’s lifeless body would sc
be dangling before my eyes.
Summoning every oujice «f nyvout energy I p
sessed. I pressed my way through the crAwd scream!
frantically:
"That man is my sweethes-t! Don’t lynch him—«
please don’t lynch him!" :