east st. louis in the early eighty's—how i helped to
reform the municipality—a spectacular raid
on "sure thing" games and
"big mitt" joints.
dodge city, kansas, and corinne, utah, have places in history for being tough towns in their infancy, but take it from me, mr. reader, that neither of these much-advertised burgs, in their palmiest days, were "in the running" for toughness with east st. louis during the early '80s. the average st. louisan, in those days, was entirely different in his make-up from the denizens of the cities further west, especially if he was in politics, his nature being more bloodthirsty than the bandit, or tough cowboy or buffalo skinner, who made the first named towns famous. it was a different sort of[pg 163] crookedness in east st. louis. the little municipality was in the hands of crooks of the lowest degree. there was no crime to which they would not resort to gain a point of advantage over a rival. in other words, any crime was regarded as conventional, just so the man who committed it got the "mazuma." the principal city offices were held by gamblers and "sure-thing" men. the city councilmen were nearly all saloon or dive keepers, while the police department was recognized as the grandest collection of thugs, crooks and "strong-armers" that had ever been assembled together within the borders of one town. the fact that these alleged minions of the law were recognized as suspicious characters by the officers of other cities, and were shadowed whenever found out of their own bailiwick seemed to be regarded as a good point in their favor by those responsible for their being—the mayor and board of aldermen. any crook, big or little, if he had the price for protection, could ply his chosen profession on the main streets of the town without molestation on the part of those sworn to enforce the law. a "peterman" (safe blower) was held in higher esteem over there in those days than a priest, a "porch-climber" regarded as an artist, and the monte and confidence men placed in the same class as are college professors and clergymen in other cities, while the men who received the bribes were all looked upon as good fellows and smart, wide-awake business men.
neither were the merchants and tradesmen all straight in those days. it has been said of some of them that they would refuse to take money in exchange for their wares when there was any suspicion in their minds that the money had been earned honestly. crooks of all classes congregated there, because they knew they were safe from arrest. if they were broke on their arrival, after being chased out of another town,[pg 164] they knew there would be no trouble in getting some dive-keeper or proprietor of a fence to "go to the front" for them at police headquarters and square things so they could "go to work." it was everyday talk that aldermen had "big mitt" men and "strong-armers" out working on percentage.
furlong's full hand
furlong's "full hand."
cartoon published in a st. louis newspaper at the time
of the east st. louis gambling raid.
as in all such places, gambling flourished—that is, gambling of the crooked kind. the whirr of the roulette ball and the rattle of the dice in the "bird cage" could be[pg 165] heard on the street, when not drowned out by the voices of the cappers for "the old army game" (chuck-a-luck) or the paddle wheels or sweat board. nobody had a chance to win, however, except the operators of the games, as they were all crooked.
many of the merchants openly displayed in their shop windows the tools and devices used by the various "professions." the bully could buy brass knucks with which to knock the block off of his adversary; the hold-up man a sand bag to stun his victim, while he helped himself to his valuables; the card sharper could buy his "strippers" "bug" or "harness," while the safe blower could find any sort of "jimmy" or any quantity of "soup" he desired, or had the money to pay for. then there were "fences" where a thief might dispose of anything of value he might "find" on his excursions to the neighboring towns, which were not infrequent. the return of one of these marauding parties from a tour was always followed by an orgy, at which wine flowed freely, and the ill-gotten money tossed about with a lavish hand.
east st. louis was then a wide-open town, with the accent on the words "wide" and "open."
finally the good people of the town awoke to their responsibilities, as they always do in cases of this kind. headed by an ex-mayor, john b. bowman, editor of a newspaper, a fight was begun on the crooked officials. and it was a fight, a bitter one. a number of aldermen who had been under suspicion of being partially responsible for the bad state of affairs, were beaten for re-election, and an attempt was made to get possession of the city funds in the city treasury, which was in the hands of thos. j. canty, gang city clerk, who had usurped the office of treasurer. after much delay, he having resorted to the courts to [pg 166]prevent his being ousted, he was finally ordered to turn over the funds to the treasurer on the morning of may 21, 1884. the night before the date set for the transfer, the vault in the city hall, in which canty claimed to have kept the funds, was robbed, an entrance having been effected by digging a hole through the brick wall which enclosed the safe.
a few months before the robbery, mike coleman, alias charlie clark, a noted "peterman" of that city, had come down to st. louis from jefferson city, where he had been doing time for a safe-blowing job in monroe county, missouri. i had known coleman for years and had been instrumental in "settling" him on more than one occasion. he called upon me at my office, which, at that time, was in the allen building, broadway and market streets. "i am through with crime, mr. furlong," he said, "and i have secured a good job with the hamilton-brown shoe company as a cutter, at a salary which will permit me to take care of my wife and child, and i want to know if you will allow me to live in st. louis—that is, not tip me off to the st. louis police, none of whom know me."
i told him i was truly glad to hear of his reformation, and that i would not tell any one of his presence here as long as he continued to work and behave himself. he seemed pleased to hear this, and told me he would not only live straight in the future, but would "put me next" to any one he knew to be crooked should they attempt to do any work in st. louis. he further voluntarily promised that he would report to me at my office every saturday afternoon. i then introduced him to my chief clerk, edward dawson, and told him to report to mr. dawson in case i did not happen to be in the office when he called.
we shook hands and he took his departure. he [pg 167]reported to the office every saturday promptly for about three months, at which time i was called south on a train robbery case, and was absent from st. louis for several weeks. during my absence an epidemic of safe robberies occurred in st. louis. as many as three "boxes" were opened in a single night. one night the "petermen" would operate in north or south st. louis, the next night they would be down in the business district, or out in the west end. the work of the gang caused a panic at police headquarters. chief harrigan had his men working night and day, and the detective force was augmented by patrolmen in plain clothes, but still the bursting of "boxes" continued nightly. during my absence from the city i was enabled to get the st. louis papers once in a while. these papers were full of the accounts of the robberies. from the description in the papers of the way the work had been done, i was satisfied that coleman was either doing the work or directing it. nearly all of the places robbed had been entered from above. i knew this skylight stunt was one of coleman's specialties. he never broke a door or forced a window to get to a box. his method was to reach a fire escape and make his way to the roof of a building. he would then descend to the floor on which the safe was located, and after detecting and fixing a side or back door, through which the "get-away" was to be made in case of an interruption on the part of a watchman or officer on the beat, would go to work.
i returned to st. louis one night, and in discussing the robberies with mr. dawson, i learned that coleman had not reported at the office during my absence. the next morning i called on the foreman of the hamilton-brown shoe company, by whom coleman had been employed, and who was the only man in st. louis besides dawson and[pg 168] myself who knew the ex-convict's record. the foreman told me that mike had left his position about a month before, without making any explanation. he had simply drawn his week's wages and had failed to show up again. on learning these facts, i was more than ever convinced that coleman had gone wrong again. i was very busy in my office that day looking after matters that had accumulated during my absence, and did not leave for home until after 5:30 p. m. on my way to the car i passed a doorway, in which was standing a man whom i recognized as pat lawler, the best detective on the city force, and with whom i was on very friendly terms. on approaching lawler i found him to be asleep. after i had awakened him he told me he and his partner and several other men in the department had been on continuous duty for over 36 hours, trying to get a "line" on the men who were "blowing up the town" as he expressed it. he then told me that the men in the department were still at sea, having no clue as to who was doing the work. "i am going to bed and get some rest, at any rate," said lawler, "and i do not care what 'the big finger' (chief of police) says about it."
i then told lawler i believed i knew who was doing the work, or at least directing it, and told him that if he and his partner would meet me at twelfth and olive streets at 5:30 the next morning i would help them find the man i suspected. after telling me that he and his partner would be at the rendezvous at the appointed time, lawler and i parted company.
coleman, under the alias of charlie clark, was living at that time on the second floor of a house fronting on biddle street, between ninth and tenth streets. the entrance to this flat was made from the alley in the rear. i knew coleman's wife, or the woman he claimed to be his wife. she had[pg 169] formerly been the wife of tom gosling, a noted crook, who was at that time in the missouri penitentiary, doing a ten year stretch. her first name was annie, and she had a son about 6 or 7 years of age.
mike coleman
mike coleman, alias chas. clark.
daring burglar and "peterman" employed to blow the
city hall vault, east st. louis.
lawler and his partner were at the corner of twelfth and olive streets promptly at 5:30 the next morning, according to appointment. i then told them all about coleman, and we proceeded to the latter's flat. on reaching the head of the stairway, i knocked at the door. mrs. coleman, garbed only in a night robe, came to the door and opened it a few inches. i stuck my foot in the door to keep her from closing it.
[pg 170]
"i want to see charlie," i explained to her.
"he is not here, mr. furlong," she replied, after recognizing me and permitting us to enter. "i do not know where he is," she continued. she then told me that charlie had gone to drinking and had quit his job about a week before, and she did not know where he was or what he was doing. i knew she was not telling me the truth, as charlie had quit his job at least a month previous, and did not drink at all. in fact, he never had been known to drink to excess. while we were talking i noticed a large-sized picture of coleman hanging on the wall. this i told the officers to take, and commanded her to dress.
"what are you going to do, mr. furlong?" she asked.
"i am going to take you down to police headquarters for lying to me," i replied.
both she and her boy began to cry and make a scene, but she finally began dressing. while this was going on i heard a slight noise in the front room.
"who is in there?" i asked, jumping to the door.
"a couple of friends of charlie's from hannibal," she replied.
lawler and i entered this room and found a couple of men in bed. after placing them under arrest we recognized them as a couple of crooks, both of whom were heavily armed. under the bed was a gunny sack, which, on investigation, we found to contain a safe-blowing outfit, including a sectional jimmy, a pair of "come-a-longs" (tool used to pull the knob or "ears" off of a safe), a new hammer and other tools. these men had evidently returned to the room late and being tired threw the sack under the bed and went to sleep.
just as we were about to take our departure from the room with the prisoners a mail carrier arrived with a [pg 171]letter for mrs. clark. i took charge of the letter and saw it had been mailed at springfield, mo. i handed it to mrs. clark and she opened it and read its contents. the letter was from her husband, and stated he was in springfield, and for her to answer it at once as he was only going to remain in springfield a couple of days, and he wanted to hear from her before leaving there. we then took our prisoners, including mrs. clark, to the four courts. some small pictures of clark were taken from the large one we had found in his home, and chief of detectives burke, armed with one of these pictures, left at once for springfield to try and effect his capture. in this burke was successful, as clark appeared at the post-office to get his mail and was recognized and placed under arrest. clark was brought back to st. louis. he would not talk to the st. louis officers, although the latter used every art known to them to make the prisoner "cough up." clark told chief of police harrigan he knew nothing that would do them any good, but that he had some information that was very valuable for me, and asked that i be called. at that time the relations between the chief and myself were some strained, to express it mildly, but the chief finally sent for me. "this thief has some information for you," said harrigan to me on my arrival at his office. "i do not believe he is much of a thief, either, as i know all the good ones," continued the chief. after shaking hands with clark he told me the city officers could not connect him with any of the jobs pulled off here, as he had nothing to do with them, but declined to talk further in the presence of the chief, we being in the latter's office at the time. as harrigan did not seem inclined to let me interview clark privately i left, and returned to my office.
[pg 172]
later in the day clark employed a lawyer, and sent him to me to tell me that if i would get him across the river he would tell me all about that job, meaning the looting of the city hall vault. i referred clark's lawyer to prosecuting attorney holder of st. clair county, illinois, and later the latter made a demand on the st. louis police for the possession of clark. the st. louis officers, thinking that they might secure at least a part of the reward which had been offered for the apprehension of the men who committed the east st. louis crime, took clark over the river, where he was locked up. i then called on him and he told me all about the vault robbery.
according to his story, which was later verified by his two assistants, clark was employed to do the job by thos. a. canty, acting city treasurer, to hide an alleged shortage in canty's accounts. the latter was, it was claimed $60,000 short, having lost the money at poker. the money had to be turned over the next day, and canty could not do it, because he could not raise that amount. clark had been introduced to canty by patrick eagan, who was at that time running a saloon in east st. louis, and was one of the city's aldermen. eagan was regarded as a friend of crooks of the higher class, such as confidence men, safe blowers and "big mitt" men. coleman claimed he was told by canty that ten thousand dollars would be left on the top of the safe, which was the amount he was to receive for doing the work. coleman was also introduced to lieutenant duffy, acting night chief of police of the east st. louis department, who was to act as lookout while the work was being done. the ten thousand dollars was to be divided equally between duffy, eagan and coleman. a few days before the time set for doing the job[pg 173] canty became ill and was taken to hot springs. this did not interfere with the plans, however, d. j. canty, according to the testimony, taking his brother's place in making the final arrangements for the entering of the vault. coleman did the real work, assisted by eagan, while duffy, in full uniform, stood guard on the outside. a box, in which was supposed to be $10,000, was found on top of the safe, as had been promised by canty. this box was taken by the three men to duffy's home and its contents poured out on the kitchen table, but instead of $10,000 there was only $3,000. this money was divided equally among the three men, after which all went downtown again. it was then about 2:30 a. m. duffy, not wishing to carry so much money around with him, placed his part in the safe of a saloonkeeper friend, who was also an alderman. the lieutenant in his testimony at the trial of the cantys, two years afterwards, declared that his $1,000 decreased to $700 during the night. in other words, some one had touched the roll for $300.
i told prosecuting attorney holder and the citizens' committee about coleman's confession, and was employed to secure corroborating evidence, which was done. eagan and duffy were arrested, convicted and sentenced to five years each in the penitentiary. they appealed the case, but at the next term of court withdrew their appeals, after a conference with prosecuting attorney holder, and entered pleas of guilty, and received two years each. the canty brothers were arrested, but notwithstanding the fact that coleman, duffy and eagan testified for the state, and there was much corroborating evidence, the jury failed to agree, standing seven for conviction to five for acquittal.[pg 174] at the time it was alleged that money had been expended very freely to clear the brothers.
coleman was not prosecuted. he left the city for the west, and the next i heard of him he was conducting a saloon on geary street, san francisco. later he and henry schultz, another noted peterman, formed an alliance and opened a half dozen "boxes" in the country surrounding the golden gate metropolis. they were finally settled for one of their jobs by capt. leas, of frisco. later coleman was released, but was soon afterwards killed at houston, texas, while attempting to rob a bank. he was acting as lookout, while his pals were at work on the vault. the first explosion attracted the attention of the police, who opened fire on coleman and his death was instantaneous; thus his long career of crime ended.
chief of detectives burke, of the st. louis police department, afterwards claimed the reward for capturing the vault robbers, and i believe secured a part of the money, but he was really not entitled to a cent, as he had done none of the real work on the case.
the next sensation in east st. louis was the assassination of ex-mayor john b. bowman, which occurred about 6:30 o'clock on the evening of november 20, 1885. the assassin did his work well. it can be described in a sentence—a shot was fired, and the corpse of the leader of the reformers was found lying near the gate leading to his residence, alone with the secret. i was employed by the son of the dead man to try and unravel the mystery, being given complete charge of the case. i had known bowman for years, and was acquainted with his past life, which had been a very turbulent one. he had always been a fighter, one of the kind who never knew when they were whipped. he settled in east st. louis in the latter part of the '60s, and[pg 175] acquired a large amount of property. he was one of the few men who recognized the fact that east st. louis would later become a great industrial center. because of his large interests he took an active part in municipal affairs, which, of course, brought him in contact with the politicians. bowman knew all about politics, even what is called the "practical" side of the game, but he was a poor diplomat—one of the kind of men who always called a spade a spade, consequently he was often in trouble with those who opposed him or his plans. he was often deserted by men whom he had practically made politically, because of his radical views on some question at issue. this was the beginning of a bitter war on the person so offending, by bowman. he never forgave a man who had deserted him or his cause.
on taking charge of the case the day after the diabolical crime had been committed, i was not surprised to learn that several of the dead man's enemies were busy preparing alibis. another thing that impressed me as a little peculiar was that the police department was making no effort to find the perpetrator of the crime. after considerable hard work by both myself and my men, i succeeded in finding a couple of parties who claimed that they had seen the fatal shot fired. they were christian a. schmidt and william banks. these men were returning from the country, where they had been to secure some tobacco which had been stolen from a freight car and hidden in a hay stack. as they neared the bowman home they saw a flash from across the street, and saw bowman fall. they recognized george w. voice, a member of the police force, as the man who did the shooting. later some more evidence was obtained, which, it was thought, would corroborate the statements of schmidt[pg 176] and banks. this corroborative evidence implicated another police officer named patrick o'neil. voice was arrested at once and taken to belleville and locked up. later o'neil called on voice at the jail, and he, too, was placed behind the bars, he having been indicted as an accessory that day. these arrests caused a great sensation, not only in st. clair county, but on the other side of the river as well.
at the preliminary hearing of voice, schmidt and banks went on the stand and told their story in a straightforward manner, and the defendant was returned to jail without bail. the friends of the prisoners then began harrassing the state's witnesses. the cases against the men were continued from time to time until april 3, 1887, when the prosecuting attorney dismissed the charges against the accused because he could not obtain service upon the state's witnesses, they having left the county because of the threats made against them.
the outcome of the case caused great rejoicing among the crooks and plug-uglies in east st. louis, and they began again to show their hands.
the wabash railroad, at that time one of the missouri pacific properties, had rather large interests over on the east side of the river. it was a nightly occurrence for our cars to be broken open and looted. it was no trouble for us to locate the thief, or thieves, who did the work, but it was another thing to have them arrested by the officers who were receiving pay for protecting them. my activity in trying to cause the arrest and conviction of these car robbers, and in the other cases mentioned, earned for me the ill will of the police department. while they never attempted to harm me, the police would pick up my men and lock them up on trumped up charges, convict them in the[pg 177] police court, which was of the "kangaroo" type, and put them to work on the streets with a ball and chain attached to prevent them from running away. after the police over there had turned a few tricks of this kind, i decided to put a stop to it by "reforming" the police department. to do this i had to shut off the source of revenue from which the officials were being corrupted, for i knew, even at that date in life, that it took bribe money to create such a condition of affairs. the men higher up, in this case, were the proprietors of the gambling houses. they were paying $1,000 per week for protection. this was a nice little "bit" to be split up by a few aldermen and city officials and the heads of the police department.
i called on prosecuting attorney holder at belleville, and asked his co-operation in bringing about a change in the state of affairs. i was not very well acquainted with mr. holder at that time, but i knew he was honest and a man who would do his duty. after i had entered his office and introduced myself, a dialogue something like this, as i remember it, took place:
"do you know that the gamblers of east st. louis are putting up $1,000 per week for protection?" i asked.
"i have heard they were putting up money," he replied, "but i have no real evidence as to how much."
"are you and the sheriff getting your part of it?" i continued.
the question had hardly left my lips before i saw the prosecuting attorney was beginning to make arrangements to throw me out of his office. before he had time to begin the work, however, i explained that i was joking, and we both had a good laugh. getting down to business again, mr. holder told me that he would "go after the gamblers with hammer and tongs" if he had the evidence.
[pg 178]
"i will get you that evidence, and pay the expenses out of my own pocket," i replied.
the prosecuting attorney then assured me that the sheriff could be relied upon to do his part. i already knew this, for i had investigated both men's character before i had decided to make the move that i had. the sheriff was called upon, and he, too, promised to aid me in every manner possible. after asking both officials to keep the matter a secret until i had worked out the plans fully, i returned to st. louis.
i sent a number of my men across the river, and it did not take long to get all the evidence needed. after arranging this evidence, i took it to prosecuting attorney holder and secured the necessary warrants. sheriff ropiequet was called over to st. louis and plans for raiding the houses simultaneously were made. i secured and paid for out of my own pocket an engine and two coaches from the cairo short line railway, and had them in readiness to take my men and the people we were to arrest from east st. louis to the county seat at belleville, after the raid. while there were over thirty open gambling establishments in east st. louis, i knew i could not raid all of them at one time, so i decided to raid the four largest, the ones whose owners were the most active in bringing about the crooked state of affairs. on the afternoon preceding the raid, i sent four trusted men, all armed, over the big bridge, with instructions to separate on the other side, one going to each of the four houses to be raided. these men were instructed to stay in the houses until the raids were made, to prevent the gamblers from locking their vaults and thus hiding their tools and other evidence. i then hired a big moving van, in which i placed eighteen of my men. sheriff ropiequet and i occupied the seat, i doing the driving.[pg 179] we had a number of fishing poles in the wagon to give the outfit the appearance of a fishing party. on reaching the other side i divided the men into four squads, placing a captain in charge of each. the squad i was to lead stayed in the wagon. after giving the other squads time to reach their houses i drove the van to colonel claude cave's famous resort. i handed the lines to the sheriff and ran up the stairs, followed by my men. we gained an entrance without any trouble and found the games running in full blast. the gamblers were taken completely by surprise, but submitted quietly to arrest. the spectators and players were not molested, but many of them became panic-stricken when it dawned upon them that a raid was being made, and sought to make their escape by jumping from the windows to the alley in the rear of the building, many of them actually making their escape in that manner. the gambling paraphernalia was taken down to the wagon, while the gamblers and their employes were marched to the waiting train. the wagon was then driven to the other houses, which had been raided at the same time by the other squads of my men, and the gambling tools found there hauled to the train. in making the raid every kind of gambling device known to the profession was captured, including faro boxes and layouts, dice, roulette wheels, sweat boards, keno balls and cards, and something like four bushels of poker and faro chips. all of this stuff was burned on the public square in belleville after the conviction of the gamblers. most of the men arrested pleaded guilty, and those who did not were convicted and the county was made some $22,000 richer by the fines.
the raid created a great sensation in east st. louis. it was the biggest stunt of the kind that had ever been pulled off over there, and i received much praise from the law-loving people of the city for doing the job. as i had anticipated, it ended open bribery in east st. louis, and later to the ousting of the crooked officials, for at the next election the good people triumphed and succeeded in electing men who would do their duty.
the new mayor was col. m. m. stevens, and as he had the co-operation of an honest board of aldermen, it did not take him long to finish the cleaning of the police department i had begun. my men were then enabled to go about their work of arresting car thieves without being interfered with by the police.
if my memory serves me right, mayor stevens served six or seven terms, and did much to make east st. louis the city it is today. but this work was not accomplished without much hard labor on his part and on the part of those who assisted him, for the gamblers and crooks did not give up without a struggle. mayor stevens, however, made it as law-abiding a place during his administration as any other city in the country of its size.
no man deserves more credit for the ending of gang rule in east st. louis at that time, however, than does j. w. kirk, editor of the signal. this paper fearlessly exposed all of the gang's methods, and to this fact was really due the awakening of the public conscience over there.
