: ;VV , . ' ; THE' OfcEGON SUNDAY 'jOURNAU' : PORTLAND, c SUNDAY MORNING, . JULY 13. 1913. : V . ' ' '
Copyright Ills, br the gSar Company, Greet Britain Right RtMrred.
mmmM
Langdon W. Moore, the Master
Burglar, Who Stole More
Than $2,000,000, but
Died
i v ,
Hi , ' 1
, . t
1 .V A
I r-a ? ..... f rj v " n r- - "
Penniless
'x
60PHIE LYONS. ,
OopyritM, itoi8.br tit ttuv Omw. '
ANGDON W. MOORE, alias Charley
Adams, one of the cleverest tank
burglars in the criminal history of
tWa, country, cleared over $2,000,000 la
tha oonria of his loot -criminal oareer.
Cs died two'or threa years ago at the
g of eighty without a cent, to his name.
This fact In itself might not warrant tha
aonoluslon that a life of ' crime Is ; not
worth while, but when Moore's' career is
taken' as whole, no better example of
the proposition that crime does not pay
joonld possibly be presented.' . " ' '
' I knew him well. He often spoke to ma
, . of bis exploits, glTing me the inside story
" of many of his deeds npon which the po
' Bee had been unable to shed any light
V whatewr iiOiig before ha died, Moora "
1 i. aras thoroughly conrlnoed of the futility
A of a criminal .career. "What mess of It
ail X hare madel" was a frequent exolama-
tlon of his. . ' . .A---.
- j Wot orer fifty years, Moore was perhaps
. se the most oonsplcvoos, figure in the nnder-
l orld.t During that ; time he pulled oft
t-iom of the biggest and most daring bank .
burglaries oyer perpetrated in this eoun
try. He was a mechanical genius and com-
.v.plete master of his trade, , . He , was a
H brainier man than many of the presidents
if the banks he robbed, and his. code of
' I honor was In many respects , more com
. v . mendable than that of judges " who sent "
v blm to Jail, He was feared by erery bank
and respected by every
" police official la tha
.aounuT( i.y.:. . ,, ,r, .... ,
Olnspeotor Byrne dt
, dared that. Moore's an
'aderstandlng of the me
: onanism of safes was SO
complete . that he was
able to open them from.
' the sound emitted by tha
'ipiadle! y , vj'V.
This may or may not
kare been so, but it la
certainly true that Moore
',knew more about tha.
. weak points of locks and
-w safes than any man who
T orer lived, and that when
' tie matched his brains
against those, of the safe
- designers ha lnfarlably
proved thathe was their
master. ' ' f
"Time and time again
"pfoore got the best of
aafes which the manu ,
..lacturers and other safe
Z crackers, had declared to
be Impregnable. ' In one
T case, : indeed, after two
different gangs of safe
crackers had attempted
. . o break Into a bank
- safe tn Tain, the bank
officials were so confl-
dent that the box was
l proof against burglars
that they offered to al-
..i.. . ...
r low any safe-cracker who
I ' cared to apply to take
u the safe to the top of a mountain and
experiment there with It to his heart's
' content for four days. Moore didn't avail
' himself of this offer but he did make an at
7 tempt on the safe without the knowledge
pf the bank officials, and In Just one hour
and forty-five minutes had solved the prob
lem so effectively that he was able to
make off with the 60,000 the safe had con-
ftalnedl
Moore's biggest burglary was the
robbery of the Concord National Bank
t of Concord, Mass. This remarkable piece
a '. , 1" of . work, committed in broad daylight,
' netted him 1810,000.
:. There .has been considerable mlsappre
' ' hension regarding the manner In which this
theft was pulled off. Even Inspector
ferries seemed to have been misled by the
- ' erroneous stories which were circulated
' i, regarding li .- '. "
Thus it had been commonly stated that
-A,-, Moore was able to get Into the safe because
1 pt the carelessness of the bank cashier,
, , t who had left the dial combination, marked
. ln lead pencil, on the side of the vault,
'- where all who ran might have read.
iZt Apart from the inherent' Improbability
i of such a story, Moore tojd me the slightest
, , Investigation would have revealed that it
. was Impossible. Tha safe .was not a com .
' blnatloa safe.ataUl' The vault doors ;
' V .v ' . 1 ,
i. . : .'- t : j's" '',.'"."''-.,,' . .
were fitted with English ward locks.
Then, too. It has been said that this
clever robbery was planned quite sudden
ly.by Moore and his pal Harry Howard,
otherwise known as "English' Harry, an
other notorious safe-cracker. As a matter
of fact, Moore worked industriously for
five months in preparation fori it before
he was ready to turn the trick,
Moore had planned to rob the bank at
Trahcestown, N. H. On thinking the matter
over however, he regretted his decision because-
he had been born and-brought up
near the town, and he did not feel like rob
bing his old neighbors. . Very cleverly,
Moore contrived to prevent the robbery
without acquainting his pals with the fact
that he had changed his mind regarding it
It was while returning from this incom
pleted job that Moore conceived the idea
of robbing the Concord banks. . Two of
them, the Concord National and the Mid
dlesex Institution for Savings occupied the
same building.
This bunding was directly opposite the
hotel where Moore happened to stop for
lunch, and while he was eating he observed
the cashier returning to the bank from his
- dinner. The cashier unlocked the street
door and left the key in the leek, Moore
hastily finished his meal and stepped over
to the bank.
He followed the cashier upstairs and saw
him unlock the outer and inner doors of
the vault and also the door to the "burglar
box inside. To justify his presence in the
bank, . Moore presented a hundred-dollar
bill to the cashier and asked to have it
change!
During the. few moments that he was In
the bank Moore had obtained a very good
idea of the problem which confronted him.
He observed that the lock to the street
door was of a very simple style which
could be easily overcome. Moore con-
TIT
' jtt-. ;
r) Ti s
imn In P
uSi mm tne ourgiar was eionng tne Dana coor, be
heard a child's voice exclaim: "Let me in!" She said
she desired to see the cashier. The burglar prompt'
ly replied that the cashier wss attending a direc
tors conference, and the child, quite unsus
picious, left the bank, In a few minutes the
funds of the bank, amounting to $310,000
lay at the burglar's mercy r
eluded that the lob" was worth while.
He went to New York and secured the co
operation of Harry Howard, who returned
with him to his farm at Natick. Wax im
pressions of the key of the street door were
taken and the blank keys cut to fit, the
Impression, but effort after effort, cover
ing a period of several weeks in this direc
tion, proved futile. The finished keys were
tried at midnight and tber failed to fit.
Then the burglars succeeded In making
an entry by one of the windows. Howard
made his way to the door and unscrewed
some of the nuts which held the locks In
place with the Idea of removing the lock
and studying its mechanism.
In doing this, however, he knocked off
some of the varnish around the bolt head,
and Moore ordered him to desist, fearing
that if any more varnish fell off it might
attract attention In the morning and bring
about an investigation. The nuts were re
" placed and the burglars gave up their work
for the night
Some nights later they appeared again on
the scene. This time they plugged the lock
in a way which would arouse no suspicion
as to the manner in which it had become
stopped up. The sole object of this move
was to necessitate the removal of the
, lock by a locksmith. Moore figuring that in
doing the Job the locksmith would inevita
bly knock off twhpajaj and. varnish frog
.visjstterTTr. :;J2r --y.yul3 yaf iM-
wM""ee ... - " ' ' '' K' ' '; - ' .-.'. '
"Moore came to grief fbitmgh the freacliery oloae of Ml accompHccs. Jftey Bad cone fatty iraTe, -with the banka funds
In tteir possession, when Jn
busses, pitchforkt and every other conceivable weapon. Tho burlarf were ronghlj handled, and it to
the bolt heads and thus
enable him and his pal
to work on the lock
afterward without leav
ing any telltale marks.
The plan worked out
exactly as Moore had
figured, and some nights -later
Howard gained en
trance to the bank by
way of the window,
made his way to the
door, unscrewed the
bolts, removed the lock
and found out why It was
that their keys had fall-'
ed to work. A few min
utes' work with a file
was sufficient to make '
the lock, respond to
their keys, and then it
was replaced.
There was another
door at the top of the
stairs, but the lock was
easily overcome. The
burglars then studied the
vault Itself. It had five -different
keyholes. :
How thoroughly Moore went at his work
will be gathered from his next step. He
went to Boston and Eunted the city over
for a safe of the same make as the one at
Concord. His Industry was rewarded by
finding one at a eafemaker's. Moore got
the safemaker to explain the mechanism
of the eafe to him, pretended that he
wished to buy it. but finally went away
without purchasing it
The burglars visits to the bank con
tinued. They were now able to let them
selves in by tjhe front door. They ap
peared upon the scene three times a week
for six weeks, and they worked indus
triously from midnight to three la the
morning on each ' occasion. As a result
of this labor they were able to open the
"vault door by the end of thaCtlme. They
had succeeded in fitting every one , of the
, five keys necessary , to open it .'
i Then they found themselves confronted
with the inner door. It had two keyholes.
Two weeks' more time was required to
fit keys to these locks. Opening the sec
ond door, they earner to the "burglar box."
Moore found that one of the two locks on
this box was of such a character that
fitting a key to It was out of the question,
and It would be necessary to blow it open.
Moore paid numerous visits to the bank
In the daytime in order to get further in
formation which might prove valuable to
him, purchasing notes as a pretext for his k
presence there. On one of the visits he
observed that the cashier did not place in
his pocket the key which the burglars had
found themselves unable to fit but laid It
on a shelf In the vault With this key in
their possession it would be unnecessary
for them to blow the box.
Borne days later Moore decided the time
had arrived to "turn the trick."
He and Howard drove into town. Moore
etayed In the vicinity of the bank. When
the cashier left the bank for his lunch
Howard drove down to a grocery store al
most opposite the bank, where he was to
act as lookout Then Moore walked boldly
to the bank and let himself In with the
key he had made, j '
Just as the burglar was closing the door
he heard a child's voice exclaim: Let me
in!" and the child bad followed so closely
upon his heels that he couldn't have
closed the door without forcibly putting
the child outside.
Moore was unusually quick-witted. He
realized that if the child's suspicions were
. aroused she might alarm the town. He
asked her what she wanted, and when she
said she desired to see the cashier the
burglar promptly replied that the cashier
was attending a director's conference, but
.that If she same back in an hour she could
see him.
Quite unsuspicious, the child left the
bank .and Moore bolted the door behind
'her. Making his way to the vault the
burglar found everything as he had ex
pected, and in a very few minutes the
funds of the bank lay at his mercy. Coolly
he transferred the bonds, notes and bills
to a mealsack which he carried for the
purpose, and then confiscating the key
which opened the bolts after they had
been unlocked and which the cashier had
left in its keyhole, he closed the doors of . -the
safe and made his way out of the
bank, , .
Without any undue haste the burglars .:
made a- safe getaway. Although Moore , !
was subsequently arrested for this crime.
he was able to make a deal by which he
secured his freedom in consideration of -
his restoring sonw two hundred tlaan..;.,-yvi5..JBut a.constant overfeeding of these cells causes a conges
dollars' worth of the booty to ttalwyi'V.tlott0rf?-f;W.eeUa become more and more1 distended. . Tim
At wis time tjere tM typ of safe worry grows more and more acute. The pounding of the blood
--"v my. v k '. ifv.wf u 'vhbuuh ui hum oj jam ceus acquires a nammeriike violence.
was made by a man named LflUe. Moore
decided to put it to the test He ascer
. talned that there was one in an office on
etaten Island, and desired to experiment
npon it With the aid of a specially, devised
brace he found it possible to drill holes
Into the solid chilled steel of which the safe
was composed and a few ounbea of rifle
powder did the rest
As a result of this smooess, Dutch Dan,"
Moore's pal, prevailed upon htm to try his
. luck at another cafe of the same type at a
bank at Olean, N. T. The doors were two
and a quarter Inches thick: and of chilled
iron cast in. one piece, Dutch Dan"- had
' previously taken several other safecrack
:ers to look the ground over, but all had
agreed that the joV couldn't be done in
less than six hours,-and as there was a
hotel directly opposite 'which didn't close
till after midnight they decided that they
wouldn't have . time to do the job be
tween the time the 'hotel' closed and the
time when people began to go abroad in
the morning. "
Moore knew better. He had paid a visit
to the Llllle works and knew exactly how
the safe was constructed. He was confi
dent 'that he could get the best of it In
two hours.
It was this safe which; aa I have pre v
vlously mentioned, the directors considered
-'so safe that they offered to let any safe
cracker have it to himself on the top of a
mountain for four days. This offer Moore
felt It. unnecessary, to accept, ,
Securing the services of a third man to
act as lookout and to provide a rig for the
getting away. Moore and Dutch Dan" de
scended upon the bank one dark nlgh and '
succeeded in breaking into the "burglar
proof safe in Just forty-five minutes.
Moore came to grief first through the
treachery of one of his accomplices. He
had been engaged by other burglars for a
bank Job at Rockland, Maine. An ex-city
marshal and a big 'merchant of the city
were said to be Interested In the plot and
Moore consented to do the work. "f ,
.The ex-marshal, a man named Kaiser,
and his friends were to furnish the neces
sary teams. Against his better Judgment
which led him to distrust several of those
interested in the plot particularly the ex
marshal and his friends, Moore went
through with the Job. A premature explo
sion opened the safe, but nearly wrecked
the building. Across the street the bur
glars saw the night watchman and a por
ter staring awe-stricken at the bank.
Moore quickly decided that the burglars'
only chance was to secure the funds and
to buy off those interested in prosecuting
them, m he had been able to do In th
Concord robbery. Putting a wet sponge
in his mouth and a wet handkerchief over
his face, he made bis way through the
blinding and suffocating smoke and cleaned
out the safe in the darkness. " ; .
The burglara then proceeded to the spot
where Kaiser was to meet them with the
rigs. They had to wait several hours be
fore Kaiser appeared, and from his manner
Moore at onee surmised that everything
was not exactly right His suspicions
proved to be well-founded, for they bad
hardly gone half a mUe when they were
suddenly surrounded by a posse of fifty or
sixty men armed with rifles, blunderbusses,
pitchforks and every r other conceivable
weapon. The burglars were roughly haa
died, and the crowd made ready to lynch
them. It was only Moore's tact which
saved them.
As it was, Moore found it prudent to
plead guilty when his case came up for
trial, and he 'was sentenced to seven years
in the Maine State Prison.
He served six and a half, during which
time he suffered privations of the most
dreadful character.
I His first three years of prison life
' passed without incident Although his
wife came to see blm regularly during that
period, she was never allowed to speak
to Moore in private. Moore got an idea
that if properly managed, a campaign to.
secure his pardon might prove successful.
He figured that a fund of 100. would be
needed for the purpose. .-
Because the warden was always present
when his wife visited him and his corre-,
spondence was always censored, the only
way he could communicate his plan to his
wife was by a subterfuge. In writing to
his wife, he wrote twenty words on the
envelope and covered them with the '
stamp. It took him several months to
impart his whols plan to his wife by this
installment plan, but at the end of that
time, she was in full possession of her
husband's ideas on the subject She at
once proceeded to raise the money and
then unwisely wrote on the margin of a '
New York newspaper which she was privi
leged to send her husband, the words
"All right I will be there the second
week in March." .
This message was Intercepted by the .
warden., He subjected Mrs, Moore to the
most rigid examination, but she would zufl
admit that she had been in secret eommuV
snication with her husband. Moore waa
then put through a similar ordeal, but he
dented having communicated with his wife
In any way and professed to know nothing;
. about the message on the newspaper.
- - The warden was greatly incensed, and,
by way of punishment ordered that Moor
should no longer enjoy . the prtvllegea
which, bad previously been accorded to
blm. ' Be was allowed , neither to see on
write to his wife. He was no longer per'
mitted to purchase food or other articles.
When the clothing his wife had pur
chased for him wore out, ha waa not al
lowed to renew It The warden told him
that he would be restored xto his former
privileges only when he revealed the man'
ner in which he had communicated with
bis wife, and apologised for having dona
ao. Moore was too obstinate to yield, and
for the next three years suffered the
greatest physical and mental torture in,
consequence.
His . clothing was reduced to tatters
Fbr days at a time he was unable to eat
the coarse prison food. No martyr ever:
suffered greater agonies than this remark
able convict during this period.
Nevertheless, when Moore waa finally:
released, he was a more confirm ed enemy
to society than before, xte continued his
operations against the banks of the coun
try, but was finally caught and sentenced
to cumulative penalties aggregating fifteen
years. -
It was not until after be had completed
that term that he. really saw tha error of
bis ways. Then He tried to lead an hon
est life, but found it Impossible to acoun
nlate any wealth, and all his in-gotten gaina
had long ago been dissipated in futile at
tempts to secure his freedom.
He died in 1910. He was eighty yeara
old.. He had been fighting society for
. over fifty years, and although considered in
tha underworld aa a. "successful" criminal.
be knew himself that his Ufa had been a
failure. -.
"I have learned from bard axperience."
be wrote ' shortly - before he died, "that
money obtained by fraud la at a discount
and will not purchase peace, comfort and
a contented mind. If any young man start'
lng out in life thinks he can make a sue-!
cess of crime, he will discover, perhapa
when too late, that his Ufa has been a fall-'
lUrel".; ,.:7,,, . , l t, :. :
i Langdon W. Moore's - testimony that
CRIME DOES NOT PAT is WOTth heeS
friar. ' ' '.'. v a a ' . - .
80P,HIB LYONS.
W
How Worry Really Kills You
i
S have often heard that worry can kill even the nine.
.uvea cat but we have only half believed it, and until
' now We have had no scientlfia nrnnf tit lf. i in
Medical ademVe has recently confirmed the fact and , ex
. plained how worry commits its murders. It has reached the
conclusion that In many Instances of what have been regarded
as lunacy, and from which the victim finally dies, the case has
simply been one of acute worry.' - Instead of the person dying
of mental breakdown, he has worried himsslf to death.'
t Worry medical science now defines as the dominance of one
Idea; usually that '.of tfih&U' of soma existing
condition or dread of what may happen. The Idea crowds all
' others from the mind, or permits them only the feeblest and
"occasional activity.'-;';.''; , !-.yt':?:t-X4i, :;.-'t:"..;-:.;,v1' '
'& T&is " Idea pounUs, hammer-like, upon one set of brain
cells. It overstlmulates them, causing an unusual flow of blood
to ithose portions and a dearth of it toother, parts of the brain.
' This would not be serious if It happened only now and then, for
every brain cell should be replenished by more than the usual
ww m moon u urnes io aeep it properly, fed and nourished.
. The sides of the cells wear thin. ' a cell bursts. There Is a so
called "clot on the brain." Death follows. 1 i
The cure of the worry that kills la prevention. Refuse to
worry. Do your best and, having done-thla, decline as posi
tively to fret about the results as yon would decline to drink ,
a draught of poison, .Worry comes as an occasional visitant to
v everyone, but as we shut our doors, to unwelcome visitors, so
we close the .portali against the entrance of worry. Admitted.
it ceases to be a visitor it Is a habit and a habit tht destroys. ' ,
The action of worry upon the brain cells is moBt like the con
etant dropping of water upon a stone. At first It makes not f
the slightest impression, upon the stone, but in time It weara v ;
It away. The cells of the brain are ot more delicate tissue, and i4 S
- the steady wear and tear Of the extra blood supply In time'1 K
quickly wears them.out. : ' - . ; - n-i
. Or, according to medical science, it is as though a igarment f
worn day after day without change soon falls into tatters. Bx t ;:
aminations of .the brain after death have shofrn a group of- h"
nerve'cells at the crown of the head that have perished in the '' ':
same way the nerve of a tooth dlea , While every other brain-
cell seems to be in ordinary condition this group has shrunken. ' '
urlou coincidence, and science . says a consequence, as &
inevitable as effect after cause, that the hair on the portion oi'
the scaln Just above this brain .area Ja:-tha flm. n vmw M.iv
Heat in the scalp causes hair to grow gray., and an excess of
ie blopd ' blood in any portion of the brain causes the scalp above thai
lolence,:;: iportlon to be' overheated. V, 'v
. t ;' ': J . ni-v t , i ?,-,y . 's . t. -,yti !; '.-h.;:i;: I'.i -..V ' f v, " ' " ,'' '?"
... i V
We
7'.'-