CRIMINAL DICTIONARY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 811, 7 May 1910, Page 3

CRIMINAL DICTIONARY.

"DIP WILLING." A CONTEOVEESY IN COUKT, ' The slang phrase "dip willing" was the subject of a short controversy in the S.M. Court recently during the hearing, of a charge of assault with intent to rob. Counsel for the defonce objected to the translation of this phrase given by Detective Hammond going on the depositions.

The detective said the phrasa was well known in criminal phraseology, and, used as it had been in the case under notice, it meant "go through his pockets, and do it quickly. Chief Detective Broberg Baid the phrase was not.an uncommon one, and its meaning was well known. He quoted the slang word "pinched," commonly used in criminal circles to indioate that a man had been arrested. No one who had the least knowledge of the criminalclass, said the chief detective, would suggest that when one criminal told another that a third 'party had beon "pinched" by a constable that he meant that the constable had pinched the third party's leg with his finger nails. Later' in the day. a reporter sought tier _ enlightenment on the question of criminal slang, and was given a few samples which tend to show that there la almost a foreign, and to the uninitiated, unintelligible language used in the world of crime. For instance, if Wm.' Sikes wished to inform Crack Crib that D.'E. K. Lantern had been arrested he would say he had been "pinched," or "jugged," or 'lumbered." If he wished to convey the information' that he had seen the said D. E. K. Lantern placed in the lockup he would remark that he had' been put into the "boob" or in the "nick." The derivation of the slang terms is not always traceable, but a phrase which has come into vogue of late years, and which is used to indicate that a man has been declared an habitual', criminal, viz., "he' has got a Kathleen Mavourneen" is easily traced to the words of the old song, "It may be for years and it may be for ever." JTo hear that a man nad been "jugged" for "torning" does not convey much to the lay mind, but in plain English it means that a man had been put in ipol for passing gilded silver coins as gold. For a man to earn a reputation for "Kte-fiying" is for him to have gained a name for passing, or attempting to pass,_ valueless cheques.- To say-that--a man is "sent up" for a "spin," or a "drag," or a. "stretch" indicates plainly to the trained criminal mind that a person has been sentenced to particular periods of imprisonment. "Oh! he is a hook—ppgues are his. dart" is as ununderstandable to the average citizen as Hindoo, but to the initiated it is only the brotherhood's way of saying that picking pockets is So-and-so's particular hobby. "Crooks" or "Crookies" are shady customers in general. The "nark," or the equally unmusical sounding "norse.'Ms.:a criminal who, after having worked in'"with a criminal gang, turns informer. A confidence man is a, "talespinner," and a "tcaraway" is the class of thief who steals goods from shop doors. A. receiver of stolen goods is known as.a ' fence," and so' the criminal dictionary goes on, even to-a limit which the detectives who are continually Tubbing shoulders with the thieves cannot fathom. "I've more, than once had-to-ast a criminal to talk clearer when he has got into his- own slang," • remarked an experienced detective, yesterday.