AN AMERICAN FAGIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1261, 20 June 1914, Page 4

AN AMERICAN FAGIN.

SCHOOL FOR BURGLARS. As soon as the New York police arrest a man who was formerly a pugilist, but recently had conducted a high-school course in crime, Edward Spahr and James Markey, each about 18 years old, will be sentenced on their pleas of guilty of burglary. In January and February last this tutor in crime obtained £I2OO from burglaries committed by his pupils, according to the two lads awaiting sentence in the Tombs.

The story of Paganism was revealed when Spahr and Markey called an attorney into the Tombs and told him what they knew of many recent robberies. They said that this man, who at one time was prominent as a prizefighter, had recruited pupils from among the boys who had left school to go to work, and who loafed about east side street corners. He taught them the intricacies of burglary, and then sent them out to commit certain crimes. By becoming friendly with watchmen in lofty buildings the tutor made them parties to the crimes, and they admitted the young burglars and aided them in obtaining much valuable goods. The prisoners said that their instructor had eight or ten boys working for him as burglars, disposing of the stolen goods, and giving to the actual burglars only a small percentage of the profits.