KING OF CRIME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3664, 12 July 1927, Page 4

KING OF CRIME.

CAUGHT AT LAST. ALIVE, AFTER TWELVE DEATH SENTENCES. Paris, June 20. Martinez Antonio Jimenez, undoubtedly the most remarkable and daring criminal in all Europe, has at long last been arrested by the Paris police. How amazing his career has been may,'be judged from the fact that he has been condemned to death in Spain no fewer than twelve times, and that during the past two years he has rifled 200 safes and factories on the outskirts of Paris. The French police have been searching for him for, a long time and it was only a few days ago that they really got on his track for the first time., Following their clues the police tracked him to a villa at St, Ouen, an industrial suburb of the French capital. A raid on the villa was carefully organised, and Jimenez was caught in his bed. When the police explored the villa, a pleasant little place surrounded by a well-tended garden, and having the appearance of anything but a “thieves kitchen,” they discovered a veritable arsenal. Most up-to-date revolvers, with large quantities of ammunition, were found, together with a collection of modern safe-breaking appliances. Jimenez, who was originally an engineer, had used his skill and knowledge to manufacture tools with which the most formidable safes could be burgled with that ease with which a tin of sardines may be opened with the aid of the appropriate key. Jimenez was known to his companions in crime as “El Pistolero,” and theFe is no doubt that he was the head of a very formidable gang of criminals most of whom hailed from beyond the Pyrenees. MURDERED CELEBRITIES. When questioned by the police be did not deny his indentity, nor did lie contradict their information regarding crimes in which lie is alleged to have been concerned. Before he came to France, so it has now been established by the police, he was one of a gang which carried out some of the most sensational crimes in recent Spanish history. He was in the plot, which led lip to the assassination of the Archbishop of Saragossa. In 1920 he and his confederates achieved the murder of the Governor of Barcelona. In the following year he was one of the leaders of the attack on a train at Puerto Nuevo, near Barcelona, on which occasion several railway officials were killed, and he and his confederates got away with 200,000 pesetas, more than £7,000. The last great exploit of the gang of which El Pistolero was a member, was the attempt to blow up by dynamite the chief bank of Gijon, a Spanish Atlantic seaport. WHO IS “EL NEGRO?” Though this effort was not highly lucrative, it was followed up so tenaetously by the Spanish police that Jimenez and his colleagues found the Peninsula too hot for them. Under the leadership of a still more mysterious person known as “El Negro” they crossed into France, and in 1923 brought off, their first big coup in this country. It was an effort, largely successful, to rifle" a safe in a factory at Talenee, near Bordeaux. In the course of a few weeks the French police managed to lay hands on several members of the gang. Two of them were executed for their part in the outrage; a third was sentenced to hard labour for life, and a fourth escaped. El Negro and his chief of staff, E. Pistolero, could not be found., and they continued their formidable coups. NO SAFE SAFE. They were next heard of in 1925 when a villa at Pan was burgled, and a rich booty obtained. After that Jimenez and his comrades worked almost exclusively in industrial suburbs of Paris. For two years they “cracked cribs” profitably at the rate of two every week without leaving any trace which could be followed up. In the great factories of the ; Parisial suburbs no safe was strong enough to resist their attacks, and El Pistolero’s gang won for itself an almost legendary fame. It is believed that one of Jimanez's discontented colleagues gave him away, but the identity and whereabouts of El Negro still remain a mystery.. At Jimenez’s villa a large quantity of Communist and Anarchistic literature was found.