SHARPERS ON THE TITANIC.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 318, 6 July 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

SHARPERS ON THE TITANIC.

HARPIES WHO DROWNED. THE HEART OF A GAMBLER. Pictures in the Rogues' Gallery will be turned to the wall as one of the results of the foundering of the Titanic. The police will strike from their resords the name of more than one man '''wanted." There went down with the great White Star liner a flock of buzzards of the sea—human vampires who preyed on tlhe passengers crossing the Atlantic, men whose mission in life inspired Wilson Mizner's play, "The Greyhound." It is known that at least a score of these harpies were on board the lost ocean liner. Old-time card and confidence men had been waiting foj months to procure a passage on the Dig ship, anticipating the haul of their lives. It looked to them like an orchard of big plums. Their business was to get on board and do the picking. Some of these men had been following the sea. for years—their home was the sea. And now, by one of the inscrutable tricks of fate, their burial place is the sea. It i« impossible to I get the names of all of them, for they invariably travelled under aliases, sometimes as millionaires, sometimes merely as well-to-do manufacturers. It is known that not less than half-a-dozen gangs of the crooks were waiting to embark on the steamer. Some of them got away in the lifeboats, it is reported, (and it is an even bet that more than one got into the boats _as a sailor or as a shrieking woman in distress. "Buffalo" Murphy, it is said, is numbered among those who went to the bottom in the Titanic. "Old Man" Jordan is another,, and Jim Kitchener is said to have found his last "sure thing." Silverton is another who is said to have "lost out" on the wrong confidence game. Silverton is credited with having been gifted with the greatest "gall" of all the merchant sailors of the sea. He . travelled under various aliases, his most successful being that of J. Coleman Drayton, the well-known clubman and millionaire. Once he met the original on board ship, and that was a very disastrous voyage for him. Mr Coleman heard of his impersonation, and went to Silverton's state-room, and, pulling him out of bed, administered to him the soundest thrashing he had ever known. The Pinkerton's were "on the lay" of the confidence man for years, but could never get anything on him. The best they could do" was to keep him moving, an involuntary bird of passage. When they last heard of him he was well fixed in the world's goods, and had a villa somewhere on the Mediterranean.

"Buffalo" Murphy, who is also believed to have perished, was booked on the Titanic, as usual assuming the name of J. W. White. Murphy was a steady ocean traveller in the spring and summer season. For the last fifteen years he never missed a trip, and the Titanic looked to him the biggest game that he had ever been permitted to "sit in." He was 'lost in the shuffle" at which he had been so great an adept. He was an allround " skin game" man, and ; was said to be worth £40,000. A CHEAT FOR 75 YEARS. "Old Man" Jordan was 80 years old, and his friends say he had been cheating for seventy-five of those years. He was comfortably fixed in France —was well off, in fact —but the lure of the first trip of the Titanic was too much for him. He yielded for the last time to the call of the sea, and "cashed in" in response to the call. He had played the gamut of the crooks from gold bricks to green goods, and generally got the money. Jim Kitchener was one of the best card sharps in the world. He had ''followed the sea" for the last ten years, playing the ocean seasons as other men played the races. Only he took no chances and got away with the coin. He played the game once too often.

"One Arm" Mac had all the card men on both sides of the Atlantic "backed off the board." He used his arm to better advantage than most men use both members. The fact that he had only one wing rarely attracted suspicion to him, and he raked in the money fast. He had impersonated nearly every big business man in the world. Xo doubt is entertained that Mac has "passed" for the last time. "Black Mike"—nobody seems to have known what his name really was—is another of the old-time crooks who has been gathered in by the Great Policeman. There will be no further need for his picture, which adorns the Rogues' Gallery. Mike was one of the old-time and surest of "confidence" men. His great stunt was tapping the wires. Hemade his victim believe that he was getting inside information on the races by having a confederate tap the wires. He never tapped the wires, but always got the money. He was a Hebrew, very black and short and stocky. He made baskets of money, but the faro banks got most of it in the wind-up. DIED LIKE A HERO. Jay Yates, gambler, confidence man, and fugitive from justice, known to the police and in sporting circles as J. H. Rogers, died like a hero, however he may have lived. He went down with the Titanic, after assisting many women aboard lifeboats. He handed the following note to one of'the women whom he helped:—'"lf saved, inform my sister, Mrs. J. F. Adams, of Findlay, Ohio. Lost. —J. H. Rogers." Rogers' mother, Mrs. Mary A. Yates, an old lady, broke down when told her son had perished. "Thank God! I know where he is now," she sobbed. "I have not heard from him for two years. The last news I had from him he was in London. I spent nearly a fortune in getting him out of trouble some years ago. Then he was charged with forgery." While living in Findlay, Rogers borrowed £4OO on his property by having another woman forge the name of his wife to a mortgage. In February. 1010, he is alleged to have entered one of the outlying post offices in Washington, D.C., and, while posing as an inspector, stole a pad of money orders. Then lie went to Columbus, Ohio, where John Cummins, a cousin and a man of means, identified him and made it possible for him to get £540 on these forged orders. Cummins thought the orders were genuine ,as Yates had been working for the Government on the Panama Canal, and he claimed that he carried his money in post office orders for safety. Cummins knew Rogers was an assumed ' name, but Yates had told him he called j I himself Rogers for business purposes, and | that the endorsement was legitimate. I The money advanced on the forged or- ! ders was repaid to the Government by Cummins, but Rogers was never arrested for the offence. Rogers' parents were wealthy. When the son came of age his father gave him a valuable farm, but he soon disposed of it, and used the proceeds in travelling. Rogers' wife divorced him five years ago.