Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

Mil,1.ION 1MHXAR BANlttT E*Jrn?r<lin?r) Career of (herald Chap* man I.?d IMectivca Merry Chasr *l-i?i?if('. Voting ii. Nt w Ym| Tmu ? Fop yeors the mteHigeto r oC the world has nought a certain slight man With .? lamp, about five feet seven inches tail, aged 30, blue eye.s tending to gray, the most stiikm< figure that has stood forth in ? a generation from the dark drama of crime. No other Raffles of ? real life has ever typified so well the dandy C :uk*man. Although inonilf is-.written opposite his name on one l^lict blotter, and although he ?s wanted for greater crimes than any lawbieaker of his time, and every de scription sent abroad' has curriwl the line "l>angerou* man, always armed, shoots on Might"?although ail these thing* are true of him, he was cap* tured easily by two officers in a lit tle Indiana town last week. The cap ture was easy because his pistol fail ed him. ; Such U a brief episode of Gerald Chapman's life and cereer, the "mil lion dollar mail robber" who e*capcd from a Federal penitentiary, was caught and escaped again, reeling from bullet wounds, only to be re captured now. Quiet, unobtrusive and physically frail, Chapman is remem bered along Broadway because of his fondness for striped trousers and dress suits.. A certain easy facility in spending thousand-dollar banknotes did "not cscape notice. On a pleasant morning he would don lemon-colored two-button gloves and stroll up the avenue from his apartment in a fashionable quarter. That quarter lent him its name, "the *"oun< <?{ (iramerry I'ary." Broadway conferred the title a little ironically, because Broadway merely saw the spender the tailor's model, and did not concern itself with the place from which the banknotes came. Itut it oc- ; rationally happened that the cabaret* > missed him for days at a time?of, j rather, for successive nights. Then ; it was that Chapman went forth in j an old coat and a slouch hat. with ; certain tools about his person and with a cold dangerous light ir. his e ves that bespoke daring and cu:>ning of the first order. It i> not an every-day man who holds up a mail truck in a New York street and walk.-, away with some thing more than a million in money and negotiable bonds. But Chapman did that particular thing with a finesse and completeness that won for him a leading place in the crimi nal calendar in the . world. Post of fice authorities are endeavoring to learn where a considerable part of the loot disappeared; some hundreds of thousands, it is said. But if Chap man preserves his detached attitude of four years he will not tell. His evasive smile and concommittal nod have resisted every terror of the third degree. Kroadway believes that he had cached his money and that some day it will be brought' forth to aid him, just as Broadway says th tiiot board helped the man to break the Atlanta prison. The next act in the drama way re veal Chapman's treasure trove in spite of him. For months he has been watched by post office inspectors as tew nun i ver were watched before. It is >n;d that there was no hour of <l ? the day or night tip ring these months when the law could not have placed it* hand* Upon him. He neither went abroad fToi stayed at' home- without hi;; .smallest movement becoming a nurU: of record. Strangely, Chap mail, tho arch criming of his day, did not suspect this. surveilanre. He dat UmI in and <>u; o| Muncie. IihU selling bonds and cracking ft safe or two, Unconscious that he Was in the net and c^uld not escape by any eon ceivable method. The net remained open through tynse weeks, giving the law | time to trace Chapman's inti mates and, if possible, find his hoard. Whether that hoard remains hidden i3 not yet disclosed. But if Chapman laid a hand upon its-after he was caught in ttye mesh he has seen it lor the last time and the post office will reclaim its own. There is a precedent that the post office never fails. The capture of Chapman has been acclaimed as an example of what seiehce and per sistence will accomplish in tho detec tion of crime. Inspectors Doran and Sharp have been the Holmes and the Watson of this ease which will long endure as a classic of criminology; the intelligent, skillful fearless Cracksman pitted against two men who never left his trail from the day that he staggered out of a hos pital in Athens, Ga., and disappear ed. Whcu the gates of prison clang again behind the slight, once debon air Chapman, the post office, will have completed its most famous case. The postal inspection service is a unique organization among the pro tection forces of society. It includes 520 men and fifteen chief inspectors, all of whom have been recruited from the ranks of the everyday postal ser vice. No other detective force has ever been organized in this way. Or dinary detective bodies are composed of men trained solely for that work. Hut it is the policy of the post office department carefully to,choose eligi ble men1 among its many thousands nf employes and admit them to this corps. Four years work in the post office is a first essential. Having begun with men who pos sess no special knowledge of crimin ology, the postal service converts them into trained detectives, capable of coping with the best intellects that the other half of the social order can produce. Th'equality of the corps has been attested recently by the capture of Chapman and by the complete round up of a -band of thieves con cerned in another great postal rob bery committed near Chicago. Between the final capture of Chap man and his beginning* in crime lies a story that surpasses the career of any Raffle* created by pen. Accord ing to one polic? officer, Chapman watt the son of wo!) to-do parents and once \yore the surplice of a choir boy. i He had an education of the better1 f'Ut "gcit into trouble** and ran j away from home in hi* teens. Look- | ing at a photograph of him it is not i hard to call up a slight youngster: walking in the choir procejssional with hl?ck robt> and white collar. Such a youth assuredly had a tenor voice, perhaps a rather thin tenor, and the eye* were not always worldly wise, 'They imi-t have 1. ? n gentle eyes at one time and it is terrain that the boy was a delicate, under-sized lad. f* Studying his photograph according to the accepted rules of physiognomy,! a student of character might note that the skull falls back sharply frorn the brow and the head seems unde veloped above the ears. It is' neither a normal skull nor a pleasing one. The mind inside that skull was not long in finding mischief to occupy it. Where Chapman served his novitiate in crime is not establish- > ed, but his first known appearand in a major role brought him a ten year sentence to Sing Sing back in 1912 for the commonplace offense of giand larceny. Many men go up to Sing Sing and are never heard from again. Chap- j man received but scant attention at the hands of historians in the New York police department. He was a "first time" man and not likely to be* an immediate problem. In the course of things Chapman was paroled oa March 20, 1919. Still the police took littel notice of him. Perhaps he had learned wisdom and they would not be troubled with him again. It is a fair gyess that Chapman learned a number of things in Sing Sing. But the? were rtot for his ben efit. He dropped out of sight until the night of October 24, 1921, when a touring far?a stolen one?forced a mail truck Into the curb at Broad way and Leonard street. Three men sprang out, held up the driver and ?. escaped with $1,500,000 in loot. They, tied a mail sack over the driver's head and got away safely." That was an inside job. A plfTtform man "at the Park How station had fallen victim to easy money. The three highwaymen went out to Lake Ronk-i onftoma on Long Island, and doubeless . they might be there yet if Chapman, leader of the band, had been of a temperament for quiet and safety. * But he came into New York and spent lavishly. His spending was ? restric ted only by the fact that most of the loot consisted of bonds. It was ? no time to sell these securities. Se- j rial numbers and complete descrip- ' tions were hanging in every bank." *1 Never had the sleuths of the law aj harder job to tackle. Here was ? greatest robbery on record of the j United States mails, inviting every j desperate fellow in the country to laid the department's tn-a-uie cars, if the* perpetrator* went uncaught, the service would be hard hit indeed. And there was virtually no trace of the desperate thur. Kven the plat-' fern man, concerned, could not (do scribe them very welf except to say that one of the men spoke with iV aoft voice and looked like a "gentle man." He was a slight chap, the man Maid, and he seemed not to bo if! .1 hurl>' ab.<nt anything. A vague description, yet something Post office inspectors, the New York police ah'd other agencies undertook to find th$; man who best fitted that general characterization. Meanwhile. Chapman, and his aids had moved OIU going to Niagara Falls. Maybe tluy had some iilca of entering Canada; But it had been so easy to get a million and a half that it seemed a waste of opportunity ^o leave ihe country without another haul. So they stopped a|!i American Express truck and took away $70,000 in trav elers* checks. That yielded a clue. Only five week? had passed. The police bent every energy upon Niagara Palls and the roads thereabouts. All of this effort did not prevent bhe Chapman trio from robbing a jeweler near the Falls, another in Banghamton and the post office in Fulton, N. Y. By this time the sta^e swarmed with detec tives looking for the three men, who now were fairly well described though-the authorities had not * yet identified them. Chapman was in no way recognized as the leader. It may be doubted that the authorities suspected he had a soft voice or po lite manners. He could have turned aside at almost any time and passed into a new life with riches enough for any man. But Chapman was of another mold, tfe came to New York and acquired a wardrobe of an exceptional kind. It included many striped trousers and braided coats. And he had a partial ity for knickers and cap. Sometimes he wore heavy glasses of the horn rim type. Apparently he was about the last man in New York who might be suspected vof the mail robbery. Chapman was convinced by his own role. He went abroad and tried to sell some of the stolen securities. Matters did not turn out well, and back he came, the suave personality of old. Any one learned in the school of detective fiction knows that a inan'i own mistakes will find him out. No* citizen of any means could do the things that Chapman did, even in so incurioUs a city as New York, with out drawing wondering glances to his affairs. He rented an apartment at 12 Gramercy Park and moved in with his%companions. Up to that time his career had embodied the elements of daring and luck. Now he entered ufc>on a new phase. He became a man of business. He found a method of selling the stolen securities and par Are You Satisfied With the Crops Yon Have Been Making? iF XoT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE REASONS FOR YOUR FAILURE? DID YOU USE THE REST FERTILIZERS OR JUST THOSE YOU COULD BUY CHEAPEST? Farmers who used Congaree Fertilizers made away above the average crop last year THIS FERTILIZER IS SCIENTIFICALLY MADE OF THE VERY BEST MA TERIALS .AND WILL MAKE A CROP IF ANYTHING WILL. ASK ANY FAR MER WHO HAS USED IT. HAD YOU NOT BETTER BUY IT THIS YEAR? WE SELL ALL GRADES OF CONGAREE FERTILIZERS AND WILL MAKE YOU CLOSE PRICES. . SEE US SPRINGS & SHANNON (INCORPORATED) ctled them out as opportunity offer ?tl. ' . The big spending day* had arrived. He and hi* companions could not re sist tho temptation to makejBroad way-stare. It was said that each time the "Count1 of (iramercy Park" went h m till' evening he had a thous and dollar note tucked in his watch pocket. And' he cam* home with only . fiQUyh to P*y the taxi man. Kvcn Broadway opened Its eyei. Who WM this > pi-mi lei'T Some habi :i pered of oil and others talk ed of a rich man's son. Chapman might have been wealthy by either ''method. But he spent so easily that the street decided he was a rich man's ;,?? ir having * little fun and didn't particularly care about his dad's iden tity. t The police thought otherwise. They have h theory that almost every bad dollar turns up in the Roaring Forties some tinn.- It did not t.ake the au thorities '.org to decide that Chap man's money was bad, especially when a few of the missing securities came to light through dark channeb. Here the science of criminal detec tion first appeared in the case. One of the express money orders had been given in payment for Chapman's rent. That money order* presently landed in the hands of Gordon T. McCarthy, a New York detective. McCarthy'? next move is something he has never talked about, so noljody else knows the story. But somehow he picked up an acquaintance with Chapman and his friends, posing as a safeblow er eager for work, and before long the trap was set and sprung. The three men an arsenal of small-arms, some $400,000 in securities and all of Chapman's fine clothes fell into the hands of the law. This loot by no means explained what had become of the missing mil lion. Under close examination in the new post' office building Chapman suddenly leaped through the window and disappeared. A half dozen men peered out to see his body hurtling below. There was nobody, cither in midair , or upon the pavement. Chap man, evidently a contortionist, had run along the wide coping extending around the building and turned a corncr before the first man reached the window. But his ingenuity went unrewarded; The law. seized him again, and this time it kept tight hold, though not any tighter than Chap man's clutch upon his million. When the trial came around it; was an open question whether any jury would believe Chapman to be the des perate character painted by the state. He* wore a modest blue suit and his horn glasses, observed a punctilious manner to court and .spectators and appeared more of an observer than a defendant. His testimony was offered in a mild, cultivated voice and he re garded the jurymen in a gentlemanly manner, as if confident of. their un derstanding. But they understood too well, Chapman received a sentence of twenty-five years. Men in the courtroom that day will not soon forget his face, blanched and set, when he heard the verdict. Soon he disappeared, apparently for the length of fair life-time. But Ger? a^d Chapman is a product of no ordi nary mold. He had not been long in Atlanta before his busy mihd evolved plans for departure. Presumably other minds outside worked to the same end, and the remaining loot had its important part. Unless the reader has seen the At lanta piison' he cannot well under stand what it means to leave such a place except by theVegular method. This penitentiary has been pronounc ed by laymen and penologists the strongest in the couptry. Chapman, at the end of a six months, reached the hospital as patient. He and an other prisoner made their bedclothes into a spidery rope, overcome their guard in the approved manner and slid down that dangling thread ? to safety. They added a new variation to the old method. Chapman,' always a clever fellow, short-circuited the prison electric system and in a five minute interval of darkness he and his companion got safely away. With the whole countryside astir, they stopped at ,a citizen's house and of fered him $1,000 to drive them by automobile. The man refused. They kidnapped him at the poirit of a pis tol, which plainly had been supplied to them by a confederate, and forced the /nan to go along with them to a trolley line. Although Chapman had showed a $1,000 note, he had no change to pay the fare and the cap tive footed thp bill for his captors. At a crossing outside Atlanta they permitted the man to alight. He in formed a policeman some distance away. Meanwhile the escaped prison ers had reached Atlanta and fled north in a taxica\>< Their driver prov ed more reasonable, for he took the $1,000 note and drove as if devils had pursued him. He came back with the tell-tale note, and , soon the police heard of it. Then Chapman and hit aid were raced to Atfcens, Ga., high I|||)| II I1" ' ?'* ' - J i. up among the red hills. There th# two were caught, Chapman dangj ou?]y wounded. ? They took him to the little iail, fei he was a badly injured man, and hii removal to the hospital followed, Tfca night narse was very pretty and face of Chapman eloquent. She toU ubuut it in these words: "I thought he would die in (lays. He would not say anything, b?t h '-> eyfS told the story. I' coutyjft help looking at him, he was ?o pitj. ful. One day he told me that he was a Yale graduate. Then hfr began t? cry, and afterward he asked me for imtliing to. read. Jle wanted the Bible, and I wondered if he was gu|. ty. Every morning he would c ry, a|| it got on my nerves, so I asked him p?ease to quit, but he said that hi* \y fc and children were mistreated be. c:.i!se he was a prisoner, "Then one day he.asked me for pes and paper. Would I mail a letter for him? Well, I did. Later some one called me on the telephone and want? ed to see me. He said that he was i? Athens to gejt Chapman out of the hospital. I wanted to tell the police, but they scared me and that is etylK know. Then he escaped." Chapman, wpunded and suffering,' got out of the room and down into the hospital basement. Two days later he was found there, a ghastly sight, more dead than alive.- But in the excitement he left the building. Since then he has been the enigma of crinji toology until the policemen pounced upon his in Muncie. During the twe intervening years Chapman has bees reported in every part of the Unittf States and many foreign countries. So great is the power of reputation that almost every major robbery of these tw6 years has been laid against him. It is definitely charged that he killed a policeman in New Britain, Conn. As he-has said himself Vthe game u up" unless he canr contrive a new escape by some superhuman effort. Chapman will be watched every fu ture hour of his life. But he has been watched before. Dr. Wade Hampton OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIAN Will be at the Commercial Hotel Wednesdays and Snndays Starting Jan. 11th Telephone 176 for appointment Hayes Bus Line CAMDEN, TO Columbia, , . Bishopville, Hartsville, Kershaw, Lancaster, Charlotte. For information Phone 181, Camden. Hotfl Dr. C. F. Sowell DENTIST (Office Over Brace's Store) CAMDEN, S. C. A. R. COLLINS Undertaker and Embalmer AMBULANCE SERVICE -I Camden, S. C. Telephone?Day 41; Nijfht 316 N. R. GOODALE Plumbing, Heating and Roofing Contractor Any work needing special ?? .. ?. ? i attention in this line call Phone 49*W, Camden, S. $ T. B. BRUCE , VfUKWUtimn Day Phone 3(0?Night Phone 114 T "4 -I? 1 CAMDEN. 9. C DR. G. e TRANTHAM DENTIST ..i First Floor, Crocker Buildiof PHONE 450 PIANO TUNING Lewis L. Moore W4T PHOWE or * CAMDEN. 5. C.