CHAPTER XIII
SCHOOLS OF CRIME
Crime, like many of the diseases that afflict the human body, is both infectious and contagious, and criminal principles can be taught to old and young as easy as the alphabet or any of the profoundest sciences.
As the larger part of our population dwell in cities and these cities are recruited from the immigrants that come to our shores, it is reasonable to believe that many of them, if not criminals already, come with criminal instincts, so that the rising generation who are the offspring of crooks are sure to be criminal.
According to the present statistics, the United States leads the world in criminality. Hitherto, Italy and Russia were the leaders, but now the United States surpasses all others.
It seems that for every million of inhabitants the United States furnished 115 known relapsed criminals, Italy 105, Russia 90, England 27, France 19, Germany 18. Not only do we make criminals ourselves, but we import them through our defective immigration laws. Congress could partly remedy this evil against a free people by closing our immigration doors for the next twenty years. But our political party leaders, who rule the people, are afraid to do this, hence our rapid growth in crime, partly through immigration.
As a matter of fact, when crooks get together, no matter what their sex or age may be, they are sure to brag of their criminal accomplishments, and escapades. It is in such an atmosphere that crime is taught, and especially among the young. To a beginner in crime who hears them, all such utterances are exceedingly interesting, and much of it is sure to make a deep and lasting impression for evil. As a rule, many criminals are exceedingly garrulous and talk much, and when they tell a rosy tale of how to get money or valuables without working for them, the whole thing seems captivating. Frequently such a story carries a new beginner in crime off his feet. It is in this manner that our jails, reformatories and houses of refuge become schools of crime.
It is the general opinion of the leaders of bench and bar that crime is carefully and systematically planned and taught in our prisons. The fact is that more than fifty per cent. of all our first offenders return to jail a second time, showing clearly that rather than being weaned from such a life by the imprisonment, many of them are encouraged to continue it.
When I have asked boys and young men why they returned to crime a second time, they informed me that while inmates of different prisons and reform schools, they learned scientifically how to become pickpockets, thieves, second-story men, and burglars. That is, they were taught it.
In some of the prisons which I have visited at different times, such as Sing Sing, Auburn, and Elmira, the inmates have not the same opportunity of speaking to each other, as the law is strictly enforced to prevent such communications.
But in the City and District Prisons of Greater New York, Blackwell’s Island Penitenetiary, the House of Refuge, the reformatories and county jails without number, where old and young crooks are huddled together, they are permitted to communicate their ideas as they please. My opinion is that all such places are simply schools of crime.
My cure for such a condition of affairs is entire isolation, segregation and classification, and the inculcation of moral and religious teaching.
The old adage, that prevention is better than cure, is as true to-day as ever. And yet our law-making bodies and prison authorities seem to forget all about it in this mad age. Recent statistics show that crime among young people is alarmingly on the increase, and one of the main reasons for it is what may be termed “criminal contamination.” But little or nothing is done to prevent it.
Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist mentions the case of a crafty old Jew, named Fagan, who was known to the London police as a “fence,” or receiver of stolen property. Fagan carried on a business much like that of a pawnbroker, in advancing money on all the “stuff” or stolen goods that was brought to him. He had a number of confederates of both sexes in his employment. They were adepts at the business, and could destroy the identity of all the stolen property which he purchased daily from his thievish customers.
Fagan always kept on hand a dozen of boys, whom he called apprentices. These with the aid of dummy figures, dressed in male and female attire, he carefully taught the art of pocket-picking. As soon as they had learned the business, they were sent out in pairs into the thoroughfares of London, where they “worked” rich men and women for all they were worth, and often brought back large quantities of plunder. Fagan was finally captured “with the goods,” and hanged for his crime. This is the origin of what is known in criminal parlance as “Faganism.”
Within twenty-five years “Faganism” has become a profitable business in the New World. This is especially true of New York, where strong evidence of “Faganism” is presented in our criminal courts from time to time.
The work is done by a gang of greedy, diabolical wretches who teach boys and girls to pick pockets and when they become experts send them forth to steal in the street, street cars and large stores. The work is so carefully and systematically done by our East Side “Fagans” that they are able to cover their tracks so as to elude detection. It is a shocking state of affairs to be told by the District Attorney’s detectives as well as many settlement workers who live among these people, that many of the police are in league with the “Fagans” and share their plunder.
Detective Reardon has made a study of “Faganism” on the East Side the past few years and has been able to “run down” scores of criminals of this grade. In about two months Mr. Reardon has been able to make 178 arrests for pocket-picking, besides breaking up a score of “Fagan Schools” where boys and girls from ten to seventeen years of age were taught how to steal. Several well known thieves named Meyer Lewis, Cockeye Meyer, Joseph Monkey and Fitch who were proved to be “Fagans” were sent to jail and their business broken up.
As soon as a “Fagan” is arrested he at once offers the police a big bribe not to expose him and in some cases it is accepted with the result that Fagan still remains in business and divides the spoils with the police. This was the experience of Miss Wold and Detective Reardon who made a thorough investigation of East Side conditions several months ago.
As a rule our modern “Fagans” are very foxy. The boys and girls sent uptown to the Fifth Avenue stores and thoroughfares are well dressed while those down town are dressed like school children and frequently carry a bunch of books in their arms. The New York police will have to change their tactics entirely else they will never “run down” these criminals.
In a great city like New York we must expect such criminal combinations to defeat the ends of justice by teaching children to steal and then receive the plunder, but when such persons are caught they should get the extreme limit of the law and be shown little or no mercy. They are the worst kind of degenerates.
Recently four Central Office detectives found a “Fagan” headquarters on East Third Street in this city, run by a notorious “fence” named “Gaunt” whom they arrested with four others. The revelations came through a Tombs prisoner named Herman Doritz who made a sworn statement to the Court that he, with many others, was taught the art of thieving in Teddy Gaunt’s School of Crime. There were forty pupils in the school and after their graduation these lads were scattered over the city in large stores, where they stole thousands of dollars worth of goods besides pocket books and jewelry. As soon as the “fence” received the stolen property he took pains at once to destroy its identity. Then he sent men out to sell it at half its real value. In this way the boys said he made big money at the business.
Now, whenever the police arrest a juvenile criminal they put him through the “third degree” to see whether or not he was taught in a School of Crime. This is proper. But the cause of much of this must be laid to our high living, fevered home life, grasping after the dollar and the lack of moral training in our homes and schools.
I have no hesitation in saying that the Boys’ Prison of the Tombs is a prolific School of Crime!
What would I do about these things? Well, when love had failed I would treat the teachers and scholars of our Schools of Crime to a dose of corporal punishment. But some one says this is degrading. So it is. But what is more degrading, blighting and damning than crime! Give them their choice.