Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1911 — Death Comes to ‘Dress Suit’ Burglar [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Death Comes to ‘Dress Suit’ Burglar

PASSAIC, N. J.—Death has ended the career of Thomas Wandlass, the “white front” burglar, who was shot and fatally wounded while, breaking into the home of Thomas Tapley, a contractor in this city. Wandless preferred the underworld to a life of luxury In the home of a fond and wealthy mother. He developed from a sort of “angel child” to a desperate criminal. Paralysis of his vocal organs shortly after his capture kept the police from obtaining any corrected account of his amazing career. Jean Mitchell, aged seventeen years, who called herself his “chicken stall” and assisted him in 22 burglaries, has pleaded guilty and will receive sentence. She declares she is eager to get back to her hbme in the New England states as she has had enough of travel and nice dresses, the bait offered by Wandlass when she consented to become his accomplice. The police call Wandlass a “supper worker” and a “dress suit burglar.” He called himself a “white front” burglar and was fascinated by the

danger of robbing a house while there were many persons about.-- 1 Often he would stop to listen to the dinner clatter before making his escape. Generally he selected a dark or dimly lighted parlor, jimmied the window and climbed in. During the months that the girl worked with him he relied . upon her to “Bpill a faint” as she called It, and draw the crowd while he made his escape. Wandlass was about thirty years old. His mother, Mrs. Augustus F. Berner, is a woman of wealth and refinement In Brooklyn, N. Y. Her first husband, Wandlass, was a hotel proprietor and well to do. He left a comfortable fortune, and when he died his son, Tom, was a model youngster and a great church worker. He was precocious, high strung and had a vivid imagination. Just when he became transformed into a “bad man” no one seems to know, but he ran away from boarding school at seventeen and the next his mother heard of him was that he was a member of a gang of thieves. He was never what might be called a Raffles, except tbfit he dressed well and committed most of his mirglaries while clad in evening clothes. He was known to the police at Kid Howard and Thomas Hanley and had served time in several penal institutions in the state of New York.