Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 229, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1911 — Arson Octopus Stretches Tentacles Afar [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Arson Octopus Stretches Tentacles Afar

/> *-y HE remarkable death; itt P* Jersey City of a “fireL bug” who was killed nJA through his own clumsi(M KT ness while setting fire to CmU fjjSfi. a building which he had Est? been hired to burn down has not often b 9 en Bur_ passed as an example of Ji| prompt retributive justice. “Hoist with his \ ' , ? own petard" is such a

worn old phrase that one hesitates to 086 It now, but Frank Walsh, burglar and Incendiary, must have felt just that way when the can of gasoline which he brought with him to ignite the office of the Long Dock Milling company suddenly exploded and Wrapped him in deadly flames. His agonized yells brought help sufficient to save the building but not to save his life. He had been hired for $lO to do the job in order to cover up fraudulent entries in the cashier’s hooks, but he dropped his cigarette in the gaspline can and thus “dumped the fat in the Are” with a vengeance. But however dramatic the fate of clumsy Walsh and the consequent exposure of his accomplices may be by themselves, they have a deeper significance when viewed in the light of the recent discovery that there exists a country-wide arson trust, with headquarters- in Chicago 'and representatives in nearly all the large cities, the members of which make> business of setting fire, to buildings skillfully, in order to enable the owners to collect large sums of insurance. Murder as a fine art. the scientific management of arson, together with the proper strategy and conduct of private’ warfare, are subjects perhaps' oettdr hfiaerstood in Chicago than anywhere else in the world. Lest any of her great sister cities should feel envious of Chicago, lqt it be admitted that Berlin and Vienisa also have their fire gangs, Paris exhibits a pretty taste in Apaches, New York fosters Paul Kelly associations, Madrid has ita garroters and Canton its highbinders. -Yet the following tale shows thgt the Chicago savans have replied business principles to crime in a manner far excelling the coarse efforts of their rivals: On the fourth floor of No. 233 South Market street, in the Windy City, was situated the goodly clothing establishment of L. Dreyfus k Co., wholesalers. It was operated by the brothers Leopold and Laxard Dreyfus, who had apparently an extensive city trade. The brothers were extremely liberal buyers of clothing stocks, and the store was visited by swarms of customers. "had it that more goods were carted in than could ever be disposed of, and that many of the customers, so called, carried away fictitious bills of sale. In the spring of this year a set of private investigators began to pry into the affairs of Dreyfus k Co. Inquiry at Dun’s and Bradstreet’s brought out the fact that the firm owed its creditors $35,000. An expert who visited the store in the guise of a retailer „ judged that goods valued at $20,000 lay on its shelves and counters. The ■ Insurance carried totaled $28,000, divided among eleven companies, including the United States Fire, of New Yprk. As the result of further snoop- . lng around among the clothing trade it was also discovered that Dreyfus 4k Co. were slow pay, and the menu-

facturers who sold them goods were pressing for settlement. This confidential information was carried by secret agents to a certain Slav saloonkeeper in the poorer quarters of the town. A glass or two of slivowitz was drunk, there was much conferring and nodding together of heads in the back room of the bar, and finally the saloonkeeper said: I “Send Jacob to see Leopold Dreyfus!” V, Jacob was the praenomen of this go-between, who was believed by his family and friends' to be a solicitor of fire' insurance. And, who could doubt the appearance borne out by the policies and stacks of papers that he carried, his familiarity with rates and his glib line of talk that indicated long experience in the business? It was thus, that he approached the elder Dreyfus, remarking on the large stock of goods and saying, “Let me write you an additional policy of $10,000." Tm carrying every cent the companies will allow me to,” replied the merchant “But Insurance is good. In these times”—the visitor batted his left eye Just a trifle—“you can never tell what will happen —a fire, for Instance, with total loss. In that case the $28,000 you carry now would be too little——” “Look here!” said the merchant suddenly. “I don’t believe you are an insurance man at all. What do you want?” “Very well, Mr. Dreyfus, very well. Let’s get down to business. If your place should burn you would get the $28,000, eh? You owe more than that it is true, but you needn’t go into bankruptcy. When you have collected the $28,000 all you need to do is to make a compromise with your creditors and you can retain the larger part of the money for yourself. Yes, a fire would be quite timely just now, and you know as well as I do that in* surance companies are in the business to losses ” ; » v * “What! You come here and tell me to set my place on fire?” answered the clothing dealer. “Not a bit of it,” said Jacob. “It isn’t done that” way. You can go out of town while the job is being pulled off. Mr. Dreyfus,” and he looked the merchant squarely in the eye, *T will take all the responsibility and do the Job for $5,000.” Jacob saved himself from being put out of the office by a hasty exit. He immediately reported tack of progress to the saloonkeeper. The latter had a mall order department as a branch of his secret business. Among the confidential letters mailed to merchants by the chief of the arson industry went several to the head of the" Dreyfus firm; and^meanwhile the difficulties of that establishment were increasing. Creditors threatened suits and unsatisfied judgments meant bankruptcy. The arson crowd kept tabs on every move, whether of the brothers or of their angry creditors. Finally, at the correct moment, Jacob called Leopold. Dreyfus on the telephone and made an appointment to renew the dicker. He met the merchant in his office and made the following bargain offer: “I’ll burn the whole place—‘every suit of clothing, every article in it—no salvage—for $2,000. You must pay me S3OO down and contract to pay the balance of $1,700 as soon as the in surance money is collected. Those are

positively our lowest terms. Take ’em or leave ’em.” “How about the risk?" . “There will be no risk. To avert suspicion you must take me in as an employe.-r, You yourself can.be as far away from Chicago as you like!** With that Jacob produced his arson contract, ah extraordinary dooumeht, which assigned to the saloonkeeper $1,700 of the total insurance on the Dreyfus place. Hie merchant fell in with the plan. He signed the agreement to pay the saloonkeeper in the event of a fire, and handed Jacob the S3OO earnest money. The ingenious conspirator was put on the employes’ roll and Intrusted with the dbor key to lock up the store at night and open it In the morning. On the Saturday half-holiday of June 3 Jacobs admitted himself to the store after hours and opened, six fivegallon cans of gasoline which had been sent there concealed ocent-looking shipping cases'used by the firm. Starting at one end of the shop, he poured the oil in a stream that meandered the length of the floor, with the partially emptied cans distributed at strategic points among file piles of stock. At right-angles to the stream he stretched a half-hons time fuse,- lighted with a match tlje end farthest from the oil, and, locking the door behind, quietly went on his ■way. , v ; In all these operations Jacob had applied with his best skill the principles of scientific management adopted by the arson trust. The telltale excelsior shavings and give-away kerosene soaked paper have long since been'discarded by the Chicago savants In favor of the quick, sharp, successive explosions of gasoline, which destroy the exploding cans and the stock of merchandise almost simultaneously. Not only is the evidence burned up, but the firemen and salvage corps have no chance to save any of the stock erf goods, which salvage woul<f reduce the amount of the Insurance paid. ■ But on this occasion something or other went amiss. The fire fl&hters, arriving quickly, scented the odor of gasoline. After the fire was put out and an investigation made, ah unexploded can of gasoline was found back in a corner. Michael F. Sullivan, the fire attorney' of the city, sent for. the brothers Dreyfus. Leopold had spent the day of the fire at Gray's Lake, a report fifty miles distant, but Lazard had worked in the store that same Saturday morning. After more than six hours of sharp examination by the fire attorney and the police Leopold Dreyfus broke down and confessed that he hired Jacob and the saloonkeeper to destroy the store. He to)d the story of it substantially as given above. He implicated many others in a wide network of conspiracy that startled even the detectives by the astounding revelation of a systematic, scientific arson trust. _ Through the further confessions of the elder Dreyfus it was hoped to expose the whole crooked league of dis'honest merchants and paid setters ol fire, a league, it is said, that has caused at least a fifth (morp than 700) of all the Chicago fires in the last decade, that has extended its operations from New York to Portland, Ore., and that has reaped a yearly profit of $750,000 for the saloonkeeper who is its head. * . . f Leopold Dreyfus, however, killed himself next morning'in his Michigan avenue home, whither a police detective had taken him at his own request to see his wife and children before going to the police court. The discovery of his arson and the tangle of his financial affairs bad driven him practically insane.-. The saloonkeeper and Jacob vanished.