Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1877 — A BANK ROBBERY. [ARTICLE]

A BANK ROBBERY.

I» the splendid City of Paris there stood » very fantastic lump of architecture, made up of carved gables and quaint projections—an antique building of gie time of Francis §., which was useasuccessively as a caaerne.a barracks and a restaurant. It was then called the “Three Geese,” and bore the triple efljgy of that dull bird on a gilt sign which swung in front of tiro door for many and many a year. Then tilings changed, and this carica ture of a house was converted into a kind of saving vault, and superintended by a company who induced monetary deposits of the poor people for their benefit. The old sign was obliterated, the walls were freshened, and the spirit ol modern enterprise took possession of the place. It became known as the “Security Society for the Poor.” The old restaurant-room became transformed into a veritable office; desks and book-cases and fire-proof safes supplanted the old tables and cupboards. fn the upper story a double wall of •tone was built, and a door fastened thereto and a padlock of irresistible steel attached, while over the impregnable place kept watch a fierce mastiff and burly Frenchman, armtd with a pistol and cudgel, long, keen knife and heavy, old-fashioned •word. A vast treasure was there, not only in ooin, but in jewelry, rings, crosses, etc. , _ , One Mons. Leduc was Cashier, President and General Manager in this estabiialterant There was no one else who took charge of the superintendence of the place except M. Leduc, who had uuder him’ four clerks, who occupied very showy desks in the room below. This room was very splendidly decorated, frescoed and gilded, and hung with paintings, and the clerks partook somewhat of the general air of finery which characterized the rest Of the room. The establishment was evidently a paying affair, to judge from its appointments. It will be necessary to observe that these four clerks had nothing whatever to do with the circumstance which follows. They were good-natured dandies and good accountants; that is as much as we ought to say respecting them. They were too nonchalant, too obese and thin-blooded to be dishonest. 80 the reader will please let no unwholesome suspicions rest on the four stupid scriveners. One morning Mons. Leduc was observed to have come into the bank very moodily inclined, taciturn, grave; to have kept aloof from his cferiis, shut himself up in his private oflice, and smoke more than usual. At ten o’clock, in the very midst ot business, entered four splendid gentlemen, who inquired of the clerks for the Cashier, and were shown into his office. Nothing unusual was observed, except that Mons. Leduc took his four friends on a tour cf inspection up stairs, and that they came back again highly fil eased, went into the office, smoked and est. The Cashier then was seen to busy himself very earnestly at his accounts, and left at about the hour of four o’clock in the afternoon, his usual hour of departure. The stupid clerks, according to their testimony taken afterward, informed tire Comaiissaire that they had not seen anything unusual; had not taken notice of any inconsistency in the routine of the bank. However, after that day, it was discovered that all the bullion and paper, amounting to nearly $500,000 of American currency, hau been extracted from the vault* The crosses, rings and spoons were not interfered with. Maurice, the armed watchman of the vault, testified subsequently that M. Leduc came up on the day mentioned with four gentlemen, and he heard Leduc say to them: “We will take a look at the vaults here; they are very complete.” “Then,” says Maurice, “he opened the lock with his key, went in with his friends, stayed seme time there, emerged and looted the door, saying to the watchman as he did so: ’Be very careful; the daytime is worse than the night.’ ” Then thev went down stairs. The next day after Leduc had taken his friends up stairs, it is said, he -came into the bank, walked into his -office, and, calling one of the firm to him, expressing surprise at the state of liis papers and books, said: “Who has been here?" “ No one beside yourself, sir!” said the clerk, laughing. Leduc, "then looking somewhat perplexed, busied himself wiih some accounts, and during the business of the bank walked up-stairs with the book of the vault account in his hand. In a moment he came rushing into the office with true French frenzy, exclaiming, “My God, we are robbed! we are robbed!” The stupid clerks seemed endowed with sudden life, for they opened their eyes and stared and scratched their heads and shrugged their shoulders. Meanwhile Leduc stood wild with excitement in the midst of a growing crowd of depositors and outsiders, who were becoming more and more clamorous every moment. “ Diable!” shouted one. “ impossible!” Then Leduc sank down on the floor overcome. Detectives and policemen came instantly to the spot. “ How did it happen?” everybody cried. Leduc became mad with rage and consternation. “Diable! lam betrayed by my clerks here, and Maurice, too”’ “My God, I am lost! everything is lost!” “ Tut!” said Maurice, calmly. “ I was obedient to you in everything, and watched the safe more carefully after your advice yesterday. I saw no one except you and your friends.” “ What!” exclaimed Leduc. starting, the cold sweat bieaking out on his brow. -* ‘What! Yesterday! "ion and your four friends! Do you forget! Yesterday!” shouted Leduc. “ Villain, you know well enough I was away from town yesterday. Rogue, you are deceiving me." Then turning to a clerk, he exclaimed: “I must be going insane.. Diable, you are all in the conspiracy against me. Send the Directors here. Send me the Commiasaire and the sergeants and detectives. We shall see how it is! we shall see! we shall see!” and he shook with excessive agitation and wept. Hie following facts were elicited in an examination before the criminal: First. Mr. Leduc, on his oath, declared that on the day mentioned he was called upon at his house by a gentleman, who desired him, as officer of the bank, to accompany him to Montmartre to look at a signature of a paper, which, the stranger alleged, was a forgery, and that he, the stranger, said that he was a private detective, and would consider it A great favor if he, Leduc, would accompany him. That they went to Montmartre for the individual and certified the signature, which they found to be an absolute forgery. After this, Leduc and the detective drank a bottle of wine at a case, and chatted upon familiar subjects. Leduc was surprised to find that on his return to his lodgings he had been away nearly five hours. The wine had made him sleepy; did not think it was necessary to go (town to the bank that day; was not in the habit of being absent from business;

never to hi* knowledge had stayed away before; next day went to bank; saw a disturbance in liis paper* in his office; suspected something; took the vault account book and went up-stairs; met Maurice, who said “gooa morning, Monsieur;” went into the vault and discovered to his horror that it bad been robbed; struck at Maurice in his frenzy and exclaimed: “You wretch! Caramba! We are robbed!” Maurice, speechless with fear and astoaisiiinent. looked into the vault. He was astounded. It had, indeed, been robbed. What was the solution of the affair? The four clerks, the many depositors, and Maurice, the watchman, all insisted that thev saw Leduc on the day of the affair. Their testimony was very subtile and complete. They asserted that a very stylish young woman was in the habit of visiting Leduc at his office, that she came there on the day mentioned, before banking hours, inquired for Leduc, and was told that he had not yet appeared. Then she left There was something mysterious in her manner and her appearance at that time had something to ao with the denouement. The clerks, in their testimony, descrilied Leduc ’3 appearance that morning minutely. They all alleged that he wore his usual spectacles with the steel rim, came in with his Malacca cane, took off hi* rather seedy hat and pulled off his yellow kid gloves. It was he. of course, without doubt. They were certain it was he. Leduc was mad to attempt to deny such a thing. How could he deny it? And his face and figure. Perfectly well they described him, with bis long, curved nose, his grizzled black whiskers and moustache, sallow complexion, slight halt in his walk, his shoulders, his long hands. Only all agree that on this day he was not like himself intone particular. He was moody and particular, smoked very much, nodded to the clerks when he came in, and to some of the depositors who spoke to him, hut was not the merry, chatting Leduc he was wont to be. He seemed depressed unusually. He seemed to have lost all his eflervescense and gaity of spirits. None of the witnesses had even seen the four strangers before, the four friends who came in and inquired for Leduc, accompanied him up stairs. They did not suspect anything in Leduc going up with them nor did Maurice. In the investigation, the Directors of the bank all suspected Leduc, and he was imprisoned to await trial. Some said he was insane—others that he was a rogue. The affair remained a mystery for a long time, but by same mischance, some miscalculation, a clew to the fearful enigma was at length found. • It seems that in Lyons, a man was detected who attempted to pass one of the registered notes which had been stolen; he immediately gave a confession of the manner of the operations. He pointed out a man named St. Jean Fiscot as the inventor and original genius of many wonderful robberies. This man was indeed a most skillful plotter, and possessed marvelous capacity. He had been the chief designer of a most successful robbery, which had astounded all France. He was a learned man, a linguist and a physician, and his chief business was the generalship of daring robberies. His confession given before the Tribunal contains the following ingenious devices respecting the robbery of the Security Society : “My idea of plot is simplicity and directness. * I saw that Leduc was the chief man and had all to do in the bank. I found out he was the only man there who had the vault key. He seldom left it in the office, and entrusted it to no one. Maurice, the watchman, had no key to the vault. My first motive was therefore to get the key, my second, to get some one to personate Leduc for a short time. My third to get rid of the real Leduc for a while. For obtaining the key, I employed a young girl, a cocotte I will call Estelle, for the personation, Mr. what’s his name the actor, and for the detaining of Leduc himself, a scamp in mv pay who personated a detective. I had the plot in conception nearly a year. Estelle, visiting frequently the office of the cashier, won the admiration of Leduc, and she was auick enough to discover where lie kept le key of the vault. However, discretion must be used. Should she make way with the key before the exact time of our detainer and the day of our working, he would discover his loss and we should be done for. So the very evening before the day he left the office at four. As was his custom, she detained him some two hours later, and procured the key by an artifice. He was not at all suspicious of the loss.

Had he discovered his loss then she would have been wily enough to throw him off his guard. After he left, it was known by all of us concerned that be had a dinner to partake of at a friend’s, and that, we thought, would disseminate all liis ideas of the key, and should he miss it, it would be too late for him to go back for it. So, he would naturally say: “ Well, I left it on the table. There's no harm anyway. Maurice is there, and 1 have once or twice forgotten it and left it in the table drawer!” All this, Estelle discovered. It appeared afterward that Leduc had duplicate keys in his possession, and that he did not miss the stolen one at all. The key being ours it was then agreed that the actor I had employed should obtain it in the evening before the day in which he was to personate the Cashier. For three months prior too perating, lie was, at my desire, busily engaged in studying the* character and expression of Leduc. He was iust his height and cast of figure. My actor was a capital mimic and he understood Ledue’s manner completely. He called in every day to see the Cashier on some ieigned business snd made careful notes of the Cashier’s face ana expression and action; also his attire, the way he arranged his hair, the peculiar hat he wore, and the way he carried it on his head. All these details were carefully studied by my man. So on the day named everything was in readiness. My detective stopped at Leduc’s house at ten o’clock —determining to detain him by all means —led him off to Martmartre and kept him five hours in wine bibbing and gossip. Had he refused to go, mj detective would have kept him engaged in some other way.” In the meantime, Leduc the false enteiea the bank, and so weli personified the real man, that he was easily, able to enter the vault, as we have seen, with his four friends—without suspicion. •»••• The great marvel ot the whole affair was how they contrived to carry away heavy bullion, undetected. This they accomplished, however, by being provided with capacious canvas pockets—and each one of the knaves had underneath the hack of his coat a iargebag—sufficient to contain a great quantity of coin, and which was so arranged as not to be detected. Thus was the thing consummated. All the parties implicated in the confession were found guilty and imprisoned. The chief villain, the genius of the affair, was, however* respited by the Gov-

eminent on condition of reimbursing the l>ank with half of the stolen property. Ho afterwards went to the galleys for another robbery of the same sort, and is no doubt there still, weaving new plots. —Charles Noel, in Philadelphia Daily Herald.