Science a Preservative from Crime
 
Science seems to be setting itself dead against crime and criminals. Railways gave a death-blow to the romantic railing of the highway robber. How is a ruffian to cry "stop!" to an express train "your money or your life'' to a man shooting past him in the wake of a chariot of fire? Your electric telegraph, again, has rendered it next to impossible for the Jack Sheppards and Dick Turpins of the time to escape pursuit, even after they may have secured their booty. What chance has "Black Bess," when pursuit follows her on the wings of the lightning? In vain the thief, the forger, or the shedder of blood, leaps into the fleetest train, while the " hue and cry" goes after him, like Milton's angel, on a ray of light, to meet him face to face at every point of his flight and run him down at last into the prison cell. The latest application of the powers which science lends to society for its better protection Is, the use of the daguerreotype. Many are the uses of a record of crime, and there are obvious advantages in a Judge knowing whether the culprit before him is an old or a new offender against the laws. But every one familiar with courts of justice knows how often it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain this essential circumstance. Of course, every prisoner according to his own story is in court for "the first time." He has a new name, a different dress, perhaps an unaccustomed brogue or accent. Crime Is infinitely Protean. The sharpest officers of police, the most experienced turnkeys, are sometimes at fault: so that, while first offenders are now and then sentenced as hardened criminals, fellows who have run through the whole gamut of crime escape on the strength of their previous character! The Minister of Justice in Switzerland, with a view to remedying this difficulty and injustice, has ordered the several heads of police and prison departments in that country to take sun portraits of mendicants and vagabonds. This is the beginning of a new system certainly. Formerly it was the custom to brand criminals with hot irons and this is still the custom in the East so that all men might know them. But our age is wiser and more humane. Branding has quite gone out of fashion, at least in Western Europe, and now science is about to restore to society that safeguard against lawless spirits which some years ago society herself voluntarily threw away in the interest of the humanities.

3582. Chairman.] Are you aware of the difficulty which very often arises in law courts in identifying a previously convicted prisoner?
 
I am.
 
3583. Have you ever considered, or have you ever adopted, any scheme by which previously convicted prisoners may be more completely identified ?
 
I introduced some years ago (indeed I was the first who introduced them) the daguerreotype portraits of the prisoners, and from having succeeded in one or two cases, we introduced it more freely; we now take a large number of portraits, and I think it would be very difficult for a man to escape detection in our gaol. I take a stereoscopic picture, instead of a plain portrait, and I request the parties to whom I send it to put it into the stereoscope; they have a better opportunity of seeing the man before them standing out in relief.
 
3584. Do you take a portrait of every prisoner who is committed to your gaol?
 
We do not. I do it myself, and I have no time to take so many. We merely take portraits of those whom we do not know railway thieves, and strangers to the city, who are taken up for picking pockets at the railway stations and in railway carriages.
 
3585. Have you found the practical advantages of that system?
 
Yes, I have found out a great many by that means. On one occasion I recollect an officer of mine being offered a large sum of money by the wife of a prisoner to release him. He was offered 100l. This was reported to me; and I thought that as the man had only three months more to serve, he certainly must be wanting somewhere else. I took his portrait directly, and sent it round to perhaps 40 or 50 different gaols, and he was recognised at last at Dover. I had an order from the Secretary of State to remove him, instead of discharging him. I removed him on a Friday, and on the following Friday he was sentenced to 15 years' transportation for highway robbery.
 
3586. Have you had other instances of the same sort?
 
Yes, many.
 
3587. Did the judge who presided at the trial make any comment upon that?
 
I do not know. I was not there at the time; but it was entirely through the portrait that he was recognised.
 
3588. Are you of opinion that if the system were more extensively carried out, of taking photographic portraits of all the different prisoners in the different prisons, and if communication took place between the governors of the different gaols, that would lead to the identification of a vast number of previously convicted prisoners ?
 
Yes; and, if it was well carried out, I think it would be almost impossible for a man to escape.
 
3589. Would there be any practical difficulty in carrying it out?
 
None whatever.
 
3590. Will you put in evidence a return of the form which you use in forwarding the photograph of a prisoner?
 
Yes. This was the form (producing the same) which I introduced at the time when I commenced the system of taking photographs of the prisoners. I was the first who introduced it, and I have got it introduced into perhaps 20 or 25 gaols, and they all adopt this plan. A portrait is the best part of a man's description; and if it is well taken, and particularly one this size, it is almost impossible to mistake the features of the man.
 
3591. Earl of Dudley.] You say lhat there is no difficulty about taking the photographs of the men. I presume you mean that, practically, they have not refused to let them be taken?
 
They have not. But I have taken them walking, unknown to them.
 
3592. A prisoner, by closing his eyes and distorting his features, and moving during the seconds of time that the portrait is being taken, would destroy the likeness, would he not?
 
I have never met with but one who did that, and I took that man's portrait when he was walking. In order to try the experiment, I took out one of my domestic servants into the garden, who was placed at a certain point of the path where it was not possible to see the camera, and at a long distance. I found after some time that I succeeded very well; and I told the officer to come to me with the man; the moment he came there I pulled out the slide, and succeeded in a second; it was quite good enough to catch the man by.
 
3593. Supposing there is any opposition to your doing it, you have the means of carrying it out?
 
Yes. I could take a man through a small aperture; I do not think there would be very much difficulty in getting him to sit. You may now and then meet with a man like the one I have referred to, but you might catch an opportunity, or you might build a place for the purpose.
 
3594. Chairman.] Do the prisoners themselves dread being photographed?
 
They have frequently said to me, " I know what you are at; I have been in gaol; I will tell you all about it"; and I have told them that they need not tell me, as it might be used against them; and upon that I have taken the portrait.
 
3595. Is not the cost of the apparatus very trifling?
 
It is a very trifling sum; but it would be quite as well to have a good one.

PREFACE.
 
As crimes against property are of so frequent occurrence in the cities and towns of this country, it was suggested to my mind that the publication of a book describing thieves and their various ways of operating would be a great preventive against further depredations. Aware of the fact that there is nothing that professional criminals fear so much as identification and exposure, it is my belief that if men and women who make a practice of preying upon society were known to others besides detectives and frequenters of the courts, a check, if not a complete stop, would be put to their exploits. While the photographs of burglars, forgers, sneak thieves, and robbers of lesser degree are kept in police albums, many offenders are still able to operate successfully. But with their likenesses within reach of all, their vocation would soon become risky and unprofitable.
 
Experience has shown me, during the twenty-three years of my connection with the Police Department of the City of New York, and especially the period in which I have been in command of the Detective Bureau, that bankers, brokers, commercial and business men, and the public, were strangely ignorant concerning the many and ingenious methods resorted to by rogues in quest of plunder.
 
With the view of thwarting thieves, I have, therefore, taken this means of circulating their pictures, together with accurate descriptions of them, and interesting information regarding their crimes and methods, gathered from the most reliable sources. Many mysterious thefts are truthfully explained, and the names of the persons credited with committing them are revealed; but as information merely, without corroborative proof, is not evidence, it would be valueless in a legal prosecution. In the following pages will be found a vast collection of facts illustrative of the doings of celebrated robbers, and pains have been taken to secure, regardless of expense, excellent reproductions of their photographs, so that the law-breakers can be recognized at a glance. By consulting this book prosecuting officers and other officials will be able to save much time and expense in the identification of criminals who may fall into their hands. In the compilation of this work, information obtained from newspapers and police officials of other cities was of great assistance to me, but all the matter and data were verified before being used.
 
Hoping that this volume will serve as a medium in the prevention and detection of crime, I remain, respectfully,
 
THOMAS BYRNES.
 
New York, September, 1886.

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