TRAILING A BROOKLYN SNEAK THIEF (1885)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** (From The Brooklyn Daily Union of Thursday, 25 June 1885.) “Two Jimmies and a Lot of Skeleton Keys and Lock Picks in His Possession – After Surveying the Residence of the Superintendent of Police He Goes Elsewhere and is Caught at Work. ” A few days ago a sneak thief, who got into a house in Hart street, was seen by a woman living on the opposite side of the street when he was leaving. She furnished Captain McLaughlin with a description of the man, which was subsequently given to Detectives Kelly and Druhan, of the Gates avenue station. Yesterday afternoon Kelly and Druhan left the station together and on looking up the street, not 200 feet away, saw a man who answered the description in every particular. The man was near Marcy avenue, and the detectives got out of the way until he passed them, and then followed in his footsteps. He went up Madison street, then to Tompkins avenue, Putnam avenue and finally to Bedford. The detectives by jumping on cars and running in and out of stores had become separated, but Kelly kept the man in sight, and did not let him get far away from him. The man went up Bedford avenue, out of the Ninth and […]
THE BOY WHO COULDN’T MEND (1914)
Some criminals just cannot reform. Young Raymond “Angel Face” Beck was a good example. 100 years ago today, the 14-year-old Brooklyn boy was pawning stolen silverware on Atlantic Avenue when the police happened into the pawn shop. NO JUVENILE ASYLUM BUILT COULD HOLD THE “ROBBER CHIEF” Known mostly for his escapes from “prison,” at the time, Raymond Beck, “son of well-to-do parents of 7 Cypress Avenue,” and a self-described “Robber Chief,” had broken out of the Dobbs Ferry Juvenile Asylum a total of four times by 1914. Each time young Beck, “blue-eyed, fair-haired and innocent-looking,” made a B-line directly for Brooklyn and the houses of new victims. Beck would make a career of illegal activity and escaping asylums and reform schools throughout his life. The newspapers are replete with his stories of burglaries and escapes at least through the mid-1920s, when he would finally disappear from the news. But, for the majority of this period, whenever the name Raymond Beck was mentioned in the papers, Brooklynites locked their doors and hid their valuables, as there was a good chance they’d end up in his possession. “ANGEL FACE” RETURNS TO BROOKYLN After the “boy burglar” had most recently been paroled in 1914, he ended up in Brooklyn once again – this time in the parlor of Edward A. Peterson of 567 Eighth Street in Park Slope. Now, Peterson did not know “Angel Face,” but that was not only because the two had never been introduced. Beck simply arrived at Peterson’s home […]
