#1929 auburn prison riots

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"FLEEING CONVICTS IN RAID," New York Daily News. August 3, 1929. Page 2 & 4. ---- LOOT BEDFORD PAYROLL AND FLEE IN AUTO ---- MINISTER rumblings of new deadly prison insurrections together with the echo of the Auburn battle in a holdup staged by four of the escaped convicts, kept the nationwide penitentiary revolution still aflame yesterday.

Arthur Barry, master mind of the Auburn reign of terror, and three who escaped with him, yesterday struck swiftly and escaped at Bedford, N. Y.

Flee With $1,521 Loot. They rolled up to the offices of the Adam Faber Construction company at Bedford, covered Pay master R. R. T. Erickson with gus and fled in an automobile with his wrist watch and $1,521.

Erickson later identified pictures of the fugitive Auburn convicts those of the gunmen who robbed him.

Upset by the reign of flame and bloodshed in prisons throughout the country, seven Sing Sing guards have resigned their posts, it was revealed. All were numbered among the twenty-five new guards Warden Lewis E. Lawes hired on July L

Sing Hing on Alert. Although tension among the prisoners at Sing Sing on the verge of rebellion Thursday morning-relaxed yesterday, the extra precautions taken to guard against revolt were not abandoned by officials.

The air was charged with apprehension at Raymond st. jail Brooklyn, last night, however Warden Harry Honeck, after a special round of inspection, immediately stationed an emergency squad of ten patrolman outside the walls of the old jail.

All visitors were given an extra thorough search and arrangements were made for a special riot squad to be called at the first hint of in- subordination.

U. S. Prison Riot Laid To Food, Heat and Crowd. Washington, D. C., Aug. 2 (U.P.). - Austin H. MacCormick, assistant superintendent of federal prisons, was ordered by the justice department today to proceed immediately to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kas., scene of a riot yesterday in which one prisoner was killed and three wounder.

Overcrowding, lack of sufficient work to occupy the inmates, excessive heat, and word of riots in eastern penitentiaries, were ascribed today by Stanford Bates, federal superintendent of prisons, as the reason for the insurrection.

Making public a complete report of the incident Bates said it is evident Warden White and his guards forestalled what might have been a much more serious outbreak.

A checkup has shown, he said, that no men escaped, no guards were injured, no guns were found in possession of inmates, and the insurrection was entirely futile.

The prison was designed to accommodate 2,000 prisoners and the population today is 3,770.

Stern Measures Check Unrest at Leavenworth. Leavenworth, Kas., Aug. 2 (AP). Unrest among prisoners smouldered today, but was held in check by stern measures. Leaders of yesterday's convict uprising were singled out and placed in close confinement.

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"WHALEN SQUAD TIP TRAPS 4 AND $100,000 GEM LOOT," New York Daily News. August 27, 1929. Page 3 & 4. --- Thug Gives Clew to Barry In Mansion Burglary --- By JOHN MARTIN JEWELRY valued at $100,000, which police are sure is almost all the loot stolen in a spectacular speedboat and airplane robbery at the Beverly Farms estate of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney E. Hutchinson, was recovered after a fierce struggle between three detectives and four colored men yesterday in a barber shop at 2397 7th ave, near West 140th st.

The jewelry included a rope of 138 matched and graduated pearls exactly like that reported stolen from the Hatchinsons, the robbery of whose home was charted from the sky and executed by motorboat from the shore of their palatial Massachusetts summer estate.

The other pieces are five brace lets, two hairpins, two diamond studded wrist watches, three stick- two pearl studs and a blue enamel wrist watch. They also tally with the Hutchinson descriptions of the stolen gems,

Points to Arthur Barry. Police Commissioner Whalen said the tip which led to the arrests was the first valuable piere of work to come from his department's new secret service squad, and hinted broadly that the information pointed suspicion at Arthur Barry, spectacular jewel thief, who escaped with three other convicts after leading the Auburn prison break a month ago.

Mrs. Hutchinson, the former Edith L. Stotesbury, and her husband, who is connected with the Drexel and Morgan banking houses in Philadelphia and New York, are on their way to Europe.

The recovered jewelry will be examined today by Mrs. Natalie Tyson, daughter of the Hutchinsons, who will be accompanied here by Police Chief John F. Welch of Beverly Farms. Both will scrutinize the four colored prisoners in the morning lineup to see if they can recognize them.

The prisoners said they were Baron Baucaire, 33, of 5 Wellington st., Boston: James Salley, 30, of 146 West 138th st.; William Smith, 35, of 208 West 149th st., and Thomas Wright, 30, of 131 West 149th st. Baucaire and Salley were held as possessors of stolen goods and the other two, barbers, as material witnesses.

Detectives Levine, Monahan and Kirwin of Inspector Mulrooney's staff entered a rear room of the shop at 2 p. m. They said Baucaire tossed the pearls into a telephone directory and Salley dropped a handkerchief package containing the rest of the gems behind a chair.

Baucaire drew a pistol and backed toward a window. Monahan advanced steadily. Levine watched Salley and Kirwin felled Baucaire with a blackjack blow.

Taken to headquarters, Baucaire insisted a man named Young gave him the gems and the pistol, asking him to dispose of them in New York and telling him to use the weapon unhesitatingly if police- man approached him. The first hint of the Barry angle came when Whalen had Baucaire shown a picture of the escaped convict.

The prisoner nodded, "That looks like the man, but he told me his name was Young."

The Hutchinsons reported theft of $114,000 in jewelry. The recovered loot failed to include two diamond earrings and a gold mesh bag, which they had valued at slightly less than $14,000, but every other piece was recovered. Search of the homes of the three New York prisoners failed to locate the earrings and bag, the detectives said.

(Other picture on page 1)

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"THIEF'S ESCAPE TERRORIZES L. I. RICH," New York Daily News. August 10, 1929. Page 2. --- SOCIETY GUARDS AGAINST RETURN BY ARTHUR BARRY ---- By ARTHUR O'SULLIVAN. A terror phantom, striking dire fear to the hearts of the rich, is haunting the palatial homes of Long Island multi-millionaires since the spectacular escape of the desperado, Arthur Barry, in the recent Auburn prison revolt.

The belief is that Barry, jewel thief de luxe and the criminal who lifted $85,000 in gems from the home of Jesse Livermore, Wall Street plunger, may come back.

His Former Haunts. Long Island, and especially the Vicinity of the rich men's homes, were Barry's haunts before he went up to the big, iron-barred house for the Livermore job. Operating with him was Boston Billy Williams. The two desperadoes" crimes at times even bedimmed those of Gerald Chapman.

That Williams did not make his getaway in the Dannemora revolt has been ascribed to the fact that he is so the prison feared by the authorities that his life there is in complete isolation and behind double rows of steel and stone.

The wealthy Long Islanders fear that Barry, phantom-like as ever, may again steal into their homes and make off with necklaces, diamonds and other gems by the gallon.

Sweetheart Sought. Though police have combed the state for him and have sought his old-time aweetheart, Anna King, on whom he lavished his loot, no trace of him has been found. Meantime, private detective agencies of Manhattan have received emergency orders for extra operatives. These guards have been moved to Long Island and placed about the homes of the rich.

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"CONVICT WEEPS WHEN ACQUITTED OF RIOT CHARGE," Ottawa Journal. July 3, 1933. Page 5. ---- Sam Behan Found Not Guilty in Trial at Kingston. ---- CRIES FIRST TIME IN TWENTY YEARS ---- Life-Prisoner Makes Impassioned Plea to Jury. ---- Canadian Press by Direct Wire. KINGSTON, Ont, July 2. - With tears streaming down his face, convict Sam Behan, in Portsmouth penitentiary for life and seven years, was found not guilty of rioting at the Institution and acquitted by Judge Evan McLean after the jury had de- liberated for an hour and a half. Behan, who conducted his own case, appeared stunned as the jury returned its verdict, then be smiled, bowed his head and started to cry. He stated it was the first time he had cried for 20 years and five minutes later was on his way back to the penitentiary.

Makes Impassioned Plea. The acquittal came after the convict had made an impassioned plea to the jury. "It doesn't matter much if you find me guilty," he said, "I am serving a term of life and seven years for for a crime I didn't commit. "I don't care what your verdict is, as far as 1 personally am concerned. My life means nothing to me for I can't live long enough to get out. but I want to show you men there has not been humane treatment in the penitentiary.

"We are not humans. We are dogs. It is a living hell. A living grave. At the age of six years, I was sent to school where I learned how to steal, where I learned everything. Maybe you will ask how I got what education I have. I spent all I could on education and there is a man in Kingston penitentiary right now who studied with me in Edinburgh.

"I am not here to discuss prison reforms," he continued. "The court rules against it, but I say any public court is a court of inquiry. The public must know and ought to know.

"They won't stop a man from stealing at the penitentiary. If God won't stop me from stealing, no one else will. Yet they think life and seven years isn't enough for me. They want to make sure I'll never walk the streets again a free man. I'm in my early forties now. Perhaps in the ordinary course of events I would get a chance for parole in 1961, but if they tack seven more years on me. which is the penalty for rioting. I'll be there for ever.

"Humane treatment? Walk into Sing Sing prison any time and you'll hardly know you are in a penitentiary. You see men smoking and talking: they have all they want except their liberty. Only a couple reports a month are made against men, and they must be serious. In- mates themselves discipline the place. and a new man coming in is warned by the convicts not to do anything cause them to lose their privileges or it will be just too bad for him.

"The affair at Kingston penitentiary last October was a molehill, out of which they made a Mount Everest. They know out there who the real ringleaders were, and I know. They know the real instigators who went around with notes, and as soon as they got through took the notes to Deputy Warden Walsh. And at three o'clock the real ringleader went to hospital, where he was locked in for safe keeping. And where is he today? He is a free man. He got his parole for what he did.

"If that was a riot at the Kingston penitentiary," continued Behan, "what was it at St. Vincent de Paul, where $1,000,000 damage was done and where men were wounded? What about Dorchester, where convicts fought the officers? What about Auburn prison in 1929, where officers and convicts were killed? What about Nevada, where convicts shot down guards like dogs and then shot themselves? In St. Vincent de Paul some got life for their part in the trouble. Why? Because they were like the little child in Oliver Twist, they asked for a little more porridge.

Bought Humane Treatment. "It was the same with us. We asked for humane treatment and they locked us up. They thought they could grab the men from the tailor shop but the others wouldn't stand for it. Was it a riot? Right here in the city of Kingston, you had a riot of unemployed a few weeks ago. They wanted to see the Mayor and committee. What happened? They smashed windows and broke into a meeting. Were there charges laid? No, there were not, because the city had more sense and they had no one to whitewash with a waste of money. Why didn't the Crown say it would be better to save the money being wasted on these trials to help the unemployed and needy, and instead take the mat- ter before the warden's court.

"In the penitentiary," said Behan, "they are making it a veritable fortress. Even in the chapel, where the Lord's Gospel is preached, bristling rifles are to be seen. If there was a riot, and you find I was a rioter. every man in the penitentiary is guilty.

"Don't consider me. gentlemen." Behan told the jury. "I'm speaking for thousands asking you to give them a chance. Do away with the rotten system; give them a chance. for something to live for: give the convict a break and you'll not be making another criminal. I am not asking for sympathy from the jury: I merely want justice. Give me a chance to tell men there were fair people who did their duty and gave men a chance. Gentlemen. I ask you to be as fair to the Crown, as you have been to me.

Says Deflance Shown. Col. Keiller McKay, special Crown prosecutor, spoke briefly, declaring evidence showed convicts had left their work and damaged property. The prisoners, he said, had shown defiance of their officers and said there was evidence Behan leader and recognized was the by the convicts.

Reviewing the evidence, Judge McLean expressed himself greatly impressed with the ability of Behan. "There is no doubt made an able lawyer at the giving their evidence," he said. "I am glad to be able to acquit you," he told Behan when the jury returned its verdict.

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"Again-the Super-Crook! Leader of Auburn Jailbreak Excites Popular Imagination," New York Daily News. August 25, 1929. Page 2. --- By AMA BARKER. ARTHUR J. BARRY is the new Gerald Chapman.

Thousands in blood money are on his head. While an alarm was sounding all over the country for the leader of the Auburn prison break, a $250,000 jewel robbery in fashionable Beverly, Mass., told the police that Arthur Barry probably was at work.

Since the incredible Chapman was executed on April 6, 1926 in Wethersfield prison, Conn., the public has been without a super-criminal - a prince of thieves who makes honest men gasp at his imagination and daring. That is, until the handsome Barry, "the dinner and ladder" burglar, who robbed some eighty of society's best families without leaving a fingerprint, made his spectacular escape three weeks ago.

This gentleman burglar who played golf and country club bridge by day and specialized in polite jewel robberies by night made good reading two years ago when he confessed to prove his sweetheart innocent. But his career seemed ended when Long Island authorities sent him up for twenty- five years. Even Barry appeared to relinquish his dream of an elegant life on the French Riviera, some day when his store of treas- ure grew big enough.

The Brains, the Plot And the Woman! "I'll be an old man when I come out," Barry said to a deputy sheriff at the time. He was 28 then.

Like Chapman, Barry does not always get the dubious honor for his crimes. He sometimes reads that another man is the master mind. With Chapman it was George (Dutch) Anderson, with Barry it is James Monahan, alias Boston Billy Williams.

Boston Billy is in Dannemora, doing forty years on evidence Barry, his former partner, turned in against him. If Monahan had escaped from Dannemora during the recent riot there, Barry probably would have delayed the zero for the outbreak at Auburn until the authorities had time to catch Boston Billy again. Because Billy has sworn to kill Barry on sight.

"Monahan was the boss of the show. Make no mistake about that," said Detective-Charles Sheraton, who trapped the Monahan-Barry gang after trailing them for two years.

"But Barry is a real killer, cold and calculating. I might take a chance with Monahan but with Barry, never!"

Monahan may have been the brains of their four years' picking among rich jewel caskets. Warden Edgar L. Jennings gives Barry credit for being the master strategist of the Auburn time of terror when four convicts escaped under cover of smoke from the burning prison shops, fired after the prison arsenal had been raided.

Arthur Barry was the center of this plot, unless the credit goes to Anna Blake. Love, the old proverb has it, will find a way and Barry, like Gerald Chapman before him, holds the idolatrous love of a woman.

Anna Blake is a plump little blonde of uncertain age; the police say she is at least ten years older than Arthur Barry. Barry was moved from Sing-Sing to Auburn because a woman who visited him there was suspected of trying to smuggle arms to him. At Auburn, officials believed a closer watch could be kept. Now information comes to the warden that the tireless Anna did get a gun to her lover, after all. With 5 this gun he subdued a key custodian, shot his way to the outer prison walls and finally got away.

Where Anna Blake is detectives can usually be nearly certain that Arthur Barry is not far away.

They met in Paris five years ago, when young Barry was spending some time on the continent as Arthur Gibson. When they returned to America, they bought a cottage in the smart Lake Ronkonkoma colony on Long Island, where they posed as Mr. and Mrs. Arthur J. Gibson. Adopting the country club manner, the Gibsons gave an impression of wealth and leisure, while Monahan and Barry dropped in on fashionable Long Island neighbors, often at the dinner hour.

They mounted quickly to the upper floors by means of a folding ladder, which Barry has modestly admitted is his invention. Then while their host and hostess and invited guests dined below stairs the correctly tailored burglars went quickly and quietly about their work.

In the summer of 1926 jewel thieves plucked $19,000 worth of loot from the Greenwich, Conn., estate of Percy A. Rockefeller. Not caring whether he had been robbed by the notorious society burglars or some lesser thieves. Rockefeller determined to have them jailed, no matter what the cost.

That is how the activities of Barry and Monahan happened to be under observation of Burns detectives at the time they called at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse L. Livermore for $100,000 worth of gems about a year later.

On June 15, 1927, Arthur J. Gibson, returning from New York with a woman, walked into the arms of detectives at Lake Ronkonkoma station. His companion had $15,000 worth of jewels in her possession - most of them stones taken from their settings. She gave her name as Mrs. Anna King.

After two days' questioning, Barry offered to make "a clean breast of the whole story" if the police would free Mrs. King. She knew nothing about the Livermore case, he swore. He and Boston Billy Williams committed the robbery, Barry said.

Says the Rich Like to Exaggerate Losses Barry's fingerprints were checked up at Manhattan police headquarters. Records showed he was wanted in Massachusetts and in Connecticut. His history went back to Bridgeport, Conn., where he was first charged with the murder of Patrolman Peter Wagner, on April 13, 1922.

He contended that a companion did the shooting and was finally charged with assault. Barry was sentenced to three months in jail. After serving all but fifteen days of this time, he made use of a saw smuggled in by friends, and escaped.

The following year, on July 29, with Arthur J. Barry still at large, Sergt. John J. Harrison of the Scarsdale, Westchester county, New York, police, was mysteriously slain within 200 yards of headquarters. As in the case of Patrolman Wagner, Barry named a companion as the slayer - Boston Billy Williams.

Williams, he said, caught hold of the policeman's right hand with one hand and holding a pistol in the other, shot him at close range.

When Williams was captured he described Barry as the killer.

Barry, in the toils of the police after more than four years of uninterrupted second-story work, talked freely about what happened the night they robbed this millionaire and that. Everything but the whereabouts of the loot.

In the first place, he said, even the very rich like to exaggerate their losses. He had many a quiet laugh over his morning papers to see that the people they had relieved of $50,000 worth of gems the evening before, reported losses of $150,000 and upward.

Secondly, Barry complained bitterly, Boston Billy often did the finger work himself and when the time came to divide the loot, Williams held most of it out.

If he was telling the truth about the rich people exaggerating, and about his partner's holding out on him, and he is broke, as he claimed, Arthur Barry very likely got the $250,000 in jewels stolen from the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sydney E. Hutchinson, at Beverly.He probably added $24,500 in cash and jewelry from the home of Richard Weber, wealthy contractor of Whitestone, L. I., to his ready funds.

Because he needed the money to pay the expenses of a long journey. Or, if, as some detectives on the Hutchinson case believe, Barry had $1,000,000 worth of loot buried in Anna Blake's keeping, the ring- leader of the Auburn mutiny probably is not the man who has Mrs. Hutchinson's diamond necklace.

Gerald Chapman vanished just as completely as Barry did when he escaped from Atlanta federal prison in April, 1923. Chapman made fun of the police in their game of hare and hounds for nearly two years. Barry has reason to remember that blood money betrayed Chapman, because rewards for a tip on Arthur's whereabouts total $10,000.

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“A modern ‘Rob ‘em good’ is Arthur T. Barry. In 1927 he was convicted of a $90,000 theft and sent to Auburn. He escaped two years later but was recaptured the other day. He claims to be a modern Robin Hood.”

- from the Toronto Star, October 25, 1932. Page 21.

[AL: Barry was considered a ‘sneak thief’  who stole more than $2 million in gems from the homes of the wealthy of Nassau and Westchester Counties, and then escaped from Auburn Prison during the July 1929 riot there. He hid out for years under an alias in rural New Jersey until recaptured.]

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“Unceremonious But Effective Rescue of Warden,” The Whig-Standard. December 16, 1929. Page 01. ---- The photograph shows Warden Jennings of Auburn prison, who was captured by prisoners during rioting, being carried out of the jail to an ambulance after his rescue by state troopers with the aid of tear gas. After six hours’ fighting, during which also were killed, the convicts were overpowered by prison guards and troops.