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EDITORIALS

THE PROFESSIONAL THIEF

The skilled pickpockets, confidence men, shoplifters, check

writers, and certain other offenders may be regarded as professional

thieves. This profession ha s a complex of skilled techn iques, statu s,

consensus, organization, and segregation in th e und erw orld. The y

depend prim arily on the ir wits, front, and talking ability; they

mu st be good actors. By these charac teristics they are differentiated

from non-professional thieves, and also from professional criminals

in other rackets.

The earnings of some members of this profession are envied by

people in legitimate occupations. Eddie Jack son (misnamed th e

Immune, for he spent a larger part of his life in prison than most

professional thieves) said it was a poor week when he got less than

$1500 for his persona l income. Jac kie Fr en ch had a famous week

in Florida in February, 1922, when he took $345,000 from three

victims in confidence games. Th e state s' atto rne y of Cook Co unty,

Illinois, stated in Dece mbe r, 1934, tha t Josep h (Yellow Kid ) W eil

and his troupe in six months took more than a million dollars from

victims in confidence gam es. It is repo rted tha t the federal a uth ori-

ties are planning to accuse William Elmer Mead, professional con-

fidence man, known as the Christian Kid, of income tax shortage of

$60,000 during the years 1921-1928, due to failure to report his gains

from swindles.

These professional thieves are able to pursue their occupation

successfully for thr ee principal reaso ns: Firs t, they select the

rack ets in which conviction is ver y impro bable. In some of the

rackets the victim is induced to undertake an illegal act and is

therefore not willing to bring accusations against the

thief;

this is

tru e especially in confidence games and the sh ak e (shake-down

in connection with income tax frauds and hom osex uality). Also,

the stores are very reluctant to accuse a person who looks like a

legitimate customer of theft, and the thieves look like legitimate

custo mers. It is ve ry difficult to sec ure sufficient legal evidence to

convict a pickpocket. Second, the thieves hav e perfected the ir tech-


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162 THE PROFE SSIONA L TH IEF

evidence . A shopli f te r saw in a dep ar tm ent s to re a bu nd le of me n ' s

su i t s which had jus t been unpacked; he went back a round the

corner , took off his coat and hat and put a penci l behind his ear

so that he would look l ike an employee of the s tore , re turned and

picked up f rom the pi le a l l the sui ts he could carry , took the service

elevator to the ground f loor , walked out the door , and s tepped into a

taxic ab. In the confidence gam e the bu i ld -u p is so convincing

tha t many v ic t ims ins i s t on go ing th rough wi th the swindle even

af te r they have been warned by the po l ice o r by bankers tha t they

are be ing swindled . Thi rd , the th ie f wor ks on the assum pt ion th a t

he can fix pract ica l ly every case against h im. H e is arr es t ed f re-

quently but because of his abil i ty to fix cases he is seldom sent to

pr i son . The a r res t s a re inconvenien t , bu t bad wea ther i s inconven-

ient a lso and persons do not give up their business because of bad

w ea the r . Th e thief takes the arre s ts as a m at t er of cou rse and is

no t d i s tu rbed .

Cases against the professional thief are fixed sometimes by his

own efforts, sometimes by efforts of poli t ical office-holders, and

m ost f req uen t ly by a profess ional fixer for profess ional th iev es . Th e

f ixing is accomplished pr incipal ly by inducing the vic t im to drop

the prosecu t ion in re tu rn for res t i tu t ion of p rop er ty . Th en , in o rder ,

ass is tance is rendered by pol icemen, prosecutors , c lerks , bai l i f fs , and

judg es. Th e pol icem en, c lerk s , and bail if fs general ly receive cash

for their services af ter each act of ass is tance; the prosecutors and

judges a re l ike ly to rece ive Chr i s tmas presen ts , loans which a re no t

repa id , o r con t r ibu t ions to campaign expenses .

This f ixing of criminal cases is a specific instance of the modern

socia l d isorgan izat ion. Firs t , th e vic t im looks a t the thef t f rom th e

point of view of his own interest and has pract ical ly no considerat ion

of the general socia l welfare ; in th is respect he has the same point

of view as the professional

thief.

W hen he drops the p rosecu t ion

he is not only act ing f rom a narrowly individual point of view but

also he is co m m itting a tech nic al crim e. Seco nd, th e office-holder

who accepts gifts for protecting the thief is a part of a poli t ical or-

gan iza t ion which , in gene ra l , i s engaged in p re da to ry con t ro l . Th e

pa t r on age sys tem wh ich is fo r the wel fa re of the par ty o rgan iza t ion

and in opposi t ion to the general socia l welfare is an i l lus t ra-

t ion of th is pr ed ato ry control . O the r i l lus t ra t io ns m ay be found in


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THE PROFESSIONAL THIEF 163

police and the courts are selected as agents to protect the general

society against crime; under orders from the party organization

or on payment of money they pervert their function and protect

the thieves. Not every policeman or prosecu tor does this, to be

sure.

In order to secu re a conviction it is necessary to ha ve t he

cooperation of victim, police, prosecutor, clerks,

bailiff

judge, jury,

and perhaps grand jury. The thief works on the assumption th at

he can always find a weak link in this chain and that it is only a

matter of using ingenuity to find where the chain can be broken

most easily.

EDW IN H . SUTHERLAND.


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