The evening world. Newspaper, June 28, 1919, Page 11

“ dudge Fawcett, Sen pal in Thirteen Bank Copyrigh ORDON FA Fawcett, who sentenced him of his achievements. which a geod mechanic might tel! of be knows all there is to know. he desires to have made public. Hamby is a man who would have tmade @ success in any honest walk im Wife. He has initiative, imagination, qmergy and executive ability. And, ‘this murderer has a charming person- ality when ho chooses to display it. Omtty once while he was in Brooklyn, before, during or after his trial, did-he empone the undercurrent of ferocity and cruelty which inspired him murder, That was when he was sentenced by Judge Fawcett. The Court called him “a opld-blooded murderer.” There the Court touched Hamby’s pride and uneonsciously collided with his code of eriminal ethics. Hamby was furi- ows. He flushed and then his face became white, and there was actual wlevolence in his eyes as he gazed into the eyes of the Judge and Nstened to the words that mean the end of-his short life in the week be- ginning July 28. Hamby didn't pay muoh attention to the death sentence—he wasn't sure of the date a few minutes later. His mind was: solely occupied with the Court's characterization of him as @ cold-blooded murderer. He felt calied upon to .fustify himself and as he was about to leave the rail he said, loudly enough for ail in the room to hear: “They all had a chance.” He referred to the people he has killed and there came in his code and I think his belief in it ts honest. Down in the court pen he explained it to me. WARNED HIS VICTIMS FIRST— ADMITS KILLING THREE, “Supposing,” ho sald, “you were a $25 a week clerk in a bank or even ® $50 a week cashier and a hold-up man walked in and looked you in the eye and put a large, blue-barrelied gun on you ahd announced that he would shoot you unless you put up your hands and allowed him to go about his business without interrup- tion. Wouldn't you realize that this robber was desperate—that he took his own life in his hands the moment he drew his gun? Would you put up your hands or would you attempt to put up a fight for your employe: money?” “T'd put‘up my hands," I replied. “Bure you would,” declared Ham- by. “You've got common sense, Now I gave everybody a chance to obey my orders, Those I shot didn’t take the chance. I object to being called @ cold-blooded murderer. My Idea of & cold-blooded murderer is “one who shoots his victim from behind with- out warning. A Judge's business ts to inflict tho death penalty in the imanner prescribed by law, not to Pdeliver an oration to a man who cannot reply.” Hamby has admitted in a signed * confession of killing three men, In- ferentially he told me of killing two wthers, and I judge, from hints he dropped, that he ended the lives of At least ‘thr®e more, His record is 66] T is my desire to keop my fate sécret from my relatives, and for that reason [ am com- Pelled to refer to my youth in rather @ sketchy way. For the same rea- son I shall have to keep t the name and location of+my first bank Job, although I remember it very well. It was pretty close to my home town and to describe it would reveal not only my identity but the identity of another who was in the Job with me but turnod straight and has since been, to the best of my knowledge, a highly respectable and honored buri- ness man, My parents sent me to public schools. [ can say without boasting that I was naturally a good scholar. ‘AS a matter of fact I generally cleared up two grades # year, I have an excellent memory and could cram my lessons and repeat them by cad tor Uns reenons Cay early. edu Calls Brooklyn Bandit, Aged 26, Worst Criminal of the Times Wild at College, Robbed His First Bank at 18, Princi- Holdups—Penniless, His Career to End in Death Chair Week of July 28. i By Martin Green 1919, by The Pres Publishing Co, (The New York Evenings WCETT HAMBY, the youthful bandit dec! scourge than Jesse James, is @ robber and murderer who is proud He reviews them with the calm 6 exoellent piece of work. With him banditry was a profession, and he does not hesitate to say that he considered himself a master. Beginning at the! age of eighteen, he devoted eight years to it, and at twenty-six he thinks In the course of half a dozen Jong conversations with me in the Ray- mond Street Jail Hamby revealed such chapters of his criminal career as} He also wrote some of his experiences. ‘murder twice within three months in to] SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1919 ding Him to Chair, Robberies and Two Train World) 4 jared by Judge to the electric chair, to be a worse satisfaction with | the accomplishment of a partieulerly | ‘nparalicled m ¢riminal history in that he was convicted of first degree twordifferent States, Washington and! New York, j Hamby’s determination to make public somo of his experiences as a/ bank robber and highwayman was| prompted by bis financial condition. ; A few days dfter he was locked up in Raymond Street Jail he found himself flat broke, another example ef the rule that a life of crime Is! without financial profit. I am of the| opinion, however, that Hamby 1s also! a victim of the time-honored and oft | shattered aphorism “There is honor| among thieves.” Somewhere out in the West, in all likelihood, an un- derworld companion to whom Hamby intrusted a considerable sum of tholiay after he. killedinis pal, Bob Davis, last March, ig qnijte uneon- cernedly spending said money. In our opening conversation it soon became apparent that Hamby, never having kept any recard.of his oper- ations, had nothing to work on but| @ jumble of unconnected incidents , chasing around in & none too well ordered mind,..It was quite a job to get anything Uke a consecutive | story out of him, but he honestly worked at the task of framing one. In order to get @ line on the youth- ful environment of @ maa who de- lberately took up a career of crime} and coolly murdered those who re- fused to obey his orders I questioned him closely about his. The reader will note right at the start of Ham- by’s narrative the underlying im- pulse which drove him to robbery and killing. He could not live within his means, Here is Hamby’s account of his youth and education and his first bank robbery. ' CRIMINAL CAREER CARRIED HIM f TO MANY LANDS, “I want to be absolutely on the level with you,” explained Hamby. “There are many things I cannot remember as associated with dates. I probably won't be able to recall the names of some banks or towns. In the eight years during which I ‘made’ about thirteen banks I turned off a good many other jobs whenever I, needed funds. I travelled tar and touched many places in many lands and never wrote down a line which might ald me in recalling them. “Probably I shall make mistakes, but you can check me up. “Wire to newspapers in the places I mention to you or consult with people whose vames I will give or compare parts of my story with po- lige records based on various alarms that have been sent out and various rewards that have been offered for the arrest of Jay B. Allen or William Cook or Gordon Fawcett Hamby.” I checked him up as he had sug- gested from Manitoba to Peru and found his statements truthful. of course there is no way of checking vp his allegations concerning his youth and his education, but he has 80 successfully concealed his identity | that there is no reason to believe he Hamby’s Own Story of His Career (First Instalment) would want to lie on these points, cation was rather superficial, An- ‘other reason ts that I did not like to ‘study. | -"C ‘played hookey’ for weeks at a |time, but, nevertheless, I was gradu- }ated from the lower schools with honors enough at the age of sixteen. A few weeks later my parents vent me to @ well-knowe college and I entered the third form COLLEGE CAREER GAINED HIM | ONLY DEBTS AND TROUBLE, | “Here I experienced my first re- Jease from home restraints and I ran Dretty wild. I naturally fell in with} {the most reckless spirits among the | boys and it was not long until I was| |Meeply in trouble, and also deeply in debt. I might say that I discovered learly in fe that it was compara- | tively easy for me to borrow small sums. My allowance at collego was entirely insufficient for my needs, but Leame to be known as a good spender menses enataMal, C Character Sketches of Hamby MADE IN COURT BY ARTIST HARMONY FOR THE EVENING WORLD. or club bi he could while standing at the couf- ter. 1 wanted to seo if his upraised hand could be seen from the street, as we intended to make the persons in the bank hold up waving in the alr to attract the at tention of passersby. “t eouldn’t see his hand. lanined to hold up the bank the neat day, and we did. ir hands, and | Wo didn’t want the spectacle of hands + We} 1 wore a long rain: | OND JESSE JA MRT (0° aT RGD ve en teas ¥ fly } ; ,t M (ho SATURDAY, JUNE 28, ‘Raincoat Hamby Wore in Fist Robbery 1919 Figured in Every Robbery Alterward; Adopted: It a8 a “Lucky Mascot” in Relating Tales of Assumed Leadership, Made First Haul With Boy Friend Whom He Outlied Previous Crimes—-Hamby Planned Coup, and Got Away With $3,600 From Small-Town Bank. “Our first haul amounted to about Coat and as the raincoat seemed to) $60. As I had acted ay leader tn be @ mascot on that firat job, | have always wern a rai t of similar color and style in every job since. The rain h mascot, for | Wee never arrested on a job. TUCK UP” BANK CLERKS AND LOCKED THEM IN VAULT. “My partner cartied @ «all vailso, which was hi« own prop- erty. We walked into the bank to- wether, just as we were on the street, without masks or-any effort at con- cealment of the face. 1 bad my guns in my overcoat pocket. | the job and kept tpe guns on the bank People, T demanded $200 in addition to my half share, and my partner said that was fair enough and gave it to me, When we separated, he carrying his bag, a few minutes after wo left the house, I had about $2,000 and be had about $1,600. “I don't know how he did his get- away. 1 walked out of town some distance to a water tank on the rall- road and caught @ freight along to the next town, and when @ limited My partner | train came along early Inthe mort- started for the roar of the bank,|'™® | got aboard and went into. tie where a door opened through the! AMoking car. [ told the conductor, counter, Thore were no cages in|! hadn't bad time to buy a teket, thie wmall bank, just « plain counter with a three-foot+higb brass railing on It,» ! “Aas my partner walked noncha+ lantly to the rear of the room, swing- ing his bag’in hia Wand, I drew my revolvers and ordered the four people behind the counter to throw up thelr and he was avorse to inking cash fare, and at daylight € was several hundred miles away from-our aban- doned vacant house. [ didn't stop until I got to Oaktnnd, Cal. There 1} purchased o new outft and remained pretty close to my hotel a few dayn, reading all the papers. I thought hands. They did so immediately, and | the papers would be full of the bank then I ordered them to step back | to the vault, the door of which w: open. In the meantime my partner was transferring all the money on the counter and in the drawers to his bag. When he was through T toi the bank people to enter the vault. They asked us not to lock them In, as they would surely smother, and I told them { wouldn't, They en- tered the vault and my partner swung shut what is known as the day gate, which is a barred gate Inside the big door, to prevent un+ authorised persons from enteriog while the vault fs open. The day gate was equipped with a spring lock, I ordered those in the vault holdup and was considerably sur- prised when 1 found nothing at ail about It. “Somewhat ronasured, I went over to San Francisco and put up at’ a quiet but good hotel, the name of which does mot now occur to me I was only eighteen yoara old, but I bad had experience with hote! house ' detectives, and I knew all the big hotels had house detectives who were extremely inquisitive about strangers and read-all the crimo news in the | papers TI ploked out my: botel be- cause it didn't support a house de- tective. “Et had pansed through San Fran- claco many times and know the city my hat had blown away, 1 was abe solutely black from coal and cinders and looked like all the deseriptions of a tramp I had ever read. But it was early in the morning, fow people were on the streets, and I made ap my mind to go into the town and seo if 1 couldn't ger hold of a hat or cap and wash myself up. I knew I would probably be’ arrested on sight unless i #pruced up, and [ was also of the opinion that probably | had been identified as one of the boys Who held up the bank, and that every, police- man in the world was looking for me, “I had two fine revolvers with me. ‘The were slung in holsters, one ui euch arm. | had been strongly tempted to pawn one of them, but f figured that in the line | had em- burked in it wax absolutely necessary to have a reserve gun, and in all my exporiences I never have pawned or aold one of my guns. { had made ep» my mind that I would not be arrested and had practiood considerable in drawing and putting a gun on an im- aginary police officer or detedtive, “An 1 was walking along the street % little distance from the railroad station a young man stepped out of the door of what | found later was a lodging house. “He almost ran into me, und as he did #0 he stopped and looked ime over. 1 must have been a snd-looking sight, for 1 certainly inspired his pity. “Gee! he said, “you look awful, Run right upstairs to the second floor. You'll find a washroom there, Wash Up. There's nobody stirring. wo long.” “Here was a total stranger who be- friended meon sight. This experience was repeated many times afterward in my career as « fugitive from’ to pads out their keys to my partner |and Oakland \ery well, I had ‘komo | Justice. and he put them in the bag and hur- ried out and joined me. I kept my| to vislt them, saying I had come to|%# best I could. acquaintances there and boldly went “I went upstairs and washed up As { was leavingt guns on the vault until I got to the| the coast on a visit, I used my own | the washroom I saw three hats bang- and was quite a favorite with a cer- tain grade of the students. “My home life wasn't any too pli je ant, as can well be imagined, at this time and one night I packed up my clothes and departed without saying goodby to anybody in the family They have never seon me since. My Parents have died in the meantime. “[ wont to a town as fur away as my money would take me and got a Job there at $20 a week. This I always spent the day I got it, Soon I was deeply in debt. There was little proypect of my making any more money at honest employment and I decided to go about getting | some of the ‘easy money’ I had heard | about. “There was in the town a fellow who was seliing townsite lots in Western Canada, 1 know now he| was a grafter, but I didn't know it| then; however, it would have made little difference if 1 had, for he of- fered mo a very advantageous fi- nancial arrangement. Me bad mad: my acquaintance in a saloon and had decided that I would fit into his plans. GOT FIRST “EASY MONEY” AS A TOWNSITE GRAFTER, “1 was well dressed and talked well and had rather a childlike’ and | est expression which convinced p of my sincerity. My job was tc out and interest people in the t n- ple “ wn: | site lot proposition. My employer} would learn by some means the names of peopie with m and sent me around to see them, and when I} had them properly primed he woult| step in and close the deal, | “I made a lot of money for a boy, but had nothing to show for it but some good clothes and some jewelry. Gorpor Y FAWCETT door, We walked leisurely do “At this juncture a boy of about} my own age, whom [ had met jn fm Hy ia ine reat tak this particular place and become wel, | Was as good a he was and) into busines: d appear with pthe steps to the sidewalk, ciosing the acquainted with, came to me and jh. | sd him | had be + bank holdup furniture ja a week, Then | door behind us quired if I nted to, get hold of |, and he belleved me, I also told | wo visited the bank | » had laid in a stock of pro- some ‘easy money.’ His words were| im I was a good shot | he floor of the bank was above| visions, but nothing at night an echo of the thoughts in my mind,| “Well, in the way gs, it di the street jevel and was reached by] when nobody could see the smoke PLANNED FIRST BANK ROBBERY veloped that I took t adership | a W steps, and in the windows and] from the chimney L burned tn an old WITH A BOY FRIEND, in this, my first job, because, as it| door of the bank was a sort of sereen| stove the raincoat and hat I had 4 turned out, 1 sort of to it in-| two or three feet high, I should say,| worn, We remainel in the house "*¥ou have got considerable nerve, | gtinctively and know a lot mort 1 cut off the view of the Interior | three days, keeping a close lookout haven't you?’ hoe saked we | about planning t nan part bank from the sidew Wel night and day, When we had to “1 assured him I had, and he said] per did, I had one pis 7 nvered that the bank staff con-|gleep, one of us would sleep on the he was pretty nervy himself, Then] another, and he got two pistols, and | sisted of six people, but that begin- | tloor while the other kept wateh, he proposed that we go to @ certain! we went to the town In which we] ming at 11 o'clock they went home| During the time we were hiding we town and rob a small bank. He sald! pad located our bunk to thelr midday meals two at w time, | counted and divic t ney and he knew the town and the bank and he first thing we did was rent] and that for a coupl hours in} burned the wr ‘8 which the bank that there was always between $4,000) 4 ygcant house on the outskirts of | the middle of the day there were only | poople hi tround the pack- and $5,000 in bills lying around on| the town, in which the buildings | f& f them in the bank at once, | ages of bills and got rid of the ashes desks ov stuffed in drawer were Scattered, I think we|and few customers ever visited the| from our fire, When we left the ought (vo be able to get Nh gdvane for, a linslilvtion at that pertod. j howes it waa just in the same condi unteered that he had held up a bank h’'s rent. We told the owner we MY partner went in changed | tion it had been in when we entered before and knew the game. I found | were brothers and our parents were, a bill, and at my suggestion ¢ it, We left no traces of our ogeu. out later that he lied to me, but I ’ eoming to locate in the town and go | yated one of his hands e# high as! pancy. }could not do n job alone. name, and of course thoy never bad any suspicion of me. “Having more money in my pock- one time in my life, I proceeded to spend it as though it amounted to millions of dollara, The consequence was that in @ fow weeks I was vory low in fund T had to pawn my Wateh and all my jewelry except my watch chain In my final extremity. sALL HIS MONEY SPENT, PLANS ANOTHER HAUL. “As my funds began to diminish, { began to speculate on making an- other bank job. The first had been so successfus that I thought it would be the easiest thing In the world to do another. But [ realised my inex- perience, and also realized that I T had to have somebody to gather up the money, and at that time [ thought it would, be better to find @ profea- sional who bad had some experionco in that line of work, “I found the job of digging up a partner more difficult than I had an- ticipated. Experience has shown me that I went to the wrong places, al- though one would naturally expect to find the kind of men I was seeking in poolrooms and suloons and dives. 1 felt out @ mumber of fellows who looked as though they had nerve and would take a chance, Strangeiy enough, I got the same answer from every one of them when I broached my proposition of holding up @ bank in daylight, “Why, you're crazy, kid,’ they said, n't be done,” “I knew it could be done, but I didn't want to work with anybody who wasn't just as confident as 1 was, Several fellows I met suggested that [join them in robbing a dwelling or a store, but that class of work never appealed to me. Finally T was | broke and owed « hotel bill and had » do something. “I recalled an acquaintance living at Long Beach, California, who 4 mighty good sport, and from whowe conversation | had picked up the im- pression that at one time or another he had done some of the sort of work I was engaged in, although he whos in business at that time, I deter- mined to go to Long Beach, Long Beach is a long way from San Fran- and I was down to a few dol | lars. Sacrificing my wardrobe ‘n the hotel I crossed over to Oakland and bought @ ticket for Ban Jose, At the latter place [ got off the train, passed around bebind to the side away from the station, and a» the train pulled out again climbed up on the ‘blind baggage’ platform, right behind the engine, it was a dark night, and L rode there until daylight, which came as we were entering Ven- ture. Aa@ the in stopped I jumped eff and disappeared behind a string of freight care, ‘Te j Twas sight, During te night plan ing on hooks on the wall, and I ap-' propriated one of them: That is the only plece of petty larceny sneak thievery I over did. A NARROW ESCAPE FOR AN IN- QUISITE OFFICER, “After getting a cup of coffee at u lunch counter I walked {o the railroad atation to look things over and en- countered a policeman whd, if he \sn't*dead, was never so close ¢o death as he was that minute! Ho slapped me on the shoulder and said: “‘What are you hangin’ around here for?” “An I said before, I was of the opta- jon at that stage of my career that overy policeman and detective in the jcountry was looking for me, and I had determined that I would not be arrested. I was about to draw and cut loose at this policeman, but some impulse stayed my hand, | said [ was waiting for a train to take me jout of town, “Don't wait for a train,’ said the policeman, ‘Get out right now, and walk. out’ ' “I walked to a place called Oxnard, where I tore off almost completely one og of my trousers crawling through @ fence in an effort to catch’a freight train, A woman in a second-hand store gave mo a pair of. overalls, against the advice of her husband, and I put them on. That trip taught me a lesson, Never after was I with- lout overalls or some other rough, im-' expensive outer raiment for use in travelling on freight trains or on the - rods or blind baggage of passenger trains, “Overalls give one the appearance of being @ rallroader, Put ou your overalls over your neatly pressed suit jand your clean shirt and colar and button up and go through almost any kind of an expericnce in railroad travel, and when you get to where you want to change you take off the overall outfit and throw it away, and wash your face and hands, and there you are, all dressed up, I will tell later bow an overall outfit got me out of a tight hole once after I had made a phenomenally jucky getaway after a bank job in St. Payl, Minn, “From Oxnard 1 stole a ride on a freight train to Low Angeles, From Los Angeles I got to Long Beach by ithe kindness of a man driving an jautomobile that made more noise than @ freight train. My acquaint. ‘ance In Long Beach was glad to see me and fixed me up with clothes and lwome money. I rested a while at h place and looked around the cow (in the next instalment will appear an account of Hamby’s venture into holding up payroll messengers and trains in the Southwest and « detailed account of his second bank robbery and how he killed his frst man. Hiagn- jby doscribes this robbery ss 2 “@te- w ” because it was badly, and