|
|
By David Dayton McKean
When things seemed to be going best, when he was just
establishing his leadership in the Horseshoe, came a crisis
that might well have wrecked Frank Hague's career. The
trouble arose because a Horseshoe boy, Thomas ('Red')
Dugan, a boyhood friend of Frank and Skidder, was not content
as Frank was to take the sure but slow way to success;
he wanted to get rich too fast.
From Boston word came to the Horseshoe early in October,
1904, that Red Dugan was in trouble. Red had been in
trouble before: it is a matter of record that he was a general
practitioner of the modes of crime of his day, a burglar,
confidence man, pickpocket, ballot-box stuffer, and thug.
In 1900 he had broken into the home of the Reverend Mr.
J. C. Petersen of Jersey City. Surprised by the pastor's wife
in the act of robbing her house, he drew his gun and shot her,
the bullet striking her head: but unfortunately for Dugan
she recovered to identify him, and he was sentenced to the
penitentiary for fourteen years. After serving four years,
however, he was paroled.
On October 4, 1904, subscribers to the Jersey Journal read
that Dugan had been arrested in New York for swindling the
People's Bank of Roxbury, Massachusetts, of $500 on a
forged check. Dugan, with the aid of a confederate dressed
as a clergyman, had deposited a forged certified check for
$955 and had persuaded the bank president to permit them
to withdraw $500 cash. (Boston Evening Transcript, October 4, 1904.) At the request of the chief of police
of Boston the chief of police of Jersey City sent a Bertillon
expert to Boston to identify Dugan and to testify as to his
record at the trial, which began October 27. Inspector Watt
of Boston was so surprised to learn on the day of the trial
that deputy sheriffs Frank Hague and Thomas Maddigan
had also arrived to testify to an alibi for Dugan that he wired
for an explanation to Chief Benjamin Murphy in Jersey
City, who gave out a public statement:
This Web version, edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003
They took the risk, for, according to another statement
issued by Chief Murphy the next day, they 'attempted to prove an alibi for Dugan by testifying that they saw him in
a park in Jersey City on a Saturday in August but were not
sure as to the particular Saturday. Their evidence was so
immaterial that they were cross-examined but little.' (Evening Journal, October 99, 1904.)
Inspector Watt of Boston notified me by wire that Frank
Hague and Thomas Maddigan were in Boston, where they will
attempt to prove an alibi for `Red' Dugan, who is charged
with swindling a bank out of $500. Chief Watt told me that
he had Dugan `pat' and that if Hague and Maddigan attempt
to carry out their purpose they run the risk of spending some
time in Massachusetts. (Evening Journal, October 28, 1904.)
| Next |
| Main Menu |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Featured Link |
Text Link Online Advertising Program
A text Link is your business name and a Link to Your Site in bold red text on one Line and a description of your services on the next. The GET NJ network serves thousands of visitors each day!
GRAVE ROBBER Jersey City Computer Repair
297 Griffith Street, Jersey City, NJ - In the Heights just off of Kennedy Blvd. - Very close to Journal Square and Union City, just five minutes away from Hoboken, Downtown Jersey City, Newport, and the Waterfront -
 |
|
|
|
|
|