The Right Way to Do Wrong (8 page)

CHECKER BOARD CIPHER

The method of using numbered squares is sometimes called the checker-board system, and with this method, you can arrange almost any code in the world, using any article, places, or characters, as you simply use the checker board as your guide, and arrange everything accordingly.

It is possible to hold a conversation by knocks on the
walls of cells, but in America, where they seldom have solid walls in prisons or station houses, it is sometimes used by holding up figures and spelling out the words, although the deaf and dumb alphabet is far better, but harder to learn. I mean by that, it can't be learned in the first lesson, while with a chart, this checker board is a very easy matter. Criminals have their own hieroglyphics, in fact you will find secret signs and marks in almost every path of life.

Although you can find a great many ways and means of deciphering secret codes, the most reliable rules and those that will enable you to read any of the common cyphers used in the English language, are as follows: First find out which letter, number, or character is used most frequently, which you can set down as being one of the vowels. The letter “e” is used more than any other letter. The vowel used the least is the letter “u.” You can also place “y” with your vowels as that letter will be certain of being used many times and often will denote the end of a word.

In the words of three letters, there are most commonly two consonants, such as: the, and, not, but, yet, for, why, all, you, she, his, her, our, who, may, can, did, was, are, has, had, let, one, two, six, ten, etc.

The most common words of four letters are: this, that, then, with, when, from, here, some, most, none, they, them, whom, mine, your, must, will, have, been, were, four, five, nine, etc.

The most usual words of five letters are: there, these, those, which, while, since, their, shall, might, could, would, ought, three, seven, eight, etc.

Words of two or more syllables frequently begin with
two consonants or with a prefix, that is, a vowel joined with one or two consonants. The most common double consonants are: bl, br, dr, fl, fr, gl, ph, pl, sh, sp, st, th, tr, wh, wr, etc., and the most common prefixes are: com, con, de, dif, ex, im, in, int, mis, par, pre, pro, re, sub, sup, un, etc. The two consonants most frequently used at the ends of long words are: ck, ld, lf, mn, nd, ng, rl, rm, rn, rp, rt, sm, st, xt, etc., while the commonest terminations are: ed, en, et, es, er, ing, ly, son, sion, tion, able, ence, ent, ment, full, less, ness, etc.

The vowels that are used most frequently together are “ea” and “ou.” The most common consonant at the ends of words is “s,” and next in use will be “r” and “t.”

Any time two similar characters come together, they are most likely to be the two consonants “f,” “l,” or “s,” or the vowels “e” or “o.” The letter that precedes or follows two similar characters is either a vowel or “l,” “m,” “n,” or “r.” In deciphering, begin with the words that consist of a single letter, which will be either “a,” “i,” or “o.” Then take the words of two letters, one of which will be a vowel. Of these words, the most frequent are: an, to, be, by, of, on, or, no, so, as, at, if, in, it, he, me, my, us, we, and am.

In making use of a cypher, it must be understood that the longer the message is, the easier it is to decipher. And the message should be written without any space with all the letters close together. This will make it much more difficult to decipher.

To give you an idea of how important the letter “e” is in all writings, the following inscription over the Decalogue in a country church runs as follows:

PRSRVYPRFCTMNVRKPTHSPRCPTSTN.

It is stated that this was not read in over two hundred years, but if you will insert the letter “e” in a good many spaces, you will be able to read, “Preserve, ye perfect men; ever keep these precepts ten.”

Merchants use words of ten letters for their trade or secret marks, but they are very simple to read. All you have to do is to get the worth of their prices for a few of their articles, and before you have six figures, you can read the rest as easily as the merchant or clerks themselves. Some of the words that I have known to be in actual use are French lady, with lucky, fishmarket, etc.

It is as well to say here that the methods shown in my articles are not by any means a complete compilation. I have only collected some of the best methods and trust that it will repay the reader to study one or the other, as you can never tell when it may come in handy to give your friend or assistant some secret sign or gesture which your enemy will not understand. Some future day, I shall publish all the silent codes that I have met and those that are being made use of by second sight artists, but for the present moment, I trust this effort will suffice.

THERE IS AN UNDER WORLD—A WORLD OF cheat and crime—a world whose highest good is successful evasion of the laws of the land.

You who live your life in placid respectability know but little of the real life of the denizens of this world. The daily records of the police courts, the startling disclosures of fraud and swindle in newspaper stories are about all the public know of this world of crime. Of the real thoughts and feelings of the criminal, of the terrible fascination which binds him to his nefarious career, of the thousands—yea, tens of thousands—of undiscovered crimes and unpunished criminals, you know but little.

The object of this book is twofold: First, to safeguard the public against the practices of the criminal classes by exposing their various tricks and explaining the adroit methods by which they seek to defraud. “Knowledge is power” is an old saying. I might paraphrase it in this case by saying knowledge is safety. I wish to put the public on
its guard, so that honest folks may be able to detect and protect themselves from the dishonest, who labor under the false impression that it is easier to live dishonestly than to thrive by honest means.

In the second place, I trust this book will afford entertaining, as well as instructive reading, and that the facts and experiences, the exposés and explanations here set forth may serve to interest you, as well as put you in a position where you will be less liable to fall a victim.

The material contained in this book has been collected by me personally during many years of my active professional life. It has been my good fortune to meet personally and converse with the chiefs of police and the most famous detectives in all the great cities of the world. To these gentlemen I am indebted for many amusing and instructive incidents hitherto unknown to the world.

The work of collecting and arranging this material and writing the different chapters has occupied many a leisure hour. My only wish is that
The Right Way to Do Wrong
may amuse and entertain my readers and place the unwary on their guard. If my humble efforts in collecting and writing these facts shall accomplish this purpose, I shall be amply repaid, and feel that my labor has not been in vain.

HARRY HOUDINI,
Handcuff King and Jail Breaker.

INCOME OF A CRIMINAL

People of respectability and inexperience, who have no knowledge of the criminal classes, usually imagine that every criminal is a hardened villain, incapable of even the ordinary feelings of family affection, and that of necessity the professional crook, thief, or burglar is uneducated and ignorant.

In fact, nothing could be more remote from the truth. Do you see that well-dressed, respectable-looking man glancing over the editorial page of the Sun? You would be surprised to know that he is a professional burglar and that he has a loving wife and a family of children who little know the “business” which takes him away for many days and nights at a time.

You meet a grave and benevolent-looking gentleman on a railway train; perhaps he shares your seat and interests you by his brilliant and intelligent conversation. You little suspect that he is at the head of a gang of the most expert bank burglars in the country.

As a matter of fact, some of the brightest brains and keenest minds belong to professional criminals. They live by their wits and must needs keep those wits sharp and active. Not that I would have you think that all professional criminals go about in the guise of gentlemen. There are all grades of culture and lack of culture in the various nefarious callings of crime. The sneak thief and the burglar may and often does look the “hard citizen”
he is; but you will never find him lacking in a certain kind of quick wits and a certain kind of brain power. So highly organized is the machinery of the law and police protection in our modern civilization that one of the first requisites for success as a professional criminal is brains.

DOES IT PAY TO COMMIT CRIME?

This is a question I have often asked the chiefs of police and great detectives of every country in the world. How great are the money rewards of evil doing? Does a “good” burglar have an income equal to that of a bank president? Can a pickpocket make more money than the fashionable tailor who makes the pockets? Is a gambler better paid than a governor? Can a shoplifter make more money than the saleswoman? In fact, does it pay to be a criminal, and, if so, how great is the reward for evil doing?

I am aware that it is the general impression, considered simply as a matter of profits, that the professional criminal is well paid. He gets something for nothing; therefore you would say at a first glance that he must be rolling in wealth.

Many people who get their ideas of criminals from novels and story papers, for instance, imagine a gambler as a man who always has a roll of bills in his pocket big enough to choke a horse, as they say. No doubt, also, the histories of sensational coups as reported in the daily press are chiefly responsible for this false impression. But such colossal frauds and robberies are rarely the work of professional criminals. They are usually perpetrated by men whose previous good character has placed them in
positions of trust. Men who have led honest lives, when temptation came along and on paper they figured out that they could not lose—why, they stole and fell—into the clutches of the law. Disgraced, they are ruined for life, often ruining all their family. It is a terrible thing to have the finger of fate point at you with the remark, “His father is serving time for doing so and so,” or “Her brother is now in his sixteenth year, and comes out in five years.”

Such humble criminals as the area sneak thief, the porch and hallway thieves, and the ordinary shoplifter may be dismissed with a few words; their gains are miserably small, they live in abject poverty, and after detection (for sooner or later they are detected) they end their lives in the workhouse.

“If I could earn $5 a week honest, I'd gladly give up ‘dragging' [shoplifting],” said a thief of this type to a New York detective; “but I can't stand regular work, never could; it's so much easier to ‘prig' things.” No avarice, but simple laziness keeps these thieves dishonest.

More lucrative are the callings of the counter thief, the pickpocket, and the “buzzer” or watch thief. Of those the pickpocket wins the largest returns. A purse hunter who knows his work would think he had wasted his time if he did not make $5 on an evening stroll. Race meetings and fairs may bring him in $100 to $150 a day, but: an average day's makings amount to only $8 to $12.

The passing of bad money, as everyone knows who is behind the scenes in criminal life, is a very poorly paid “industry,” while the punishment risked is heavy. In England the “snide pitchers” or “shovers of the queer,” as they were called, used to buy the counterfeit coins at so much a dozen, and, working in pairs, pass them out in shops.

Highwaymen, robbers, and hold-up men sometimes make big hauls, but their careers are short. Into their brutal hands pass many a diamond pin or ring, many a gold chain, worth $20 or $25, even at melting-pot prices of some dishonest goldsmith. Happily for society, these ruffians are speedily brought to book and their ill-gotten gains are dearly earned. There is a thieves' proverb which runs, “A six months' run and the hook (thief) is done.” The garrote and hold-up men have far shorter lease of liberty and frequently fall into the clutches of the law within a day or two after release from prison.

Both burglars and confidence men may make big coups occasionally, but their income is precarious. The burglar is at the mercy of the “fence,” as the receiver of stolen goods is called, and realizes only a small part of the actual value of his pelf. I suppose a burglar would be considered very successful if he made $3,000 a year actual profit. The “fence” has much larger opportunities and his voracity is well known. A detective friend was well acquainted with one who made as much as $5,000 a year for several years and finally shot himself to avoid arrest. Another “fence” actually amassed a fortune, but his wealth did not prevent him from dying miserably in prison.

The truth is, that a life of dishonesty may pay at first when you are not known to the police, but when an offender once falls into the hands of the ever-watchful police he begins to be a well-known customer. He now pays dearer and dearer every time he is brought up for trial. His brief spells of liberty are spent in committing some crime that once again brings him back to the prison, so when you figure out the sentences he has to
serve, why, his honest gains are contemptible compared to such awful penalties …

In order to put a finish to this chapter, it can be said that IT DOES NOT PAY TO LEAD A DISHONEST LIFE, and to those who read this book, although it will inform them “The Right Way to Do Wrong,” all I have to say is one word and that is “DON'T.”

PROFESSIONAL BURGLARY

The professional burglar is a man of resources and daring. He has usually had a long training in criminal pursuits. A good burglar is a man who knows how to keep his own counsel and is very careful how he tells his plans to any one else.