When The Yeggs Hit Upstate New York

It was late on Wednesday, January 19th, 1910, and Police Chief W. R. Bronner was making his evening rounds through the quiet village of Mohawk, in the town of German Flatts, Herkimer County, NY, making sure all was safe for both business and residents.

Somewhere near the intersection of Main and Washington streets, he encountered four men who engaged him in conversation as they all walked along. Before he could resist, he was relieved of his pistol, gagged, and brought into the Masonic Hall billiard room that the Yeggs had broken into earlier in the evening. Once inside, Bronner was bound with wire taken from pictures on the wall.

The Masonic Hall shared a building with the village post office, so it was a simple matter for the Yeggmen to gain access to that office’s safe. Still bound and gagged, Officer Bronner was given a firsthand seat as the burglars placed explosives and blew open the safe. Surprisingly, no one took notice of the blast, and the Yeggs quickly disappeared with about $200 in stamps and cash. An hour after they had made their escape Chief Bonner was able to get free and sound the alarm. Though a posse was quickly formed, no clues were found to indicate what direction they might have headed.

This unorthodox style of burglary had been going on across the nation for over ten years. The Yeggs, or Yeggman, a name whose origin was as mysterious as the itinerant bandits it referred to. The best explanation is revealed in the story of one John Yegg, though even that leans more towards urban legend than historical accuracy.

The Story of John Yegg

With the colorful title of “the Swedish Desperado,” John Yegg first surfaced somewhere in the Pacific Coast States in the late 1870s. Yet the story truly begins thousands of miles and some 20 years before this time at the laboratory of a world-renowned scientist.

In 1847 the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero synthesized a new explosive, nitroglycerin, one that he found to be both extremely powerful and equally as unstable. Soon the well-known scientist Alfred Nobel began developing the substance as a commercial explosive.

After his brother Emil and several others were killed while manufacturing this highly dangerous chemical in 1864, Nobel moved the operation to an isolated factory near Hamburg, Germany. It took another three years, and several more deadly accidents before a more stable form of this explosive, dynamite was developed by mixing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth.

Soon after the Civil War, the United States government began investigating the use of nitroglycerin for both commercial and military use. Unfortunately, the results of these experiments, published and widely distributed, included successful tests on burglar-proof safes. It is here that the urban legend of John Yegg and the history of those named for him begins.

John Yegg came from one of the western states and was said in his time to have been one of the most experienced and expert electrical mechanics in that part of the country. The story goes that due to excessive drinking, he fell into a life of crime that led from simple robbery to blowing open safes using the slow and tedious process of drilling and dynamite.

Learning of nitroglycerine’s power, and with rough instructions available through government publications, he soon perfected both the method of extracting nitroglycerine from dynamite and an effective procedure for breaking open a safe. Of course, he was more than willing to share his secrets, and soon safe crackers across the country were finding a new level of success in their illegal endeavors.

Before I get into the secrets that John Yegg is said to have so freely passed along, there is another equally important factor that greatly contributed to the success of Yegg and his followers; he lived a life similar to a freight-train hopping tramps. As with other hobos, the Yeggmen had their own vocabulary, much of which was centered around the details of their life of crime. Their main weapon, the revolver was called a “rod” or a “smoke wagon”; the explosive they favored, nitroglycerine became “soup” and the police that were often pursuing them “bulls.”

To successfully pull off their robberies the Yeggs were said to form gangs, sometimes coming together only for a specific job, or more often as groups that gathered around a known and successful mastermind. Gangs of Yeggs were reportedly so prevalent by 1900 that it was estimated over 200 of them were operating in the Midwest alone. A gang usually consisted of two “inside men” who broke into the post office or other business that was being robbed, and two or more “outside men,” who watched out for police or village watchmen.

Additionally, the gang had someone whose job it was to obtain details of the place that they were planning on hitting. This was either a child, called by the Yeggs a “kitten or a “gay cat” if it was an adult member of the gang. The kitten was sometimes disguised as an invalid selling pencils or other small items door to door, to get access to the inside of the building they planned to rob.

One of the main components of being a Yegg was a claim they were disinterested in accumulating wealth and living “high on the hog” from the proceeds of their burglaries. It was said that after a successful robbery, it was not abnormal for a gang to head to a tavern and spend all their loot getting drunk. When a gang had been exceptionally successful, they were known to simply throw the money on the bar and invite anyone present to help drink up the proceeds.

In dress, a Yegg often wore clothes like an average mechanic or day laborer of the time, not the hand-me-down, worn clothing of an average hobo. Yeggs within a gang would not freely give up information, or as they called it “stooling” on the group. In the harsh world of the Yegg, it was not unknown for the gang to kill a wounded member rather than risk the possibility of them giving up information to the police.

Methods and Tools of a Yeggman

Nitroglycerine was rarely available in a quantity that a Yegg needed to open a safe, so the most skilled operator in a gang would extract the nitroglycerine from the inert material in dynamite that made the explosive relatively safe and stable. At a hobo camp along a railroad a fire was built, and then dynamite stolen from a nearby construction project was heated in a can of hot water until the nitroglycerine rose to the top.

It was normally put into a pint or smaller-sized rubber container, though when nothing else was available a household quart jar was used. In glass, the extremely unstable nitroglycerine was prone to explode if shaken or jarred, and the death of one or more of a gang from an unexpected explosion was not uncommon. The chemical nitroglycerine also had another property that added to its danger, the freezing point was around 50 degrees, requiring it to be kept close to the body in cool weather to stay in a liquid state.

Once the inside men broke into a business, commonly a village post office not far from the railroad, the work of preparing the safe commenced. A bar of soap was softened and spread around the edge of the door on the safe, making a channel for the nitroglycerine. At the top, a cup was formed, and the explosive slowly poured in. When the channel was full a fuse was attached, sometimes rugs or heavy blankets spread across the safe to muffle to sound and the fuse was lit.

If all went well the blast opened the safe and any money, stamps, or change was removed. As the safe manufacturers responded to these attacks, new safes were built that sometimes took two or three explosions to open. There was also the chance that too much nitroglycerine was used and the safe, its contents, and the building itself was destroyed.

Once the safe was opened and emptied, the Yeggs would beat a very hasty retreat, often in a stolen wagon or automobile, to the closest passing freight train. If during their flight from the scene of the crime any citizen or police intervened, the gang would not hesitate to shoot their way to freedom.

Even when following the established methods of burglary and blowing safes, there was no guarantee of success. In the autumn of 1895, a group of Yeggs broke into the post office in the Herkimer County village of West Winfield. After blowing the post office safe, the thieves got away with only $10 in cash.

Entering the office afterward, the postmaster was relieved to find that the unlocked money drawer filled with cash and stamps had not been disturbed. The Yeggmen had stolen a horse and carriage for their escape, fled to Ilion, and there boarded a freight train leaving the area.

When Yeggs Hit Fulton County

The spree of burglaries began early in September of 1899 when one night both the store and post office in the village of Charlton, Saratoga County were robbed. A week later the thieves headed west and struck again, this time in the largest city in Fulton County, Gloversville.

On Monday, September 18th two men fled after being seen attempting to break into the post office. Two days later the Standard Oil Company office at the south end of Gloversville was broken into and the safe destroyed in another burglary.

In the process, considerable destruction was done to the office, with walls and windows damaged. The thieves quickly found out that the safe contained less than a dollar’s worth of postage stamps and would have realized it even sooner if they had taken the time to turn the unlocked handle.

The next robbery, in what the newspaper called a “bold piece of burglarizing,” thieves pried open the front door of the Johnstown Beef company’s office on North Perry Street, blew open the safe, destroying it and badly damaging the building in the process. Woken up from a sound sleep, next-door neighbor, Schuyler C. Adams, opened his upstairs window to investigate the explosion.

The thieves responded with threats and followed up by firing shots that split the window frame near Adams’ head. The culprits were again hardly rewarded for their efforts, as the loot consisted of only four dollars in cash and some checks that they were never able to cash.

Allegedly, less than two months later, on a quiet night in late November of 1899, these same Yeggs with the colorful names of Connecticut Blackie, New York Whitie, and Big Jim struck again. This time they snuck into the village of Northville and broke into the local bank. At around 2 am on November 28th Giles Van Dyke, was outside his room at the Northville Hotel when he noticed a light on the other side of Main Street go out, accompanied by the sound of an explosion. He quickly went into the hotel and woke proprietor Robert Brownell with the news.

Brownell must have been unsure what to do as he in turn went down Main Street, away from the bank, and woke up George Hartwell at the Lyon Hotel. The three men then headed back up Main Street. At the bank, the robbery that was in progress was quickly abandoned when the lookout spotted the approaching trio, and the burglars made a quick escape. Hartwell, who had brought along his rifle, fired several shots at the fleeing men without effect.

Only two months later, the gang was arrested on totally unrelated charges in Newark, New Jersey. The men arrested were Henry “Connecticut Blackie” Ogden, Frank “New York Whitie” Lashaway, and James “Big Jim” Murphy, along with one James Anderson, who was described as a “crippled hobo.”

While loitering on a city street corner, the men became engaged in an argument about who was the toughest in the gang. The altercation resulted in Lashaway pulling a revolver and attempted to shoot his companions. Nearby police heard the gun fire and nabbed the four men before they were able to flee. Once in custody, all except Anderson were identified as possible suspects in the Fulton County safe jobs.

The members of this gang were well-known by both local and federal authorities. Of them, Connecticut Blackie Ogden was probably the leader of the band of thieves. Blackie, who went by the alias of Harry Foley or Henry Blake, was a career criminal from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who had served time in places as far away as Montana. While the rest of the gang disappeared from public record after their arrest in New York City, Ogden was again arrested there in 1906.

A group of suspected Yeggs had been under surveillance by a combined force of Pinkerton agents, police detectives, and Post Office inspectors, and when they were brought in they were found to have numerous bottles of nitroglycerine, fuses, detonating caps, and revolvers. The group was under suspicion of safe cracking in New York and Connecticut.

In what could have been his last run-in with the law, Blackie was again picked up in New York City in 1925 during a dragnet by police that pulled in ninety-eight alleged burglars and safe crackers. At the time of his arrest, the 58-year-old Yegg was living on East 122nd Street in South Harlem. The police said that he had a record going back to 1899 and had served time in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.

Only four months before this last arrest he had been released after four years in the Atlanta Penitentiary for robbing a post office on Long Island. Held on a charge of vagrancy and having no visible means of support, Blackie was adamant about his innocence, with this account in the New York Times of January 22, 1900: “I’ve been going straight, making an honest living bootlegging. Selling whisky and beer and getting along fine. Nothing like reform boys.” After being closely examined by the police, who could not find any wrongdoing on his part since his release from Atlanta, he was charged with public intoxication and freed on a suspended sentence.

Yeggs hit Stillwater, again and again

The quiet that had settled over the village of Stillwater, Saratoga County, the night of April 24th, 1905 was shattered at 3 am by a muffled explosion from the vicinity of Lake and Main Streets. Postmaster Frank Stumpf awoke with a start, rose from his bed, and peered out into the darkness to see a faint light in a window of the nearby post office.

His response was quick and decisive, first, he fired shots out his bedroom window, then roused his neighbors by ringing a nearby fire alarm. The three robbers quickly fled toward Mechanicville in a wagon, leaving behind some of their tools and a shattered safe still containing $600 in stamps. Little did Postmaster Stumpf and the village of Stillwater realize that this was just the beginning of Yeggs visiting the village.

It was five years before there was another attempt on the post office. This time the robbers were patient, persistent, and successful. The night before the robbery two men had been seen at the back of the building and were chased off by Frank Stumpf. The next night he kept watch until midnight, finally giving up for the night. A few hours later the thieves struck, this time leaving the safe alone, only grabbing some loose change and a cheap watch owned by Postmaster Stumpf.

The big score from the break-in was made at a nearby business, John Hamilton’s jewelry store. It took three attempts to get into the store, finally entering through a rear window. Taken in the heist were gold rings, cuff links, chains, and watches valued at seven hundred dollars. Even with a good description of the men and the jewelry the thieves were never apprehended. Though not identified directly, the methods used pointed to the perpetrators being Yeggs, safe-cracking hobos who were breaking into post offices across the nation during those years.

The next break-in at the Stillwater Post Office came only two years later, early Sunday morning, April 7, 1912. Strangers were seen in the village in the days before, probably staking out the office to prepare for the heist. The safe was again blown open, this time using nitroglycerine with horse blankets stolen from a local livery to deaden the sound of the explosion. It is thought that the Yeggs fled in an automobile, but no clues were found as to what direction they had gone, and the theft was never solved.

The next attempt in Stillwater

For the next eighteen months after the last robbery, Postmaster Stumpf was watchful and diligent, always on the lookout for strangers and keeping loaded weapons close at hand while he slept. At 2:45 am on a foggy night in early October of 1913, he was again woken by the sound of a muffled explosion at the nearby post office. Following his plan from eight years before, he fired his 54-caliber Springfield rifle at the office’s rear window.

This time the Yeggs returned fire, the shots hitting the window where Stumpf was standing. Fully armed, Postmaster Stumpf responded with several shots from a double-barreled shotgun. Two of the robbers, one wounded in the exchange of gunfire fled empty-handed into the fog, calling back for a companion who did not follow.

When Frank Stumpf was sure that the coast was clear he left the relative safety of his home and made his way to the post office. When he entered, he found a dead man lying next to the empty safe. One of the shots from his Springfield had found its mark, striking the robber in the temple. The Yegg’s identity or that of the others in the gang was never determined.

His description, 170 pounds, black wavy hair, and a floral tattoo on his right arm were passed along to police departments locally and statewide without success. Over the next few days, hundreds of people would pass through to view the remains and hopefully identify the man. Ten days after the robbery the unidentified man was buried in Stillwater’s Potters field.

The same day as this fatal robbery, the Syracuse Herald ran the story on the front page with the headline announcing, “Safe Blower Shot to Death by Postmaster.” The article calls the postmaster “Frank Stunts,” and offers an account of the incident that is both sensational and far different from other reports. The Herald has our postmaster leaving his house immediately on hearing the explosion and having a shootout with two of the men while standing behind a tree, killing one in the doorway. After that, according to the Syracuse Herald of October 7, 1913, the story becomes a narrative in what were purported to be the postmaster’s own words:

“I decided after a bit to charge him, and I did” declared Stunts. “I rushed across towards him, He fired at me once, as I ran at him, then seemingly frightened, turned and scurried away, firing back at me as he went.” The article concluded with Frank’s regret over what had happened, “I am mighty sorry I killed a man. But there seemed no other way for me to do it. I didn’t exactly shoot to kill—I just wanted to injure the men so that I could capture them and turn them over to the police.”

Warren County was not Spared

At 2:30 in the morning on August 10th, 1912 burglars jimmied the front door of the Lake Luzerne Post Office in southern Warren County and once inside, went to work to open the safe. A muffled explosion barely disturbed nearby residents, nor did an automobile leaving the village a few minutes later. When the theft was discovered, the postmaster found a broken safe and the remains of the blankets and coats that were used to muffle the blast.

The only clues were that a chisel and iron bar used on the front door were identified as tools stolen from a business in Washington County. The loot, never recovered, consisted of only $100 worth of postage stamps. The thieves were thought to be Yeggs, safe-cracking hobos, criminals who had been causing mayhem throughout the whole country for nearly twenty years.

It was five years later that Yeggs again hit Warren County, this time a post office in the small village of Bolton along the western shore of Lake George. Breaking in through a window, the thieves took three blasts to tear the door of the four-foot-tall safe, securing at least $100 in cash. When the five men headed towards their automobile to make their escape, they were approached by two occupants from nearby homes responding to the explosions. The Yeggs made it clear that they were armed and would not hesitate to shoot if the men did not back away. The escaping Yeggs, last seen heading in the direction of Lake George, were never captured.

As federal detectives became better equipped to pursue and capture these criminals and safe manufacturers improved their products to thwart their schemes, the attacks on post offices in rural communities greatly diminished. By the 1920’s it was rare when the local paper reported news of a band of these bandits bringing their acts of mayhem to a local community, and the term Yegg quickly fell out of use.

Illustrations, from above: Albany Knickerbocker Press, October 18, 1913, headline “Postmaster Kills Yeggman at Safe;” illustration of Yeggs courtesy September 26, 1900, Montana News; Albany Knickerbocker Press, October 18, 1912, picture of Postmaster Frank Stumpf; Glens Falls Post Star June 29, 1917 “Post office Burglary at Bolton”; and illustration of Yeggs courtesy September 26, 1900, Montana News.