(erielack) Erie Railroad Police Activity, 1910

["James Sponholz" <jsponholz_@_hotmail.com>]

I have recently had the opportunity to review some old issues of Erie 
Magazine. One of the items that show up frequently around 1910 is the 
monthly activity report of the Erie Railroad Police. Other than a complete 
lack of "train photographers" put in irons, the 1910 offense list probably 
isn't much different from what Special Agents encounter today. The following 
list - just the facts - comes from May, 1910:

Number of Arrests and Offenses:
320 - Train Riding
25 - Vagrancy
45 - Drunk & Disorderly
18 - Trespass
  5 - Carrying Concealed Weapons
  9 - Breaking & Entering
  3 - Burglary
69 - Larceny
12 - Malicious Mischief
  6 - Assault
13 - Receiving Stolen Property
  3 - Stoning Trains
  4 - Suspicion
  4 - Drinking on Pass. Trains (Ohio)
  1 - Insane
  1 - Contempt of Court
  1 - Perjury
  1 - Deserter from US Navy
  1 - Shooting with Intent to Kill
541 - Total

Disposition:
534 - Convictions
138 - Prisoners Fined
74 - Prisoners Sent to Jail
18 - Sent to the Penitentiary
21 - Held for Grand Jury
200 - Sentence Suspended
33 - Discharged with Reprimand
  5 - Discharged
19 - Probation Officer
  6 - Sent to the Reformatory
  1 - Sent to the Asylum
  1 - Turned Over to US Authorities

Number of Fares Collected	 25
Amount of Fares Collected	$29.02
Amount of Fines Paid		$886.05
Other Money Collected		$61.30
Value of Property Recovered	$500.25

Time to be served - 19 years, 10 months, 25 days

Arrests By Division:
127 - Meadville Division
110 - Mahoning Division
105 - Delaware, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Bradford, Tioga, Jefferson & Wyoming 
Divisions
89 - Buffalo, Rochester and Niagara Falls Divisions
72 - New York Division
38 - Chicago & Erie

An example of the sorts of offenses follows:

"Tossing pig iron from trains on the Niagara Falls Branch, with intent to 
steal, caused Lawrence Nowacki, 15, and Nagalus Kalowski, 16, to fall into 
the hands of the probation officer, and others may be arrested. Conductor 
Healey, at the East Buffalo, NY depot, reported to two Erie officers May 1 
that a gang had thrown about two tons of pig iron from some passing train. 
Going to the point indicated, near the N & C bridge, they saw the thieves 
piling up the iron. Giving chase, they succeeded in catching Nowacki, who 
later implicated Kalowski. One and a half tons of the iron was recovered."
====================================
Arresting reading!

Jim Sponholz
Milwaukee, WI
ELHS #3246

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