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THE GENTLEMAN WAS A THIEF by Neil Hickey

THE GENTLEMAN WAS A THIEF

By

Pub Date: July 10th, 1961
Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Known as the American Raffles, Arthur Barry's gem robberies in the '20s kept the police, insurance companies -- and Jewel-owners, concerned, confused and baffled. This is the story of how he went from Worcester, Massachusetts, to New York and there perfected his second story techniques, evaded alarm systems and watch dogs, and led a double life for, as Arthur Gibson, he was a familiar of Tammany's Monogahela Club and made his way into social circles. The Donahues, Hitchcocks, Rockefellers and Livermores were among his ""clients""; he knew all the diamond exchanges as well as the terrain of Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester and New Jersey; he worked with an Insurance detective at one time; most of his crimes were unsolved -- and unpunished. His confession, to keep the woman he loved from publicity, landed him in jail and his escape from the Auburn State Prison set off a riot. He lived several years with his Anna (who was dying of cancer) but the Lindbergh kidnaping search gave him away and, after serving 19 years, he was paroled, with other charges against him suspended, and returned to Worcester where he still lives. As remarkable a career as that of The Man Who Sd the Power (see P. 441) but far more human for all his exploits.