1895 “Lansingburgh Slim” headline from Rome Daily Sentinel
“LANSINGBURG SLIM”
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BELIEVED TO HAVE HAD A HAND IN ROBBING THE VERNON BANK.
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He is Now in Albany Penitentiary Under the Name of Sullivan—When Released He Will be Rearrested—He Was Identified by a Little Falls Man.
The sheriff’s department of this county believe they have succeeded in locating another member of the gang of burglars who robbed the Vernon National Bank.
Three members of the gang were captured in Little Falls, immediately after the robbery. They have all been tried in the court of sessions and sentenced to 15, 9 and 5 years respectively in Auburn prison. The two who got the lighter sentences, Murray and Farrell, were tried in Rome. The third man, Thornton, was sentenced at Utica on Tuesday.
There was evidence produced on these trials that two men were at a hotel at Lenox Basin the day after the burglary, who took dinner there and dropped a package containing due stamps. It was proven that similar stamps were taken from the bank.
One of the witnesses for the people was Theodore Van Alstine, a Little Falls saloon keeper. He identified the defendants as having been in his saloon a day or two after the burglary, and that two other men came in and talked with them who answered the description of the men seen at Lenox Basin.
FOr a long time the sheriff’s officers have been working on the case, trying to find those two men. They concluded that one of them was “Lansingburgh Slim,” a criminal, who, it was shown on the trials, was a habitue of cheap lodging house in Albany frequented by the defendants.
They set to work to find him, and discovered that he is serving a term in Albany county penitentiary under the name of Sullivan, for a minor offense.
A sheriff’s officer went to Albany and took Mr. Van Alstine with him to see if that gentleman could identify the prisoner. Mr. Van Alstine did so and was certain that Sullivan was the man who talked with Murray, Thornton and Farrell in his saloon.
Since then Justice Griswold and Vernon has issued a warrant for Sullivan’s arrest on the charge of being implicated in the burglary. The warrant has been lodged at the penitentiary, and as soon as Sullivan’s term is out he will be rearrested and taken to Vernon for examination.
Rome Daily Sentinel. June 20, 1895: 2 col 6.