New Pittsburgh Courier (05/Jan/1963) - Studied Master Criminals: Reading Pays, Cat Burglar Amasses $50,000 at 20
Details
- article: Studied Master Criminals: Reading Pays, Cat Burglar Amasses $50,000 at 20
- newspaper: New Pittsburgh Courier (05/Jan/1963)
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock
Article
Studied Master Criminals: Reading Pays, Cat Burglar Amasses $50,000 at 20
Educators put a lot of stress on reading as a means of self-improvement but Nassau County Police came close to condemning this normally laudable activity when they learned that a recently accused "cat-burglar" had amassed some $50,000 in jewelry with the help of constant references to the printed word.
The accused was Meredith Earl Reynolds, 20, who gave his address as 14 W 102 St., Manhattan, and his occupation as a mechanic. Police decline to call him a scholar but admit that his superior technical knowledge placed him above the usual cat-burglar.
Favorite Reading
Reynolds' favorite reading, according to the police, was on on the lives and legends of master criminals. He especially studied their mistakes and events leading up to their capture.
The police report that reader Reynolds' research did not end with the glamour or pathos of the men he is accused of emulating but extended into the less interesting but very practical and technical areas of the trade — how to tell real, expensive jewerly from the costume stuff.
Apparently the slender, handsome young man read well, for the police estimate an overall average of $10,000 per job was taken from some fifty homes on Long Island's north shore gold coast.
Recent weeks have been filled with the officials trying to reconstruct the more than half a hundred break-ins Mr. Reynolds is accused of having committed, some with the help of two previously arrested young women. Unofficially, it is rumored, that they are rushing the whole operation in order to be finished before the emissaries from Alfred Hitchcock arrive on the scene.
