Rudy, I remember, spoke of one old white man who paid a black couple to let him watch them
have intercourse on his bed. Another was so "sensitive" thathe paid to sit on a chair outside a
room where a couple was-he got his satisfaction just from imagining what was going on inside.
A good burglary team includes, I knew, what is called a "finder." A finder is one who locates
lucrative places to rob. Another principal need is someone able to "case" these places' physical
layouts-to determine means of entry, the best getaway routes, and so forth. Rudy qualified on
both counts. Being sent to work in rich homes, he wouldn't be suspected when he sized up their
loot and cased the joint, just running around looking busy with a white coat on.
Rudy's reaction, when he was told what we had in mind, was something, I remember, like "Man,
when do we start?"
But I wasn't rushing off half-cocked. I had learned from some of the pros, and from my own
experience, how important it was to be careful and plan. Burglary, properly executed, though it
had its dangers, offered the maximum chances of success with the minimum risk. If you did your
job so that you never met any of your victims, it first lessened your chances of having to attack or
perhaps kill someone. And if through some slip-up you were caught, later, by the police, there
was never a positive eyewitness.
It is also important to select an area of burglary and stick to that. There are specific specialties
among burglars. Some work apartments only, others houses only, others stores only, or
warehouses; still others will go after only safes or strongboxes.
Within the residence burglary category, there are further specialty distinctions. There are the day
burglars, the dinner-and theater-time burglars, the night burglars. I think that any city's police will
tell you that very rarely do they find one type who will work at another time. For instance
Jumpsteady, in Harlem, was a nighttime apartment specialist. It would have been hard to
persuadeJumpsteady to work in the daytime if a millionaire had gone out for lunch and left his
front door wide open.
I had one very practical reason never to work in the daytime, aside from my inclinations. With my
high visibility, I'd have been sunk in the daytime. I could just hear people: "A reddish-brown Negro
over six feet tall." One glance would be enough.
Setting up what I wanted to be the perfect operation, I thought about pulling the white girls into it
for two reasons. One was that I realized we'd be too limited relying only upon places where Rudy
worked as a waiter. He didn't get to work in too many places; it wouldn't be very long before we
ran out of sources. And when other places had to be found and cased in the rich, white residential
areas, Negroes hanging around would stick out like sore thumbs, but these white girls could get
invited into the right places.
I disliked the idea of having too many people involved, all at the same time. But with Shorty and
Sophia's sister so close now, and Sophia and me as though we had been together for fifty years,
and Rudy as eager and cool as he was, nobody would be apt to spill, everybody would be under
the same risk; we would be like a family unit.
I never doubted that Sophia would go along. Sophia would do anything I said. And her sister
would do anything that Sophia said. They both went for it. Sophia's husband was away on one of
his trips to the coast when I told her and her sister.
Most burglars, I knew, were caught not on the job, but trying to dispose of the loot. Finding the
fence we used was a rare piece of luck. We agreed upon theplan for operations. The fence didn't
work with us directly. He had a representative, an ex-con, who dealt with me, and no one else in