RUFUS MINOR

Alias: RUFE PINE

Specialties: BANK SNEAK

No: 1 Last Displayed: 11/22/2023

Description:

Forty-eight years old in 1886. Born in United States. Married. No trade. Stout build. Height 5 feet 5 inches. Weight,160 pounds. Brown hair, gray eyes, round face, dark complexion. Very bald. Has a clerical appearance at times. Can grow a heavy beard (dark brown) in a short time; generally wears it when committing crime, and removes it shortly after. Has a dot of India ink on the back of left hand.

Record:

RUFE MINOR, alias PINE, is no doubt one of the smartest bank sneaks in America. His associates are Georgie Carson (3), Horace Hovan (25), Johnny Jourdan (83), Billy Burke, alias "Billy The Kid" (162), Johnny Carroll, alias "The Kid" (192), Emanuel Marks, alias Minnie Marks (187), Big Rice (12), Mollie Matches (11), Billy Flynn, Big Jim Burns (165), Charley Cummisky, George Howard, alias Killoran and other clever men. He is a very gentlemanly and intelligent man, and is known in a number of the principal cities. He is no doubt one of the best generals in his line; he comes of a good family, and it is a pity he is a thief. Minor was arrested on March 23, 1878, at Petersburg, Va., in company of George.Carson, Horace Hovan, and Charlotte Dougherty (Horace's wife), charged with the. larceny of $200,000, in bonds and securities, from the office of James H. Young, No. 49 Nassau Street, New York City, on January 2, 1878. They were all brought north, on a requisition, but no case was made out against them, and they were discharged He was arrested again in New York City on November 14,1880, with Johnny Jourdan and Georgie Carson, charged with the larceny of a tin box containing $8,500 in money and $56,000 in. bonds from the vault of the Middletown Savings Bank, at Middletown, Conn., on July 27, 1880. Horace Hovan, who was previously arrested in this case, was taken to Connecticut. Minor, who was not identified, was held in New York City, charged with being the party who stole $28,000 in bonds from a safe in the office of Merritt Trimbal, in the Coal and Iron Exchange Building on Courtlandt Street, New York, on October 15, 1879. The bonds were found in possession of the Third National Bank of New York City, having been hypothecated by a notorious bond negotiator and insurance agent. No case was made out against Minor, and he was discharged. Rufe Minor and Billy Burke are credited with obtaining $17,000 from the Commercial National Bank of Cleveland, O., in the fall of 1881. Burke was arrested in this case in Buffalo, N. Y., but Minor escaped. Minor was no doubt the principal man in the following robberies: the First National Bank of Detroit, Mich., $3,200; the Middletown National Bank of Connecticut, $73,500; Bank of Cohoes, N. Y. (attempt), $100,000; Brooklyn (N. Y.) Post-office robbery, $3,000; Providence (R. I.) Gas Company robbery, $4,000; Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company's vaults, at Philadelphia, Pa., $71,000; Rufus Rose Insurance Agent's safe, at Albany, N. Y., $3,800; the Safe Deposit vaults on State Street, Boston, Mass, $25,000; the Bank of Baltimore, Md. (bonds), $12,000. Minor was also credited with sneaking $114,000 in bonds from the Erie County (N. Y.) Savings Bank, on April 30, 1882. The bonds were returned to the bank by a well known Baltimore lawyer, who received $25,000 for them. He was arrested again in New York City on June 25, 1883, and delivered to Marshal Frey, of Baltimore, for the larceny of $12,000 in bonds from the Bank of Baltimore. on September 25, 1882. For this he was tried and acquitted by a jury on November 1, 1883. Minor and Johnny Price were arrested in Boston, Mass., on February 1, 1884, and given one hour to leave the city. He was arrested again in New York City on June 28, 1884, for the authorities of Augusta, Ga. Minor, Price and Billy Coleman sneaked a package containing $2,700 in money from a bank safe in Augusta, Ga. Billy Coleman and Price were arrested two days afterward, tried, convicted, and sentenced to seven years each in State prison, on May 7, 1884. Minor was taken to Augusta and discharged, as he could not be identified as the third. party in the robbery.He was arrested again in New York City on January 12, 1886, charged with the larceny of $130 from the pocket of one Samuel Henze, in the office of the "Evening Journal," in Jersey City, N. J. He gave the name of William Jackson, and was taken to New Jersey by requisition on January 17, 1886. In this case he was tried in the Hudson County (N. J.) Court, and acquitted on April 21 1886. Minor's defense was an alibi. See records of Nos. 9, 25, and 83. Rufe Minor's picture is an excellent one.