JOHN HOPE

Alias: WATSON

Specialties: MANHATTAN BANK BURGLAR

No: 19 Last Displayed: 4/25/2024

Description:

Thirty years old in 1886. Born in United States. Single. Stout build. Height, 5 feet 9 inches. Weight, 160 pounds. Brown hair, blue eyes, round face, light complexion. Scar about one inch long over left eyebrow.

Record:

JOHNNY HOPE is the son of old Jimmy Hope (20), the celebrated bank burglar, now in State prison at San Quintan, Cal., for burglary. He branched out as a pickpocket, and was arrested for that offense in New York City in 1877. He is known in several large cities in the United States, and is considered a clever burglar. Hope was arrested in New York City on February 18, 1879, for the robbery of the Manhattan Savings Institution, corner Broadway and Bleecker Street, New York, which occurred on October 27, 1878. He was placed on trial in the Court of General Sessions on June 12, 1879. He was convicted, and sentenced to twenty years in State prison, for robbery in the first degree, on July 18, 1879. His case was appealed up to the highest court, and confirmed. He was taken from the Tombs prison in New York to Sing Sing prison on February 3, 1881. The other parties implicated in this robbery were Patrick Shevelin, the watchman of the bank; William Kelly, old Jimmy Hope, Abe Coakley, Pete Emerson, alias Banjo Pete; John Nugent, and Eddie Gearing, alias Eddie Goodie.</br></br><a href="http://nightstick.azurewebsites.net/post/Bank-Heist.aspx" style="color:#A7753A; font-weight:bold">THE MANHATTAN SAVINGS INSTITUTION</a> was, on the morning of Sunday, October 27,1878, robbed of securities to the amount of $2,747,700, of which $2,506,700 are registered in the name of the Institution, and are not negotiable, and $168,000 are made payable to it, and $73,000 are in coupon bonds and $11,OOO in cash. This was no doubt the largest bank robbery that ever occurred in this country. Fortunately nearly all of the bonds and securities were registered in the name of the bank. The United States Government and the Legislature of the State of New York came to their rescue, and ordered new bonds and securities to be issued, thereby reducing the loss from nearly $3,000,000 to less than $20,000, the larger part of which was in money.</br></br>Hope's picture is an excellent one, taken in February, 1878.