JOSEPH WHALEN

Alias: JOE WILSON

Specialties: BURGLAR, SHOPLIFTER

No: 65 Last Displayed: 11/1/2013

Description:

Twenty-five years old in 1886. Born in United States. Medium build. Married.Height, 5 feet 6 3/4 inches. Weight, 143 pounds. Brown hair, blue eyes, sallow complexion. Wears black mustache. Has a scar on right temple, another on corner of left eye.

Record:

JOE WHALEN, alias WILSON, is a clever shoplifter, and is well known in all the principal Eastern and Western cities, having formerly lived in Chicago. He was arrested in New York City on November 21, 1883, for shoplifting. He was arrested again in New York City on August 25, 1885, in company of George Elwood, alias Gentleman George (114), a desperate Colorado burglar, with a complete set of burglars' tools in their possession. When the detectives searched their rooms in Forsyth Street, New York, they found considerable jewelry, etc. Among it was a Masonic ring engraved "Edson W. Baumgarten, June 25, 1884." This ring was traced to Toledo, O. In answer to inquiries about the same, Chief of Police Pittman of that city sent the following telegram: "Hold Elwood and Wilson; charge, grand larceny, burglary, and shooting an officer." The circumstances were as follows: On August 13, 1885, masked burglars broke into Mr. Baumgarten's house in Toledo, 0., and being discovered in the act of plundering the place fired several shots at the servants and escaped. An alarm was raised and the police started in pursuit. Coming up on Elwood, the officer demanded to know what was in a bag he was carrying. He said, "Nothing of much value-take it and see." The officer took the bag to a lamp near by, and when in the act of examining it, Elwood shot him in the back and escaped. Whalen and Elwood were taken to Toledo on August 29, 1885, to answer for this and a series of other masked burglaries in that vicinity, in almost all of which there was violence used. They were both tried there on December 12, 1885. Elwood was found guilty, and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary at Toledo on December 19, 1885. Wilson was remanded for a new trial, as the jury failed to convict him. Elwood hails from Denver, Col., and is a desperate man. Whalen was formerly from Chicago, but is well known in New York and other Eastern cities. These two men committed several masked burglaries, generally at the point of the pistol, in Cleveland, Detroit, St. Paul, Milwaukee, and St. Louis. Whalen, or Wilson, was tried again in Toledo, and found guilty of grand larceny on May 5, 1886, and sentenced to five years in State prison at Columbus, 0., on May 15, 1886, by Judge Pike, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Lucas County, Ohio. See record of No. 1 14. Whalen's picture is an excellent one, taken in 1883.