Police Chief Cornelius J.
McCarthy, head of South Plainfield�s
police department, for the past 13 years,
has had a colorful experience as a police
officer and has effected the capture of
many notable criminals.
Trained in the Plainfield Police
Department, where he served under the
late Police Chief Patrick S. Kiely, Chief
McCarthy has successfully combined
brains with brawn to the sorrow of
murderers, bandits, burglars and other
criminals who thought they would be
safe in a small country community.
Perhaps the most notable
roundup of desperate criminals which
was staged by Chief McCarthy was the
capture in July, 1926 of four members of
the Merck Criminal Gang, who were
connected with the Bum Rogers outfit.
Bum Rogers himself narrowly escaped
being captured.
The Chief located the gang�s
rendezvous in a house in Oak Tree
Road[*], South Plainfield. After it was
raided and the bandits -- who were
identified with the robbery of drugs
valued at several thousands of dollars
from the plant of Merck & Company in
Rahway -- were captured, a veritable
arsenal of revolvers, sawed-off shotguns,
tear gas and steel mesh vests, was
discovered.
The gang even had scientific
books dealing with the opening of safes.
Members of the gang also were
convicted of the hold-up and murder of a
driver of an ice cream wagon in Perth
Amboy, from whom a large payroll had
been stolen. All four of the men were
given long term prison terms.
Another outstanding event in
Chief McCarthy�s police career was the
capture of two notable criminals who
had escaped from two Plainfield police
officers after they had been arrested for
a payroll hold-up job.
The two men escaped from the
late Lieut. Maurice Higgins and Sergeant
Dennis O�Keeffe, now retired, after they
had blackjacked Higgins and threatened
to shoot O�Keeffe, who were taking
them to Police Headquarters in an
automobile after they had been arrested
in the West End. Chief McCarthy
arrested the men a few hours after they
had escaped from this city.
With but a few men to aid him,
Chief McCarthy was worked unceasingly -- sometimes 24 hours at a
stretch -- to make important arrests and
otherwise preserve order in his domain.
Until South Plainfield was
separated from Piscataway Township a
few years ago[**], Chief McCarthy was
head of the police department for the
entire township, which covered a wide
area and included besides South
Plainfield proper, New Market, Stelton
and Arbor.
[CLARIFICATIONS]
*The hideout was on Park Avenue
**March 1926