POLICE FIND
ACCOUTREMENTS OF
ROBBER BAND IN HOUSE,
PARK AVE., SO. PLAINFIELD,
WHICH WAS RAIDED
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
FOUR ALLEGED MEMBERS OF
�BUM� ROGERS GANG
LANGUISH IN MIDDLESEX
COUNTY JAIL
Three Taken Into Custody Here; One In
South Plainfield, After Chief McCarthy
Discovers Rendezvous; Explosives, Guns,
Money, Seized by Police
Four members of what is said to be the John
J. �Bum� Rogers gang, one of the most notorious
band of �stickup� men operating in this section of
the country, are in the county jail in New
Brunswick, following a raid upon a house in Park
avenue, South Plainfield, in which they were
making their temporary headquarters, Saturday
afternoon.
The arrested men are William Dwyer, alias
Frederick Edward Spencer, alias George Kent;
Chas. Casaleggi; Walter Legenza alias William
Turner, of Woodbridge, and Frank Sylvester, of 31
Somerset street, North Plainfield. Dwyer, Casaleggi
and Leganza are held under bail of $50,000 each on
a charge of robbery preferred by Chief of Police
McCarthy, and Sylvester, held as a material
witness, is under bail of $3,000.
What is said by the police to be the most
complete equipment of gunmens� paraphernalia
ever seized in a single haul, was found in the house.
Nine revolvers of different calibers, fully loaded,
two sawed-off shotguns, about 20,000 rounds of
ammunition, enough nitro-glycerene to blow up a
whole community and about a half pint of nitric
acid were included in the equipment.
Among other things found in the house was
a canvas bag containing approximately $2,000 in
silver, believed by the police to be part of the loot
taken in the holdup in the Castle�s Ice Cream
Company�s plant on July 6th and several empty
bottles bearing the name of Merck & Co. These the
police believe, identify the men as the gangsters
who robbed the Merck Company�s chemical plant
in Linden on the morning of June 26 last. One of the men, after questioning by Chief McCarthy and Detective Pike of New York,
admitted that the latter had �everything on us,� but
stated that he would rather have his throat cut than
�squeal.�
Officer Mack Gerard while doing traffic
duty at Park avenue and Second street here early
Saturday afternoon noticed a Nash coach turn from
Second street into Park avenue and at once
recognized the license number as one which he had
been asked to look for. The car stopped near The
Plainfield Trust Company, and one of the men got
out and went to Kirch�s hardware store. Gerard
approached the driver, who was unable to give a
satisfactory answer to his question, and immediately
placed him under arrest. This, it was afterward
learned, was the man who gave the name of
Casaleggi. His companion on returning to the car
sensed that something was wrong and disappeared
in a crowd which had gathered. He was later
arrested on the Oak Tree road, South Plainfield.
Casaleggi was turned over to the Middlesex County
authorities and the man caught on the Oak Tree
road, who gave the name of William Dwyer, was
also locked up.
Detective Sergeant Thompson of Rahway
and Detectives Richard Reilly and Roy Martin, of
Elizabeth, were in an automobile on their way to a
restaurant Saturday afternoon when they met the
man who afterward gave the name of William
Dwyer, walking along the Oak Tree road. After
passing him Reilly remarked that the man�s face
was familiar, and the officers turned around and as
they drove toward Dwyer he was noticed throwing
something in the bushes. He afterward approached
the officers and was put under arrest. Among the
papers thrown away by Dwyer was one bearing the
name of Joseph McCann, P.O. Box 1733, Atlanta,
Georgia, who is now said to be serving from three
to seven years in the Federal Prison at Atlanta for
robbing the Perth Amboy post office in the fall of
last year. A number of other valuable papers were
found and a search of Dwyer�s pockets revealed
$712 in cash.
Gerard played another important part in the
round-up of the gang yesterday afternoon while
doing traffic duty at Park avenue and Fifth street,
when a Peerless car carrying another license
number which had been furnished to him, passed.
The officer gave chase and stopped the car at Park
and Prospect avenues. The man driving the car, who
afterward gave the name of William Turner, was
accompanied by his brother, Michael Leganza, the
latter�s wife and her mother and a fourteen year-old
niece. Michael Leganza identified Turner as his
brother, Walter Leganza, and the latter was held and
turned over to the Middlesex County authorities,
while the other members of the party were released.
Walter Leganza was questioned by Police Captain
John J. Flynn, Detectives John Galatian, Roy Martin
and Richard Reilly of Elizabeth, and they said they
were satisfied that he is a member of the Rogers
gang. The car was put in Laing�s garage. One car, a
Lincoln, in possession of the gang, is still missing.
In a statement made to the police of South
Plainfield, following his arrest, Casaleggi stated that
his connection with the gang was merely that of
errand boy. He stated that he was hired by the man
whom he knew only as George Kent, to transport
members of the gang in his automobile at their
pleasure. His rate of payment, he states, was twenty
cents per mile.
His first connection with the gang took place
about a month ago when he met George Kent at a
crap game in the boat house in Perth Amboy. At
that time, according to Casaleggi, the men were
living at 242 Freemans street, Woodbridge.
Casaleggi states that he never at any time saw more
than four men in either the Woodbridge house or
the Park avenue place, but three of the four that he
saw in the latter house he could identify as the same
men that were in Woodbridge, although he does not
know their names.
The house on Park avenue here has been
under surveillance by Chief of Police McCarthy for
the past two weeks. The advance guard of the gang,
two men, arrived there on July 2, and the remainder
in the afternoon of July 6, the day that the Castle�s
Ice Cream Company�s payroll was taken.
The presence of automobiles with
diversified license plates in the immediate vicinity
of the house during the day was one of the first
intimations to the police that all was not right. Cars
with Hudson, Essex, Somerset and Middlesex
counties plates were on the scene daily in addition
to a number from New York State. When the raid
was made, a Rickenbacker car was found in the
garage behind the house on which Casaleggi
admitted that he, together with two mechanics from
New York whom he conveyed from Plainfield
station to the house had been working for the past
three days, when searched, Dwyer, alias Spencer,
had in his possession a bill of sale and a registration
card for the Rickenbacker, showing that he had
purchased it from the Stutz New York Company,
paying $1,000 in cash.
The gang was well equipped with high
speed automobiles, including two Lincolns and a
Peerless car. They were nocturnal in their habits,
seldom leaving the house during the day. Even the
iceman, who supplies that section of the borough,
could not gain admittance, although he stated that
on several times when he tried he knew, however,
that the house was occupied.
Previous to the actual raid, the Plainfield
police had been requested by Chief McCarthy to
cover the home of Sylvester at 31 Somerset owner
of the Park avenue house where the gunmen lived.
Sylvester was the third man to be rounded up. He
was arrested by Chief McCarthy of South
Plainfield, Detective Daniel Gray and Officer
Edward Schroeder, of Plainfield, at his home, 31
Somerset street.
The actual round-up of the Park avenue
premises took place following a conference
between Chief McCarthy of South Plainfield and
representatives of the Perth Amboy, Rahway,
Elizabeth and New York police departments. In the
raid were Chief McCarthy, Officers Ten Eyck and
Hogan of South Plainfield; Chief Smith, Detective
Sergeant Thompson and Officer Albers of Rahway;
Detectives Murray, Petroski and Clooney of Perth
Amboy; Chief County Detective John J. Galatian of
Union County and his assistants, Detectives Roy
Martin and Richard Reilly of Elizabeth.
With a cordon surrounding the house, Chief
McCarthy boldly went to the side door and when no
response came to his knock for admission, he
smashed in the door street, as he was known to be
the [sic] and entered the premises. The other
officers followed immediately, but the house was
unoccupied at the time. A search, however, revealed
the gunmen�s equipment and the other articles
mentioned.
The Perth Amboy police, following
interrogation of the arrested men, are of the opinion
that they can connect the gang with the murder of
James Gallagher, the Perth Amboy bank messenger,
on August 22 last year, when a payroll
approximately $20,000 was stolen.
That �Bum� Rogers, known gang leader, for
whom rewards totaling $5,000 are known to be out,
was in the Park avenue house at different times
during the two weeks� stay of the gang, has been
definitely established by Chief of Police McCarthy.
Rogers was known to have been taken in the early
mornings to New Brunswick in one of the gang�s
automobiles and boarded a train for New York.