3246 RARE CABINET CARD MUG SHOT OF "KING OF CROOKS"

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This item SOLD at 2024 Jul 24 @ 12:33UTC-4 : AST/EDT
Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 200.00 USD
Estimated at 400.00 - 600.00 USD
BARON MAXIMILIAN SCHOENBEIN. This photo taken about 1890 shows the dapper Max Schoenbein, who stole tens of millions of dollars in over 30 year career 1860-1895 and made daring prison escapes. Dwight Grimm wrote a wonderful recent article in the Times Union April 24, 2024 copied here: Foiled in Schoharie: The final heist of dapper bank robber Max Shinburn. The world-renowned criminal aristocrat known as the "King of Crooks" has upstate New York ties. Maximilian Schoenbein — photographed here in the 1890s and known more widely by his most popular pseudonym, "Baron" Max Shinburn — was considered one of the world's most successful bank robbers. His infamous career in the late 1800s figured prominently in upstate New York, where two sensational events unfolded in Saratoga Springs and Middleburgh. Maximilian Schoenbein had already been cooling his heels in prison for eight years when "The Arrest of Arsène Lupin" hit the presses in 1905. Maurice Leblanc's fictional "gentleman thief" is now enjoying his star turn as the inspiration for the popular Netflix series "Lupin", but Schoenbein — known around the globe as "Baron" Max Shinburn — was upstate New York's own criminal aristocrat. Pursued on two continents for 35 years by the legendary Pinkerton Detective Agency, Robert Pinkerton declared Shinburn to be "the greatest bank, safe and vault burglar that has ever been known in police history." The so-called "King of Crooks" would be dethroned in 1895 in the unlikeliest of locations: The Village of Middleburgh in Schoharie County. According to Shinburn biographer, Jerry Kuntz, "Shinburn's arrest for the Middleburgh robbery was the pivotal event in ending his criminal career." Max Shinburn was suspected in taking part in dozens of heists from Buffalo to Belgium in the latter half of the 19th century. The Los Angeles Herald in 1902 tallied his lifetime haul in excess of $5 million — that's about $150 million in today's dollars. The size of the robberies was only part of Shinburn's mystique; his style and elusiveness were the stuff of legend both inside the criminal world and in the press. Crime journalist Herbert Asbury noted in his book "Gangs of New York" that Shinburn was "at heart an aristocrat." The German-born thief eschewed violent confrontation, employing his considerable intelligence to access the banks and their vaults outside of normal business hours. Between burglaries, Shinburn could be found holding court in tailored broadcloth in New York's finest hotels and gaming rooms, charming evening guests in several languages. Few of his fellow citizens would guess the true source of his apparent wealth. When the constabulary did occasionally collar Shinburn, his escapes were equally clever and non-violent. While once handcuffed to an arresting officer, he picked the shackles' lock with a pin as the man slept and disappeared into the night. However brilliant and elusive as Max Shinburn could be, his criminal career would ultimately be book-ended by two sensational events in upstate New York: his public arrest in Saratoga Springs in 1865, and his trial for the robbery of the First National Bank of Middleburgh. Normally a very discreet thief, Max Shinburn's robbery of the First National Bank of Middleburgh went awry for an unexpected reason, sending the notorious crook on the run to New York City. Though born in Germany, Shinburn's professional career began in Troy with an apprenticeship at the Lillie Safe Company in 1860. The young man was so adroit with the mechanics and manufacture of their safes, he was offered a management position. Shinburn declined. He had other ideas for his future — and theirs. East Coast banks equipped with Lillie Safes soon began to find money disappearing. To gain access to those banks after hours, Shinburn mastered the art of "sneaking" — entering the home of a bank employee undetected, locating their keys and making a wax impression of those keys to fashion a duplicate. Once inside a bank safe, he often sowed confusion and obscured his thefts by removing only a portion of a safe's contents. Shinburn's repeated success in the shadows would help push Lillie into bankruptcy within a few years. In 1864, Shinburn entered the Walpole Savings Bank in New Hampshire and absconded with $96,000 ($1.6 million today) in less than 30 minutes. With this handsome score, he returned to New York and attempted to set himself up as a country gentleman in Saratoga Springs. Shinburn became a conspicuous resident of the town's enormous brick Grand Union Hotel on the west side of Broadway. He stayed in the cottages reserved for the society's elite and was a regular at the morning meetings in the so-called investor's room there. In the book "Robber Baron", author Edward J. Gallagher writes that detectives tailing Shinburn described him as "expensively attired, brilliant in conversation with other guests of the establishment", and as someone who "could be found either as a spectator or participant in games at the casino". The police made their move on Shinburn on April 10, 1865 at Saratoga Music Hall. In the pocket of his dinner jacket, police found seven $1,000 bonds for the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad, stolen from the Walpole Savings Bank. They then raided the top floor of his cottage at the Grand Union and uncovered a complete workshop of burglary tools as well as the keys to the vault of the Cheshire County Bank of Keene, New Hampshire, containing $230,000 ($3.8 million today). He was convicted for the bank robbery in New Hampshire, but Shinburn demonstrated that he was as skilled at getting out of prison as he was at getting into banks. In December of 1866, he orchestrated a daring escape from the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord. A string of high-profile bank robberies followed over the next three years. Of that period, Shinburn later wrote in a series of articles for The Boston Herald: "Between that time and the year 1869, I robbed nine out of eleven banks which I attempted, and secured a share in loot ranging from $50,000 to $1,900,000". CONDITION: very good with ink inscription on reverse. PROVENANCE: Martin Lane Historic & Western Americana Lifetime Collection. (02-22029/JS). $400-600.