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Police mug shot of James Kane.

Source:

"James Kane," Chicago Daily News, March 26, 1908, p. 1.

The Cab-Hold-Up Affair / 4

The Bandits

The three hijackers were 19-year-old James Kane and his friends John Simonds (alias "Red" and "Toughey") and Robert O'Brien.

Kane was accused of robbing two men in 1906 but the case was dropped for "lack of prosecution", suggesting that his accusers did not appear in court. In any case "the booty secured from the alleged robbery was insignificant."

John Simonds had served time in the state reformatory at Pontiac, Illinois.

Their evening started innocently with a family party at the home of John Kane, the brother of James. After the party broke up James Kane and his two friends escorted Kane's mother, Mary Kane, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. Edward Kane, to their homes. Mary Kane was a frail woman who had recently broken her arm.

Kane, Simonds and O'Brien then went out again. They met up with two 17-year-old girls, Mary Dolan and May Cox and "started on a tour of merrymaking, in which considerable liquor was consumed."