Sergeant Curran Helps To Capture Slick Safecracker Hiding In Town-This Day in Norwood History-July 14, 1939

And Wanted In Both South And West

Sergeant Nicholas Curran Nabs Alex Jerone For Robberies

Two highly respected rooming houses in Norwood housed a dangerous and one of the slickest safe crackers of the south and middle-west during the past six months without suspecting his criminal character.

Sergeant Nicholas Curran of the Norwood police department and Lieutenant William Delay of the State police were highly commended this week for their work in tracking down and paving the way for the capture of Alex Jerone and two accomplices wanted for a series of robberies in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the south, and a number of safe cracking jobs in Brockton and other cities within Greater Boston.

Jerone had boarded at one of the Norwood rooming houses under the name Allan Christy and the other under the alias Jerry Colby. Each time he moved from the houses mysteriously.

Many of those who got to know him personally were shocked to hear that he was a notorious gun-toting cracksman, as his smooth and polished manner and neat dress belied his unlawful occupation. Attempts Escape After five and a half months of investigating and attempting to corner the elusive bandit and his two accomplices, Sergeant Curran finally learned that they were heading toward Hyannis from Norwood.

The registration number of the car was quickly sent over the teletype enabling police of Cape Cod district to capture Jerone. A dramatic scene occurred in the Norwell State Police Barracks early Friday morning when Jerone fought his way to a window and attempted to jump through it. The prisoner was subdued after Sergeant Curran and several other officers present pulled out pistols.

The three bandits were brought to Dedham jail where they are awaiting trial. Sergeant Curran says that Jerone was one of the cleverest cracksmen to invade this state in years. As a decoy, he had one of his accomplices drive around in his automobile, and Sergeant Curran says that he often trailed the car for 150 miles a night in the hopes that it would lead to the leader, Jerone, but to no avail. He gave several stories of his reasons for being in town, one that he was a night worker at one of the Boston piers.

Sergeant Curran says that Jerone left the first rooming house because one of the attendants disobeyed his strict edict to keep out of his room. He became alarmed when the attendant admitted that she threw a small pile of papers in the incinerator and that she heard several loud reverberations a few minutes later, which proved to be exploding bullets.

After facing trial for the robberies in this state Jerone will be extradited to other states to face trial for the crimes he committed here.

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)