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Dan Noble

Dan Noble
DanNoble.jpg
Born 1846
England, United Kingdom
Nationality English-American
Other names Daniel Dyson
Occupation Criminal
Known for English-born thief, burglar and pickpocket in the United States during the 19th century.

Dan Noble, also known as Daniel Dyson, (1846-?) was an English gentleman burglar, confidence man, sneak thief and pickpocket active in the United States during the mid-to late 19th century. One of the most notorious criminals in New York City, he was involved in several major robberies in the post-American Civil War era. Among his exploits included the daylight robbery of the Royal Insurance Company in 1866 and was an alleged participant in the theft of $1,000,000 from industrialist Rufus L. Lord arraigned by George Leonidas Leslie in 1876.

Dan Noble was born in England and immigrated to the United States in 1857, when not yet properly into his teens. His parents followed shortly after and his father opened a on the corner of Twenty-Fourth Street and Ninth Avenue. It soon became a popular spot for thieves, burglars and other underworld figures, where Noble became closely associated with the "Long Doctor", "Big" Jack Connolly and Johnny Murphy under whose tutelage he was encouraged to enter the trade himself. In his first attempt at burglary however, he was caught trying to rob a house on East Twenty-Third Street, and had in his possession nippers, a jimmy and a skeleton key. Although these were the tools used by an experienced thief, it was later found that the 15-year-old Noble had borrowed the tools from an elderly thief who was boarding with his father. Because of his youth and lack of a criminal record, as well as some outside influence, the charges against him were dropped.

Noble continued to be involved in burglary, but eventually became a butcher as he reached adulthood. Although he was successful in this trade, he was drawn back into crime after becoming acquainted with a group of "till-tappers", Jimmy Price and brothers Fred, Scott and George Newton, whom he later joined. After a time learning under them, he returned to burglary and also pickpocketing. He felt more comfortable as a pickpocket apparently believing the activity to require less skill and provided lower risk for arrest. He typically targeted young women, as well as men on occasion. "He considered it required less skill, less adroitness, and less nerve to slip his fingers into a woman's pocket, and secure the contents, than to jump into a basement and scurry off with whatever he could catch.".


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