Little Rock's Polite Burglar

A serial burglar—referred to as Little Rock’s “Polite Burglar” and “Pet Prowler” in news accounts at the time—committed a series of crimes in Little Rock (Pulaski County) and Texarkana (Miller County) in the summer of 1916. 

The man called George Jacobs in news stories in 1916 was reportedly born in South Bend, Nebraska, around 1880. (Even if this was his real name, census and marriage records indicated that there may have been more than one George Jacobs from South Bend around this time.) He turned to a life of crime at an early age, robbing a store at age sixteen, for which he served ten months in jail. At eighteen, he robbed a store in Forrest City, Missouri, and was sentenced to three years in prison. 

Five years later, he committed “highway robbery” in Lincoln, Nebraska, and received a twelve-year sentence; he escaped from prison after serving four years. After robbing a post office in Acton, Indiana, he was sentenced to two years in federal prison, being released after nineteen months. He then tried to go straight, working for some time in Fort Smith (Sebastian County).  

Jacobs married Velaska Godbolt in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, in 1911 and, apparently after divorcing her, married Kittie Saunders (a.k.a. Kitty Sanders) in Oklahoma City in 1915. 

He had numerous aliases, including Robert McKillips (possibly his true name since it is the one with which he was first imprisoned), George Finley, and Charles J. “Shorty” Williams (he stood about five feet, five inches tall). 

Jacobs came to Little Rock in April 1916 and, between June and August, would be credited with sixteen house robberies, often living outdoors to avoid discovery. He stole money, guns, food, silverware, a violin, and, from the home of Arkansas Supreme Court justice E. A. McCulloch, an expensive gold watch and chain. Some of the burglaries were committed while the residents were in adjacent rooms; after his capture, he told an Arkansas Gazette reporter that “I always worked in two-story houses and seldom ever went to the second floor. That was why I never woke a person while working in Little Rock.” Police “estimated he stole about $3,000 worth of property.” 

Little Rock police determined that Jacobs was indeed the serial burglar they were looking for, and detective James A. Pitcock sent out a statewide circular with a mug shot from Jacobs’s Nebraska incarceration, along with details on his habits, including a remarkable appetite for Coca-Cola. On October 9, 1916, a young boy at a soda shop in Texarkana recognized Jacobs from the circular when he ordered several Cokes at one time. Jacobs was arrested and charged with a pair of burglaries in Texarkana but was turned over to Little Rock lawmen “because more charges were pending against him” in the capital. 

Jacobs was indicted in Little Rock on twelve counts of burglary and grand larceny in late October. He took police officers to several places where he had stashed his loot, and some items were returned to their owners. On November 3, 1916, he pleaded guilty to eight charges of grand larceny and one of burglary and grand larceny, while several other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to twelve years in the state penitentiary. 

He was returned to Texarkana to face four charges of grand larceny and burglary. On November 13, 1916, he was among several inmates who escaped from the city jail but, within an hour, was found hiding in a hay loft near the Iron Mountain Railroad tracks, where he had hoped to jump a freight train after dark. A report said that “he made no effort to escape when found and…is as polite and suave as ever.” He was convicted of all four charges on December 6 and sentenced to eight years in prison. 

Jacobs was sent to the Tucker Prison Farm and served several years before escaping on October 12, 1919, with the Gazette reporting that “‘Little Rock’s Pet Prowler’…lived up to his name when he ‘prowled’ away from the state convict farm at Tucker.” Though the state offered a reward for his capture, there are no reports that he was ever caught. 

For additional information:
“Burglaries Continue.” Arkansas Gazette, December 22, 1916, p. 5. 

“Charlie Williams, Pet Prowler, Held on Twelve Counts.” Arkansas Democrat, October 27, 1916, p. 16. 

“Clergyman Thinks Jacobs Took Horse.” Arkansas Gazette, October 17, 1916, p. 5. 

“Jacobs Implicated Youth in Robbery.” Arkansas Gazette, October 14, 1916, p. 5. 

“Davis Is Held on Bond.” Arkansas Gazette, October 16, 1916, p. 8. 

“Jacobs Confesses to 11 Burglaries.” Arkansas Gazette, October 15, 1916, p. 28. 

“Jacobs Escapes, But Is Recaptured.” Arkansas Gazette, November 14, 1916, p. 1. 

“Jacobs Is Indicted for 12 Burglaries.” Arkansas Gazette, October 28, 1916, p. 8. 

“Jacobs Points out His Hidden Plunder.” Arkansas Gazette, October 12, 1916, p. 1. 

“More Trials for Jacobs.” Arkansas Gazette, November 9, 1916, p. 9. 

“Only 36, and 20 Years a Criminal.” Arkansas Gazette, October 11, 1916, pp. 1, 9. 

“‘Pet Prowler’ of City Escapes from Tucker State Farm.” Arkansas Democrat, October 14, 1919, p. 1. 

“‘Polite Burglar’ Gets Eight Years.” Arkansas Gazette, December 7, 1916, p. 2. 

“Polite Burglar to Pen for 12 Years.” Arkansas Gazette, November 4, 1916, p. 10. 

“Prowler Promises to Return Watch He Got at M’Culloch’s.” Arkansas Democrat, October 11, 1916, p. 7. 

“‘Shorty’ Jacobs Is Again at Large.” Arkansas Gazette, October 15, 1919, p. 12. 

Storey, Celia, “Elusive ‘Polite Burglar’ Baffled Law Authorities.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 14, 2019, pp. 1, 3D. 

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas