Table Of ContentThe Fence
THE FENCE
In the Shadow of Two Worlds
DARRELL J. STEFFENSMEIER
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
PUBLISHERS
,
Erin daughter and friend
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Published in the United States of America in 1986
by Rowman & Littlefield, Publishers
(a division of Littlefield, Adams & Company)
81 Adams Drive, Totowa, New Jersey 07512
Copyright © 1986 by Rowman & Littlefield
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Steffensmeier, Darrell J., 1942-
The fence.
Bibliography: p. 287
Includes index.
1. Receiving stolen goods— United States. I. Title.
HV6658.S72 1986 364.1'62 85-23752
ISBN 0-8476-7494-0
ISBN 0-8476-7495-9 (pbk.)
86 87 88 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Chapter
1 Introduction 1
Sam Goodman 1
The Approach 2
Corroboration and Generalizability 4
Significance of Study of Sam Goodman 8
The “Fence” 9
Objectives 11
2 Sam s Place Among Fences 13
Fence: One Type of Criminal Receiver 13
Fencing as a Criminal Career 16
Suppliers: The Production of Stolen Goods 25
Outlets: The Distribution of Stolen Goods 33
3 Getting Into Business 36
Growing Up 36
After-Work Burglary Clique: Initiation 40
Secondhand/Antiques Shop: Legitimate Business (Almost) 45
4 Setting of Sam s Business 61
Sam s Place of Business 67
5 Buying Stolen Goods 80
Risks for Thief and Fence 81
Pricing Norms of Thieves 85
Character and Integrity 89
Risk and Market Demand 91
Time and Convenience 92
Competition 93
Normal Economic Dealing Does Not Fit
Fence-Thief Situation 94
6 Sales and Profits 108
Fence-Buyer Dealings 108
Contents
VI
Operating Costs 115
How the Fence Makes Money 118
Sideline Illicit Enterprises 124
Sam s Profits Reconsidered 126
7 Covering and Corrupting 129
Methods Available to the Police 130
The Front 133
Proving Receipt and Knowledge 136
Proving the Goods are Stolen 141
Complicity of Law Enforcers 147
8 Making Contacts 157
The Network 157
Connecting with Thieves 165
Connecting with Buyers 172
Spider Web: Interlocking Fencing Network 177
9 Qualifications for Success 187
10 Sam Takes a Fall 208
Trial and Sentencing 210
Factors Contributing to Sam s Fall 212
Climate of Reform in American City 218
11 Rewards of Fencing 220
12 Rationale: The Fence and Society 237
The Fence Isn’t a “Thief’ 238
Only Non-Sinners Can Cast First Stone 249
Public-Police Involvement in a Criminal System 255
13 In Perspective: The Making of a Fence 257
Being Willing: Is Fencing Subjectively Acceptable? 257
Being Able: Is Fencing Objectively Possible? 258
Appendix
Images of the Fence’s Role in Property Theft 263
Bibliography 287
Index 293
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to many people who have contributed to this document in
one way or another. I thank the scholars who read parts or all of the manu
script: Emilie Allan, Gilbert Geis, Don Gibbons, Gary Faulkner, Miles
Harer, Carl Klockars, Roland Pellegrin, Don Shoemaker, Lisa Sherlock,
R. H. Steffensmeier, Robert Terry, and several anonymous reviewers.
For help with the typing I want to thank Barbara Harry, Susan Mann,
Rita Kline, Debbie Shade, and Betsy Will. Thanks, too, to Glenn and
Claire Krieder for much needed help with the university computing and
word processing system. I am particularly grateful to Barbara Johnson for
superb transcribing of tapes and field notes, to Barbara Minard for consis
tently fine editing, and to Mary Simmons of Rowman & Littlefield for her
final editing touches. I also want to thank several research assistants who
provided invaluable help in so many ways: Jane Boehm, John Kokenda,
Kim Law, Mary Petruska, Peggy Phelps, and Carol Williams.
In addition, I wish to thank Frank Clemente, who used his position as
chairman of the sociology department at Pennsylvania State University
to foster efforts such as this, both through personal encouragement and
some financial assistance. The Liberal Arts Research Office at Penn State
also provided some financial assistance, for which I am grateful. I also
thank the Pennsylvania State University for providing a sabbatical leave
that enabled me to complete much of the field interviewing for the study.
Very special thanks are due to the many “informants” who made this
document possible. I offer here confidential acknowledgment to Bogart,
Chubby, Cecil, Dorothy, Larry, Mickey, Rocky, Squirrel, Steelbeams,
and Tommy as well as to two very special couples: Jesse and Bernice,
John and Clare. Some others who participated but preferred no public ac
knowledgment, not even a confidential one, to them I simply say
“thanks.”
Most important, of course, is Sam himself. This book uses him as an ex
emplar of a kind, but in many ways he was a collaborator as well. He
taught me much, for which I am grateful.
viii Acknowledgments
Thanks, too, to Renée, for putting up with it all, and for much listening.
I appreciate her confidence in this venture.
And, a giant thank you to Erin who wished her Daddy didn’t have to
make so many out-of-town trips to see “bad’’ people and who greeted him
so enthusiastically when he returned. This book is dedicated to her.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Sam Goodman
This book is about the world of the “fence”— the dealer in stolen goods. It
is based on the experiences of “Sam Goodman” (the pseudonym of a real
fence) and on the observations of persons who did business with him; it is
a study of how crime is woven into the fabric of society, of how thieves
and fences rely on all of us “law abiding citizens. ” It is, in effect, an analy
sis of contemporary society, since the fence and his social world are a
reflection of the state of the larger society.
I first met Sam Goodman, a white male, nearing sixty years of age,
through the recommendation of several burglars I had been interviewing
as part of a research project on the topic of female criminality. “Talk to
Sam, ” they advised, “He’s an ‘old head/ knows his way around if anybody
does.” I did interview Sam— in January of 1980 in the Midstate Peniten
tiary where he was serving a three year prison term for receiving stolen
property. During this interview, in questioning Sam about the types of
crimes women commit and the criminal roles they play, I found my inter
est shifting to questions about Sam himself, his life and his colorful crimi
nal career. And hence this book was born. Since then, I have regularly in
terviewed and studied Sam, even after his release from prison in the
summer of 1981 and on into the present period.
At the time of his arrest on charges of receiving stolen goods, which led
to his incarceration at Midstate Prison, Sam was probably the best-known
fence in the city (hereafter American City) where he practiced his illegal
trade. Here Sam drifted into fencing on a part-time basis in the early
nineteen-sixties and then graduated to a large-scale dealership during the
late sixties and mid-seventies. (Sam describes his criminal career as well
as his eventual drift into fencing in chapter 3, Getting Into Business.)
At present, Sam has settled in a mid-sized city about eighty miles from
American City where he has reestablished himself as a legitimate dealer
in secondhand goods and antiques. He has not completely abandoned the
The Fence
2
fencing, but it is small-scale compared to what it once was. Very recently,
indeed in the spring of 1984, Sam again was arrested for receiving stolen
goods, prompting this response:
^ The charges are gonna be dropped. My lawyer is handling that. But
it is costing me a pretty penny. Really, this is it. Tm gonna pack it in
for good, go strictly legit. The dealing I’m doing now is nickel and
dime anyway, not like it was in American City. See, I don’t have the
contacts here, and, with my record, there are too many hassles. ^
Whether Sam will really ‘ pack it in,” remains to be seen, since he cau
tiously vouchsafed similar intentions to reform during his imprisonment
at Midstate. At that time, Sam told me:
^ My aim when I get out is to pack in the fencing altogether. Open up
a little secondhand shop but run it strictly legit cause I always made
good money from just the legit side. That’s not a hundred percent,
now, ’cause you never know what you can fall into, how you’ll re
spond on the outside. But I am going to get away from American
City, too many temptations. I’m gonna open up elsewhere. ^
Because Sam’s career as a fence was in fullest bloom in the early and
mid-seventies, the book focuses more on the conditions of that time pe
riod. Furthermore, because Sam has not completely abandoned fencing
and because he maintains contacts with thieves and fences and, hence,
has access to current activities, I use the present tense in presenting my
analysis while maintaining the past tense when quoting from Sam’s per
sonal account.
In order not to endanger my security, Sam’s security, and the security
of others, I have changed the names, dates, and certain details so that nei
ther Sam nor his associates can be identified by what is written here. I
have also rearranged the order of many of Sam’s statements and have
edited his prose to remove the false starts and repetitions common to
speech, but annoying in print.
Also, I have “cleaned up” Sam’s language in the document, with the ex
ception of chapter 3 in which Sam offers a firsthand account of the events,
people, and turning points that shaped his life and his eventual drift into
fencing. I also leave intact the language of Sam’s associates whose com
ments I occasionally footnote in the document. The flatness of perspective
in writing style that is evident in my analysis juxtaposes the colorful com
ments of Sam and his associates, so that the book is an engaging as well as
informative document.
The Approach
I approach Sam’s dealership in stolen goods and describe his fencing in
volvement as akin to that of any legitimate occupation or business. There
are, after all, many similarities between a legitimate business and a fenc-
