wire-tapper

He was a good little runner, and he done his best; but when I breasted the tape I won a quick-claim deed to his loose change, to a brand-new office over a drug-store, and to enough nickel-plated pliers for a wire-tapper.

Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories Rex Ellingwood Beach 1913

He recalled his chance meeting with MacNutt, the wire-tapper, and their partnership of privateer forces in that strange campaign against Penfield, the alert and opulent poolroom king, who had seemed always able to defy the efforts and offices of a combative and equally alert district-attorney.

Phantom Wires A Novel Arthur Stringer 1912

John Larsen, a well-known "wire-tapper," arrested some dozen times within a year or two for similar offences.

True Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office Arthur Cheney Train 1910

Had you passed him in that neighborhood you would have set him down as a wire-tapper, a racing tout, a would-be actor.

Once Upon A Time Richard Harding Davis 1890

"wire-tapper" successfully prosecuted his victim (after he had trimmed him) upon a charge of grand larceny arising out of the same transaction.

True Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office Arthur Cheney Train 1910

Here I can sit in my wireless room with this ear-phone clamped over my head drinking in news, plucking the secrets of others from the sky -- in other words, this is eavesdropping by a wireless wire-tapper. "

The Romance of Elaine Sequel to "Exploits of Elaine" 1908

I thought he was a wire-tapper, working a con game! "

Somewhere in France Richard Harding Davis 1890