Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a burglar; thus swell cracksman, a superior burglar.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1812		Vaux Memoirs in McLachlan (1964) 77: Our society was increased by several new chums before the sessions, and as these persons were some degrees above the common class of thieves, I found much satisfaction in their conversation. There were indeed among them some of the first characters upon the town, leading men in the various branches of prigging they professed; both toby-gills, buz-gloaks, cracksmen, &c., but from their good address and respectable appearance, nobody would suspect their real vocation.
1819		Westmorland Gaz. 6 Feb. 8/2: Among them [were] leading men in the various branches of prigging [...] toby-gills, buz-gloaks, cracksmen.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 279–80: The motley assemblage of female street-drabs, cracksmen* and fogle-hunters. [* Cracksmen (Burglars), Fogle-hunters (Pickpockets)].
1827		Monitor (Sydney) 31 Dec. 8/2: [A] cracksman, who introduced himself uninvited into a private house in Pitt-street, and was marching off with a bundle of valuable property, until commanded to halt by the Police.
1833		‘The Slap-Up Cracksman’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 42: Coves that have as cracksmen plied, / Coves that have by beaks been tried.
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV 89: The other class (swell cracksmen) are altogether another kind of beings.
1840		Sydney Monitor 27 Mar. 4/2: [T]hey joined chorus to the cant words of ‘Nix my Dolly, palls, fake away,’ (an old cracksman’s song of the last century).
1840		R. Barham ‘Lay of St. Aloys’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 243: Your cracksman, for instance, thinks night-time the best / To break open a door, or the lid of a chest.
1845		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Oct. 57/4: ‘I could bear to see a “cracksman,” though he were a bosom friend, “pinched” for life’.
1846		Bell’s Life in Sydney 11 July 4/1: [headline] The Cracksman’s Gang.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 209: It was a clean operation, and worthy, in a professional point of view, of a first-class cracksman.
1856		G.L. Chesterton Revelations of Prison Life I 98: A ‘cracksman,’ the ‘professional’ term for a housebreaker.
1856		[Charles de Boos] ‘Stockman’s Daughter’ in People’s Advocate (Sydney) 11 Oct. 6/1: ‘A pretty set of cracksmen you are, to want to put a pal out of the way because he’s scratched; why, blow me, the shabbiest cly fake in all London would be ashamed of you’.
1863		Leader (Melbourne) 12 Dec. 14/1: [W]e never find a man who has become expert as [...] a ‘snakesman’ usurping the province of a ‘cracksman,’ which thieves’ English, being interpreted, means that a man who steals a living by carrying off goods exposed at a shop door will not be found guilty of housebreaking.
1867		H.L Williams Ticket-of-Leave Man 13: It was a frightful hit [...] ‘Now,’ said the cracksman, ‘she’s got her dose, and it’s no more than she deserved.’.
1875		Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis, IN) 26 Jan. 6/2: He has enacted the role of a cracksman or coneyman in all the states.
1876		Williamston Chron. (Vic.) 8 Jan. 3/6: [T]he real burglar – who was known to the fraternity as ‘Bill the Cracksman’ – had a revolver in his breast pocket.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 223: That’s one of the cleverest gentlemen cracksmen out.
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie I tab.II ii: Two well-known cracksmen, Badger and the Dook.
1886		T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 A gang of ‘breakers’ made many thousand dollars last winter robbing post-office and store safes in all parts of the country. Their manner of operating demonstrated that they were expert cracksmen.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 17 Aug. 1/4: Enterprising burglars [...] have taken to burglarising in a swallow-tail coat and a chimney-pot hat [...] we have a dress suit in good condition, which would suit a gentleman just commencing as a ‘cracksman’.
1891		J.A. Riis How the Other Half Lives 229: Eighteen ‘professional crackesmen,’ between nine and fifteen years old, who had been caught with burglars’ tools.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 8 Apr. 4/8: The interesting statement of a London cracksman who recently said, ‘Sometimes when you break into a place [etc.]’.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 14: I was nodding, as though we had been fellow cracksmen all our days.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 28 Apr. 1/1: The recent mail boat robberies are the work of an extensive organisation [...] the marine cracksmen are often assisted by stewards on various steamers.
1906		New Boys’ World 29 Dec. 100: I was one of the best cracksmen in London once.
1907		Arrow (Sydney) 19 Jan. 5/4: Cracksman Jim broke in, crib-cracking was his lay, / Reached the hall, saw Robert’s boots, and gasped, ‘A rozzer! Here’s a go!’.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 147: He is a positive genius, ’pon honour, he is — the bally Napoleon of cracksmen.
1917		Blue Mountains Echo (NSW) 27 Apr. 3/6: ‘Cracksman’ is long out of date, - in the best circles of roguery they speak of a ‘yegg,’ a ‘second-storey man,’ or a ‘screwsman’ .
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 241: I’ll just give you a little demonstration [...] of how our swell cracksmen over the water open safes.
1926		Truth (Perth) 27 Feb. 8/3: [T]here has been a steady influx of interstate cracksmen into Victoria, chiefly because the other capitals have been getting a bit too hot for them.
1931		W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 35: Cracksmen assembled to blow a safe had the appearance of dandies gathered for wafers and tea at some function of splash society.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 40: The ‘Tin-Can Gang’ were the cleverest cracksmen operating at the time.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 130: There is always a chance of a cracksman having a try for that valuable pearl necklace.
1967		F. Sargeson Hangover 87: By profession he’s a tank-artist [...] That’s what they used to call a cracksman.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 29: I’d not ruled out the possibility that an underworld cracksman had deftly screwed the peter and lifted the family sparklers.

2. a safebreaker.

1897		Eldridge & Watts Our Rival, the Rascal 62: The same expert has shown also how swift and irresistible the application of high explosives may be in the hands of cracksmen of the first rank.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 45: Old Red had been a cracksman for twenty years. [Ibid.] 69: Danny and I were the first cracksmen to discover the use of nitroglycerine for bank work.
1934		Nottingham Eve. Post 6 Mar. 11/3: Cracksmen in South Brisbane succeeded [...] in blowing the door of a safe.