Mexico weekly ledger., 1877-01-11
COUNT Won BORG"
A ~ScOundreI Who Has Syvindled Hum
dreds of People i'm Kentucky.

Ao w. ~AAS i
For four or five years past a man
known by as many different names as
he has visited different localities, has
made a practice of going about Ken
lucky, swindling honest people out of
various sums of money by telling them
fine stories and gaining their conf
dence. He has usually passed himself
off as al exiled foreigner, and often gave
the name and title of "Count Won
Borg" but has passed himself under,
perhaps, a hundred names, and told
equally as many storiessef his origin,
fortune, misfortune and aims in life.
His mode of deception is of the boldest
kind, and, although he perpetrates his
evil deeds in near proximity, and is
published by all the papers in the land,
and is even arrested and imprisoned at
times, yet he manages to 70 from one
vicinity to another, and "confdences'
one victim after another, without losing
much time. A majority of those who
have fallen a prey to his schemes are
farmers. He will go into a county, in
quire in what neighborhood the best
farms a be found, and learn the own
ers' names. He then goes to look at
the land and asks the price. He always
pronounces himself delighted with the
situation, and thinks the price a reason
able one. He usually tells that he is an
exile from some distant country, but
that the Consul or some n
else has a large amount of
money belonging to him, and that
he wishes to purchase as much good
land as possible. He borrows a horse,
and in company with his host goes
through the neighborhood, looking at
all the blooded stock, and buying such
Us he likes. In the meantime he gets
numerous "square meals'' and other
good treatment. He sets q day for pay
ment, but before the time arrives uc-
ceeds in borrowing more or less money
of his newly made friends, ostensibly
for immediate use in having his money
forwarded, the deedsto the land drawn,
or something else, and gently takes his
departure.
Certain parties in the counties of JET
f~erson, Henry, Marion, Boyle, Jessa-
mine, Madison, Fayette, Bourbon Che
was recently in Bourbon), and else
where, doubtless remember him. He
has been in jail in Louisville, Lebanon,
Danville, and other towns He has
been published in the COa4rier-JournGl,
Lexington Press, Lebanon ~Stamdnrd,
Danville Adv0cate, Richmond Register,
Lancaster Letter, Paris True Ken
tucktan, and many other papers. After
all this notoriety, he continues his IA
vorite pastime. He is near five feet ten
inches high, and weighs about 40
pounds. He wears a full suit of short
dark or brown whiskers, and has dark
| hair Ha SHtnnfImaS wa0rl pplOraH
glasses, but whether from necessity or
otherwise is not known.
An officer of the United States Army,
who is a friend of the associate editor
of this paper, writes the following o.
corning Hoffman, alias Won Borg:
FORT COLUMBIA, n. Y. H., December
s, lS76.+ 4 = So, our old acquaintance,
the Count Won Borg,' has turned up
again? 1t is most strange, as you say that
he succeeded in victimizing people so often
in the same manner and in the same vicin-
ity, when he has been published so often.
Ii 1t is the same man | know (and l do not
doubt that it is), my first knowledge of'him
commenced in 1869, when he was a private
soldier under the name of Hoffman, in Com
pany A, 10th Infantry, afterward trans
terred to Company f, from which he was
discharged al Nashville, Tenn, on account
of mental idiosyncrasies (probably ~feigned),
which rendered him unsafe to trust with a
loaded musket. A few years after he ap-
peared as a purchaser of real estate, some
where in the vicinity Of Nashville, for which
he gave orders on Mr.. John Ruhm, then
German Consul at Nashville, representing
that Mr.. Ruhm had a large sum of gold in
fr.m Germany. He was arrest
ed for this little game, I think;
at all events, some proceedings
were had, and he was discharged on a com
mission of lunacy. In about q year or so L
struck his trail again at Louisville, Ky,
where he was arrested for %swindling, hav-
ing purchased farms from two or three par
ties in the vicinity and appointed a meeting
in Louisville to make payment and receive
conyeyances, also to marry a daughter of one
of them. They all came in at the appoint
ed time with their wives and families, and
by locating them at different places he play
ed them OF for several days, until it leaked
out, and he was arrested and sentenced by
Judge Hop Price to one year in Bear
grass A long account of this transaction
was published in the C0urieT-JournaL MAY
or June, 1872, | think). / went to sec
Judge Price about him, and informed him
of the antecedents of the man, and he told
me that, in consideration Of his having
been declared q lunatic in Tennessee,
If | would procure a record of that matter,
and Hoffman would promise to leave the
State. he would procure his discharge; but
as there appeared to be so much ''methOd
IN his Madness / took no further action.
Up to this time [ believed him insane. The
next L knew of him was u repetition of the
same s%Windling in Richmond, at which place
the papers were all made out by Judge Bur-
man,, for the purchase OF q large estate in
Madison County. After the exposure of
which he came into our camp at Lancaster,
and | sent for him and told him if he did
not leave that section Of country within six
hours he would get a taste of Lancaster dis
cipline that would Go him good. He left. A
few weeks after l heard of him somewhere
down on the Louisville and Nashville Rail-
road, where he had again -patronized a
couple of gentlemen in the purchase of
their farms, and appointed a meeting, to
which they came in the evening. The
formalities were postponed until the next
morning, but, ''when Aurora with her
golden fingers ope'd the portals of the
DAWN - the eminent exile from the land of
"sauerkraut'' and s'Iager beer'' existed
only as a memory and a dream. This was
the last I heard Of him until the receipt of