The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-10-13
A FORGER'S DOOM.
w. a.. GILMAN SURRENDER AND
PLEADS GUILTY.
Had Inv estments and ExtravaEanee
the Cause of his Ruin-An Al
fecting Scene In COurt-Sen-
fenced TO Sing Sing for
Five Years at
Hard Labor.

New YORK, October l2-Wllllam y.
Gilman, the forger of insurance scrip,
who was indicted by the grand jury yes
terday, surrendered himself to-day and
appeared before Recorder Hsckett, where
be plead guilty and was sentenced to five
years in the State prison.
Gilman's counsel read statement, IN
which Gilman says that decline IN
| business, bad investments, hesvy e1-
pen ses, both business and domestic, and
personal extravaganza had betrayed him.
He loved better to give away money
than TO spend it on himself. His thoughts
and interests were moro with charitable
works. He himself was 10 blame for the
expenses at home and in business. His
wife never persuaded him 10 any ex-
travagance. From the time he began
business he had placed in his
hands by friends who trusted him
implicitly sums OF money ranging from
$1,000 to $4,000 on interest at per
cent. He never speculated or lost or
won any money by any wager. de
made investments in enterprises which
promised well, but ali turned out bad.
Long possession of the money OF his
friends made him look upon it rs his own,
and his losses and expenses caused en-
croschments on it. Times grew worse,
and the failure Of the Sun Mutual In
surance Company and the necessities OF
other companies impaired his confidence
in everything but the Atlantic, and COM
petition for that had carried prices so
high as To leave no margin Tor proht,
and had made his commissions thor
oughly inadequate to meet the scale OF
expenses on which he was doing business
and living. Prior TO the panic OF 1873
he had made improper use OF the trust
| funds under the pressure OF declining
| business, and the troubles of tnat year
had involved him in additional losses.
| After that time he must have put forth
| the first raised certificates. He had suf.
tered IN thinking of his business and IN
| abusing the confidence OF his friends.
Hoping that the next step would e1trl'
cate him, he plunged deeper and deeper.
He had not sold any OF the fraudulent
securities, but had borrowed on them.
he alone was responsible for the
very wrong act, and no human being
even had d suspicion OF it. Suicide has
been much in his thoughts. Gllmsn's
statement was addressed to his brothers
and sisters, who lose $4,000 by his oper-
ations, to the Rev. DR.. Houghton, his
brother-in-lsw, and Rector of the Little
Church Around the Corner, and other
| friends. The scene was exceptional. The
counsel who read the paper did so with
a trembling voice. Mr.. Lane, who fol-
lowed, was also deeply affected, and said
that Gilman left his wife at home on the
verge OF insanity.
District-Attorney Phelps, with tesrs
pouring down his cheeks and with
choking uttersnce, said he had known the
prisoner, and this was the saddest case ne
ever had anything TO do with.
Recorder Hscket IN passing sentence
was much atfec.ed and wiped away u
tear. The detectives turned their backs
upon the tesriul spectacle and hurried
Gilman TO the coach in waiting and
drove to his office, which he leaves this
evening convict tor Sing Sing for five
wears NJ hard labor.