The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-09-10
AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.
How q Broker Was Induced to Sign
q Five-Hundred Dollar Check.
4 Charge Of Blackmail---The Defaulting
Treasurer Of Peru, Ind.
An Alleged Attempt to Compel His Wall
Street Broker to Refund S5OO-A
Strange Story in Which De-
tective is Implicated.
New YORK Times.l

Several weeks ago James G. Goldsmith,
the defaulting treasurer of the city of Peru,
Ind, was arrested at the Revere House, in
Broadway, at the request Of the authorities
of that place. Detective Shelley and an
other headquarters officer captured him in
the liquor stors of the hotel, with the aid
of a photograph. He at first denied his
identity, but finally acknowledged himself
to be the fugitive and guilty treasurer. A
requisition was sworn out by the State au-
thor1t1es of Indiana, and Goldsmith was
taken thither by Detective Shelley. Before
leaving New York he confessed that his de-
falcation was mainly due to imprudent Wall
street speculatlons, which he had entered
into by mail from his provincial home.
Among the brokers with whom he claimed
to have dealt were T. Potter Wight 81 Co.,
No. 35 Wall street. Of the $1,000, which
about made up the sum of his defalcation,
$1,000, he said, passed through their hands
as his stock buying agents. On Goldsmith's
return to Peru, his bondsmen made his def
c1encles good, and he was released. Mr..
Wight says that when Detective Shelley re-
turned from Peru, that officer visited him at
his Office in Wall street. Mr.. G. B. Ashley,
of No. 70 Cedar street, civil counsel to the
firm, was present at the interview. Shelley
said he had been requested to inquire into
the commercial standing of the firm of
Wight d Co. He was furnished with inform
alton which he seemed to consider satisfac-
tory, and went away. A few days
afterward he called again, but IN
a different frame of mind, according to ac-
counts Mr.. Wight says the detective
- Il a.
way, threatening to break up the firms
business, because 1t was not playing q
square game" and evidently seemed bent
on cleaning OUT the place anyway. He
was dissuaded from this, however, and went
away far from being Modified. Not many
days after this person giving the surname
of Mercer appeared at the office of Wight &
Co., and said he wanted to invest $50 in
stock speculations. As the amount was too
small, the firm refused to do business for
him. On the following day the same person
called on Lawyer Ashley, at his office in
Cedar street, and asked for Mr.. Wight, but
the latter was not there. Mr.. Wight claims
that the whereabouts of his counsePs Office
was not told to the man Mercer by any one
in his employ, and he, therefore, wonders
how he found it out, A few days after this
visit to Ashley, or on August Is, the follow
ing advertisement appeared in a morning
paper:
Parties doing business with T. Potter Wight
s Co., No. IS Wall street, should address w.
Mercer, No. 1G One Hundred and Fifth street.
In the same issue of the paper, and, in
fact, IN every issue OF the paper since there
appears in another column another adver-
tisement announcing that w. Mercer is a
private detective, doing business at the
address given above. Superintendent Wal
ling was notified mat It WIS an evident at
tempt at blackmaii, but he told Counselor
KNITTING, who acted for Mr.. Wight, that he
cnnl6 hrinp Marcar 10 task aa n n GRIM
inal charge had been preferred against him.
On the I'D OF August, Mr.. Wight received
The following letter at the hands of a mes
senger, who, he claims, on the testimony Of
his clerk and janitor, was accompanied by
Detective Shelley and directed to the office:
DEAR sR-The cause OF action of William B.
May, of st. Louis, Mo-, against you has been
transferred to me. 1 hereby give you notice
such proceedings as may be necessary to COL
lect the same. You must be aware of your
liability in consequence of your mode of doing
business. 1t is my intention to probe this
thing to the bottom, and from the Information
which have received within the past few
days of your modus operandi, think can do
50 ~i'noo' o''A0oi'y tS15s sau T. HUNTER.
First District Court, corner of Center and
Chambers streets, New York.
Counselor Knitting says ne sent for Hun
ter and also inquired about his standing in
the court to which he professed to belong.
He was told by Clerk Hogan that the man
amounted to little or nothing, and had no
official connection with the court. Mr.
Knitting then informed Hunter that it was
known he wanted to extort money under
false pretenses, and advised him to give up
the matter as bad job. Hunter, the coun-
selor says, left his office at once, and has not
been heard from since. All this simply
serves to throw light on what follows. On
Thursday night, while Mr.. Wight and two
ladies were returning from some place of
amusement to their home in Madison
square, they were followed by two men 80
closely that the men were at the top of the
front steps almost as sooD as themselves, and
managed to force their way into the house
when the door was opened. They boldly
followed the ladies and gentleman up stairs
to the second floor. One of the men took
his station at the head of the stairs, the
other followed Mr.. Wight into the
parlor. He asked if Mr.. Wight was
in. Mr.. Wight denied himself, as he
says, on account of the advertisement above
mentioned. He finally came to the conclu-
sion that it would be better to acknowledge
his identity at once. The man then said
81 am Goldsmith, of Peru" Mr.. Wight
said he did not have the pleasure of his
acquaintance except by letter, and desired
to know what object brought him to his
house at that hour. Goldsmith, or whoever
he was, said he called In connection with a
stock account of year ago, wherein he lost
heavily. Wight reminded him that that
account had been closed in September, 1878.
Goldsmith then began to act in an incoherent
manner. He stormed about the room, pro-
claiming his wrongs at the hands of
brokers and lottery men. He had laid
himself open, he said, to long term in the
State prison for his oHenses in the West, all
for the purpose of supplying money to
Eastern spectators, and his bondsmen
wanted HIM to get some of his lost money
back. Other brokers with whom he had
done business had returned some OF his
opA h 1xr11 4
why Wight & Co. could not
MAKE rebatement of $500
in their account. If they would. there
would be no further trouble in regard to the
3 contracts. Wight was utterly opposed
70 acceding to this proposition
Tor the reason, as he claimed
that the ''deals'' were all fair and had been
settled up. The alleged Goldsmith there
upon said: THAT man at the head of the
stairs is an officer. He has q warrant, signed
y Insffca Duffv for vonr arroat M, .