Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-08-26
4 BTG RASCAL.


4 BIG RASCAL.
BIgamist, Forger and Dead Heat.
The recent arrest at Lynn Mass, through
| Pinkerton's Detective Agency, Of Arthur
| Merritt, alias the Hon. Alfred T. Marvin, alias
Thomas Marvin, alias David Linsley, alias
General Morton, and so forth, ends for the
| present the career Of one Of the greatest
scoundrels on record. Pinkertons books con-
tain a record of his doings for nearly 20 years
! past His name is believed to be Arthur
| Merritt, although the detectives are not sure
that they have yet traced him far enough
| back 10 secure his real name. HU generally
clings to the initials "a. NJ" thus appearing
under the names of Albert Merritt, A. b.
| Morton, A. Mason, A. Moore, A. Marvin, T..
! A. Marvin, etc. Other addresses, with the
title of General" President" "Honora-
ble," ETC., connected with them have also
been frequently used. He has been living at
| New Haven, Conn, for three years past, with
n wife and step.daughter, but would absent
himself for long periods, when he would re-
turn and settle up bills with money obtained
by forgeries aud other swindling operations.
He has ten wives, according to Pinkerton's
books, and probably has as many more. He
would sometimes marry two ladies within
period of ten days, but would tire OF them
within a week as a rule, and after swindling
d
could, he would desert the wives His for
geries were generally in connection with per-
sons into whose family he married, and the
people swindled would dislike to make an ex-
posure, as the ladies' would be placed in a ri
diculous light. The first decided stand taken
was by Miss Turpin of Richmond, Va, whom
Merritt married last July and deserted within
six days, he having swindled Richmond par
ties out of S765 by forged draft in the mean
ba,
De Hart of Lockwood, N. j.. nine days be-
fore marrying Miss Turpin. Six years ago
he married two ladies in New York city.
They have both married other men since and
are now quietly settled. Another wife is in
Philadelphia, another in Panesville, o., an
other in Jersey City, another in New Haven,
and one in Carthage Mo-, whom he deserted
in week. His actions in connection with
marrying and deserting Miss De Hart and
Miss Turpin show the shrewdness and audac-
ty Of the prisoner. His advertisement for a
goyerness in the Churchman. resulted in the
marriage with the above two. He married
Miss De Hart July II, 1881, her father Of
fciating. He took her to Washington on
bridal tour, and after arriving there left his
wife at a hotel and took q train ostensibly to
go to Fredericksburg, but really to visit Rich
mond TO sec Miss Turpin with whom he had
been in correspondence since she answered
the advertisement. He had married Miss De
Hart as Thomas Marvin" but appeared in
Richmond as Thomas A. Marvin" He
wooed and won Miss Turpin and then married
her on July 30, 1881. He then started with
his latest wife for bridal tour but not be-
fore uttering the forged draft that caused his
arrest. The route for the tour, as set by
him, was to include Philadelphia, New York,
Albany, Niagara Falls, Chicago and Gales
burg, ILL.,, where be claimed to have a sick
child, the issue Of his wife now deceased.
They went to Washington, and, upon arriving
at the depot, Marvin saw porter of the Met
ropolitan Hotel, whom he told, in voice suf-
fciently loud for his wife to hear, to go to
the hotel and bring down his (Maryin's) bag
gage and mail. The porter went back 10 the
hotel but soon returned to the outward sta
ton, where he told Marvin that he had not
stopped at the hotel and there was nothing
there for him. Marvin exclaimed that the no.
tel people were a set of ''lunk heads" and he
would see about the matter himself. Going
to the car he told his wife that he must step
over TO the hotel and see about his baggage
and mail. He left the car and missed it, as
was part of a plan. He then telegraphed
his wife that he had missed the train and
wished her to keep on to Jersey City and stop
at the Windsor Hotel, where he would see
| her.
Miss Turpin being shelved for the time be-
ing, he devoted himself to Miss De Hart, his
| other wife, to whom he had written while ar
ranging for the nuptials at Richmond. On
the following morning the two left for Phila-
| delphia, and he then sent Miss De Hart to
Asbury Park, as he had got to go to Jersey
City on business. This wife was thus de-
serted. He found Miss Turpin at Jersey City,
went to Albany and then started West. He
prepared dispatches for the Syracuse and
Rochester papers, stating that Miss Turpin's
mother had been injured by a carriage acci-
dent at Richmond. He said that if his dear
thought it her duty to return home to care
for her mother, he would consent to it. He
also showed telegram purporting to show
that Judge Cowan, his great friend, had been
stricken with paralysis at White Sulphur
| Springs. The result of all this was that the
wife went home, where she found that no ac-
cident had befallen her mother. Marvin had
| thus disposed Of this new wife in six days.
| The two wives whom he married in New
| York were disposed of in the same manner,
| they having been sent to Chicago, but not un-
| til he mulcted them in $500 each.
Merritt's digniied manner and his many
accomplishments, united with his tact for
| general business, formed his stock in trade,
and they have proven an abundant capital to
work upon, to the sorrow of innocent and
virtuous women and the severe cost of nu-
merous business men. The Fourth National
Bank of st. Louis has been vicimized by him I;
also the Mining Bank, Deadwood, in $1,000 /;
the Joplin, New. Bank, $1,000; L. p. Lock
wood, Fort Smith, Ark. $500 First Nation
all Bank, Sedalia, Mo-, $1,000; Beloit, Kan. +,
Bank, $1,000; the Exchange Bank, Hollis, Kan,
| $650O; the father of Miss De Hart, 800,
and A. NJ. Brownell, 500.