St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-14
A SLICK sWINDLER.
The Man Who Defrauded Mexi-
can Admirers OF Patti Under
Arrest

The Man Who Defrau0ed MeXi-
can Admirers OF Patti Under
Arrest.
NEW YORK, Jan. 49, After eluding
detectives for year the man who, rep
Gus r. Mayer, so successfully Swindled
the residents of the City of Mexico out
of nearly $4,000 by a spurious advance
sale of tickets for series of concerts
by Nine. Patti. has been arrested, and
is now locked up at police headquarters.
He is, as has been suspected, Charles
Bourbon, who lived in this city for a
short time and claimed he was repre-
sentative of the London Referee and
Gil Bias, of Paris. Mr.. Abbey was in
formed of his arrest yesterday and saw
and identified the swindler. Mr.Abbey
telegraphed to Gen. CeballoS, president
of the state of Mexico, to ascertain if
BOurtOn was wanted there to answer
for the SWindle. Inspector ByrneS yes
terday refused to say how. when OF
where Bourbon, who is a French Jew
about forty years OF age, was captured.
1t is known, however, that he has been
in the city between six and seven weeks
and that the swindle in the City of Mex
leo is not the only crime for which he is
wanted. He is one of the most success
full and dangerous of confidence men
Europe. What he is particularly wanted
for the police will not say, but ii the
Mexican authorities do not want him, or
his crime is not one of an eXtraditional
character, he will be held to answer to
some other of his many offenses.
The governor general of the city of
Mexico has telegraphed the New York
authorities to hold the Swindler Benson
for extradition. Benson swindled Mex
leans out of $4,000 by pretending to be
an agent of Henry E. Abbey. and sell
ing bogus tickets for Patti perform
anceS.
This prisoner has q remarkable rec
ord. When he was arrested he was en-
tering the Office OF lawyer whom he
had retained to defend him in suit
brought by several foreign houses, who
accuse him of having Swindled them
cut of large sums of money in Il specu-
fatiOn concerning some patent that has
no existence. The man is
KNOWN TO THE EUROPEAN POLICE
as Morton, Costef and Montgomery in
various places. He declares that he is
of English birth and of a good family.
He is highly educated and speaks five
languages. He graduated from al Eng
lish university and almost Immediately
got into a gambling scrape. He drifted
to the continent and at the
time of the Franco-PruSSian war was
an editor Oh Partisan paper, and was
one of the three editors who were per-
mitted by the PruSsian authorities to
leave Paris through the intervention of
United States Minister Washburn.
Then he conceived the scheme of col
lecting money for the suffering Paris
ians. He proceeded to London, showed
forged credentials to the lord mayor
and received check for 91, 900 from
that official. Presently the queen and
Prince of Wales inaugurated a SubScrip-
ton list. For this he was imprisoned
for year. While in prison he poured
oil on his clothing and set it
and served the remainder of his
term in the prison hospital. On his
release. he joined forces with one Kerr,
who conducted SwindIing publication
which pretended to give tips On
sporting events. The pair began
swindling right and left. Finally the
Countess De GoucaIlet. of French
province, who had lost 955.Oo0 through
the rascals, secured their exposure
and sentence to fifteen years imprisOn-
ment each Incidentlly it was shown
that several Scotland yard detectives
were in with them, and the force was
reorganized as the result. Bourbon
served half his time and got out on a
tieket-ef-leave. In 1856 he es-
capped punishment for selling
fraudulent news in Brussels.
Next he worked the Patti scheme, and
he was here when arrested for the pur-
pose of suing bank because it refused
to pay over to him the proceeds of the
sale of fraudulent bonds in Switzerland.
He also threatened libel suits against
some of the newspapers which pub
liShed the story.
CITY OF MEXICO, Jan. 13.-The news
that the fellow who worked the Patti
ticket swindIe here SO cleverly had been
arrested in New York set the capital
agog. The highest classes of society
were the ones most completely taken in.