Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-06-07
STOLE THE FUNDS
South Dakota TeIegraphers Rob
the Western Union.
Managers Work the Scheme for Five
Ycars-Tbe Company's Loss
About $4,000

mate their loss in telegraph receipts all
the way from $50, 600 to S75, 600, cover.
ing a period OF five years. The plan OF
robbery has been systematic and carried
out by the collision Of operators in
forty towns in South Dakota. The
principal leaders have been discharged
and the company has already announced
its purpose of prosecuting them.
The company has nc means OF ascer-
tanning the exact amount of the defalca-
tions for several reasons. First, be-
cause the business of each six months is
destroyed as soon as it is completed and
the books kept show nothing of the re-
ceipts that have necessarily been peck
ployes. The first intimation the COM
pany had that anything was wrong
was the visit Of Z. j. Nally, assistant
superintendent, with headquarters at
Minneapolis, to Aberdeen, where the
manager at that point, a man by the
name of Blood, had had charge of the
office for a number of years He was
married TO one of the leading society
girls and was one of the pillars in the
Baptist church. Blood worked his
scheme, the company officials say, very
fine, and showed considerable skill in
the manipulation of the books. When
Mr.. Nally checked up Blood's accounts
they were found short for a small
amount and Investigations were quietly
made. 1t happened that Blood was
fearful that Nally would get on to the
true inwardness of the case and wrote a
note to an operator in Webster, a town
near by, who was, as it proved afterwards,
a confederate Of Blood. The note warned
the confederate of Nally's visit and
advised him to have his books in
shape. This note was intercepted by
some means. The employe at Web
ster was Immediately discharged and
among the effects left by him was found
several letters in which Blood advised
him TO not check him up on certain
numbered dispatches. At first Mr.. Nally
thought the matter was purely local,
but the more he investigated the more
general it became. until every one Of
the leading Offices Of the state was dis
covered to be in the deal. Blood was
the leader in the district surrounding
Aberdeen. Aberdeen does a great deal
of local business with the twenty or
thirty small towns about, and in most
of these Blood had a confederate, and
when a dispatch was sent by him no
record would be made of it, and vice
versa. BY this means the company was
deprived Of an enormous In
n month, Mr.. Nally says, Blood APP
propriated to his own use $3.50 by this
means. This was kept up for five years,
and it is utterly impossible todetermine
the amount the company has lost on
Aberdeen alone. Blood was not salts
fed with what he could rake of from
Redficld, Mellette, Columbia, Milbank,
Faulkton, Forest City, Ipswich, Web
ster, Britton and the dozen towns
around him, and reached out for bigger
game.
The managers at Mitchell, Pierre and
Sioux Falls worked the same kind of a
game. The small towns were worked
both ways, and each n had a small
circle of sympathizing friends who
pocketed a portion of the receipts. The
managers in each place were trusted
employees and held their positions for
years. Often the case would arise where
a profitable rake off was had and it
would be stopped by the discharge of
the operator in the town for disobedi-
ence of some rule of the company or by
his quitting his Job. The new man
could be worked, ali good and we'll. IL
not, complaints were made by members
of the gang Of his inefilciency as an
operator and every breach Of discipline
would be instantly reported until the
company would discharge the honest
operator. Thus it was that the leaders
managed to have their ~confederates in
positions all the time.
T.. j. ManniX, an ex-city alderman,
and late manager OF the Western Union
Telegraph company here, was arraigned
before Judge Aikens, in the presence of
Mannix's attorney and District Attor-
ney Bailey. No one else was present
and the matter was kept so quiet that it
only leaked out by an accident. Mr..
ManniX has been a prominent citizen
in this city for many years and has an
elegant residence on Tenth street, be-
sides heavy real estate investments in
South Sioux Falls and Yankton. He
has always been held in high esteem
by the citizens, and the amount claimed
by the company which he has embezzled
and a record of which they have Is only
$3.50.
Mr.. Nally, the assistant superin-
tendent, who has been in the city for
the past three days, said: The magni-
tude of the scheme by which the COM
pany has lost a large sum of money can
not be estimated, but 1t certainly is
very large, covering as it does a period
of over five years. The sum of money
lost will reach easily $50, 600 anyway.
The leaders around whom their circle
of confederates managed TO absorb for
their own use a portion of the receipts
in the small towns, both coming and
going, had a distinct understanding
among themselves. They were all
acquainted and constantly in communi-
cation with each. Aberdeen, Mitchell,
Pierre and Sioux Falls each had
an independent circle, and ar
ranged for a rake-off in the bust
ness between their own offices, thus Gre
ating a larger circle-an inner circle,
as 1t were-and managed TO mislead the
company altogether. The small fry
knew nothing of the inner circle, and
ehDJ v iiaa. vi CouIsCs any DuSlutSS
with each other to amount to anything.
For instance you take Valley Springs
the operator there would send twenty
dispatches to Sioux Falls to n to Alb
erdeen. The one going to Aberdeen
would Of necessity be transferred
through Sioux Falls, where it would go
TO Aberdeen by way Of Mitchell. III it
was a collect message, Blood at Aber-
deem woulk inform Mitchell and Sioux
Falls that stocks were falling. Sioux
Falls would then inform Valley Springs
that there was no check and the com
pany wouldn't now the difference,
As to Mr.. Mannix's case there is no
question as to his collision, although
the company have no means Of proving
1t in court. / went before the grand
jury at Aberdeen and had an indict-
mont brought against Blood. Before
that j accused Blood OF the entire bust.
ness and he confessed to 10 all; gave up
the m of all who had been work
ing the deal. presented a case against
Mannix to the grand jury here, claim
ing that his accounts were short $3.50.
OF course the company has been the
for years and they propose to
make an example Of Blood and Man
nix"
Mr. Mauutx moo calIad ,,ooc ao1 80