Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-08-28
PRECIOUS RASCALS.
The Fellows Who Wrecked tne
Keystone Bank.
A CONVICT MAKES A CONFESSION

Showing How the Concern Was Looted
and the Villainy Kept frop. the Knowl-
edge of Examiner Drew-A Series of
Crooked Operations in Which $780,
900 Was Involyed-How the Shortages
of President Lucas were Covered Up.
PHILADELPHIA, Aug 2S.-Charles Law
renee, the assistant cashier of the Key
stone National bank, who is undergoing
sentence of seven years, has made full
confession. Since his confinement in the
penitentiary the disgraced official has con-
Guided that it was his duty to tell ali he
knew and how the frauds We're perpe-
trated in the keystone bank The letter is
addressed to X-Bank Examiner Drew,
and is as follows;
Telling How 1t Was Doue.
"DEAR SIR: beg to submit to you the
following circumstances as to the manner
in which You, as national bank examiner,
was deceived in your examination of the
Keystone National bank. In the first
place, permit me to say that, in general
every mean. possible We're used to both
swell the assets of the bank and to dimin-
ish its liabilities. There was no regular
method adopted, but at one time some
means were resorted to, at other times
some other plan suggested itself | can
therefore, only tell you in a general way
of the various things done to deceive YOU,
without specifying any particular time in
which the particular Justification was
made.
They Got Things Ready for Drew.
First, as TO the individual ledgers.
.-sfI h 81.
knowledge, and are facts with which am
personally acquainted. As TO the other
departments my knowledge. comes from
what have seen and heard, and, there
fore, am about to draw pretty strong in
ferences. The individual ledgers were al
tered at least twice every year-about the
time you were looked for. This was done
by me since 1850, and the methods pur-
sued were various. Sometimes whole
pages We're distracted. Mostly false bal
ances We're made by altering the pencil
figures. Large balances were decreased
and overdrafts wiped out.
Required Frequent Alterations.
Sometimes false credits were posted to
an overdrawn account, SO that your atten-
ton would not be drawn to the lcLGer
more minutely by All overdrawn, account.
when you n .ght possibly see something
else TO excite your suspicion. SometIm S
false cheeks were posted to an account hav-
ing large balance, so as TO reduced liza
bilties. This, you can readily see, re-
quired alterations and re-alterations to a
very large extent because il a check had
been posted falsely to an account and then
that party drew on the account in the reg
ular course OF business you will see that
it necessitated rearran cement of his ac-
count and corresponding change in some
other account.
Covering the Stealings of Lucas.
This was done to the extent OF probably
$500, 600 more or less-I cannot tell any
nearer than that. Now | know that there
were memo. anda carried as cash which
represented the amount Mr.. Lucas owed
the cash drawer. This was replaced at
the time of your examination by real cash,
which was temporarily borrowed, some
times by means of due bill taken from
the back of the due bill book, sometimes
by means of certificate of deposit or by
the presiden, obtaining loan.
Swelling the Bills Discounted.
THE bills discounted were swelled by
the introduction of fictitious notes. These
were intended both to swell the assets,
and to take the place OF other bills dis
counted, which, it was thought, best not
to let you see Us it might excite your sus-
piCIon and pat You on "a more iuquIsIIINe
examination. This, l believe, gives You a
general idea of the various methods pur-
sued. CHARLES LAWRENCE