Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-08-13
MANY TAKEN IN.
A Chicago Swindler Secures Thou
sands of Victims.
tle Operated a Crooked Building and
Loan Scheme, and Got Away
with a Big Sum.
now He WORKED IT.

\. Il. Tollman and three young women
clerlxs-occupants of the Office of the
National Capital Savings Building &
Loan Association of North America .
room 35 Rookery building ar
| rested Monday afternoon by United
States Marshals Hitchcock Allen and
Charles, and the entire epis-
tolary contents of the place
taken to the Office of United State Dis
trie Attorney Milchrist Downing and
Tollman were taken before United
States Commissioner Hoyne, charged
with using the United States mails for
fraudulent purposes, and placed under
81, 200 bonds for a hearing Thursday,
August 20. The three clerks
were notified that they were
wanted as witnesses at the hear
| ing 1t is charged that the
men who have been conducting this as
ISOLATION have swindled thousands of
| people from every state in the union
and taken in from 5000, 600 to $3.50, 900,
and given not one penny in return.
! There are still two men at liberty, they
having disappeared several weeks ago.
These two men, it is believed, got away
| WITH mObJ OF bne 1unuS.
| For SIX months or more letters have
been received from all parts of the
country protesting that the National
Capital SAVING Building & Loan Asso-
citation of North America" was not
what its prOprietors represented it to
be, and that it was collecting money
and making no loans Inspector Stuart
took charge of the matter about four
months ago and has worked ever since
to make a case against the officers of
the association. He found that the
concern was gigantic in its reach and
had agents in every state in the
union who We're disposing of the
| $50, 000.000 of stock the company was
selling
At the time Capt. Smart. took hold of
the case. tine head man of the associa-
ton was Louis Il. Mortimer, the gener-
al manager and secretary. He seemed
TO be the responsible man aud handled
ali The cash, Several weeks ago Mort
inner and his father disappeared and
neither have since been heard from. A
short time ago Capt. Stuart sent In
| spector Gardner to Lincoln, Neb.,
where the harvest seemed to be the
richest Here Mr.. Gardner found
George 0. Ferguson, who represented
about sixty people that had been
swindled Mr.. Ferguson came to
Chicago with Inspector Gardner and
the result was the captures made Mon
day.
After the arrests We're made Mr.. Fer
guson explained the modus operandi of
the gang that had been fleeing the
| citizens Of his town. They were rep
resented in our town BY Chase Bros, "
said Mr.. Ferguson, who acted in good
faith. The people of Nebraska are
very much in favor Of the building and
loan association plan. and the offers of
this concern were snapped up quickly.
Itsold shares for fifty cents each, with
payment of $l1.05 each month for nine
ty-siX months, at the end of which time
81, goo loan would be paid for Then
there was a membership fee of $50. an
appraisement fee of $50 and S45 for
three months payment in advance,
thus making S95 The concern made
one $500 loan that was genuine, and
this was just enough bait to lead 9th
ers to invest. Hundreds sent their
money to Chicago, and on the strength
of the loan they expected to make
contracts for homes and stores were
let and building BEGIN, but the money
never came.
Inspector Stuart aud District Attor-
ney Milchrist went over the associa-
tons books and found seventeen loans
had been made in as many different
states. a rough estimate OF the amount
of money the association received is
S175, 600 in the year and a half the asso-
citation has been in existence
The books of the association
show that its agents in all the states
but the most active were in Omaha,
Denver, Des Moines, Portland, Calves
ton, Olympia. San Francisco and Min
neapolis. Up to within several months
ago the association did big business
in Philadelphia, where, however, the
authorities got after the manager
and drove him away. President
Downing and Vice President Tall
man admitted after their arrest that
enormous sums had been taken in, but
they said that they had not ever been
in it. We took in something over
$50, 900 that l know OF, said President
Downing, but I never got more than
a poor salary out of it. and Tallman
didn't get as much as ! did. :"
They got badly bitten both of
them, said Inspector Stuart but they
We're in the deal and knew all about
what was going on, though they didn't
get much. Mortimer got the bulk of
the money, and l haven't the least
doubt he got away with sl5O,oO0. Mort
inner is a clever talker and a smooth
man generally, and would convince al
most anyone that talked FIVE minutes
with him that he was the squarest busi-
ness man on earth. A"
One of the peculiar features Of the