St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-09
A FOREIGN FRAUD.
Additional Details Respecting
the Issuance of Bogus Medical
DipIomas.

Additional Details Respecting
the Issuance of Bogus Medical
Diplomas.
The State Medical Board of Mime
sofa, whose efforts to trace out the au-
thOrs of forged medical diplomas pre-
senteG IN the various states bordering
on Canada were detailed in the GLOBE
a few days ago, is hard at work prose-
cutting several clues, and hope soon to
have the perpetrators brought to justice.
In Wisconsin and the DakOtaS, where
the laws are rather lax on this subject,
there are said to be dozens Of men prac-
ticing on these bogus diplomas, which
are extremely clever forgeries, by the
way. For several years the medi-
cal board has suspected that all the
diplomas presented purpOrting to be
from the University OF Victoria at Mon
treal were not genuine. and this Suspi-
cion was confirmed short time ago by
the confession of physician of WAY
erly, To-. that he had obtained license
to practice from the Iowa board by
means of one of these diplomas. When
this confession came into the hands of
the Minnesota board Secretary Sweeney
was instructed to trace the matter up,
and a short time ago the discovery was
made that French physician in Fari-
bault had secured one of these forged
diplomas for a young man named No
barre at Grafton, n. D., who HAD writ
ten to him about it. The Far ibault
doctor wrote that it would cost ESQ.
The letter acknowledging the receipt
of the money follows:
Dear Confrere and Friend: 1 have just re-
ceived your letter with the amount. L have
sent the same to Montreal What you ask
for will be sent you soon; l told them TO
send 1t by express to your address at Grafton.
Truly yours,
Upon receiving this evidence, Secre-
tary Sweeny wrote to the Farlbault
man, charging him with the deed, and
received the following answer:
Sir: l have Just received your esteemed
letter. l am sorry 10 tell you that you should
reflect before accusing me in such way.
letter telling me that young man, newly
arrived, wanted to practice medicine in the
Northwest, and that he had no diploma. l
was asked to take an interest in the matter.
I took the letter l had received and ad-
dressed it to NJ. Paquette, College
street. Montreal, asking him if he could
answer the letter and address ii 10 me. In
his answer he asked for $40. made this
known to Nobaire. and sent the whole TO
that fellow in Montreal. Three weeks later
he told me it had been shipped by express.
You can see now if l am responsible for this
money. l have never tried 10 get false dl-
plOma as you say | did. | did not want to
take any part in the transaction, for III send
ing him the money l told him to send the
whole thing to Grafton. l remain your friend
and contrere,
They demonstrated the extent of the
fraud being committed, but the board
waited to secure one of the diplomas, iii
which it finally succeeded. July last
at the session Of the board a young
French-Canadian named Leopold
Adolphil Girard presented himself for
examination. He said he was a gradu-
ate of the medical department of the
University of Victoria, and handed in d
diploma dated 1889. That it was a
forgery was evident to anyone
of the members of the faculty of the uni
versity. and this was strengthened by
the fact thrt it was issued in the fifty
ty-third of Victoria, when the Gate made
it in the fiftv-secOnd. Girard was, how
ever, allowed To take the examination.
He failed. kilograms ELECTED the in
formation that the University of Vic
tOria did not know Mr.. Girard.
The state board then secured the
services of Detective Mason, who CO.
operated with Montreal officers, but
failed to find Paquette. Girard was
afterwards induced to tell what he
knew about the matter, confirming evil
dence given in the North Dakota case.
The Minnesota board is following the
matter up, and has secured the aid Of
the authorities in other States, and claim
they will secure the man PaQuette.
though how they can do this in face of
the fact that the University of Victoria
takes no part is hard TO see.