Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-12
FRAUD AND SWINDLE
Are What a New York Detective De-
clares He Can Prove Positively.
THE CELEBRATED FIELD FAILURE.
He Bases His Charges on the Claims of an
intoxicated Man.
A VERY GOOD CONTRACT MADE BY HIM
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH,

| ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DfsPArCH.I
NEW YORK, June 1.-Lawyer Joseph L
Green this morning materialized the mys-
terious client, the great unknown whose
advent he has been darklv shadowing for
several days. Lawyer Green, who Is a
small, thin, young man, has been telling
about man who had consulted him as to
how to reach the creditors of Field, Lind
ley, Wiechers & Co., with view to putting
them in possession of valuable information
about several hundreds of thousands of dol
lars of missing securities which should have
been among the assets of the firm. Further
than this Lawyer Green refused to say, and
for time it seemed that Lawyer Green
was going to keep the secret. leaving the
world in state of baf1ed and exasperated
curiosity. But to-day Lawyer Green pro-
duced his man.
The mysterious client proved to be
Frederic Palmer, q private detective.
Zone evening"" said Palmer, in explana-
nation Of how he ferreted out his alleged
discovery, 'just before the Fitzsimmons
fight, was in the Hoffman House cafe. As
Is usual at such times, there was quite
sporty crowd there. fell into converse
tion with one Of these present, and after
discussing the fight the talk drifted around
to the Field, Lindley, Wiechers & Co.
failure.
How the Story Was Obtained
"T'his gentleman was on officer in an out
of-town bank. He had been drinking
heavily, and he said that the failure was a
fraud and steal, and that he knew where
lot of the securities had been hidden
away. He was in no condition to talk then,
SO 1 made an appointment for him to lunch
with me and two associates the next day.
He came, and the result was that 1 began
the investigations which have put me in
whereabouts of between $3.50, 900 and $780,
900 Of the assets of the firm, where con-
cealed and kept from the creditors.
'T cannot at present give the minute de-
tails of the search and its result. 1 simply
say that these assets are in stocks, bonds
and gold certificates, and that they are in
several banks in Massachusetts and Illinois.
They were not hypothecaIed by E. NJ. Field,
but were put there in some cases by himself
and in other cases by persons near to him
and acting for him. They are not reported,
because you know this would make the
bankers receivers Of stolen goods. But
they are simply put in for safe keeping, and
receipts have been given for them, the
bankers not knowing exactly what is in the
envelopes for which they have given very
simple receipts.
The Hidden Assets in Stocks.
t'These hidden assets are in stocks and
bonds Of Atchison, Quincy and other rail-
roads, and also in packages of gold certif-
Gates. Now, I have in my possession
photographs of several receipts and checks
that passed in the course of these transac-
tions, and that go far toward showing the
truth of what 1 say. Through Mr.. Green I
have put myself in communication with
several of the creditors, representing about
S40O 900 of the liabilities of the firm.
''The way in which these concealments of
assets were made shows how shrew Field
was and how little insane. I think that the
failure was deliberate fraud. and that
when Field saw the crash coming he hid
away this money against rainy day. The
concealments were made from August to
November, last year, as near as can get
at it.
"As soon as I had some definite, informa-
tion went to see Mr. Goodwin, the attor-
ney for the assignee. Mr.. Goodwin ad-
vanced me $50 for expenses, and then seemed
to take no further interest in the matter. 1
refused to disclose what I knew unless I
had some sort of contract.
First Rate Contract Made.
"On June Z, MIR. Goodwin, writing for
his firm of Vanderpoel, Cumming & Good
win, wrote me letter promising me nv
expenses and 10 per cent of all recovered,
should recover anything. He is bound to
nothing unless succeed in putting him in a
position to attach and recover the securities.
With that contract am satisfied"
Mr.. Palmer produced the contract, the
terms of which he had stated consequently.
NJ. Cumming, the attorney for Mr..
Gould, said: ave have investigated Mr..
Palmer and his story, and we find no reason
for believing that it was true. wrote him
that letter promising him his expenses and
10 per cent under the approval of the court.
provided he found ANYTHING, because we did
not wish to leave any stone unturned in the
investigation. The contract commits us to
nothing, and at the same time covers any
possible chance that Mr. Palmer may have
something"