The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-03
HE BURNS FOR A PROFIT.
Al IRcendiaTy Who Has Grown Rich
Through Fires.

Made Clothing-His Methods Illus
trated by the Story of Recent Fire.
An Adiuster Predicts That Sooner
or Later He Will Find His Way Into
Sing Sing Prison.
From the New York Times
"There is man in New York who has
made himself rich in the incendiary bus
mess" said member of a well-known
firm of insurance adjusters to a reporter.
erich in the incendiary business2"
Eyes, in the incendiary business, :"
answered the adjuster ''The man that |
refer to makes a business Of burning prop
erty for the insurance that is on it, and
has methods quite as well-detined as are
the methods of any business you may
name Everybody knows, since the New
York Times, and perhaps some other
papers published the story of that affair
over in Williamsburg, that there are men
in New York who live by burning up in
sured property, but it isn't every body
who knows that there is man in this
city who has made thousands Of dollars by
such work"
'eWhat affair in Williamsburg do you
allude to-the arrest of the men who
agreed to burn shop over there for
S1O0ln
EXACTLY. You remember they pro
posed the thing to the shopkeeper, and
he, after consulting the police, led the in
cendiaries on until case was made out
against them"
But those men are not like the man
I'm speaking of. He goes in for thous-
ands, and burns up his own property"
DO you know iti'
eyes, we know it,"
''Well, why don't you stop him3 Why
don't you arrest him2"
Because he's so slick. It's one thing
to be morally certain of something, an
other to be able to prove it in court OF
law to the satisfaction of jury. We
shall catch him eventually, but he's
managed to avoid detection for long
time. "
"Will you give the facts about one of
his operations ~
Certainly, with great pleasure, though
for obvious reasons ] prefer to use tcti-
tious names in my statement Suppose,
then, that / give you the facts about fire
he was concerned in that took place in,
say, Bayonne, n j. Upon the face of the
returns it appeared that Isaac Comminsky
had had stock of clothing insured Tor
S., 900 completely ruined by fire, water,
and smoke The companies held that
there was a big fraud beneath the face of
the returns, but they couldn't get the
facts into such shape as to make show
ing in court, so they paid up"
"What was the fraud2'
"Why, just this: Mr.. Comminsky
didn't own the stock. 1t was owned by
our friend, Mr.. Freiburger Mr. Com
minsky was simply a hired man, hired to
pose as the owner of the store, to put his
name upon a signboard on the front of the
building, to take out the insurance poll
cies, and finally to collect the insurance
after the fire.
"Ereiburger sent Comminsky to
Bayonne to hire a dilapidated building
that looked pretty well in front. Then he
had him buy quantity of clothing from
reputable New York houses, and, of
course, take itemized bills. This clothing
was sento to Bayonne,, but was meyer
placed in that store or at least no consid-
able portion of it was placed there. In
stead, quantity of clothing, not worth
quarter of the value of that purchased
from the reputable houses, was placed in
the store, stuff that wasn't fit for any
thing much better than burning. The
tags that were on the better clothing
were attached to this inferior stuff.
''Comminsky had hardly begun unpack
ing his goods before the insurance agents
were upon him. He took out a moderate
amount of insurance and stopped, but
still the agents came, bent on doing bust
ness with him.
"sBut I'm insured already he said. 4
never was burned out, and I don't expect
to be burned out here. l guess III carry
part of the risk myself.
"'You ought TO have at least 81, 900
more on this stock, said one of the agents.
You can't afford to carry that much of
risk yourself
THAT was the sort of talk to please
Comminsky. He took the extra $1,000,
and then he was ready FOR the fire.
"a week or ten days later the man who
was to start the fire put in an appearance,
Freiburger had sent him over from New
York. He went TO work as clerk,
opened the store in the morningand shut
it up at night. uJ
'.The time for the burning having ar
rived, Comminsky came over to New
York to attend party and spent good
share of the night under the eyes of fifty
or a hundred persons. He went back to
Bayonne in the morning and nearly
tainted when he discovered that his store
had been burned and that there was moth
ing left of his fine stock of goods. He
learned that just after midnight the store
was discovered ablaze-tire in every part
of it.
Then came the adiusters. Comminsky
showed us what his stock was by means
of the bills from the reputable houses
and when we went to these houses we
found that the goods invoiced were
shipped to Bayonne.
I'VE asked for information about the
origin of the fire. Comminsky couldn't
help us bit. He was over to New York
to a party he told US.
"'Who was the last man in the storep
we inquired.
"'My clerk
Where is he nowR
Il don't know
Where does he livep
q don't know. He came here looking
for work, and offered to work cheap, and
l took him.
There we We're again. Comminsky and
his bills confronted us, and though we
had found out enough to satisfy ourselves
and the companies we represented that
instead of getting 5000 insurance Com
minsky ought to get twenty years in the
penitentiary, we couldn't procure evil
dence-real, substantial evidence-to es-
tablish that there had been an incendiary
fire planned by Frieburger for his own
benefit. The man had been too slick for
US"
do you mean to say that this man has
done this sort of a thing great many
times2''
Il do, bat, as said before, we can't
prove it in court just yet. Some day,
though, we shall nab him. I'm certain Of
that -