The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-11-26

eton ledger The skeleton ledger was
intended to show to the banks officers
at glance the daily balances, and it
was also to give the bookkeeper instant
information for the benefit of the pay
ing teller when a check was presented.
Method OF the Robbery.
Seely's method of stealing may be IL
,lustrated in this way: The depositor
Baker, who was in collusion with him,
would present a check say for 5000 to the
paying teller, who would ask the book
keeper if Bakers account was good for
the amount. Seely would reply Yes"
even though Baker had not dollar in
the bank. Seely then would credit Bak-
er's account with an amount sufficient
to cover the check, and the amount so
placed to Bakers credit Seely would
charge against the account say Of John
Jones. The paper debts and credits
balanced each other, and so the cash
balance at the end of the day would not
show the transaction. When it be-
came necessary to balance the account
of John Jones, Seely would draw ION
paper) from another account, as he had
done from Jones', and so on as far as
became necessary. 1t Is estimated that
he did this with more than 100 accounts.
To maintain such practice for 50
long time must have required a set of
books for Seely's own use, recording his
swindles as carefully as the legitimate
accounts Of the bank were recorded, or
he would have been caught tripping
for no man could carry so many entries
and the condition Of so many accounts
in his head. But not a scrap of paper
has been found to show how Seely kept
his crooked ways co-ordinated. No pa
per has been found either which could
convict him of forgery, and the checks
of Baker were either torn up by Seely
or returned to the maker of them. He
operated the syindle in the face of semi
annual examinations of his accounts by
the directors and frequent eXamina-
tions by national bank examiners.
Seely was careful never to charge
the amount he credited to Baker to any
account which was likely to be drawn
upon by its owner for an amount which
would nearly exhaust it. The bank is
an old one, having been organized as a
state bank in 1853 by merchants en-
gagged in the prosperous leather trade,
and had many accounts which were
rarely drawn on. Vice-President Pease
said he knew of one account of more
than 500, 900 in the bank aginst which a
check had not been draHn in nineteen
years This state of things helped
Seely.
Seely was a man feet inches in
height, with light hair and light NOUS
tache He was emaciated, having the
appearance of a man who suffered from
pulmonary weaknesses or Indigestion.
He was very regular in his habits
and never visited any of the clubs
or saloons in the neighborhood of his
home One pecularity of his personal
appearance was that one of his shoul-
ders was noticeably higher than the
other and he had acquired stoop of
the shoulders.
When Seely left home on Friday
morning he put on his heaviest winter
underclothing. He told his wife then
that there was trouble at the bank, and
that he was going to run away.
He worked all that day and disap-
peared after. he left the bank at
o'clock. 1t Is believed that he sailed for
Europe from a Canadian port or per-
haps Boston