Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-11-08
GREEN B. cooMER's DEFELcA-
TIoNS.
The Bennington and Rutland Rail-
road Robbed of Thousands of DOL

road Robbed of Thousands of DOL
lars.
G. b. COomer, for thirty years road
master of the Bennington and Rutland
Railroad has confessed to misappro-
priation of the funds of the company to
an amount exceeding $4,000.
The pee dlations have extended over a
period of years, and were only discovered
last week, when duplicate bill for ma
terial for the road was sent through the
regular channels for payment, and the
suspicion of the auditor was aroused by
the similarity of the accounts to one al
ready settled, Mr.. COomer, as road
master, purchasing all the ties used on
the road. Investigation showed that the
bill for material. in question had been
paid to CoOmeT, whereupOn Superintend-
enU Bennett was notified and began an
investigation of the matters in the TO ad
department.
The crookedn1ss of Coomer's S accoun is
was fully revealed last week, when the
old roadmaster was confronted by Su-
perintendent Bennett and charged with
fraudulent transactions in the purchase
of supplies. The accused official was
taken to the office of j. X. Batchelder,
of Arlington, attorney for the company,
where he confessed to appropriating to
his own use funds and property belong
ing to the company aggregating $50, 900
in value.
CoOmer offered to make immediate
and full restitution to tho railroad com
pany to tho amount of his embezzlement
and within As hours turned over proper
ty valued at over ZOO to the officials
of the railroad company. The property
transferred by COomer consists in part
of real estate, including six tenement
houses at Manchester Depot, also stocks
and other securities.
1t is estimated that COomer is worth
over Sl00,C00. His former residence
was at Petersburgh Junction, n. Y. on
the Lebanon Springs railroad, where he
owns general store and large farm.
When not on duty for the company i'll
Vermont he has been in the habit OF
spending his time at Petersburg juno
ton
The store in New York State has been
used to facilitate and cover up COomer's S
fraud and served its purpose well. 1t
seems that his custom was to have bills
for ties consigned to him Directly, for
which he settled and rendered vouchers
and received payment thereon. The
original consignments could be increased
by his system of bookkeeping at will
and the addition to be made inCOrp0r
ated in the bill presented to the com
pany. The material would also be
shipped to one station or section unload
ed and then reloaded and sent to anoth.
er place, two bills being made out
against the company for the same mat
ter and both paid to COOmer.
In addition to the lie business there
are no other charges against him as far
as known. Mr. Coomar is IA man about
10 years of age and always stood high in
this section. He runs the only store
that there is in Petersburg and no stain
on his honesty has ever been heard of
before and his friends cannot account
for these actions.
The gross value of the cash and secur-
tiles turned over by him amounted to
SlS,5O0. The mortgages on real estate
in this town were transferred before
Notary Public, &. n. Powers. During
all the transactions Mr.. CoOmer was ac-
cOmpanied by his lawyer, Mr.. Johnson.