The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-01-16
THEIR WORK WAS FINE
Check MlnipulatOrS Who ShOWld r.
maTkab.e CleYarleSS.
THEY USED SOME NEW ACID
II Removed the Ink, But Did Not At
feet the Paper and They Filled
In the Blanks-Butte Mer-
chants the Victims.

BUTTE, Jan. 15.-The police are hard at
work upon a couple of important cases of
| check raising which have just come to
light. The checks we're Montana Central
/ pay checks, and were manipulated by the
| use of acid in such an expert manner as
TO make detection absolutely impossible.
After being cashed here without a
shadow of suspicion, they passed through
several banks and finally reached ST.
! Paul, where they were unhesitatingly
cashed by the treasurer of the Great
| Northern road. 1t was not until the inno-
| cent looking pieces of paper, which car
| ried face value greatly in excess of their
| actual worth, reached tho auditors office
that the fraud was discovered through a
comparison of the checks with the stubs,
which gave the snap away through their
| inability to lie.
The fraud was undoubtedly the work of
| experienced hands at crooked business of
/ TINS kind and their experiences is attested
| TO by the fact that 1t was not until the
| checks had been compared with the stubs
| IN the regular routine work of the audit
| or's Office that there was even so much rs
a suspicion OF anything wrong.
! One of tho checks was for $3.50 and
was made payable TO Robert knight, the
section foreman at Elk Park, and bears
| his Endorsement on the back. The other
was for $3.50 and was originally made
| payable to j. Ryan, a section hand at Elk
| Park, but the name of &. Jones was sub
| stituted Tor that of Ryan at the time the
| check was raised. BY the judicious use
OF some powerful acid, Kn gifts check
was raised to $3.50, while the other one
was raised in the same way to Sl56.75.
| The Montana Central checks are of a
very delicate coiorIng and have the words
Montana Central across the face in
| large, light yellow letters, but the acid did
not affect the colors TO the slightest de-
gree, although il completely oblIterated
the ink. This left the manIpulators free
TO fill in the checks for any amount they
pleased and they were not at all stingy
about II, although they showed long and
we'll filled heads by not making the
amount large enough to excite suspicion.
Both OF the checks were passed here
Saturday night, Dec. %, and both were
accepted without question. Pete Hanson
of the Palace beer hail cashed the large
one and Kaufman Brothers accepted the
one that ostensibly called for Sl56.75 in
payment for a SIS overcoat, returning the
difference in cash. The next morning
Hanson got his check cashed at Harm
holds liquor store and IT was afterwards
deposited with Hoge, Brownlee q Co. 1t
was sent by them to Helena,
where II passed through the Mer-
chants and Montana National banks
and was then sent to st. Paul,
where III was thrown out by the Great
Northern auditor, after it had passed
through the treasurer's hands. The other
check reached the general Office about
the same time and met with a like treat
ment, after having passed through a
similar experience. The checks were
then started back westward through their
respective channels and reached the
parties who cashed them a day or two
ago. The police were called in and De-
tective Murphy left this evening for Elk
Park to ascertain, If possible, what dis
position had been made OF the checks by
the parties in whose favor they were
drawn,