The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-04-18

cation, his field of operations was large and
his success great. In all cases the story
told by Hoecking;s victims is about the
same as that of Mrs. Gerhard.
She saw an advertisement in New
York paper in December of last year. 1t
was signed ''Charles Hole" and said he
was about to purchase a well established
business and wanted wife to assist In its
management. He desired to form the &C
quaintance of respectable widow with
matrimonial inclinations and money to
invest.
Mrs. Gerhard answered it and in few
DAYS got a reply from Hole, making an
appointment with her in Newark. They
met day later, and each seemed highly
pleased with the other. They talked bust
ness, marriage included, from the start.
The wedding was appointed for Feb. II,
and in few days Mrs. Gerhard went to
New York with Hole to look at bust
ness place at Church and COrtlandt streets,
which he said he was to buy for SIS, 600.
He had $15, 0O0 he said and his brother
was to give him the other $4,000, but
there would still be lacking about $1,000,
necessary to make improvements. Did
Mrs. Gebhard have that amount to adj
vance him?
No, she didn't, but she had $1,100,
which he could have if it would answer.
Of course it would do, said HOLE, and on
Feb 2, when he visited her Newark house,
she handed him the 81, 100, which had just
been drawn from bank. His farewell to
her that day was unusually ELUSIVE, and
as he kissed his hand to her after stepping
from the stoop to the sidewalk he said
he'd return on the morrow.
But he didn't When 10 days had
passed and there was no sign of him, Mrs.
Gebhard told Chief of Police Hopper the
story. When she described the man, the
police knew him, for few years ago De-
tective Jaegers arrested him in Newark
for swindlng Christina Becker out of sew
eral hundred dollars in a similar manner,
and he served an Is months term of i'm
prisonment
He was caught without much trouble,
and letters found in his pockets show that
his business is a lucrative and extensive
one, many of them being signed by wom-
en- in various parts of New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania.
A woman who called on Chief Hopper
to see Hooking was accompanied by her
husband. She was widow when she an
swered Hoecking's advertisement, year
or SO ago He took her to Harlem and
showed her large saloon and restaurant,
which he was to buy for $27, 600.
She promised to marry him, and in
spite of the protestations of her present
husband she believed his statement that
he needed about $500 to complete the pur
chase of the business and gave it to him.
Then he went away, and she didn't hear
of him again until she read of his capture
in Newark. She refused to tell her name.
Just as she was going out man from
Harrison, n. j., who also declined to give
his NAME entered and identified Hooking
as the man who recently proposed mar
riage and was accepted by his stepdaugh-
ter and then disappeared when he found
that he could not borrow $500 from her.
A we'll dressed middle aged woman told
Chief Hopper that the prisoner is Carl
Bechtel, and that she is his wife. Chief
Hopper believes that in many cases he has
probably been obliged to marry his intend
ed victims.
But in this particular case he got no
money. The woman said she met Hoeck-
ing in the usual way, through an adver
tisement signed Bechtel, and that they
were married about1 a years ago.
The next day he tried to borrow 81, 600
from her, but she was wary, and he dis
appeared as soon as he realized that he
would not get the money. Thinking to
catch him. she advertised for husband
under another name and he answered it
over the signature of Goetset. She recog
nized his writing and meeting was ap-
pointed. He was surprised when he en-
countered her.
She flogged him with heavy whip un-
til she was tired, and with his face and
neck cut he escaped through rear door,
scaled fence and disappeared.