St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-21
APTURED BY COPS.
Arrest Of George Williams, an
Alleged Systematic
.4ea s5Forger,
,s--....---
WHO FLOODED THE CITY
And Worked q Countless Num-
Der OF. Merchants With
Bogus Checks.
HIS WAS A CAREER OF CRIME
And He Was Recently in the
Reformatory--His Alleged
Pal Caught.

George J. Williams, recently dis
charged from the reformatory at st.
Cloud, was arrested early yesterday
morning by Officers Gruber and
Christian. The prisoner is charged
with forgery, having, it is alleged,
passed between twenty and thirty
bogus checks during the last thirty
days. Much of the fraudulent paper
is in the possession of the police.
Williams has been identified by sew
eral prominent local business men as
the party who so neatly swindled
them. The man had an unenviable
record prior to his recent escapade.
Williams, who is a smooth-appear-
ing young fellow of twenty-seven,
and a fluent talker, initiated a career
of crime two years ago in Mime
apolis. There he operated most sue
cessfully, escaping detection for a
long time. He operated boldly, pass
ing, the st. Paul police allege, more
than 900 bogus checks before he was
detected. Finally caught, Williams
was sentenced to two years in the
state reformatory.
He left that institution early in
January and came direct to st
Paul. Here, as later developments
indicate, he soon relapsed into his
old habits. Although his actions for
the first week are unknown to the
police, they assert that as early as
Feb. 9 Williams again worked the
bogus check racket. From that
time till the moment of his arrest
ahirty different fraudulent check
transactions are attributable to him.
Williams favored two particular
sums in writing his fraudulent
checks $3.50 and $780, Invari-
ably the checks presented by him
contained one of those figures.
The signatures of well-known
ST. PAUL. FIRMS
were forged by him, it is alleged
Prominent of: his victims were Serb
ner, Libbey & Co., Nicols and Dean
and the Crane & Ordway company.
The forgeries We're very cleverly ex-
ecuted, and were exceedingly deceptive
The methods pursued by the alleged
forger were unique. For instance on
one occasion Williams purchased lot
of French canned goods and rare jeI-
lies of Michaud Brothers. He received
considerable money besides and or
dered his purchase sent to a prominent
private residence on st. Anthony hill;
where he seemed to be acquainted.
The arrival of the stuff occasioned
or ont h11t +
sumed by the family to whom it was
addressed. .,s Later, when Michaud
Brothers, discovered the imposition,
they at once demanded a return of the
goods. This being impossible, the head
Of the family could only write out a
check and swear loudly at the impos-
tor. Williams played a similar trick
on Grocer Furlong.
r. A. Lanpher, a retail furnishing
dealer on Robert street, donated Will
Jams a fine tile and a choice collection
of red neckties in return for a worthless
piece of paper.
Meeting with such extreme success,
Williams became over-confident and
was caught. He met his Waterloo in
attempting to negotiate check at
Dyer's Excelsior meat market on Sew
enth street. Suspecting the forgery,
the proprietors called in Officer Gruber,
and the check expert was nabbed.
Later yesterday J. H. Jackson, a sup
posed pal of Williams, was arrested by
City Detectives Kenealy, Daily, Koran
and Ahern. He is also suspected of
being implicated in a trivial hold-up
of saloonkeeper at Minneapolis sew
eral weeks ago.