The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-09-05
THE FRAKER SWINDLE
A DRUMMER'S SHARP DETEC-
TIVE WORK IN UNEARTHING
THE KENTUCKY FRAUD.
PROMINENT MEN IN THE DEAL

If Their Names Were Given Out, the
Blue Grass State Would be shOcked--
But the People and the Insurance
Companies Seem to Have Made
Terms That viii Keep the PrOmi-
nent Kentuckians Thoroughly Under
Cover.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Sept. Al. S. Hack
ley, one of the best known drummers
in the United States, whose business
address is Louisville, KY, and whose
residence is Moberly, Mo-, is the man
who out-stripped the best detective
talent in turning up the big life In
surance swindler, Fraker Mr. Hackley
arrived in st. Louis to-day. In speaking
of the case, he said:
Zone of the important witnesses is
dead. He was drowned in Kansas on
August 18th, the day after the insurance
companies paid the money over to J. E.
Lincoln for the Fraker estate under Or
der of the court, and the other is now in
Jail at Springer, N. NJ, awaiting trial
for burglary. The first man was drowned
under the name OF Phillips. | have ex-
cellent reasons for believing, however,
that his name was Jim Triplett. Trip
lett, George Harry, who is now in Mex
leo Jail, charged with burglary, and an
old negro, who has since died, were with
been drowned. / have known both
Fraker and Harry for nearly 20 years and
when l read the story of Fraker's drown
ing while on fishing excursion with
such crook as Harry, was at once
struck with the strangeness of his COM
panionship as evidence of rascality. l
have been quietly at work on the case
since and from the first was convinced
that Fraker was alive.
81 came to the conclusion that George
Harry was the only person with any
knowledge of the affair from whom /
could force definite and conclusive in
formation. So / began to track him.
After treating him, l decoyed him to
Moberly, and without letting him know
that | had anything to do with it, / had
the Marshal of the town, who is friend
of mine, arrest him for carrying con-
cealed weapons. After he had been in the
lock up day without knowing definitely
what charge would eventually be
lodged against him, | called on him.
After an hours conversation / got from
him not only all the details of the con-
spiracy of the Fraker swindle on the in
suranee companies, but also the exact
location of the doctors hiding place in
the woods of Minnesota.
''Then / hurried to Topeka, Kan, and
told the officers of the Kansas Mutual
Life Insurance Company all | knew.
Fraker's arrest soon followed and that
is all will say about the matter at pres
ent.
"Had not the insurance companies
been after Harry and Triplett,2 2" he was
asked.
"Of course they>Aad, but they could
get rothing from them. | know posi-
lively that Mr.. Herriek, attorney for the
Kansas Mutual Insurance Company not
long ago, offered to lay $4,000 in
Harry's lap and guarantee him immunity
if he would tell him Fraker's where
abouts."
Further than this Hackley would saw
nothing. That feature of the story
which Mr.. Hackley refuses to discuss is
pronounced by others who have given
the case close attention from the start
and who have inklings of what it is, as
the most sensational of all the elements
which comprise the conspiracy. 1t
is limited that in it are involved
the names of two or three promi-
nent citizens of Missouri, who if men
ioned would shock the State. 1t is
probable, so it is said, that the insurance
companies themselves have make such
terms with these men for obvious
reasons, that will be no sort of action
against them which will reveal their
identity or the important part they took
in the conspiracy.