The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-10
MANY FORGED CHECKS
PASSED BY A BOLD, SHREwD GANG
OF NEW YORK CROOKS.
Swindle That Melted 100000 I'm
earthed by the Attempted Suicide of
Girl and Arrest of Her Lover.

NEW YORK, Nov. s--Ths attempted
suicide Of May Vintage. a miss of seven
teen years, in a furnished room I'm Brook
lyn, followed by the arrest OF her lover,
Edward Valentine, has brought to light
the operations of the shrewdest gang of
swindlers who ever worked in this city
The girl made an attempt upon her life
after a warrant had been issued charging
her with having passed a worthless check
on a Brooklyn dry-goods merchant After
she had partially recovered she told the
authorities that the check had been given
to her by Valentine. he was arrested and
is now in Jail. Valentine, in hope of saw
ing himself, has made a confession to Dis
trict Attorney Backus. in which he tells in
detail the operations of the gang. The
most prominent members were Big Ed
Rice, Chales H. Abbott. C. H. McLough-
lin, W. H. White, Isaak Heidenheimer.
Rolindale Smith. Walter B. Peters, Willis
Connors and William Thomas The latter
is locked up i'm this city, Connors in Flint.
Mich, and Peters in Chicago.
Thus far only one of the schemes of the
gang has been made public, namely: Their
forging operations. by which they swia-
died small Western business men. But that
was really only side isue. They saw last
summer that in consequence of the tight
easily fioated. provided the names of those
ON the paper had rating with the COM
mercial agencies. At this stage of pro-
ceedings Charles II. Abbott VINO had oper-
ated with the gang i'm other fields. appeared
with a bright idea. He was the junior
member of the firm of John III. Baker e.
Co., forwarding agents. By some means
the firm had secured high rating. Upon
the strength of this rating Abbott set To
work and made out the firms notes for
probably $250,000. These notes were given
.
tions to negotiate them outside the city.
At least 1000 of the notes were sold lin
Philadelphia. Other notes were disposed of
in Chicago and other far,away cities. :,
Valentine and Mclaughlin made so much
money last summer that they leased cot
tages at Long Branch and lived like mil
lionaires. They drove fast horses. and
ing a steam yacht. May Vintage was mis-
companion. Emboldened by their success
the gang became reckless. They set &c
work to pass small forged checks in this
city and Brooklyn. and this proved their
downfall
Abbott has ruined the firm of ]. H. Baker
& Co. Mr.. Baker is a man well advanced
in years. He said to-day that he was PEN
niless. He trusted Abbott entirely, sup
posing him to be an honest man when ne
took him into partnership and after using
the firms name as a cover for signing
notes for thousands of dollars Abbott has
disappeared. 1t is claimed that merchants
manufacturers and farmers have lost $500,
are said to have been the promoters of tive
of three fictitious companiCs. one called the
Standard Coal and Oil Company, and also
cf a banking concern which they used as d
decoy Ii is said that the gang bought or
notes and then sold for cash. sacrificing
the material they had secured fer anything
they could get for, 1t. A favorite scheme
manufacturers and jobbers and then Il
rattle the wheels or sell them at grea'
sacrifice.