The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-10
SHREWD SWINDLERS MADE MONEY
ENOUGH TO BOAST LONG BRANCH
COTTAGES.
EMBoLDENED BY SUCCESS
THEY BECAME RECKLESS AND,
WERE TRAPPED BY NEW YORK
POLICE.
FORGERY AS A FINE ART
Check Working Was Only Side.
Issue With the Gang Recently
Rounded Up.

NEW YORK, Nov. 9.-The attempte6i
suicide of May Vintage, a miss OF
seventeen years, in a furnished room
in Brooklyn, followed by the arrest OF
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
worthless check upon Brooklyn dry
i goods merchant. After she had par
! tally recovered she told the author
! tiles that the check had been given to-
her by Valentine. He was arrested and
is now in jail.
Valentine, in the hope of saving him
self, has made a confession to District
Attorney BackUs, in which he tells in
detail the operations Of the gang. The
most prominent members were big
Ed" Rice, Charles H. Abbott, c. II
| Mclaughlin, H. K. White, Isaac Held
enheimer Rolindale Smith, Walter B
Peters, Willis Connors and VIM.
Thomas. The latter is locked I'm in
this city, Connors in Flint, Mich. and
Peters in Chicago. Thus far only one
OF the schemes of the gang has been
made public, viz, their forging opera
lions by which they swlndled small
western business men. But that was
really only side issue They saw last
summer that, in consequence of the
tight money market, forged papers
could be easily fioated providing the
names OF those on the paper had a rat
ing with the commercial agencies.
Al this stage of the proceedings
Charles II. Abbott, who had operated
in al
with a bright idea. Upon the strength
OF the nigh rating of the firm of John
ii. Baker q Co., forwarding agents. OF
which Abbott was the junior member.
he set to work and made out the firms
notes for probably $3.50, 900. These
notes were given to the members of the
gang with instructions to negotiate
them outside the city. At least $4,000
of the notes were sold in Philadelphia.
Other notes were disposed of in Chi
cago and other far away cities. VAL
entine and Mclaughlin made so much
money last summer that they leased
cottages at Long Branch and lived like
millionaires They drove fast horses.
and Valentine even went to the extent
Of leasing a steam yacht
Emboldened by their success. the
gang became reckless They set to
work to pass small forged checks In
this city and Brooklyn, and this proved
| their downfall. Abbott has ruined the
firm of J. H. Baker & Co. Mr. Baker
is man well advanced in years. He
said today that he was penni1ess. He
trusted Abbott entirely, supposing him
to be an honest man, when he took him
into partnership. After using the
firms name as a cover for signing notes
for thousands of dollars, Abbott has
disappeared. 1t is claimed merchants,
manufacturers and farmers have
lost 100000 by the operations of this
gang. They are said to have been the
promoters of three fictitious companies,
one called the Standard Coal and OH
company, and also of a banking con-
Germ which they used as a decoy. 1t Is
said that the gang bought on notes and
then sold for cash, sacrificing the ma
terial they had secured for anything
they could get for 1T. A favorite
scheme was to get possession Of
bicycles from manufacturers and job
bers, and then rattle the wheels or sell
them at a great sacrifice.