The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1896-11-10

NEW YORK, Nov. 9.-The attempted
suicide OF May Vintage, a miss OF II
years. In furnished room In Brooklyn.
followed by the arrest OF her lover, Ed
ward Valentine. has brought to light
the operations OF the shrewdest gang OF
ewlndlers who ever worked In this city.
Tho girl made an attempt upon her
life after u warrant had been Issued
charging her with having passed
worthless check upon o. Brooklyn dry
goods merchant. After she had partial
~ recovered she told the authorities that
the check had been given TO her by VAL
ent!ne. lie was arrested and Is now In
jail.
Valentine, in hopes OF saving himself,
has made D confession to Dlstrict At
torney Backus. In which he tells in de-
tail the operations Of the gang. The
most prominent members were big
Ed" Rice, Charles II. Abbott. c. H. Nc
Laughlin. II. X. White, Isaac Helden-
heImer, Rotindae Smith, Walter B. Pc
ters, Willie Connors and William Thorn
as. The latter Is locked up In this city.
Connor1 in Flint, Mich, s.nd Peters in
Chicago.
nus lhI SlllS pHE uL IIlG oL
the gang has been made public, VIZ:
Their forging operations by which
they swindIed small western business
men. But that Was really only side
ISSUE They saw Inst summer that In
consequence OF the tight money market
forged papers could be easily iloated
provided the names OF those on the pa
per had 4 rating with the commercial
agencies.
At this stage OF the proceedings.
Charles H. Abbott. who had operated
with the gang in other fields, appeared
with n bright Idea, He was the junior
member OF the firm of John II. Baker
& Co.. forwarding agents. By some
means the firm had secured high rat
Ing. Upon the strength OF this rating
Abbott 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 dis
posed OF in Chicago and other far away
cities. Valentine and Mclaughlin
made so much money last summer that
they leased cottages at Long Branch
and lived like mill!onaires. They drove
fast horses and Valentine even went TO
the extent Of leasing 4 steam yacht
May Vintage was his companion.
Emboldened by their success, the
gang became reckless They set 10
work 10 pass small forged checks In 4
this city and Brooklyn and this proved
their downfall. Abbott has ruined the
firm OF ]. Fl. Baker & Co. Mr.. Baker Is
n man we'll advanced In years. He said
to-day that he was pennlless. He trust
ed Abbott entirely, supposinS him to be
an honest man. He took him into part
ncrshlp and after using the firms namo
as cover for signing notes flor thous-e
ands OF dollars, Abbott disappeared.
1t Is claimed that merchants, manu-
lecturers and farmers have lost $780,
900 by the operations OF this gang. They
are said TO have been the promoters Of
two or three fictitious companies. one
called the Standard Coal and OIL Conn
pany, and also OF n banking concern,
which they used ms O decoy. II Is said
that the gang bought on notes and then
sold for cash. sacrificing the material
they had secured for anything they
could get for It. 4 favorlte scheme
was 10 get possession OF bicycles from
manufacturers md jobbcrs and then TO
! rattle the wheels or sell them at great
sacrifice. s7 - ,f'-s