The San Francisco call., 1896-05-13
He Worked the Leading Hotels
in New York, Chicago and
st. Paul.
MADE HIMSELF FELT HERE.
The Police Have Been Searching for
Him, but He Has Given Them
the Slip.

For the past two or three weeks two of
the most astute local detectives have been
endeavoring TO discover the whereabouts
of a dapper little swindler who poses as a
Count of France and Italy.
In the East, where he was successful in
pulling the wool over the eyes of numerous
men of wealth and procuring large sums
of money from them, he was known as
Count Van de Leon.
He is small man, about FIVE feet tall,
rather dark, patrician face, small dark
mustache, curled at the ends, wears gold
trimmed eyeglasses and dresses in the
height of fashion. He is fond of wearing
a golf cap. He speaks German, French
and Italian with the greatest fluency.
A few months ago he turned up in the
Hoffman House, New York. He soon
made 1t known that he belonged to one OF
the most illustrious of French families
and aroused the sympathies of the guests
by telling them that he was temporarily
embarrassed. To those who took an in
terest in his tale of woe he showed a
'faKe" cablegram from Paris that a draft
for several thousand francs was on the
way to him. He succeeded in getting
altogether between $1,000 and $4,000 and
then he quietly disappeared.
Soon afterward he made his appearance
in the Palmer House, Chicago. He
worked the same game successfully upon
the guests there. He also made himself
known 10 several of the leading jewellers
and by various pretexts he contrived to
get possession of several thousand dollars
worth of diamonds and absconded with
them.
From Chicago he went to st. Paul.
~ n
While there he made the acquaintance of
q leading photographer, named Francis.
He treated Francis to a few bottles of
wine, and then told him that he was q
French Count. q little short of funds, but
expected a remittance from Paris in few
! days. Francis was only too glad to ad-
vance him 500. Next day he gave him
another $1O0, but when he made his third
request, Francis hesitated. The Count
then told him that on his way to st. Paul
he and three men happened to be the only
occupants of the Pullman car. The three
men stole his satchel from him, which
contained several thousand francs, and
jumped off the train with it. He jumped
after them, spraining his ankle, and they
escaped. Francis credited his story and
gave him $500 more.
The Count got introduced to society in
st. Paul and won the affections of young
lady, the daughter of a wealthy resident.
They were engaged to be married and the
Count by some means or other got posses
sion OF her diamonds. Her father learned
OF 1T and went cunning for his prospective
son-in-law. who made his escape and came
to this City
He soon made his presence known here
by introducing himself as an Italian Count
and swlndling several of the leading citi-
zens OF that nationality out of various
sums of money.
:. One OF his victims complained to the po-
came to the conclusion that he was the
same swindler who had been operating 80
successfully in the East.
Two detectives were detailed 70 arrest
him and the search has been vigorously
Kept up. but yesterday they were forced to
the conclusion that he had given them the
slip. 1t is believed that he has gone to
heard of.