The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-03

Fioy Chapman, the pretty ballet girl
from the Carnival of Madrid who is
charged with forging the name Of w.
H. Atwood, the Murray lumber mer-
chant, TO d check Of $50. will have a
hearing before Judge Wenger this afr
ternoon. She was arraigned before his
honor yesterday. pleaded not guilty to
the charge and placed under $500 bonds
pending the preliminary hearing.
F'loy spent rather a sieepless night in
Chief PTatt's private sanctum She
appeared, however, in better spirits
yesterday morning and was somewhat
prepared for the ordeal which was TO
come. During the forenoon she sent
for Attorney d. N. Straup, who was
clOseted with her for some time and
viii probably have charge of her case.
There seemed to be a general impress
sion about headquarters that the case
would be settled out of court, but this
was entirely diSpeiled by the arrival Of
Mr. Atwood, who at once desired to
swear 20 a complaint County Attor-
hey Whittemore, who will have charge
Of the prosecution, wrote it out and the
girl was formally placed under arrest a
short time afterwards.
At o'clock she appeared in court
y
of not guilty. Her bond was fixed at
$500 which she failed to furnish. not
having any friends, and she had to go
to the county Jail.
Chief Pratt's detective force and
County Attorney WhittemOre, who has
something of a reputation in the sieuth-
ing line himself worked very industri-
ously on the case all day and it Is
said some damaging evidence will be
hearing today. The nature Of it the
prosecution VIII not disclose. 1t is un-
derstOod, however, that the theory is
that the girl herself did not executes
the forgery, but had some assistance,
II indeed the checks are forged. Miss
Chapman, during her seance with Chief
Pratt Tuesday night told him she VASE
intimately acquainted with the La Rose
boys, the chief promoters in the carni-
val star aggregation. A point which the
officials seem to have laid stress upon
is the fact that in her troubles the
girl has never infiEnaned her desire to
send for her prOfeSsed close friends. At
tOrney WhiUtemOre yesterday gave the
chief orders to arrest the La Rose out
fit on suspicion that they may know
sometime about the case that would
be Of interest
Mr.. WnIt.emore is much puzzled.
Atwood's own signature and the al
legged forged name before him and the
closest scrutiny will not reveal any diff
ference in the two names. Certainly
the forgery is well executed. The only
noticeable difference between the bogus
check and the real is in the figures
The dot has been placed between the
figure ~ and the IS" while above the
line indicating the number of cents
three ciphers have been placed instead
of two. The Endorsement on the back
is in different handwriting apparently.
The check of $40 to which it is al
legged Henry Atwood's name was forged
is filled out and signed in a different
hand from the endorsement on the
back. The writing closely resembles
the genuine article and gyOuld without
hesitation be pronounced as such.
In the presence of Chief Pratt and at
his request Miss Chapman was re-
quired to write out check, copying
the one in question. In dOtting the
figures she placed the period between
the 81" and the g. which is coinci-
dence the prosecution will bring out.
Miss Chapman explains the mistake in
this way. She was excited and hardly
conscious Of what she was doing. The
check from which she copied was be- y.
fore her eyes and instinctively she
placed the period in the same position
as in the original copy.
What the line of defense will be can
only be surmised. The story of the
kissing will be fully gone into in order
to show the relations existing between
her and young Atwood. An attempt
will be made to establish that he and
wayward FlOy were on intimate terms
and that by reason of this relation he
gave her the checks. She will claifA
that when he signed his fathers name
TO the paper it was because he handled
all the checks and the firms entire ac-
counts and would be able to cover up
the matter when all the checks were
from the bank at the end of
the month. That in effect, she says,
was the story he told her.
Another point will be relied upon by
the defense. Miss Chapman made no
effort to get out of town in undue
haste She obtained the money for the
purpose of going to Denver. She had
both checks cashed in by Monday noon
and still she made no effort to get out
If town. On Tuesday night she bought
4 ticket for Denver from A. 7. Noon
and intended to depart that evening on
the o'clock train Now it is argued
hat had she committed forgery her
irst effort would have been to get out
If town. Instead of this she stayed
.hree days longer than absolutely
necessary and during that time in no
wise sought to evade the officers.