The herald., 1897-06-04
Gold Brick Trick Worked
for $4,000
BOUGHT eILDED NUGGETS
NOTORIOUS sWINDLERs DUHN
TWO CUCAMoNGA MEN
Placed Under Arrest at Seattle While
Fighting Over the Possession
Of $500 Of the Money

Al big gold brick swindue Which was
perpetrated in this city on April 10th.
by which ]. w. Lord and George A.
Bowran of Cucamonga lost $4,000, has
come to light through the arrest of the
ewdndDers, George Knolton, alias
.'Rebel George" and Tony Kelley, at
Seattle. while engaging in desperate
fight day before yesterday
Lord is wealthy rancher at Cuca-
monga and Bowran is an Englishman
who has been in this country but
short time. Since his arrival here he
has been visiting with Lord. EARLY in
April Knolton and Kelly made their
appearance at Lords ranch and put
up for the night. They represented
themselves to be miners, and said they
had just returned from the mountains,
where they had located a gold mine of
fabulous wealth.
AS evidence of the story which they
told bag of gold nuggets weighing
about As pounds was shown This ore
they said they had taken from the mine.
After thoroughly working themselves
into the confidence of Lord and Bow
ran, the gold brick men began to work
on a different line. They were greatly
in need of little ready money, and as
there was plenty more gold at their
mine, they didn't mind parting with the
ore at great sacrifice to supply their
present needs. If Lord and Bowran
could raise $4,000, they would turn over
the bag of nuggets, and the purchasers
would have an opportunity to make
several thousands Of dollars by the
transaction.
Lord imagined that he was very
shrewd man. He had heard of gold brick
swindles before, and did not propose to
be taken in. Still the men acted per-
fectly honest in the matter and invited
him to thoroughly satisfy himself
as to the quality Of the ore before he
accepted 1t.
Lord and Bowran finally decided to
come with the supposed miners to this
city and have the gold assayed, to make
sure that they were not being swindled
Several nuggets were picked out of the
bag, and after being examined by an
expert were pronounced as being of the
highest quality. The ore was then re-
moved to. one of the banks of this city,
where 1t was deposited to the credit
Of Lord and Bowran, and cool $40, 900
was counted out and turned over to
Knolton and Kelly. Lord put up $1,000
of the money and Bowran $4,000.
few days later an incident occurred
which aroused the suspicious of the men
who had invested their money in the
nuggets, and they had a second exam
ination made of the ore. They then
learned that they had been duped. The
swindlers had practiced trick of gild-
ing over lot of worthless chunks Of
metal, and then placing some genuine
nuggets in the top of the bag. When
they had picked out few humps to test
their quality they had takent them from
the top of the bag, and the trick had
not been discovered until it was too late
to stop the deal
AS soon as the swindle was discovered
search was begun for Knowlton and
Kelly. They had disappeared. De-
tectives were placed on their trail. but
they coull not be found.
Bolton Rogers, eX-chief of police of
Seattle. knew Lord intimately, and since
the gold brick episode has been keeping
a close watch for the swindlers
Knolton and Kelley engaged in
deadly fight at the Albemarle lodging
house in Seattle night before last over
$1,000 of the money which was left from
the proceeds of their job in this city.
Kelley assaulted his pal Knolton while
the latter was in bed and at the point Of
revolver compelled him to give over
the money. Knolton obeyed, but at the
nrst opportunity jumped upon his as
sallant and forcing him to drop the re-
volver began beating him unmercifulIy.
They were interrupted by the police
Bolton Rogers was in San Francisco
when he heard of the arrest, and sent
the following telegram to Chief Glass in
this city yesterday afternoons:
BALDWIN HOTEL,
San Francisco.
J. M. Glass, Chief of Police, Los An
geles, Cal-Geo. Knolton. alias Rebel
George" and Tony Kelley turned ]. W.
Lord of North Cucamonga at Los An
geles April 10th for $4,000 gold brick
swindle Both are at present in Seattle
II you want them wire Seattle author
tiles promptly. BOLTON ROGERS.
Chief Glass stated that the matter had
never been placed in his hands. there
fore he has no authority to act in the
case. He knew of the swindle at the
tllHe, out the case was turned over to a
private detective agency
Bolton Rogers was called up by te!e-
phone at the Baldwin hotel, San Fran
cisco by The Herald last night. "At the
time the brick swindle occurred" he
said, "it was reported to ne by J. W.
LORD, Who is one of my warm personal
friends. / have watched the matter
closely, but did not get any track of the
men until heard of their arrest al Sa-
attic this morning. I have informed
Chief Glass of the arrest so that he could
have them detained" Mr. Rogers then
described how the men happened to fall
into the hands of the authorities as told
in the dispatches from Seattle.
FOUGHT OVER THE SPOILS
SEATTLE, Wash. June 3-The king
of gold-brick swindlers, Harvey Knowl-
ton. better known az Rebel George, a
man who is famous III his line from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. was held up last
night and robbed of $500 in cash.
Anthony Mellon, his partner in crime,
TODD behind revolver and made Knowl-
ton stand and deliver. To Mellon the
enjoyment OF possession wse of short
duration. for Knowlton faced what
seemed certain death, overpowered the
robber and dispose ssed him of the
money.
It was done only after bloody fight,
during which three shots were fired