The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-26
BIG HAWLEY'S" VICTIMS
AMERICAN "CON" MANS GILDED REC
ORD IN MANY COUNTRIES.
Now on Trial in New York for $780,
900 Acknowledgement London
as Hon. Lionel MusgFave.
New York Press


New York Press.
That picturesque confidence man and
blackmailer who is known now William
| Carroll Woodward (alias big Hawley'O is
having conviction rapidly as well as surely
brought home to him by Assistant District
Attorney Carpenter. Experts yesterday tes-
| titled unhesitatiEgly that the letter con-
cededly written to Mrs. Brigham by Wood
ward while in the Tombs is identical with
the letters in the bogus divorce suit in
which Brigham was the alleged correspond
ent. The scene, as already told in the
Press, was an attempt to blackmail Bridg-
ham. The price the blackmaier originally
asked was 100000, but finally would have
accepted $12,5O0. Mr.. Brigham is a wealthy
! clubman. Woodward's counsel insists his
client is innocent, and Woodward himself
wears the air of a man who is confident of
escape. He is too unconcerned to be a
philosophic fatalist. His jaunty air is that
of the gambler who sees no reason why any
chip, even though it be his last which he
puts upon the faro table may not make a
winning equally as if it were one off the top
of a stack of thousands. He has escaped
so frequently that he does not seem to
realize the possibility of conviction. His
career has been one of almost uninterrupted
unmindful of the consequences entailed
upon the victims.
Woodward is a cosmopolitan in crime
For dozen years he has played his tricks
in a dozen different countries. He seemed
10 work upon the plan that once was all
and so long as he adhered to it he escaped
arrest This is his second appearance in
this country: He first became known in
criminal circles as a member of the Johnny
Irving gang of confidence men. Woodward
had fine presence then and a good address.
with such winning ways that many detec-
tives felt that man of his talents had
some sort of presumptiVe right to travel
with letters of marque against his fellow
men.
When public opinion broke up the Irving
gang it dissipated itself among the capitals
in europe; Ell From Tendon to Vienna they
were heard of along the paths of travel
beaten by Americans who were touring.
They seemed to hang upon the TANKS of
their countrymen with good profit to them
selves and with little danger, because the
predominating fear of Americans abroad is
the ridicule awaiting their return II they
confess to the loss of their money by the
WileS of cajOlery or the tricks of the card
sharp. or the demands of the bandit. An
American is never supposed to be caught
mapping, and the Irving gang knew 1t, and
they plundered the American with profit
and immunity.
This man Woodward, however laid out a
more comprehensive plan. There was
| limit to what he could get out of the traV-
| cling American He wanted no such game
| as that. Besides, the plundering of Ameri-
| cans was bit distasteful to him. He would
| take an Americans money if he could not
| get any other as easy, but, all things being
| equal, he decided that he would rather en-
| trap the unwary foreigner. He had no.
| ton then that some day or other he would
| have enough money with which to come to
| this country and live in the enjoyment of
any luxury that might suggest itself to
| him.
Woodward was a rather good-looking
! man in those days He babe adieu to the
rest of his band in Liverpool and went to
! London. There he became the Hon. Lionel
| Musgravc. His name sounded all right He
| was sufficiently discreet not to begin vio-
| lently. He was no burglar, this dilettante
! crook. His method was the somewhat
| slow but still sure one of ingratiation. He
| lived well, but with perfect decorum. lie
| was careful to be seen where he, the Hon.
| Lionel Musgrave ought to have been, but
| he was scrupulously careful never to in
| trude himself.
! Lionel Musgrave was in new field When
| London went out of town for the season.
| of course. the Hon. Lionel had to go, too.
| ENGLAND outside London is so small that 1t
| might have been dangerous for him to have
| gone into any part of it. 1t might have
been dangerous, too, for him to have gone
| TO the continent for his former pals were
working Americans along its highways and
it's byways. and he was fearful of becom-
ing embroiled. In the dilemma he betook
himself to this city. On the day succeed
ing his departure after his visit a diamond
robbery of which society woman was the
victim was reported. That diamond rob-
berry and the presence of the distinguished
crook may have been but an unfortunate
coincidence.
The Hon Lionel then went to London
and rented a house in the wealthy Ken
sington quarter There he lived in spendor
as a man of the world. He had a secretary
that all his friends voted the most perfect
of aids. The Hon. Lionel declared money
could not part them The secretary was
Frank Tarbo, the best looking of the Irving
gang. The Hon. Lionel managed to get into
the fastest set in London and his house
soon became sort of club. The stakes
nj VOC fnF oh nd lncf xrhf lie
the Hon. Lionel WaXed wealthy.
It was not until one night when a young
cused the Hon. Lionel of playing with
marked cards that there was the slightest
suspicion 1t is improbable that the cards
We're marked, because the Hon. Lionel
could get at the patrimony of the young
nObleman without actually marking the
cards. Most of the guests sided with their
host and aided him in throwing the ruined
man out of the house Upon the ejecting
of the accusing one the Hon. Lionel ex-
cused himself on the plea that the charge
mad unsettled him, and he must seek sleep.
| That was the first bad break he had made.
NO man with perfect pose would have
acknowledged that it affected him in the
least.
The guests left the house and Lionel left
1t soon afterward, never to return. He had
gagged the matter accurately. The young
Fellow, to regain his right to enter any com
pany or any club, would be obliged TO es-
tablish grounds for his accusation, and nat
urally would go to Scotland Yard. When the
| detectives from the latter place went to the
Kensington house they found the master
and his secretary gone. He went to Vienna
and played the duplicate of the trick there:
then to Paris, where he repeated it, then
70 st. Petersburg. and then TO Monte Carlo.
He was supposed to have swinded his vie
Tins out of nearly $4,000 in a comparative
| ly short time.
In Monte Carlo he was not successful. The
gambling house there furnished all the en-
tertainment and excitement, and there was
little chance for display of his individual
| prowess with the cards. From Monte Carlo
! f0 nay s.fL I.ar~
| ley. drifted to the Orient in a yacht. While
| in Colombo 1t is related that he made the
acquaintance of a diamond merchant. He
| would like to get some gems One day the
merchant came aboard with 100000 worth
Of uncut stones. Steam up on the yacht.
The merchant was bundled into boat with
out his gems and the yacht steamed off with
them.
About a year after this escapade Hawley.
or Woodward came TO this country and
settled down in New Rochelle, where he
lived without detection until his attempt to
get 100000 hush money from the wealthy
Mr. Brigham. He always dealt in large
sums