The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-07-17
NOVEL KLONDIKE SWINDLE
Morse Collected Alleged Balances
Oue From the Heirs Of
Men Just Dead.

KANSAS CITY. No.. July LIB. H.
Morse, district agent for THE Alaska
Klondike Improvement and Mining Com
pany.' was arrested here today on q
charge OF Wholesale swindling. City detec-
tives who have been investigating Morse
and his business for some days declare
that he is the worst fraud turned up here
aboufs In years. He Is said to have made
widows HIS chief victims. and TO have OPP
Grated all over the country. His com
pany" Is said to be bogus.
Morse's scheme. as the police give II, was
unique. He had reams of certificates OF
stock In his fictitious company. Every
day he looked through the newspapers
and took the addresses of wealthy persons
who had died His supposed dealings were
entirely with dead people, and through
them he swindled their hers.
From his room in the Nelson building
he sent out almost every day many ex-
press packages, marked G. o. d., address
ed to the men who had died. These pack
In the bogus company he represented.
Along with each certificate was a state
ment which showed that the dead man
had paid for part OF the stock-made sew
crai payments. perhaps-but left small
balance. OF S. 80 or yi2. still unpaid The
lose the apparently valuable paper. gen.
orally paid the amount due and returned
IL in the c. q. ID. package.
Morse undertook ds X. 70 work the scheme
p. Bland. This proved disastrous. On
June q he sent a c. o. d. envelope by the
Welis-Fargo Express Company, with
certificate OF stock for ten shares and
statement that Congressman Bland had
bought. on January l. 1885, ten shares N
the company: had pad $40 at the time of
the purchase and $40 on January !. 1899,
had received discount OF S.. and still
owed $l2 on the stock. Mrs. Bland. ignor
ant of this part of her husbands AFFAIRS,
saw only debt that she must pay in order
10 gan a piece of paper which her hus-
band evidently thought valuable. The
stock looked as genuine as q bank note.
She inclosed $i2 In the express envelope
and sent 1t back. but several days ago
she became suspicious OF the paper. for
some reason. and asked her lawyer about
IL.
lie sent IL to ex-United States District
oa AMI i1n friend 81 er ss
AMI Mr. Walker turned the matter over
TO the police and asked them to investigate
this 'B. II. Morse. district agent" Morse's
arrest followed
Among the papers found a, Morses Of
fee was a list OF eighteen persons to
whom packages had been recently sent by
the American Express Company, and naH
a dozen postal cards from express agents
asking for disposition OF packages address
ed 10 men who had recently died Among
these were packages addressed 10 Peter
bump SeCalfa. MO. ~ H. l. tiuxFsS,
warrensburg. Mo. s.: r. NJ. Dewitt, Nor
ristown. " j.. s.. o l.. Jenkins. Carroll
ton Mo, 81 There was also a list of
sfehty-two addresses in twenty states to
which Morse had sent express packages
snce May p last. when he opened his
game.
Morse Is young fellow. and. IL is said.
from North Carolina. He insists that his
company" is regularly Incorporated al
birmingham. tina. state He IL cookbook
inr. plausible and has pretty young
wife.