Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-11-30
A BLIND POOL"
Thousands of Investors Therein
Were Victimized.
A Grand Jury Indicts Its Managers
and They Disappear-Poiice Take
Possession of the Concerns
Headquarters and Seize
$4,000 in Cash.


under promise OF paying dividends u
10 per cent. weeli. or $40 per cent per
annum, and Cecil Leslie, his secretary,
were indicted by the Kings county
grand jury yesterday. Bench war
rants were issued for the arrest of
these two men, but up to quite Il late
hour last night neither had been
found, the police saying they had dis
appeared in the afternoon.
Last night the police raided the
premises occupied by the Franklin
syndicate on Floyd street. There
was great crowd OF people around
the building and the police surround
ed it. Inspector Brennan arrested
Louis Miller, brother of the head of
the syndicate, and the cashie' of the
concern and took possession of $4,000
in cash. There were 40 employees at
work in the offices and these We're al
lowed to 90. It was stated by Louis
Miller to the police that the Offices
were then in the hands of eN-Sheritf
Daily, of Richmond, to whom he said,
the concern had assigned.
The charge upon which MiIla-' was
indicted was that of conspirIng to de-
fraud.
The district attorneys office in
Brooklyn has been at work on the
case for some weeks, so prominent
have become NIiller's operations in
that time. Miller had been engaged
for the past two years or so in offer
ing his gIittering inducements TO the
people to invest their money for linn
to make use of, but it has been ouly
within the last month that by eN-
tensive advertising ne managed to at
tract to his office hundreds of people
daily, who gathered in long line or
fought with each other for the chance
to hand out their savings. Even
when the place was raided last night
a number of those around the offices
were waiting to deposit money with
the Franklin syndicate.
The presence of the police caused
great excitement. When they entered
the office they were informed that at
6 y. IN. the concern had made an
assignment in the borough of Man
haitian to James DAILY, eX-sherif of
Richmond. Chief of Detectives Reyn-
olds said the police were the aasi@neeS
nav and put DAILY off the premises.
DAILY has been in the employ of Miller
for some time. OF the $4,000 taken
possession of by the ponce, something
more than 5000 in cash was found in
the syndicate offices.
From the record which the police
had made on Fridays deposits, it was
evident that a portion of the money
had been removed from the Offices,
and Louis Miller. the cashier, who WAS
arrested, was called upon to make an
explanation. He at first refused, but
on being threatened by the police he
said Miss Annie Cory, an employe o.
the concern, who lived in Il house adj
joining the offices, had been given pos
session of large sum of money in
the morning by the head of the firm.
| The police went to the adjoining
| house, where they placed Miss Cory
under arrest, and after Il search they
found nearly $4,000 concealed i'll an
| old lounge in her apartments.
The woman then declared that she
had this money in her possession to
| pay the employees of the syndicate.
| The police, however, took possession
of the money and gave Miss Cory her
| liberty.
William +. Miller began the Frank
| lin syndicate in a small way, locating
his Office among the poorer classes in
| Brooklyn and making one feature of
| his business the acceptance of very
small sums of money and the alleged
| investment of them for poor people.
He claimed that by inside tips on the
stock market he was able to pay Il
! large percentage to his clients. He
paid the interest on the principal each
week and his business increased. 1t
is claimed that Miller was simply the
representative of a syndicate which
had been conducting blind pools for
years.
No syndicate has ever attempted to
paV any such wonderful rates of in
terest as the Franklin syndicate. The
very fact that the newspapers and
tlnanciers began to make investiga-
tions aroused the public interest to
such an extent that it is said within
the last week Miller has received de-
posits of hundreds of people, aggre-
eating a daily amount of from $4,000
to $4,000.
Not only were people living within
the limits Of New York large depos-
itors with the Franklin syndicate, but
cities all over the country contribute
ed the earnings of scores of their resi-
dents to swell the wealth of the syndi-
cate. The mail delivery at MilleY's
office amounted to about three wagon
loads and most of the letters contained
money.
IT is am absolute fact Miller did not
have facilities for taliin" care of all
of the gold and greerbacFs Whjcn
poured in upon him, and ewHty bar
rels were rought up from the base