The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-29
WIRE-TAPPING is PAST.
Turf Schemers Now Have an Easier
Method.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Wiretapping some years ago was respon-
sible for heavy losses to poolrooms
throughout the country. To-day it is al
most unknown. In the old days the favor
lite method was to cut into a wire and
when the result of the race came along
stop it, and send into the poolrooms as the
winning horse the name of some horse
previously agreed upon. Men in ON the
scheme would have bet heavily on this
horse, and when the bogus dispatch would
be received announcing its victory would
hastily cash in and decamp before the de-
lection of the fraud. That was one way
of operating. Another was to hold back
the result of a race long enough to allow
confederates to get their money down on
the actual winner, they being posted by
signals, and after this was accomplished
send in the report. But the work was too
risky, and now the wire tappers have an
easier game.
For years, until recently, the work OF
wiretappers has been a constant menace to
the poolrooms of the country. Scores CT
raids have been made, for hundreds of
thousands of dollars, and none OF the lead
ing cities of the country has escaped. 1t
is estimated that during the past five yea
the clubs of New York alone have suffered
to the extent of 100000. In a great ma
jority of these cases nothing has ever been
said in print, as the interested parties pre-
ferred to lose the money rather than give
the affair publicity. 1t is not TO be in
ferred that the dangers to club people and
the poorooms of the country have been
provided against, for such is not the case.
The men engaged in the game are un-
scrupulous, daring and skillful, but the
telegraph and telephone people have had
oazxl r4ara..
that they have thrown every possible safe
guard around their patrons, not having
failed to profit by lessons of the past.
But however alert the companies may be,
the wire-tapperS are ever on the scent OF
devices for fraud, and some of the schemes
which they originate are indicative of the
highest type of genius in that direction.
There are several we'll organized gangs of
the gentry in the country to-day, but for
the most part they have abandoned the
old method of taking temporary posses
sion of a wire by tapping 1t, sending in
the name of a bogus winner, and having
confederates in the rooms to play the
same heavily.
The latest steal was worked last fall
during the Aqueduct meeting upon a
contractor named Williams, who lives
al rNewbury, New York state. Williams
had quite an extensive railroad contract in
Jamaica for New York parties, and was
engaged there for several months on
his return to New York he closed out the
transaction, secured his money and count
ed his profits at something like $4,000.
Then he took few weeks off for the
purpose OF rest. recreation, and investi-
cation of metropolitan methods. He
bought wine freely at uptown resorts, and
naturally fell victim to the Establishments
of the gentler sex.
Almost his first experience in this III
rection brought him in contact with three
lovely beings. who in turn soon welcomed
two gentlemen friends to the party, and
for awhile the whirl was a merry one.
BY degrees williams became acquainted
with his male companions and he found
them both bright and entertaining. Tho
nerriment continued at Intervals for sew
eral days, and finally the two men I'M
folded scheme to Williams whereby
they could clear up thousands of dollars
with positively no risk. 1t was nothing
more nor less than a huge wire-tapping
swindle, whereby a certain room was TO be
trimmed up for a small fortune. The
room they asserted wes In Albany. as the
proprietors there would stand to lose