The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-21
FORMER FORGER AL0Nz0 J. N1ITEMAN SAYS HE'S REFORMED

him, and had warned the hotel people
| that their guest would probably pay
his bill with bad paper.
. The cashier, teller and president OF
| the bank had met and talked with
| Whiteman. Nevertheless, the police
made no effort to arrest him at home.
They sent, however, man to Dams
vile to watch, whose patience was re-
by Lon" bidding his friends good-by
! and taking the Lackawanna train for
| New York.
Swallowed by a Detective.
Then the police agent telegraphed:
Goods sent on train No. g." A stran-
ger met Whiteman on the train at
Delaware Water Gap and formed his
acquaintance. He was a nice fellow
and Whiteman helped him on with his
coat. They crossed the ferry, and
there, awaiting them, stood Armstrong
and Reidy, the detectives.
1t seemed that Lon" was not going
to walk the streets Of Evansville for a
time.
"I'll bet you ten to one that we give
him the full ten years." said Pinker-
toms man. Apparently he had no
shadow of defense. But the trial
lasted three days, and thirteen respect
able citizens of Evansville, among them
a Catholic priest, a Methodist parson
and the assistant district attorney, tes-
titled that on that Tuesday Whiteman
was in DansvilIe, that he attended a
funeral and was seen of many, and
supported their oaths with many cir
cumstantial details.
In despair the prosecution sent for
the hotel people. The books showed
| that Whiteman did not hold a room
on the day the swindle was COM
mitted, and the charge of the judge
was followed by an acquittal. Then
Whiteman sued the bank for $4,000
and was placated by settlement for
| $4,000. He came back and walked the
streets again in his native town.
| At intervals after this Whiteman
went to New York and Chicago and
captured few hotels and gambled
away his spoils. Usually he settled up
when caught. Once bail for $500 was
demanded and he sat down, took off
his shoe and drew the money from his
stocking. He has remarked of this
sum that at was a dead loss" He
Jumped his BALI and has never been
able to get it back.
w
ing book and was caught.
At Mammoth Park he was captured
by the Pinkertons and John Kelly bailed
him out with large sum. He did the
Saratoga bookmakerS by having a tele-
gram purporting to come from the
Bank of New Amsterdam sent to them
that he had a credit of some hundreds
of dollars deposited there to be used
by a person named. Bets were laid on
''hOOk-
les" had paid out $500 they telegraphed
for facts about the bank credit and
there were no facts.
Experience in Chicago.
In the tangled skein of his life there
next appears a transaction with some
brokers in Chicago. He left that city
and followed the races to st. Louis,
where he was arrested on adviceS from
Chicago and was taken there after
vainly and vigorously resisting extra
dition. He was brought to trial and
convicted with a. sentence Of three
years. A stay, a new trial and an ap-
peal resulted in his conviction in a
lower degree of the same crime, re-
ducing it from felony to misdemean-
or, and he was sentenced this time to
one year in the house of correction.
Then a new writ of error interviewed.
bail was granted and Whiteman
Jumped it" promptly and once more
walked the streets Of Evansville. He
couldn't disappoint his friends there.
Then he went to New York again,
did another hotel, met his old friends,
Armstrong and Reidy of the Central
office, and responded to their request
to walk down to see the "old man."
His New York charge was settled
somehow, but Chicago claimed him as
a fugitive from justice and although
Whiteman personally appealed to Gov.
Roosevelt the requisition was honored
and Whiteman was taken West.
But the period since his sentence en-
braced a year and he resisted going to
prison on that ground and on other
legal technicalitieS and was finally re-
leased. His friends in Dansville were
not disappointed; he came back again.
Whiteman went down to New York
and stopped at the Hotel Navarro. On
| leaving he paid his bill with hundred
dollar check, receiving sixty or sew
enty dollars in change. His next ap-
pearance was at the Waldorf-Astoria
in March. Here his friends Armstrong
and Reidy found him one day and he
was brought to book on the Hotel Ma
varre charge. It was a clear case. 3,
However, his defense was that the
offending piece Of paper had been &C
cepted and passed by him in good
Idlln tLnu he WlluSSSGS " support
| that contention. 1t did not serve. He
was convicted before Judge Cowing
| in general sessions and sentenced to
| two and a half years.
To emphasize the matter there was
a requisition from Boston, granted by
| Gov. Odell, lodged as a detainer against
! him and this was based upon two in
dictments for forgery in that city and
| one under the hotel keepers protec-
| tive act. Acquittal on the New York
| charges meant worse than conviction,
| for the Boston charge looked toward
| twenty years imprisonment. But
| there was a way to escape both Scylla
and Charybdis.
| He was convicted in New York, a
writ of reasonable doubt was secured
as a stay and upon argument new
| trial was granted.
Then bail for $4,000 was admitted.
Whiteman was arrested under the Bos-
ton requisition. But he then owed
New York state two years and a half
of penalty and, obviously, he could not
! pay it if he did twenty years in Bos-
ton, and Gov. Odeu Cancelled his as
sent to the Boston requisition, which
! ceased to be operative. The judge