Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-01-22
SLIP OF ME M0RY
Led to Undoing of Suic ded
Cashi.r Of Sigourney
Bank.
SHORT $4,000 FOUR YEARS
Covered Through Manipulation OF
Accounts With Other
Banks.

q. +. Utterback. the embezzling
cashier Of the Sigourney Nowa) Saw
ings bank. who suicided last week,
carried accounts with three DaveH-
port banks-the Union Savings. the
Citizens National and the Iowa Ma
tionaI banks The Davenport banks.
however. will lose nothing by Utter
backs Illicit transactions and the en-
tire loss for his misIeeGs will fail
upon the bank with which he was
connected. The dead cashier was for
more than four years able TO conceal
Il defalcation Of $4,000 or more with
out even raising = suspicion against
his integrity.
It has just come To light that when
Utterback committed suicide he left
q letter in which he explained that his
defaIcation was wholly due To losses
sustained on the Chicago board of
trade during the Phillips corn deal
four years ago. Since that time he
had never sWerVed from the strict
path Of rectitude except To manipu-
late the books so as To conceal his
Gefalcation.
Bank Examiner Explains.
David ii. Mckee. state bank exam
liner for that district. inspected the
bank Mr. McEcr'S account of the
manner in which Utterback manipu-
lated the books i interesting. That
the cashier was never detected be
fore was due To his wonderful mem
DRY which enabled him to recall all
entries he had made with view of
hiding the defalcation. and return to
these entries and again alter them TO
prevent detection when reports came
in from the banks with which the
Sigourney institution did business.
His unGoing was the result of failure
10 recall that he had made the books
show that the Sigourney bank had
credit Il 10000 with the Union Saw
ings bank of Davenport. Purely by
mistake he drew a draft on that in
stitutinn. 1t went to protest for lack
of funds and WAS returned To another
Sigourney bank for collection. When
other employees of Ttterback's bank
heard of this they expressed surprise
To him. He replied that he would
rush right over and fix it. There j.
no need of fixing it was the reply.
I'VE have $4,000 on deposit there.
But Utterback insistcd upon fixing"
it, and this aroused suspicion.
u. +. Stcckman. one Cf the direc-
tors. then visited Chicago and Daven-
port. and discovered that the banks
there made different showing from
what the Sigourney books indicated.
This was followed 10y calling a meet
ing Of the bank directors at which
the cashier was summoned To appear.
Instead of complying. he wrote the
farewell letter and committed sui
eide.
Man of sanity" Character.
Had it been any other than "a man
Of such sainiIincsS of character" said
Mr.. Mckee. my suspicion might have
been aroused during my previous eN-
aminatiuns of the institution. But any
little irreguIarity could easily he eN-
planned by Uttcrback to the Sati~fac-
tiun of any one. for ne probably had
one of the best regulations i'm that
county. Had the state provided for
'recuucilcment' Of accounts with the
CORES pondiug banking institutions.
the defalcatiou would have been soon
err detected. ~ il il. il Was AN easy
matter for Uttcrback To hide his
Gefalcatiuu.
AS has already been explained.
there was approximately $4,000 in
notes which had been copied 10y him.
the originals being sent away TO Sc
cure loans while TIE copies were re-