The San Francisco call., 1904-03-10

IS FOUND
IN FUNDS
San Jose Treasurer
Is Said to Be a
Defaulter.
More Than $1,000 Missing
From Strong Box Of
the City.
Thomas ]. McGsOshegan Is in th
Custody Of Detective Pending
Result of Investigation.
Special Dispatch to The cain.

SAN JOSE, March City Treasurer
Thomas j. McGeoghegan is short more
than $1,000 in his accounts with the
city and ne is in the custody Of a
Pinkerton detective. practically a pris-
-oner The money is believed TO have
been taken from the city funds be-
tween January Is and January 81. This
is the statement given out by the rep
resentatives of the surety companies
on his bond for 100000. The past two
days there have been all sorts Of ru-
mors af1oat in regard to the shortage
in McGeoghegan's office. 1t was placed
as high as $4,000 and upon the other
hand McGeOghegan and his friends de-
clare it all was right and that no mon
ey was missing Wine. women and
gambling are said to be responsible
for the defalcation.
About the first Of this month a report
of McGeoghegan's actions reached the
offices of the surety companies on his
bond and a week ago j. H Robertson.
EeneraI agent of the United States FL
deity and Guaranty Company at San
Francisco, and F. 3. Lloyd. general
agent of the American Bonding Com
pany of Baltimore. came TO this city
to investigate his accounts. Each COM
pany is on his bond for $4,000. The
books and accounts of the Office were
found in a bad shape. Accounts were
entangled and the books had not been
posted since February 1. Since then
I
the books. This evening they an
nounced they had found shortage Of
more than $1,000
Charles j. Keane and Charles j.
Lightston are exporting the books for
Mayor Worswick and it is expected
they will have a report ready to-mor-
row.
ACCOUNTS ARE MUDDLED.
In an interview this evening Lloyd
said:
Our attention was called TO the life
McGeoghegan was leading and the bad
condition of the books in his Office. We
find that he Is short more than $1,000
From our examination we think the en-
tire sum was taken between the 18th
and 31st of January. II was taken from
the money collected for municipal
licenses. and the accounts OF the Office
on February 1. that is for the month
of January, were falsified to hide the
shortage. McGeoghegan had collected
during January for 163 licenses on slot
machines at $40 each. $3.50, and for
eIghty-two saloon licenses at $50 each.
s5SSO. These two lots Of licenses made
a total of $3.50 collected. On February
1 McGeoghegan reported that he had
only collected $3.50 on these two classes
of licenses. Here a deficit Of $331O was
found. The rest of the money taken. Is
from other municipal licenses. We find
the handwritings of three different per-
sons on his books since January 1. Will
liam Taaffe a relative. and a man
named Bailey has been in the Office
with him. There are no deputies al
lowed the City Treasurer and whatever
work they did McGeoghegan had to pay
for out of his own pocket
.Since January 81 McGeoghegan has
not kept his books posted. On January
everything was straight in his Office,
that is. his accounts and cash balanced,
and if anything had been crooked Il
would have been necessary to bring in
some cash to cover it. What is per-
picking in the case is that all this
money should be taken in two weeks.
We can learn nothing around town
where he has spent money so freely IS
to get away with this amount"
EXPECTED TO BE ARRESTED.
Lloyd stated that McGeoghegan has
denied right along that there was any
thing wrong in his accounts. and this