The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-10-23

| salesman of a Wholesale grocery
! house, especially as that house had
gone out of business. He represented
himself to the firm of Alexander, Dyal
& Co. of Hampton. Fla. to be rep
| resenting the Southern Grocery Com
pany of Savannah. He showed Mr.
Dyal lot of goods in the depot at
Jacksonville marked Nathan Mayo.
Rosewood. and telling a pretty story
about the goods being refused, or some
mistake being made. sold literally to
Mr.. Dyals firm. He had the goods
shipped to Hampton, and according to
an affidavit of the agent at Hampton,
an order. signed Nathan Mayo, was re-
ceived by him, directing that all goods
consigned to Mayo be delivered to
Alexander. Dyal & Co. This order was
carried out by the agent. Dyal bought
the goods in good faith and paid the
supposed Nathan Mayo for them.
Numerous other sales of goods were
made at large discounts off the real
value Of the goods. One lot of cigars
worth $50 per thousand. We're sold at
sales were made. The supposed Ma
than Mayo was such nice appearing.
smooth talking young man that no
suspicion was aroused.
Among the firms that are said to
have shipped goods to Nathan Mayo,
and who were stuck by the artistic
swindler, were NJ. Fersts' Sons & Co,
Lee Roy Myers & Co. c. d. Kenny
Company.
Discovery of the Fraud.
The merchants finally became aware
that they were being swindled when
no attention was paid to numerous let
ters and requests to settle addressed
to Nathan Mayo, Rosewood, Fla. One
of the Savannah merchants addressed
a letter to Mr.. Mayo at Summerfield,
urging the payment of his bill for
goods sent to Rosewood. That was the
first Mr.. Mayo knew that his name had
been used. 1t did not take Mr.. Mayo
long to learn about the other mer-
chants who supposed he had bought
large bills of goods from them, and he
went to Savannah at once and ex-
planned things.
In the meantime the man who had
palmed himself off as the genuine Ma
than Mayo had disappeared, and the
authorities have been looking for him
ever since. To Postoffice Inspector
Fred D. Peer of Jacksonville belongs
the credit of finally locating him.
Through methods known to the de-
partment Inspector Peer finally locat-
ed Samuel D. Gray in San Juan, P. r.,
and he was identified at once. On ac-
count of using the mails to work his
scheme the charge of using the mails
for fraudulent purposes was made
against him. After Gray had been To-
Gated Marshal Horr of the Southern
district of Florida requested the Unit
ed States marshal of the district of
Porto Rico to arrest Gray, who went
by the name of CRY in San Juan,
where he had been conducting a bust
ness known as the New York Grocery
and Provision Company" He was To-
Gated through a registered letter sent
to him by Hessie Lee Gray, his wife,
whom he married in Gainesville.
Gray dropped into Savannah and
palmed himself off as Nathan Mayo
in June 1903. He was a smooth talker
and found no difficulty in convincing
the merchants with whom he came in
contact that he was Mayo.
He made himself particularly agree
able. Early in July Mr.. Mayo. him
self put in an appearance and il was
learned, for the first time then that
the Savannah merchants had been
fieeced. The matter was never re-
ported at police headquarters, although
complaint was made to the federal au-
thorities, since Gray had made use
of the mails in carrying out his swindle