East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1905-02-06

A virtual epidemic of fraud seems
to have broken out in this city. Fol-
lowing quickly after the case of Frank
Hamilton who was arrested Saturday
night for passing bogus checks on
several unwaTy merchants, came the
story this morning of another and
more successful operator. The fraud
ulent checks were issued by Tom
Moss, who has been employed for
some time as a banker by Hohbach
Bros. Five OF them were issued,
each for SO, and all bearing the same
date and number, the latter being 748
They were drawn upon the First Ma
tional Bank and were all copies of
check given Moss on Saturday even
ing by Hohbach Bros. By having
them all of the same amount and
number the clever swindler evidently
meant to prevent detection should
any one of the parties ,cashing the
checks have called the attention of
Hohbach Bros. to the matter.
Nothing was known of the swindle
until this morning when three
NnetkS, eutn lOI sb anu "bttii ilib NAiN
No. "A and date OF February 4, were
simultaneously presented at the First
National Bank by j. f. Robinson, II.
~aEI sd j. e. Russell, of the
state saIooh' N'NsIe the writing was
very good imitation. OF f1Irh~ch
Bros the checks were at once de-
tected as forgeries hy Assistant Cash
ier George Hart FoaR, .Jr., and pay
ment was refused. The original check
was not presented until several hours
later, when It was deposited by the
Standard Grocery company About
1880 a fourth check, similar to the
others, was presented at the bank by
Lee Teutsch, and at 2:S0 a fifth.
70 the same amount, was presented
by the Savings Bank, which had been
cashed by L. Moses.
AS soon as the crime was discov-
cred Hohbach Bros. were notified,
and it was found that Moss had fail
ed to appear for work this pronning.
Marshal Carney undertook to locate
him, and soon ascertained that his
man had left town Saturday night. so
left the matter with the sheriff's of
flee. Moss is an American, about %
years of age, light complexioned, with
blue eyes, and is about five feet 10
inches in height. His trunk and
clothes were left in his room when
he disappeared.
The Hamilton Transactions.
Saturday evening Frank Hamilton,
stone cutter employed by Monter-
etc fhran hnVhNG
checks each one being for $40 and
drown on the Commercial National
Bank of this city. They were taken
by lie Teutsch, Sullivan G. Bond and
the Fair Store Besides these, Ham
ilton also attempted to pass checks of
a similar size upon Brock & McCo-
mas, the Boston Store and the Alex
ander Department Store, but without
success. In each of the places where
the checks were cashed purchases
were made by the operator. Several
saloons and gambling houses We're
also visited, and some of the money
was thus spent. When caught, Ham
Bton told the officers that it was his
intention to pay all of the money
back as soon as he could break a faro
bank and thus raise the money.
Hamilton, whose home is in Llano.
Texas, has been employed in the mar
bic works of Monterastelli Bros but
a few days.
At 2 o'clock this afternoon no COM
plant has been made against Hamil-
ton by any of his victims, and Dep
uty District Attorney Collier declared
he had so far heard nothing of the
matter officially.