Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-03-30
CASSIE LOOKS like
A SELLING Platter
Compared With This Mistress
of Graft She's Left at
the Post.
CAREER OF SOPHIA BECK
She is Supposed to Have Got Away
With About s1,ooo,ooo of the S.
100000 Loot Philadelphia Vic
Tins Gave to Syndicate.

/ PHILADELPHIA. March 80 In the guise or
"stonographor," Sophia Beck is believed
to have engineered successful incursion
into high finance" in connection with
"get-rich-quck' concerns recently cN-
posed and to have escaped with Sl@o,Oc0
and the man Of her choice while her fell
low conspira tors are left in the lurch. AS
n scorcss MISS Beck OF Chicago is TO Mrs.
Chadwick, as an automobile to a common
cart.
The sweet faced Chicago girl. now Mrs.
Richard Graham. was the real power be-
hind the Storey Cotton company, the
Provdent Investment company and of one
or two other smaller concerns under the
same control. Remarkable as was the
success of the Storey company and its al
lies, under the dcft management of Harry
I.atilncr. Stanley Francis and Frank G,
Marin, 1t was as nothing compared with
the food of gold she managed to draN
Dupes Are Easily Found.
The Storey company. in its general
working was AN ordinary enough get
rich-quick" concern. the most puzZling
feature being the ease with which 1t Sc
cured dupcs II pretended to deal In cot
ION. The Provident company pretended to
deal in wheat Their mailing lists and
references were the same.
BY means of these concerns. Latimer
Frances, Marin and Sophia Beck are be-
evcd to have plundcred the public OF
more than s5oO0.0o0 large part was
spent in riotous living. Latmer and Mar
rim are believed to have "saltcd" large
sums and Sophia. the slyest of all, must
have gotten away with 1T least Sl,0OO.OOO
Francis, who stayed behind and put on
an air of injured innocence. seems to have
been duped completely. He is unable to
furnish $4,000 bail.
A Fugitive from Chicago.
The history of Sophia Beck Is fascinat-
ing. On February 8, 1900. she fed from
Chicago with Frank G. Marin. alias
Judge" Franklin Stone. when the latter's
gct-rich quick concern in Chicago crashed
Under the names of MIR. and Mrs. Edward
Dunno, they were arrested in New Or
leans
Marin afterward deserted the woman.
and three years ago she turned up here as
the companion of musician in Dam
rosch's orchestra. named Miller. She was
not clad in silks and satins she was plain
Sophia Beck, Just as she appeared when Il
country girl out on the Illinois prairie
whore she was reared.
But the life OF n musicians wife did not
appeal to the fancy of the woman who had
operated a gct-rich-quick" concern in
Chicago several years previous, and who,
with the money derived from this fraud,
had lived at the rate of 100000 a year.
She tired of it,
A. O. Howard. f. +. Storey and Frank
lin Stone of the Storey Cotton company
crossed her path this time. Soon she was
employed as '.stcnographer" by the Storey
Cotton company at salary of $500 q week
Takes Control Of Game.
Sophia Beck had a strong hold on the
officials of the Storey Cotton company
She twisted them about her fingers at her
Will: it was hers to order and theirs to
obey. She had plenty of money and looked
around for some one to share It, She
picked out Richard Graham, the son of a
highly respected widow of Jenkintown.
He was teamstcr
In the fall of 1903 A. o. Howard nominal
manager OF the Storey Cotton company,
began to make frequent visits to the
woman with money to burn" and about
this same time Sophia sent Graham on n
trip to California. In couple of months
he came back and Graham and Sophia
Beck were married in the Jenk;ntown
Episcopal church.
The Grahams purchased a home on
Navajo street. which they occupied until
March Z, when they disappeared. During
their residence in Chestnut IIill Graham
and his wife INDUCED i'm all the gaieties
money could afford. Their first week s
grocery bin ran something like this: For
provisions, $3.45, for wines and liquors.
1910.