The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-06-21
.GASK|LL FRAUDS
REACH 100000
At Least Three Philadelphia
Institutions Hit.
FORGERY METHODS SIMPLE
Dead Broker Made Habit of Raising
Stock Certificates and Using
Them as Collateral.

PHILADELPHIA, June 21.-Rigid in
vestigation is being made today by
local banking interests. by officials of
the Philadelphia Traction Company
and by the executors of the estate of
the 1ats Benjamin H. GaskiII into the
methods employed by the latter in car
.ytng out the astounding frauds and
Eorgeres which were conducted for
years and which were only discovered
yesterday, a month after Mr.. Gaskill's
demise.
From present indications the total
amount realized by GaskiIl from his
stock-ra!sing operations will reach
nearly S7O0, 900, but it is believed that
the greater portion of this can be re-
covered from his estate, which Is esti-
mated to be in the neighborhood of
half million dollars. The widow of
Gaslsill has fled a petition in the or
rhans' court, asking that her exemp-
ton interests in the estate be pro-
tected.
One probable result of the disclosures,
as pointed out by one broker, will be
the adoption of new and less vulnerable
certificates by the corporations inter-
ested in this affair.
AS soon as a full investigation is
made, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange
will prepare list of the altered GER
tifcates and send it out. so that pur-
chaserS VIII be put on guard
John CT Johnson and Representative
Reuben o. Moon were called into the
case last night by the trustees and
they at once took hold Of the investiga-
ton.
His Method Simple.
Gaskilrs method in forgery was beau
tiful in it's simplicity.
Taking, for instance, a certificate for
six shares of Philadelphia Traction
stock Gaskill would erase the six with
acid and then with a rubber stamp in
sert in its place lone hundred
BY raising one-share certificate of
Frankford and Southwark to a 100-share
certificate Gaskill created in one move
collateral for $4,000 loan
I'm all my experience this was the
forgery hardest to detect" said Col
John r. Peddle, stock transfer agent of
the Philadelphia Traction Company.
yesterday.
mot a trace of the original figures on
the stock certificates remained. At any
moment the crime might have been de-
tected by asking for a transfer of the
stock certificates on the books of the
traction company"
GaSkill often declared to feIIow-meyn-
bers OF the Manufacturers Club that he
was the representative of the Standard
OIL Company in this city looking after.
all of that corporations brokerage bust
ness, alG that he did not have to h,lnt
for business as he was making all the
money that he wanted
Spent $4,000 a Year.
Gaskill was spending on an avera ge
s50001 a year, dining often and eIaho-
rately and spending his summers I'm Eu-
rope. He had booked passage on a
steamer for Liverpool with the finest
stateroom procurable and had arranpaS
the week before he became i'll to sail
this summer
Gaskill had been getting loans on
forged and raised certificates for wears.
But the banks always felt secure and
never examined the collateral. They did
not in single instance ask for the
! transfer of the stock on the books of
the companies. which simple expedIent
would have exposed the roguery
Gaskill himself seems TO have been
perfectly confident of his safety He
took his long trips Ia Europe on the
in the vaults of the best Philadelphia
banks a great stock of crooked certifi-
Gates of stock
Even after his death ne banks nv
passing tie collateral from one bank to
another without testing its genuine
OF the fraud.
Confded in No One.
To his own relatives, as well as to the
| world at large, the character of Benta-
| min H Gaskill was an enigma He
| talked to no one of himself; he re-
posed confidence in no one
u do not know whether Ben was
| Continued on Page.)