The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-22
FUGITIVE BROKER" CAUGHT.
J. ~. WtNSFIELD ARRESTED On
4 CEJTL PROCESS.
Turned n In the once Building where He
once Ran His Bucket shop n IL
Nahbed- Began Hls Career I'm New
England, Then Found a New Field Here.

II Mansfield 4 Co., which used to do
What II called a brokerage pushes at
a Broadway. He disappeared Of July 20,
,redllous persons who declared that he
had ror away with their money, the total
Amounting to something like sl5O.OOO.
Mansfield owes his capture to the fact
that -umcthing led him ~incautiously to
revisit The Slimpses Of his former financial
,rnmph-. lie had been hunted vainly
wv detectives employed by his creditors
,or 4 wear and a half, and IL security had
have been caught. He was arrested yes
rcrldy noon al ~ Broadway in a civil suit
and lator wa- released on bail.
The complaint on which the arrest was
made WAS signed by Charles Schmeiser, who
llieec- that Mansfield got away with IS 900
thar belonged to him in connection with
various stock operations he. made through
Nausield's firm. Reno X. Ellington, a
LAWYER. also of ~ Broadway, is counsel for
Schmeiser and for twenty other COM
plsinants, all Of whom once did business
With Mansfield and whose losses amount
10 ST.. 1000.
When Mansfield tackled a little sign UP
over his door a year and a half ago an
uouncing that the firm has suspended
many persons wished to interview him,
but he had departed, leaving no address
either at the office or at the Raleigh, 7 West
Ninetv-second street, where he had lived.
Detectives were promptly hired and they
traced the fugitive 10 the Saranac region
and thence to Montreal, where he stayed
a. the Hotel Frontenac with a young woman
named Violet, with whom he had been
frequently seen in Broadway's all night
restaurants.
Thence the trail led to Boston, but he
heat the detectives out of that city by
twenty-four hours, and the next heard of
nim was from Paris and Monte Carlo. After
tha, the ground of the Continent apparently
opened and swallowed him up, for nothing
further was heard Of him until Thursday
morning, when a clerk in Mr.. B~illington ma
employ recognized him in "A corridor at
~ Broadway. Mr.. Ellington at once got
warrant for his arrest from Justice Vernon
VI. Davis Of the Supreme Court, but by the
time Deputy Sheriff Cruise arrived Mans
field had again disappeared.
But he reSembled the cat Of lyric fame.
He couldn't stay away A detective found
him in a lower Broadway saloon yesterday
morning and followed him to the Tower
Building, az 80 Broadway. Mansfield became
suspicious that he was being followed and
turned on the detective, inquiring:
Are YOU MIR. Ellington"
The detective said ne wasn't, whereupon
Mansfield took to his heels and ran through
the passage that onnect so Broadway
with ~ Broadway. The detective came
down 10 the street and old tine deputy
sheriff. who hustled up 10 the top of a. and
encountered Mansfield Just as he was getting
INTO tho elevator.
# want you," said Cruise.
IN right" said Mansfield amiably.
'Hsre am"
cruise took his prisoner before Justice
PAWS. who held him in 81 500 bail, which
was furnished.
10 The little town of Rockland. Mass,
Now York is indebted for j. II. Mansfield.
Befoie coming here Mansfield ran a broker
age Office there with John 7. Ball. The
firm failed and a number of people lost
money by the failure. Before that Mans-
field had managed a North AttlebOro paper
called the LdHN Le6Ter.
Finding the limitations of New England
TOO confning. Mansfield came to New York,
and on March /. 1905, filed articles of in
corporation in this State OF j. II. Mansfield
4 Co., bankers. The incorporators were
j. H. Mansfield, his father. John T. Mans
field, and Rosetta I. Bressler. Miss Bressler
was merely the firms stenographer. No
body blames her for what subsequently
happened, though in all the suits against
Mansfield she and Mansfield pere are named
~ codefendants.
Fairly IN the following May the firm
opened Offices on the third foor of a Broad
way and began to advertise largely in vsri-
Gus newspapers, making the usual alluring
promises Of big profits oil small invest
n1ents and alleging hat the firm had nu-
inerous sources of inside information"
as 10 how the market was to be manipu-
lated from time to time. That means
revenue for us and profits for you, F" said
j. H. Mansfield 4 Co. Part Of this state
ment turned out to be strictly accurate.
Splendid accommodations for lady traders.
Private telephones and telegraphs, ex-
changes, tickers, unrivalled brokerage and
oil information letters read one advertise
ment.
There were, in fact. special arrangements
Tor the accommodation of women with
money to spend. Mrs. NJ. NJ. Folliett was
placed in charge Of this department. law
yer Ellington says Mrs. Folliett was one
OF Z. 5. Dean & Co.'S most valuable EN-
ployees. However that may be, the ladies
department." of j.. H. Mansfield 4 Co. did a
thriving business.
According to Lawyer Ellington, the adj
vertlsement alleging the possession of
private telephones vas a statement Of plain
TACT. He says the telephones were so private
That the wires Of most of them terminated
under the carpet of the room where they
we're installed. The scheme employed, says
me lawyer. vas the anciently successful
one Of pretending TO call up some reputa-
Die and powerful stock trader and conduct
ing an imaginary conversation with him in
which the clients sitting about the room
were led 10 believe valuable information
vas received.
Money came in fast from the very start;
nut the firm retained so much Of what
came in that some Of its clients grew sus-