Arizona republican., 1906-10-10
.RAPIER THE CONFESSOR
 SHOWN 10 BE A LIAR
His Effort to duplicate a Reclam a-
 ton Official in His Crime.

Rapier, the man who stole a lot of bank checks from the reclamation ser vice and committed forgeries to an unknown amount, turns out to be meaner criminal than even his forg- cries and his theft indicated him to be Under the influence of a sweatbox at Tombstone. he has been making con fessions involving several other per sons in his crime.
 His most sensational confession was one duplicating c. N. Van Sant. the disbursing officer of the reclamation service at Roosevelt He said that the cheeks had been received by him from the disbuTsing officer An inVestiga- ton of the confession was begun. and a day or twO-ago Inspector Goddard came to Phoenix. In the meantime a warrant for the arrest of MT. Van Sant had been issued.
 IL was not believed by the author ities that there was any truth in the confession. but MT. Goddard went on to Roosevelt and on the night of his arrival there he telephoned to Phoenix that he had satisfied himself of the in nocence of Mr Van Sant.
 But the warrant which had been is- sued against him was served on Sun day. and yesterday afternoon he ar rived at Globe, where he was immedi- ately discharged by United States Commissioner Martin.
 h1r. Van Sant has been with the re- clamation service for several years. and since the promotion of Dr. Lind he has been disbursing officer at Roosevelt. He enjoys the fullest con fidence of all the officials of the ser vice, though he is a very young man. only little more than tw enty- one.
 It was shown that the checks used by Rapier had been stolen from the postoffice. so that they had never en- tered the office of the service. and as Rapier was the carrier from the post office to the office of the service. he needed no help in carrying out this project
 As janitor of the office he had until a certain time access to blank checks That time was when he proposed to the disbursing officer some such a scheme as he afterward undertook. He had then resigned and was about to go away. The disbursing officer kicked him out of the office. It is thought that the confession he has made was in re- venge for the forcible rejection Of his criminal proposition
 Secret service officers have followed Rapier from the date he left Roosevelt
 
 Bisbee two weeks ago. The first stop he made was at Globe on the 1st of September. With a stop of a day or so in the towns in the order named he visited Clifton. MOrenci. Albuquerque Socorro. W. M, Fl Paso. Los Angeles. GOldfeld, Nev., Ogden, Utah. San Francisco. Tombstone. Benson. and Bisbee. Tn all of the towns named he cashed checks They ranged from SSO to S100 each. such amounts being about the pay of the average govern ment employe. They were all endorsed ! pay for the month of August" and fn many instances were signed with the forged name of Dr. F. c. Lind. who was formerly the disbursing agent at | Roosevelt. In other cases the name "S. C. Blach" was used. Most of the cheeks Rapier made payable to him self. while in other instances he used ! the name of a confederate and the con federate presented and casled the ! forged checks.
 ! Rapier had been employed about Roosevelt for three years. It has been ! learned since his arrest that he had | been a convict.