The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-13
AFTER BIG GAME.
An Alleged Swindler, FOrger
and Confidence Man
Caught i'm Denver and Brought
to Kansas City.
EIGHT KINDS OF INK
With Which to Ply His Trade
Found in His Trunk.
Said to Have Victimized WI. E.
Stone and Alger.

Kansas City, Aug. 13.-Oliver Smith,
alias H. o. Lee. alias Benton Smith.
alias o. B. Smith. alias S. H. Peabody,
alias Temple H Hamilton, alias James
T. Ridgeway, said to be one of the
cleverest swindlers and forgers in the
| United States, was brought to Kansas
City yesterday from Denver and placed
in the city Jail to await trial on
charge of swindling r. A. Long out of
$3.50 Saturday. August 3. The man
was arrested several days ago in Den
yer upon information furnished by the
Kansas City police. and was brought
here yesterday by Detective Thomas
McAnany, after waving extra dition.
y Confidence Game.
Smith is wanted here to answer for
a sort of confidence game he is said
to have worked upon many wealthy
men all over the country. He repre-
scented to Mr.. Long that he was James
Il. Ridgeway, treasurer of the Ridge
way Publishing company, publishers
of Everybody's- magazine. He contract
ed for an illustrated article, of which
Mr.. Long was to be the subject, to be
printed in that periodical at an early
date. In payment Mr.. Long gave him
his check for $3.50 drawn on the Ma
tional Bank of Commerce, which
Smith Endorsed as James T. Ridge
Wy, Treasurer" and cashed through
the Bankers Trust company. Mr..
Long later became suspicious of the
man and ordered the check Cancelled,
but not until Smith had obtained most
of the money and gone to Denver.
Smith is said to have worked this
game upon scores of wealthy men all
over the country. His plan seems to
have been to present himself as the
agent for a large publication to which
he obtains subscriptions, asking
amounts that varied as the means of
the intended victim were small or
great. He is supposed to have carried
a list with him containing the names
of the prominent men of the city he
intended to work, and from these to
have culled out the prospects that
babe fair to be the best picking"
When arrested in Denver he was oc-
cupying a luxurious suite of rooms at
the largest hotel there. He made no
resistance to arrest when the Denver
detectives found him. but quietly adj
mitted his identity and acknowledged
the transaction with Mr.. Long in Kan
sas City. He is said also to have ac-
knowledged to the chief of the Denver
police that he had planned to swindle
some of the leading capitalists, of that
Found in His Trunk, ,-rets-,,,
In his trunk were f9pnd memoranda
of the men he intended to. Vietimize,
forged letters of introductiors bearing
the signature of w. H Moore, head of
the Rock Iisland railroad, and George F.
Baker, an eastern banker, and letters
of Endorsement purporting to be written
by men like John d. Rockefeller, ]. Pier
pont Morgan, Elihu Root, and others.
The forgeries We're clever and likely to
deceive even those familiar with the
handwriting of the originals. In his
room at the Denver hotel were found
eight different kinds of ink with which
he is said to have forged countless
names.
1t seems that the mans favorite game
was to enter city, select his victims,
present his bogus credentials and at