Evening star., 1908-01-26
N Great Cases of the Worlds Greatest Detectives

the favorite. and he came out a winner.
When the victor called to receive his win
nings he was Immediately placed under
surveillance. There was nothing about
the man to attract particular attention.
He was neatly but plainly dressed. and
bore all the outward indications of a
prosperous business man. After receiving
his winnings he walked into the rear OF
the grand stand, and making a roll out
of the money he had just received, placed
it in his trousers pocket Then he took
out Of his vest pocket another 500 bill
for the next race. The secret service man,
who was at his very heels, made $2-bet
on the same horse. The favorte won
again. The man "cashed in. and as he
did so was taken into custody.
He was marched over to the clubhouse
and searched. white envelope was
found in his pocket. containing twenty
eight of the 500 counterfeit bills. He
said his name was Marcus Graham. the
proprietor of an extensive photo-engrav-
ing establishment at Providence. r. /. He
was perfectly candid in his explanations
ne SAFE tHdl lie Hdu De6ll NlSIllHS tie ldT.
and was guest at the Southern Hotel
and that he would be very glad to refer
the officers to any bank in the city of
Providence for the purpose of establish
ing his moral and financial standing.
Nothing. apparently, could be more
straightforward. He was placed under
arrest, however. and then the secret serv-
ice men made an examination of his room
at the Southern Hotel. There they found
a suit case containing S4.7OO in genuine
money. He was asked then to explain
how he came to be possessed of the coun-
terfeit money. He said that on the pre-
vious afternoon he had gone to the Union
station for the purpose of having the re-
turn half of his railroad ticket validated
As he came out of the ticket agents office
the electric lights were suddenly turned
on in the waiting room. and he saw in
the corner on the floor long white en-
velope. He picked it up and found that
it contained $4,000 in 800 bills. He imme-
diately went TO the Office of one of the
local newspapers and inserted an adver-
tisement telling of his discovery, and of
fering to restore the money to its lawful
owner This part of his story was veri-
fed by the little identification check
which is given to classified lad" patrons
by the big daily newspapers. In addition
to this, there was a clipping from the
paper containing copy of the advertise
ment, which read as follows:
Found: In the Union station late yes
terday afternoon. sum of money in bank
notes. which owner may have. after prov
ri NV aI,.iv
Office
Graham was perfectly cool and self-pos-
sessed at every stage Of the inquiry, and
persisted in his story in a manner that
convinced many of the officials that he
was telling the truth. An inquiry was
Immediately instituted at Providence, and
this verified every feature of his story Tt
was shown that he had high standing
there in social, business and religious cir
cles, and there was a great deal of honest
resentment among his friends and asse-
ciates over what they termed 1.-The awful
blunder of the police in attempting to
associate Marcus Graham with the crime
Of passing counterfeit money. To such an
extent did this feeling precail that num-
Der of his friends got together and select
ed a representative citizen who was dele
gated to go to st. Louis for the purpose
of entering bail. employing counsel and
doing whatever else might be deemed nee
essary to protect the rights of Mr.. Cra-
han. For ten long days the secret service
officials and the authorities of st. Louis
made every possible attempt to disprove,
or even to sha'-e the story of Marcus
Graham, but without any practical results
Under the circumstances it really seemed
that it would be necessary to release him
for want of legal evidence.
Then John E. Wilkie, who had been
directing the movements of his subordi-
mates by wire. determined to take hold of
the case in person