Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-11-25
Confessed FORGER
NOW convict 1908
PETER VAN vLlsslNGEN TAKEN
TO ILLINOIS PRISON FROM
CHICAGO HOME.
FORMER FINANClER
is MAKING BROOMS
Sheriff Hints That He Will Soon Ra
"Trusty"-HoIds to First State
ment That DefaIcation Amounts to
Only $750,ooo.

Chicago, Nov 2O.-Peter Van Wis
singer is now at Collaborating
brooms as Convict No. 1908. He went
there Thursday, burying his face in
newspapers throughout the trip to
shield 1t from the photographers.
This forger of $750,000 in securities,
whose confession of Is years of wrong
doing startled business men and wom-
en- In Chicago, who for nearly two
decades ranked him as an upright
and honest member of society, will
lodge In the penitentiary for period
of from one to IA years to expi:te his
crimes.
Accompanied by a personal friend
and county jail officials he was placed
aboard a Chicago & Alton train and
a few hours afterward assumed the
garb of convict. Throughout the try
ing ordeal of facing people on his way
to the train in Chicago and passen-
gers on the train to the penitentiary
town the convicted man retained his
composure and the air of apparent
resignation which he has assumed
since his amazing recital of crime a
few days ago.
Hinted He'll Be a Trusty Soon.
During the hours train trip to Joliet
the prisoner sat huddled in q corner
of the car seat. He conversed dis
jointedly with Mr.. Andrews and with
Sheriff Strassheim and Deputy Sheriff
Morrison on ordinary subjects. When
passing along the drainage canal he
aroused himself somewhat and asked:
rs there any fishing in that stream
of water?"
After a silence he asked again:
What do you suppose they will do
with me down there?"
"Oh, you will probably become a
trusty pretty soon," answered Mr..
Strassheim.
"Will you say if the defalcation
from forged mortgages and notes will
amount to as much as $1,000, 900 or
was your estimate of about $75O,OOO
c0rrect?"
II will say nothing about IT," was
the answer, still with his hands en-
ployed In holding the coverings over
his face.
Threatens to Write Book.
II told my wife, said Van Vlissin-
gen to Sheriff Strassheim on the way
to Joliet, that when my time expires
/ want to start new life. l love my
wife better than any one else on earth
and when get out intend to go to
some country town and write books.
l believe I can make living that
way"
Il asked him. said Sheriff Strass-
helm, chow much his forgeries amount
ed to. His reply was:
Seven hundred and fifty thousand
dollars is the correct amount
HE said it was true, too, that he
had been doing this sort of thing for
IL years."
Making 15.Cent Brooms.
AS convict No. 1908 the former Chi
cago real estate broker was set to
work at one o'clock at the bench
where two other once wealthy and re-
spected Chicago business men were
put at the task of making 15-cent
brooms after they had been convicted
of big defalcations. The work bench
to which Van Vlissingen falls heir was
the one to which Former Banker
Charles Warren Spalding and Former
Banker Paul O. Stensland were forced
to sit and toll day in and day out, ar
ranging broom corn, while a guard,
rife in hand, supervised the work
prevented the prisoners from talking
to one another.
Must Wait Five Weeks to Write.
Van Vlissingen on the way to Joliet
had expressed an intention to write
a detailed statement of his case as
soon as he should be safely ensconced
there. A rude awakening came to him
when Miss Elizabeth Tyndall, the Sec
rotary to the warden, explained that
under the rules of the penitentiary
convicts are not allowed to write let
ters more than once in five weeks and
may receive visitors only once in
eight weeks.
"Mr. Van Vlissingen as Convict No.
1908 cannot write his statement for at
least five weeks was the verdict of
Miss Tyndall.
Mechanics Gust Officers.
Winnipeg, Man., Nov 20.-The Fed