Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-10
CANES OF SKILLED CROOKS
Shady Methods Of Chasing Other
Peoples Money.
THINK OF FALLING OFF CARS
Business OF Hurting Oue's self q Reg
uIar Means OF Extracting Coin
frou T~reasurtcs of Cor
pOrattons.

The profession or trade Of falling off
trolley cars for a living has been men
toned occasionally in newspapers and
magazines. but even those who have read
Of IL are seldom aware that this Is merely
one branch OF a far wider business-a
speciality, in fact.
The business Of hurting yourself and
then suing somebody for damages, like all
other professions in this era Of specialza-
ton. has been specialized and refined.
True. there are still a great many profess
SIGNALS who are what may be called gem
eral practitioners, just as the family doc
tor still survives in large numbers in spite
OF the nerve specialist. the brain specialist
and the stomach specialist.
Nevertheless, the specialist IL the real
thing in this business. as in others. The
man who can fall out Of an elevator every
few months, the woman who can bang her
self against a bolt Of cloth in a depart
ment store at frequent intervals. not only
conserves his or her intellect by not hav-
ing to think UP different methods all the
time, but grows so expert by concentra-
ton that the profit is surer and the risk
almost eliminated.
The profession. too. lie divided into local
and general practice. Some prefer to stay
In one locality. such as New York City,
extending their field no further than to
Long Island City at the furthest. There
are others who take the entire Atlantic
coast ss a field: will fall off a trolley car
today in Boston and turn up next month
under the wheels of p truck In Charleston.
still others operate throughout the entire
United States, and at least one case is OF
record where the financicr chose Great
Britain and the United States as his mod
est field.
The growth OF the business has forced
the firms and corporations who have been
engaged in paying out money TO these
financiers to take defensive action. and
hence there was formed not long ago the
Alliance Against Accident Fraud" which
now numbers among its members over fifty
firms and corporations in various parts Of
the union.
This company, or alliance, keeps a card
index Of all accident cases, and when one
of its members Is sued and reports the
case the alliance searches Its records to
find II the plaintiff has ever sued ANYONE
before. II he has, previous suits are
looked up by the alliance and the defend
ant member is notified of the result. A
card index of doctors and lawyers is also
kept. In Boston. Chicago and Philadelphia
a cross-index of addresses is kept. For
instance, IL John Smithovitch of 121 State
street sues the Boston Elevated the case
is lndexed under Smithovitch and also I'M
der State street, so that IL any of Johns
%neighbors in that house begin a damage
suit against anybody an investigation can
be started to see If q self-hurting trust ex-
lists in that locality.
How the Game Works.
In one house in Boston eleven claimants
were found by this method. The way the
game was worked was this: A would sue
the Boston Elevated. claiming that he had
caught his foot in getting out of a car;
B and c would be his witnesses. b would
sue the electric light company, claiming
that he stumbled over a stump In the dark;
A and C would be his witnesses. C would
sue the Merchants Express company,
claiming that an express wagon rounded
a corner too quickly and a box fell off and
landed on his foot; A and B would be his
witnesses. The law firm of Coakley d
Sherman, In Boston, handled at one time
300 cases against the Boston Elevated.
In Philadelphia the Mercer brothers OPP
Grated successfully for a long time with a
sort OF private hospital. They had in
their combination a lawyer, a physician
and a nurse. Their speciality was having
a man throw a fit in front of a street
car so that the fender would hit him. At
one time they had a professional contor-
ZIONIST in their employ for this purpose.
As soon as the accident" took place one
OF the firm, In a wagon, would jump
down, brush the excited spectators aside
and say. Never mind waiting for an am
bulance; I'll take the poor fellow myself"
Then he would load the injured man into
= -
ana keep him there for three weeks under
the care of the nurse. The physician
would produce the necessary proof, the
lawyer would bring suit and there would
he a settlement or a verdict. The MERGERS
were finally driven out of Philadelphia
and operated for a while In New York,
but have since scattered. Joseph A. Shay,
who recently got into trouble for trying to
rig up the escape Of a prisoner from the
Tombs, was their counsel.
MakinE Corporation Pay.
While in New York the MERGERS formed a
combination with an artificial leg dealer.
When a man came to him TO buy a leg
the dealer would suggest that he might as
well get some money from some corpora
ton for the loss OF his leg and send him to
the MERGERS to fix up a story Of how he
lost It.
There have been a ~singularly large num-
Der OF accidents in the selinger family of
300 Forsyth street, New York. Ida selin-
ger, aged IL, was the first victim. She
sued her landlord claiming that on August
4, 1906. part OF the ceiling fell and hurt
her head. On September s, 1906. Jacob
seIinger was pushed against . seat on a
Brooklyn car and hurt. He sued the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit. on August 2l.
1906, a car on De Lancey street gave a
start, throwing Annie selinger 10 the floor.
Then the whole Selinser family, together
-l.E ALL nahnr AonnHE. d. -. n---.A