The San Francisco call., 1909-03-28

gang in lonely places at fake sport, In
spector Swenson said:
Il found these pictures among
Mabray's effects. OF course the pros
pective victim was led to believe that
the photograph was being taken merely
as a souvenir, but I have reason to
believe that the taking Of the photo
graph was a rather important part of
the performance. That is to say, when
the wrestler or prize fighter or jockey
was dying or dead and the gang
were hurrying the Mike away for the
supposed purpose of helping him es-
cape arrest, they would express great
regert at the taking of the photo
graph which, they would explain,
would undoubtedly fall into the hands
Of the police and aid the police in
Identifying those present when the
athlete was Killed. Excited by these
and other remarks. the Mike would
be thinking much less about recover
ing his money than about escaping ar
rest in connection with murder.
Then, too, the Mike was very apt
to be suffering from a guilty con-
science, entirely apart from the
tragedy. continued Inspector Sven
son. The steerer, or capper or field
man, or whatever you may choose 10
call him, would tell the prospective
victim very candidly that the wrest-
ling match, boxing match, horse race
or foot race was to be a fake, but the
Mike would be led to believe himself
on the side fixed to win. In fact, the
usual plan was for the Mike, while
being steered, to be kept under the
impression that he would not be ex-
pected to wager any OF his own
mOney-that the money for him to
wager on the fixed match or race
would be handed TO him surrepti-
tiously by the private secretary Of the
.Millionaires. the private secretary
having decided to fleece his rich en-
ployers and share the spoils with the
Mike the steerer and ,the athletes.
SHOW NEGOTIABLE PAPER
The Mike would be required to show,
the private secretary some negotiable
paper, merely to prove himself respon-
sible, the steerer would explain. In
the midst Of the excitement of betting
the Mike would be induced on one
preteXt or another to get the paper
cashed. Then, promptly, would come
the contest and the getaway with the
Mixes money.
Some of the victims seem TO fear
that the government desires TO prose
cute them and are reluctant about
coming forward to testify. But the
government has no such desire Our
only desire. so far as they are con-
cerned, is their testimony to help US
send to prison the swindlers who
duped them.
while it is amazing how many
usually shrewd businessmen, includ-
ing bankers. are among the victims.
It is equally amazing how many
prominent men are among the 800
and some members of the gang. 1
can assure you that some important
indictments are yet to come
I have Just added ZIP the gangs
gross receipts from the AZ persons
known to have been feeced at Coun-
ell Bluffs and I have a total OF $685.
295 The records which I have here
show that the gang got from 10 vic
tins in 1906. s6S,OS0: from 27 victims
in 1907. $l94,290. and from "a vic
tins I'm 1908. sfs2.040. This totals
s444360. Add 10 this the $4,000 they
got last month from J. 9. Kile of Cisco,
H.. and the 500 they got last month
from J. B. Ray of Woodland, Okla,
and the total is $455, osO.
RAYS Loss SMALL
RAY was fortunate in way His
loss is the smallest in the list of 73
known victims. He says he tried 10
get more money to bet. but had
trouble at the bank about his sigma
ture or something else. ] have reason
10 believe that the list Of 73 does not
include ali the victims OF these swind-
Iers, and that they got altogether con-
siderably over half a million and pos
sibly nearer a million
''Of course. Mabray, Warner, john
son and Clarke, the Pittsburg mil
lionaires' and their private secretary
did not get all of this money The
records show that the usual basis of
division Of spoils was so per cent to
the steerer or steerers. 5 per cent to
the wrestlers. prize fighters. jockeys |
or foot racers. and the remainder. 35 |
per cent to the syndicate. The syn