New-York tribune., 1910-06-20
ARRESTED AS FORGER;;
WAS SOON TO WE'D
Police Say Man Taken as Robber
of Mail Boxes in Harlem
Forced Endorsement.
MARRIAGE LICENSE ON HIM
duplicates Another Man as Act
ual Writer of False Sigma
ture on Check Stolen
from Letter.

Detective Bureau has been receiving
hundreds Of complaints from families
living in Harlem and washington
Heights over the wholesale rif1ing of
their mail boxes in the Railways Of private
houses and apartments. Many of the
complaints came from persons who said
that the letters contained checks, and the
police at once started in to make a sys-
tematic search for the offenders.
Detectives Allen and Upton, of the
Harlem bureau, were detailed to the case
and watched the Railways of different
houses for more than three weeks with
out being able to get line on the mail
box robbers.
Detectives Allen and Upton, of the
Harlem Bureau. were detailed to the
case and watched the Railways of diff
ferent houses for more than three weeks
without being able to get a line on the
robberies. On Thursday evening Ed
ward J. Fullan, president of the Fullan
Construction Company of No 103 Park
avenue, visited them at the bureau. Mr..
Fullam told the detectives that he
wanted them to arrest a man known as
William J. NJ Murphy, who had been
calling on his daughter Grace for the
last nine months. He said that Murphy
was engaged to his daughter and that
the wedding was set for next Sunday
and was to have been announced from
the pulpit of All Saints Church. 10th
street and Madison avenue, yesterday.
Recognized Murphy's Description.
Although the detectives have refused
to disclose the nature of the charge
made against Murphy by Mr.. Fullan,
they were sufficiently interested to re
new their search for the mail box rob
ber with added zeal They had recog-
nized in the description of Murphy given
to them by Fullam the same man they
had suspected in connection with the
letter robberies. and they laid a plan
whereby they hoped to trap the young
man.
Mr.. Fullam said that he first became
suspicious of Murphy, who had been re-
cefved by his family for months as the
hance of his daughter when he learned
on Thursday that the young man had
been expelled from a lodge Of the
Knights Of Columbus in Harlem, of
which a close friend of his was also a
member. Mr. Fullam knew that only
the most serious offence would be re-
sponsibIe for such action on the part of
the officers of the lodge, and he deter
mined to find out just what lay at the
bottom of the matter.
He endeavored to find out from the
man who had expelled Murphy the
ton was refused, owing to the fact that
all that happens behind the doors at the
of this lodge is held as a secret.
Although he could gain no positive in
formation on the subject, Fullam
cleaned enough evidence to satisfy him
that Murphy was not the man he had
thought him to be. After talking with
the detectives, therefore, F'ullam was
told that they We're looking for one man, |
or possibly two, who had been robb1ng
mail boxes in the neighborhood, and that
the man he had described as Murphy |
fitted their own description Of one of the |
mail box robbers.
The detectives then arranged with Mr.. |
FulIam and the head of the lodge to |
which Murphy belonged that when Muir |
ply called on Miss Grace Fullam last |
night the lodge member should hide in |
another room and at a given signal tell /
the detectives that Murphy was about to |
go, when they arranged TO arrest him.
Signal for Arrest.
~.
IF house across the street from Mr..
Fullam's home. at No. rs West 121th
street, and when the lodge member came
TO the window and made a signal they
crossed the street and met Murphy as he
was coming from the Fullam home.
They Immediately arrested him on a
charge of forgery. and took him to the
Harlem Bureau and afterward to Police
Headquarters. where he was searched.
Before the detectives started in to
search Murphy he complained Of the
leat and opened his waistcoat. AS he
lid so, the detectives said. he deftly
slipped a bit of paper beneath his shirt.
Allen Immediately seized the prisoner
md made him strip. when the bit of
jdp6T ISl 10 Tie lfCOL' faIiSii plNhSd II
10. and found that it was a check for
613 80, payable to the order of Felipe
Grand, of No. 23S West 111th street.
The check was from the international
Company, of New York City.
Confronted with this piece Of evidence,
durphy was defiant, and said that he
ad not taken the check, but that he
49, laSa | d,
hen questioned him at length, and ha
nally gave them the name of William
dubois. of No. 127 East 1OSth street. as
he man who had given him the check
Allen and Upton went to the address
iven by Murphy and found Dubois (
here. They told him he was under ar
est. charged with forgery, and took him
o Headouarters where he was brought
ace to face with Murphy. Dubois grew
White with rage when he saw Murphy [
nd fatty denied being connected with
he stealing or forging of the check He
old Murphy he would get him for
Raging him into the case. The two
zen then got into a wordy argument
ach accusing the other.
The charge against Murphy was made I
3 the result of the complaint of Walter J
teinbrecher, OF No. 244 West 140th {
treet who said that two checks one |