Semi-weekly herald., 1911-06-12
MAY UNRAvEL wARRINER CASE


den facts in the celebrated Warmer
case, which cost the Big Four rail-
road nearly S1,o00,OO0 and sent one
man to the penitentiary and one wom-
an to the madhouse.
The man who was sent to prison is
Charles l.. Warriner, convicted of en-
bezzling the huge sums while acting
as local treasurer of the Big Four
road. The woman in the case is Mrs.
Jeanette S. Ford, who was alleged to
have blackmailed Warriner out of
hundreds of thousands of dollars and
who is now confined in sanitarium,
her mind almost gone, it is said, as
result of the strain of her trial.
The third principal in the celebrat-
ed case is Edgar Street Cooke of Chi
cago, who is to be placed on trial
here Monday on a charge of embez-
Element from the Big Four. His
trial, it is believed, will bring to light
all of the hidden details in the sordid
story of love, lust, intrigue and black
mail.
From the very first it has been
hinted that the least fact of all in the
huge scandal was WARMERS $643,-
600 embezzlement. In WARMERS
trial and in the trial of Mrs. Ford
the name of Edgar Street Cooke was
frequently mentioned. Warriner de-
clared that Cooke was the ihstigator
and real principal in the thefts of the
railroad company's funds. Yet
months passed before any effort was
made to bring about the arrest and
trial of the Chicagoan, who affected
to feel no fear that he would ever
be prosecuted on the charges made
against him.
Charles l.. Warriner confessed that
his thefts from the railroad began
years ago when he was employed in
the Cleveland office. What prompted
him to begin his stealings has never
been learned. While he lived well,
his mode of living did not lead one TO
believe that he was spending more
than his salary. He was constant
attendant at church and so far as has
been learned had no expensive habits.
The career of Mrs. Jeanette S.
Ford, the second principal in the case,
is less mysterious but more romantic.
She had just finished her course in a
fashionable boarding school when her
father died, leaving her an orphan,
with some $S5000. She was then in
her teens. In Cincinnati she met a
man named Ford and married him.
Ford later secured divorce.
Soon after this the woman met Ed
gar Street Cooke, young, good-looking
and prosperous. Cooke was sub
ordinate of Warriner in the Big Four
office. There were rumors that Cooke
was short in his accounts. Later War
riner made a report that Cooke was
not short and discharged him. Cooke
quit work, but continued to draw his
salary. In fact, his salary was
doubled. Following this discovery
came the allegations of blackmail
plot in which a man and woman
forced Warriner to pay heavily or
have his own shortage made public.
Cooke is alleged to have told Mrs.
Ford of WARMERS shortage. Then
he went to Chicago to escape her,
having evidently decided to devote his
attention in future to his beautiful
wife and his two sons. Mrs. Ford
was quick to meet the crisis. She is
alleged to have used the knowledge of
the embezzlement to eXtort money and
vet more money from Warriner, and
to have employed this money in her
mad pursuit of Cooke. She demanded
money from one and love from the
other, according to the stories told.
When the Cincinnati officers turn
ed to Cooke in Chicago for light on
the trial of Mrs. Ford, it was Mrs.
Cooke who showed her husband the
way to the woman's exposure. She
declared that for ten years she had
been fighting for her husbands love.
Then it was that Cooke barred his
breast and showed the scar of bull
let, which he declared had been fired
at him by Mrs. Ford in a New York
hotel.
Warmer has been tried and Mrs.
Ford has been tried and now Cooke,
the third person in the mysterious
case, is to stand trial. 1t is possible
that the trial Of Cooke may solve the
mystery of why man OF high stand
ing in the community and trusted by
his employers should steal nearly
three quarters Of million and turn
the bulk of it over to persons in whom
he apparently had no interest. War
riner will be brought down from the
penitentiary in Columbus to tell his
story in court. Mrs. Ford also will
be placed on the stand if her condi-
ton permits.
NED