Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-31

BY WILLIAM ATHERTON DUpUY


upon which they had come to the looted
bank From this | knew when the checks
had passed through the clearing house. Be
cause they were for unusual amounts,
found that there were days when but one
check for that sum had passed through the
clearing house. | was able to ascertain
from which bank that check had come, and
this bank was able to tell ME who had deposi
ted a check of that sum on the given
date. The deposit slips did not, however,
show by what bank the check was payable,
and the recurrence of the peculiar figures at
the clearing house and the defrauded bank
was the sole line of proof.
TRACING one check in this way to the
man who had deposited it might not
have been conclusive; but l 1aboriously
traced twelve hundred OF them, and all led
to the same individual. | had confirmed my
case by proving it twelve hundred times.
The maker of the checks, in his attempt to
give one appearance to his transactions, had
rcckoned without considering this possibility
of betraying himself He had made single
mistake, as every criminal is sure to do at
some stage of the game.
The man who had deposited all these
checks was one Green, which name is also
fictitious, operating as the General Supply
Company, let us say, and keeping shop
that dealt in small way in supplies. He
was associated with an alleged grass widow,
who, he claimed, advanced him money for
business transactions, getting the same from
disaffected spouse. The widow had opened
an establishment at a Southern seashore re-
sort, and the records of transactions showed
that one hundred and eighty thousand dol
lars Of the General Supply Company money
under Green's checks had gone to her direct
instead of the trend being in the other direc
ton.
Having massed my evidence, Green was
confronted with it and charged with the
crime 1t was ridiculous, he said. He de-
fled the production of a single check of his
upon that bank. He declared he had not
had an account in the looted institution for
five years. True enough, had not found
one of his checks, and true enough he had
not made deposit in the bank for years
He had figured that under these conditions,
and with LaSalle dead, he was entirely safe.
He laughed at the charges against him.
II was convinced that the woman in the
case was the head and front of the offending
and spent months trying to connect her
with it in such a way as to make her answer
able to the law. In all this | was unsuccess-
full; for there was not a scrap of evidence
upon which to base legal proof of her COM
plicity. There was merely the fact that she
had received great sums of money from the
General Supply Company. and behind her
the record of money spent in so lavish way
as to set city gossiping. There was little
left of the great sums appropriated, and not
a cent was ever recovered.
"While Green was lavishing all this money
upon his woman associate, his mother and
sisters were living in the most abject pow
erty, and never received penny from him.
This fact weighed heavily against him when
his case was brought before jury and
backed by our cumulative evidence. He
was given six years imprisonment. The
widow still protested his innocence, even
after he had gone to prison, and he continued
to insist that she was in no way connected
with the crime. Both remained game to the
end of the chapter. He served his term in
the penitentiary, while she went to North
ern city and opened little shop, through
which she was gaining livelihood when last
heard from, and perhaps dwelling sorrow
fully upon the magnifcence of her wild
fling in the Southland.
RUT the examination of the banks books
- had produced second surprise which was
no less startling than the first, and eXempli-
fed still further the possibility of mere
hoo IL,