The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-16
SHAFFER'S TRIAL
The FOrger Faces Certainty OF
Conviction.
Defense Is He Stole for Sick
Wife-She SObs in Court.

He was out of work. He needed
| money because his wife was ill, and
| threatened with tuberculosis. So he
devised the plan to get it by travelling
around Kansas and passing worthless
checks.
These are about the only excuses
that A. H. Shaffer of Kansas City,
one of the most successful forgers
that has ever worked in Kansas, has
had to offer for his operations He
has made them from time to time
since his arrest to Sheriff L. L. Kiene,
and the latter testified to them today
in the court of Topeka, when Shaffer
had his preliminary examination. 1t
was a brief affair, and at its conclu-
sion Shaffer was held for trial in the
district court in $1,000 bail Otis Hun
gate, Shaffer's attorney, had no evil
dence of any kind to offer when the
state finished the presentation of its
case. There seems to be little pros
pect of his furnishing this bail, SO he
will undoubtedly have to remain in
jail until his trial, which may not be
term of not more than five years in
the state penitentiary. as Mr. Lillard,
the assistant county attorney, who
conducted the preliminary eXamina-
ton is of the opinion that the case
against Shaffer is of the open and
shut variety. There are any number
of similar charges against Shaffer,
other than the one on which he was
arrested by Sheriff Kiene. They seem
to be just about as clear cases against
him as that one. And if they are
pressed successfully Shaffer has many
years in prison ahead of him.
Mrs. Shaffer was in court this morn
ing during the proceedings against her
husband. She has been in Topeka al
most since his arrest and his return
here from Chapman, where the sher-
iff picked him up. She is a rather
tall, refined looking woman and was
tastefully dressed. She sobbed almost
continuously while the testimony was
being given that so strongly showed
her husbands culpability. And when
matters were brought to a conclusion
with the announcement that Shaffer
would be held in 81, 600 bail for trial,
she oroke down and cried most Bit
terly. She was sustained and COM
forted by Mrs. Abbott, the Jail ma
tron.
On the other hand, Shaffer seemed
to be the most contained and self
possessed man in the court room. He
was carefully groomed, his clothes be-
ing of an expensive variety. And
with his pompous figure, he present
ed the appearance of prosperous
banker. No one would pick him out
of a crowd as a man who had been
making a rich living of late by fitch
ing money from banks on worthless
paper.
Mrs. Shaffer was wholly innocent of
any idea that her husband was MAX
ing their living by obtaining money
under false pretenses. She thought
he was travelling in Kansas and SELL
ing securities for a bonding house He
used to return to their home in Kan
sas City weekly. He was a kind and
indulgent husband, and the fact that
she and he have, as a matter of fact,
been living on the 1argesse of fraud,
has been terrible shock to her.
Almost every mail brings to the
Shawnee county officials information !
of the passing of worthless checks in
Kansas and suggesting from the de-
scriptio nof the prisoner, which have
gone out, that Shaffer is the guilty
man. So the conclusion is fair one
that he carried on a wholesale bust
ness in this line