Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1913-08-22
Expert Has Little Difficulty in
Stealing Fortune.
Operator Finds II Easy to Alter Fine
Writing, but Difficult With Gale
araphy Of lsnorant-"Man-
ual" Used by Crooks.


Chicago Chicago crook sat in a
soom Just of La Sale street four
years ago studying a check. 1t was
made out for $27, and was certified by
the state bank on which 1t was drawn.
The crooks speciality was check rails
ing. He was preparing to steal for
tune with the little piece of paper.
The president OF cement construc-
ton company had written the check.
He had taken what he thought proper
business precautions. He wrote
''twenty-seven," drew a horizontal line
through two short vertical lines. and
added land 00-100" before the word
dollars on the check.
The long horizontal line through the
two short vertical lines. often termed
q hickey" Is a frequent device
against the INSCRIPTIONS. The man in
the back room Just on La Sale street
made three movements with his pen
and the hickey" became 9Th" Then
he wrote "ous," the word and" COM
dieting thousands" Three ciphers
were added to the figures in the line
above. The certified check was then
deposited In trust and savings bank.
and withdrawal of s27 900 was i'm
.mediately made against 1t.
A veteran thief catcher in Chicago
recently, in recounting this incident,
added that there exists among pro-
fessiona1 check raisers what amounts
TO a manual.
Write me a check" he urged Wis
itor.
A check for 5000 was written. It
was passed over to the detective.
Within two minutes, without an eras-
ure being made. 1t called for $500.
by the manual the figure two is
always potential OF Ave-" he explain
ed. The aim is always to avoid the
interlining or the extending of words
Check raisers know all the characters
which lend themselves to changes that
cannot be detected. The capital IT.
as most OF us write 1t, can, for in
stance. be changed to the capital +"
without the slightest trouble.
Here are few OF the changes that
can be made almost as fast as writ
ten:
One to eight
Two to Ave.
"'Ten' to fifty
-Four to forty
Twenty to seventy
Nov, the figure T. for instance,
may be readily formed into any other
figure save q and g.
The word hundred may be formed
easily from the ripping scroll that
many write after a sum. Almost any
OF lines that have any regu-
arity may be formed into words.
The hardest check to raise or alter |
Is the one written by a nearly, Hitter
ate person." the expert continues. |
The gracefully flowing hand is the
sasiest changed.
There is. In fact. no comparison
between raising checks with a genu-
ne signature and forging the sigma
ure itself-so far as the ease Of exc
'ution is concerned.
"Of course, banks and business
louse. many of them, at least, pro-
ect themselves nowadays with de-
ices that brand a Limitation of the
heck indelibly into the very texture
4 the paper. In this field. too, many
evices at first thought absolute safe
yards were soon outwitted by the
rocks.
Filling Perforated Checks.
Take machine that perforated
he paper with the exact amount for
Ghich the check was drawn. Really
II that was needed was common
tile punch and a bottle Of invisible
lue. Every crook knows where to