Arizona republican., 1913-07-26
Gigantic Real Estate Swim dle Involving West Adams Property Uncovered by Fred Jacobs and H. NJ. Lewis
RICHEY DIRECTS
 EXCITING CHASE
By Letter and Wire He Works Crooks and Police Together in San Fran cisco-One Captured, the Rest About to Be


 | Through the pretended acquiescence of Fred Jacobs, in a criminal swindIe. attempted by San Francisco crooks and the clever work of Assistant i United States Attorney oscar T. Richey, and H. NJ Lewis, a partner in the Jacobs real estate firm, there was exposed yesterday, in the city by the bay, one of the most gigantic frauds ever tried out by smooth manipulatOrs. One of the swindlers the gO-betWeen, is in the tolls, caught
 by means of a net of the careful weaving of Richey, the postal and police authorities of San Francisco, and his confession, rendered yesterday has implicated the remainder of a gang of Italian fOrgers and crooks whose operations cover practically every city west of the Rockies in cluding those of western Canada. The captures real name seems to be Issac Crosse, though he has used half a dozen aliases and assumed names and authorities in trying out the scheme. A half block on West Adams street valued at from $40,000 to $50,- 900 and belonging half to the estate
 
 ter Bennett is the issue of the strug- gle of wits, which has brought the gang into the power of the police and broken up what must. if successful | have been the biggest forgery fraud l ever perpetrated in the west.
 The story of the attempted swindle !! in all its curious twists and turns | sounds like melOdrama, involving as | it does the valuable estate, the wick | ed criminals, the supposedly dishonest | real estate dealer, the shrewd attor- ! ney and the banking institutions of two states. It began with a letter which arrived nearly two months ago for Fred Jacobs from a man in San Francisco who signed himself Will liam M Collins. It asked Jacobs to get from the recorders office the names of nonresident owners of val uable Phoenix real estate, preferably, it stated, property owners living in Europe or remote sections of Amer Ica. The letter asked also for the descriptions and assessed valuations of any bits of uncared for real estate that the Phoenix man should select as ! basis for the operations. Collins agreed to represent himself as the owner, to forge and send to Phoenix | deed for the land. which either Jacobs or another real estate man could handle, in the event he (Jacobs) lid not wish to go further into the active operations with the gang This method if pursued would have eX- empted both Jacobs and the handler of the land while leaving the former -O divide the rich profit with the eX-state operators
 Jacobs did not at first catch the 1rift of Collins proposition so he his partner Lewis. Lewis advised taking the matter to an at orney, and wisely selected Richey as he sole representative, then, of the ; United States attorney. Richey de ,ided to enter the game and play it O the crooks finish, an enterprise which was concluded with credit and ( partial success with the arrest day , before yesterday of Crosso- Collins, ( Scott Oury.
 On R:chey's advice, Jacobs and | lewis secured descriptions of the f )ury property, knowing it to be own d by a non resident, a Mrs. Jackson I ,f Durango. Mexico, heir under the will of Sarah Oury, who died in San Antonio, Texas, a year ago. Being a , Mrs. Jackson is repre- 'ented by Judge Kibbey, administra- , or of the Oury estate which is con iderably larger than this single par el of land.
 Using Richey's pOstoffice boX.s the ,onspirators here and those in Frisco negotiated for two months, the Phoe- liX contingent endeaVOring to get Col ins where the officers of the law .ould locate him, and at the same jme keep up the pretenSe of helping he fraud along. The band was too l mooth to be easily handled. Col ins manufactured and sent along a Iced. signed by Mrs. Oury The Sc urities Bank and Trust company of Oakland and the Valley Bank of Phoe- i fix handled the deed, the local in titution with full knowledge of the I ieep laid plot. Accompanying the ( Iced were instructions from the fic- ( itious Mrs. Oury to Jacobs to sell the I property at the ridicUlously low igure of $11,000 Richey, working in ' 'ehalf of Jacobs sent word that he l lad buyer, who would pay $10,O0O $ ash $5000 cash and $60OO on time. I ike a shot the clever crook sent Ford to take the cash. Here was an 2 end to the negotiations, with 1 he attorney still unable to put the I san Francisco authorities directly on 2
 Continued on Page Eleven)