The Detroit times., 1914-11-27

which Charles Condor would neatly
elude the consequences OF his theft
and give the law once more what he
has been known 10 give il for years
the laugh
The Gondorfs,' former Deputy Pc
lice Commissioner Dougherty, for
many years superintendent OF the
Pinkerten agency, has said, ARE the
trickiest confidence men in the Unit
ed States. They make the eminent
Wallingford look like deuce.
They have also made the police OF
London, Paris Berlin. New York.
Chicago and dozen other American
cities look careworn and futile. Scores
OF arrests, but in the end the law
outwitted.
Recently the district-attorneys OF.
flee had list OF swindling Coups reg
istered against the Gondorf syndf-
cate showing $4,000 plucked from
VICTIMS within a year. The word
syndicate" Is used adyisedly--for
that Is exactly what N was The
gang" had big working capital
100000 as a rule-with which to fur
Their their schemes or plumber. In so
far as superficial Injuries went-hne
hotel suites, motor cars, the patron
age OF expensive restaurants, fine
clothing, jewels-Charles Gondorf and
his brothers and his crowd have al
ways lived like millionaires
The success OF their schemes that
usually put them outside the power
of the law has been a cunning play
on the cupidity in human nature.
They would invent proposition by
which they induced some man OF re-
spectability, preferably in small
community, TO join them In crooked
project TO get quick financial return,
and then swindle the man they had
inveigled, When he found he had
been stripped he had first, as rule,
to think OF what il would mean TO him
TO expose the harpies who had pluck
ed him-the exposure OF himself as
having gone into dishonest deal
with its attendant ambarrassments I'm
his home surroundings Usually the
victim would sadly fade away, never
even whispering his case TO the po-
lice. But where the victim made a
"squeal" and the members OF the
gang were arrested bail bonds were
usually swiftly forthcoming, and,
armed with the ample capital OF the
syndicate" its agents would seek out
the victim and offer him a persuasive
usually most persuasive) induce
ment for his disappearance from the
jurisdiction of the court when the
time of the trials came, not only the
money back that had been filched
from him, but a substantial bonus as
we'll for his forgiveness and departure
from the courts reach.
Green goods. overlapping. fake bond
issues and sales were usually the
mainsprings upon which their amaz-
ingly clever plans were set. They had
agents everywhere on the lookout for
men in small towns who might be
prospective victims, and then they be-
gan to weave nets OF wonderful in
genuity for drawing the marked man
into their acquaintance and fascinat-
ing him with stories OF false gains
until he yielded his money to them
with great expectations. losing his
money, and, very shortly after part
ing with 1t, his expectations also.
You'll only hear one explanation
among the Broadway cafes where the
men who knew tire life of the town"
congregate as to why this time Char
lie Gondorf, liking OF wire-tappers, !"
was caught. They will preface 1t by
saying that ii is hard to know how
such circumstances came to exist but
that the Gondorf clique had suddenly
gone broke" that times had been