New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-09
Indictments Are Expected
Against Seven Lawyers
and Eight Doctors.
CONFESSION MADE
BY MOVIE ACTRESS
District Attorney Says Their
Operations Melted Thou
sands Yearly.

In the Indictment and arrest yester-
day OF Benjamin Gunner, lawyer
o. gel Broadway, charged with at
tempted grand larceny, District Az
tornev Swami believes he has uncov-
cred ring that has been swindiihg
hundreds of persons and corporations
out of many thousand dollars every
year by means of fake accident damage
suits. The prosecutor expects 10 get
indictments against at least six other
lawyers and probably eight physicians
who worked in concert with them py
signing accident certificates.
Young married woman named Anna
Dubois, who was motion picture ae-
tress before she discovered that she
could easily earn money by falling on
streetcars or tripping on tenement
house stairs. was the means OF the eX-
posure of the swindle. She worked IN
concert with Michael Ryan. of Bio west
Sixtieth Street, and John 7. Mcdonald
of II West One Hundredth Street. po'h
Of whom are now in the Tombs, having
confessed their guilt TO Assistant DIS
trict Attorney Moses R. Ryttenberg.
Mrs. Dubois MADE a blunder in her
anti for $3.50 for an alleged fall on
stairway IN a tenement house at 454
West Forty-second Street and con-
tossed that it was a fake iall anu
claim. c
Paid for Finding Claims.
RYAN and Mcdonald told Mr.. Rytten-
berg that they had an honest claim for
personal injury about two years ago
and took il TO one of the lawyers whom
they have named as the leader OF the
conspiracy. He won the case, and when
they expressed their gratihcation the
lawyer offered to give them employ
ment in bringing such cases for trial.
He offered them So for every case
They said they soon found that the
LAWYER wanted cases, whether they
were genuine or not. They found that
the best claims could be obtained from
women. Mrs. Dubois was brought INTO
the scheme for that reason. She lived
AZ $50 West Forty-ffth Street and, ac-
cording to Mcdonald, was the best "op-
orator" that ever worked for him, be
cause she could "enact as many as SIX
falls in a single day
Omen coal holes, sidewalk obstruc-
lions, streetcars and automobiles were
seized upon as the best grounds Tor
suits. Claims were usually made COM
paratively small, as settlement out OF
court was safest; but Mcdonald says
he has three suits pending in the mu-
nicipal courts, one under his own name
and two others under aliases.
Efforts to uncover the operations
were first made by the Alliance Against
Accident Fraud and the Zurich lnsur-
ance Company. Mrs. Dubois's confess
sion was made on June 28. Those OF
RYAN and Mcdonald followed month
later. Gunner may be indicted on
charges of champetry, which makes 1t
misdemeanor for a lawyer to split
fees with a client.
According to Mr.. Ryttenberg, Gun
ner employed a reputable Brooklyn
photographer TO take pictures OF the
places where his clients said they had
been injured. After time the pho
tographer informed Gunner that he be-
lieved many of the injury stories were
false. to which Gunner is said to nave
replied, 81 should worry"
Gunner was represented by Eugene
/. Parodi and was held in $1,000 bail
by Judge Rosalsky. Bond was fur
nished by surety company