Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-06-07
She Beat the
Detectives
By RICHARD MARKEDLY

t~oPyEiBhts AoAtt WcslcAA TSW5PoPef ChAoh.J
Alec Winfield had been married and
was on his wedding tour with his
bride. The couple were at dinner at
a hotel In Albany when q policeman
entered the d%ining-room and arrested
Winfield. Mrs. Winfield was much
agitated, but her husband assured her
that q mistake had been made and he
would easily prove his innocence of
any charge that might be brought
against him.
Winfield was taken before a judge,
who asked him many questions, one of
which turned out to be of Importance
to the prisoner. 1t vas, What was
his business? Winfield said that he
was a patent lawyer, and had his Of
flee in a certain building in Buffalo.
Whereupon the Judge made out pa
pers enabling the police to send him
to New York, where the accusation
against him had been made.
Winfield had been charged with hav-
ing obtained money under false pre-
tenses-that he would give checks just
before a holiday, on a bank in a diff
ferent city, forging the name of some
depositor of the bank.
Winield's arrest had occurred in
this wise: The scoundrel had been in
Albany on the third of July and had
perpetrated his usual swindles there,
pretending to hail from Buffalo, where
he had an office for securing patents
and stating that he was stopping while
in Albany at the same hotel as Win
field. The latter being the only recent
arrival registered from Buffalo, the
police arrested him on suspicion. His
story of his business and residence
confirmed the charge.
Winfield was taken to New York,
where he-was identified by certain
persons as the man who had given
forged checks signed William Spang-
Ter. He began nov to be much trou-
bled. The identification of these per-
sons was a very serious matter. Evil
IDENTIFY the forger must resemble him.
However, he had no difficulty In pro-
curing bail, and went home to his
bride.
Fortunately, Winfield was a man of
means and he employed the best de-
tectives he could find to get on the
track of Spangler. The detective went
to Buffalo and made inquiries at the
building in which Winfield had his
office for a man who resembled the
patent lawyer. He did not succeed
in getting a trace of any such person.
He also visited persons whom Spang-
Ter had operated upon In different
cities, but met with no success in get
ting on the track of the real swindler.
He had Winfield's likeness with him,
which he showed the swindled parties,
some of them identlrylng Winfield by
it as the person who had passed the
forged checks.
Winfield was spending a good deal
of money to clear himself of the
charge against him his trial was
coming on, and the matter looked very
serious. His wife bore up well under
the strain and took considerable inter-
est in the efforts to find Spangler. But
1t was evident to her as well as the
others that they were as far off the
track as when they began the search.
The day before the trial was to
come off she took up the photograph
her husband had given the detective
and which had been pronounced a
likeness of the swindler. While look
ing at it she noticed that one foot,
being in an advanced position, -ap-
peared very large.
"Alec," she said to her husband,
ANYONE looking at this photograph
would think that you have an enor-
nous foot"
Winfield was noted for having a
very small and remarkably narrow
foot.
THAT'S because of the position. I
was sitting with my legs crossed and
that foot was nearer the camera than
the rest of me. Consequently 1t was
taken on a larger SCALE"
Mrs. Winfield made no reply. She
was still intent on the photograph.
"a penny for your thoughts, DEAR"
said her husband.
81 was thinking that maybe the
swindler didn't have your narrow foot.
| Did he buy any shoes with q forged
check2"
Winfield ran to his wife and gave
her a bear hug.
Sweetheart" he exclaimed, "you've
beaten the detectives and all the rest
of us. One Of the swindler's victims
is a New York shoemaker. We can
get the size Of his foot from this
party"
The next day at the trial Arthur
Packard, a clerk in an expensive shoe
store, was called as a witness. He
identified Winfield as the man to
whom he had sold several pairs of
shoes and had received a check
amounting to thirty-two dollars, on a
In Chicapo- The ~ranSacfio oc-