Omaha daily bee., 1918-06-05
SLICK SLICkER
FINDS FERTILE
FIELD IN OMAHA
Lures Cleaners Gold by Tempt.
ing Dry Threats of Those
Suffering From Endur-
ing Nebraska Drouth.

ing NEBRASKA UrOuln.
Dan Tornowski, promoter, is miss
ing.
Scores of victims Of his alleged pc
culiar methods of fnanciering, located
at various points in the states OF
Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska, as we'll
IS 4 number Of the %good fellows" of
Omaha, mourn his departure and are
eager to learn of his whereabouts.
Dan, 50 the story unravels, sprang
brand new con game during his re-
cent sojourn in this city. He has a
wide acquaintance among those whose
thirsts have been intensified by the
bone dry" law Of Nebraska, the
cleanup work of the morals squads
and the intermittent hot weather Of
the last few weeks.
Tempts Dry Throats.
His methods were to 60 to a pros
pective visitor and guarantee to de-
liver to him a case of whisky for
$40, guaranteeing his product being
suitable to the making of mint juleps,
high balls and the other cooling con-
coetions to mitigate the sweltering
heat of summer nights and dog days.
Il don't want to take any risks on
this," he would remark, and will
have to collect in advance"
i don't want to take any risks
either" his prospective customer
would answer. "I've got to see the
goods before / part with the kale."
Compromises on Check.
Lets compromise" Tornowsh
would suggest. "You give me your
check for $40 and if / do not have
the goods at your place before bank
ing hours tomorrow morning, you call
up the bank and stop payment"
The scheme looked like fair prop
osition to the prospective fellow
whose name appears to be legion. He
worked the city fast and furiously and
VAS some go-getter, for by night he
1ada stack of checks that would COM
pare respectfully with one days re-
.eipts during the Red Cross drive.
2 He got taxi cab from the Smith
Taxi-Cab company, and with his wife
md the driver made trip to St.
Joseph. On the way he stopped at
different garages and business houses
in the small towns and county seats
encountered, would rake up an ac-
luaintance who would identify him,
md have one or more of his checks
:ashed. He worked $l70 worth of the
checks off on the Central Taxi COM
,any of this city before his departure.
Trims Auburn Merchant.
At Auburn he got rid of $50 worth
On T. S. Dustin, real estate man
and merchant there. Falls City,
Huron, Kans., and Everest, Kan, were
other towns that contributed to his
.xchequer.
At St. Joseph he gave his chauf-
eur the slip after having had the
ise of the taxi for three days and
.unning up big bill on the Smith
Taxi company. r..>
Now checks are coming in from
Iowa, Kansas and different parts OF
Nebraska. One hardware merchant
II Elkhorn, Neb., traded S. worth. of
hardware, all of the cash he had on
hand and his check for the balance
On a $65-check.
Payments Are Stopped.
Tornowski's prospective customers
in Omaha smelled rat shortly after
his departure and stop payment
orders were promptly issued to kheir
banks. Checks that have come in |
are now being collected at the Office
of County Attorney Magney. He
has a good sized bale of them and
more of them are coming in every
day.
The victims in three states are
clamoring that the checks be made
good by those who issued them.
Some of the persons who gave their
checks for expectant whisky say that
after they had reasoned the matter
over they were paying money for
unlawful goods and their consciepces
irnpelled them to give the stop pay
ment orders to their banks.
1t is related that one owner of
soft drink parlor on South Fifteenth
street gave Tornowski a check for
500. The number of those who were
seduced by the siren wiles of Tor
nowski will reach more than 100.
Many are keeping their identities Sc
cret because they hate to have the
public known that they are among
those shorn.
Tornowski figured with Darrah- and
Buchanan, the Salt Lake City men of
who, with their wives cut
quite swath among the good fel-
lows" and whose disappearance at
St. Joseph, after they had left many
unpaid bills here, and been refused
rooms at the Hotel Keen, created a
sensation among the denizens of that
circle several weeks ago.
1t is thought that the operations
of Tornowski in high finance since
his departure has yielded him several
of dollars. He found it
comparatively easy to pass the paper
in his possession among responsible
persons in country towns, where, un-
der some circumstances a home man
would find difficulty in raising money