Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1920-03-05
TEXAN DECLARES He
DROPPED $4,000 IN
FAKE 'BUCKE.TSROP'
Mann, Greatly Impressed,
Declares He Brought Mon
ey From Dallas to Cover
Stranger Brokers' Check

Claiming that an organized band
of svindlers lured him into fake
bucketshop on Carnegie Way and
feeced him out of $500, H. c. Mann,
a young business man, giving his
home as Dallas, Tex. has asked the
Atlanta police to help him run down
the alleged crooks.
Mann says that on January he
stopped off in Atlanta on his way
from South Carolina to Nashville,
Tenn, and while here fell into con-
versation with we1l-dressed stranger
at the Terminal station, who later
introduced him to another we'll
dressed stranger at the Piedmont
hotel.
They got to talking about stocks,
he says, referring particularly to
"tip" they claimed they had from
big New York brokerage house to
buy Mexican crude oil on a one per
cent margin just before the New
York stock exchange closed for the
day. He says they showed him
telegram to this effect.
AS a result Of their conversation,
claims Mann, all three of them re-
paired to a private home on Car
negie Way, and went to a room
where Man says there was a big
blackboard, telegraph instruments
and other equipment Of a brokerage
around, apparently playing the mar
ket."
His acquaintances. said Mann, were
bewailing the fact that they couldn't
raise $4,000 necessary, they said, to
make a cleanup" Mann states that
he wanted to get in on the oppor-
tunity, too.
Nothing was done at the time,
says Mann, but later one of the men
he met at the brokerage office"
came to him and told him he had
put up check for $500 as part of
a pool and had signed Mann's name
to it.
I'VE won big pile, but we can't
get. our money until we prove this
check is good" Mann claims Keene
told him eff you'll show these fell
lows $4,000 in the long green now,
I'll split with you."/
Mann says he was so impressed
that he went all the way to Houston,
Tex, got $500, brought it back to
Atlanta, gave it to keene, and
hasn't seen Keene or his money
since.
Mann says he went to the house
on Carnegie way, only to find the
room deserted and all signs of
brokerage office gone. He claims he
has been securing Atlanta ever since
to find traces of the men, but had no
luck until Wednesday afternoon,
when, as he was walking along Car
negie way, he saw one of them in an
automobile with a girl.
Mann says when he shouted the
man in the car stopped the automo-
BILE and jumped out and ran. Accord
ingly, Mann called a policeman and
drove to the police station with the
automobile and the girl.
The girl was released on $500 bond,
but after being questioned by Chief
Poole, all charges against her were
dismissed. Chief Poole said she prov
ed to his satisfaction that she knew
the man with her only casually and
had no knowledge of any alleged
swindle.
Chief Poole, with Detective Shaw,
went to the house on Carnegie way,
but could find no traces of any swim
dlers. They were told by the land
lady that she had rented a room to
a man about a month ago, but that
he had left. She had never noticed,
she said, any blackboard, telegraph
instruments or any other unusual
! things in his room.
| Another puzzling element was add
ed to the case when Mann gave the
names of several well-known Allan
ia business men the alleged swim
dlers. They had given him these
names, he said, and had pointed out
to him their places of business" De-
tectives sought out these men and
established to their satisfaction that
the swindlers had been masquerade
! ing as prominent citizens"