Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1920-07-23
CLEVER FORGER HAS
MADE HIS GETAWAY

No clue has yet been discovered of
the slick young forger who vctimized
eight Middlebury merchants last Sat
urday evening with worthless checks
drawn on the Addison County Trust
Company of $50 denominations The
William Burns Detective Agency is
working on the case, as well as the
Bankers Protective Association. No
more checks have been presented to
the bank though it is not certain that
there were no more than eight of them
passed.
During the rush hour last Saturday
evening a man who said he was John
M. Douane and employed by John
Eagan of New Haven visited almost
every place of business on Main
street, starting with the Park Drug
Store and ending with Evans Shoe
Shop on one side, and from George
Dougherty's Market to Stewart the
Hardware Man on the other, and pre-
sented a check made out to John M.
Douane and signed by John Eagan.
He pleaded that the check was his
months wages and was believed.
Eagan's name proved good for the $50
in at least eight of the stores in which
he offered the drafts.
The checks were cashed by A. c.
Taber, dealer in paints and wall paper,
Lewis Hanfeld. grocer, Calvi Broth
ers, fruit dealers, John H. Stewart,
hardware dealer, the Atlantic & Pacific
Tea company Carl o. Frost, druggist,
c. NJ Hanks, clothier, and Fay A..
Evans, shoe merchant. In Calvis
Douane purchased a dollars worth of
candy and tobacco and of Evans he
bought high priced pair of shoes, in
both instances presenting the forged
checks and receiving his change in cash.
In other stores he was refused for one
reason or another in c. F. Rich's Sta
tionery Shop, H. D. Archer's Harness
Shop, Gorhams Market, the Concord
Candy Kitchen, the Direct Tea Store,
Earl A. Frost's Pharmacy, William
Hartin's Restaurant and Ives and
Shambo's Clothing Store George
Doughterty was also asked to cash one
of the checks to pay for a seventeen
cent purchase of pressed ham that
Douane said he had bought in contem-
plation of journey that night Mr.
Dougherty preferred to save his cash
for regular customers and directed the
stranger to FrOst's Pharmacy, telling
him to pay his own bill at another
time.
On Tuesday morning when the daily
letter from the National Bank of Mid
dlebury was opened in the Addison
County Trust Company the eight
checks which were found to~other ex-
cited the suspicion of Treasurer Page
S. Ufford Eagan was talked with
and when he discovered the loss of his
Checkbook the checks were immediate
ly recognized as forgeries. The Will
liam Burns Detective Agency in Bos-
ton was put to work upon the case
at once and received a detailed ac-
count of Douane and his clever decep-
ton of Saturday night
Douane first appeared in town about
a month ago. DR.. P, L. Dor2y and
George n Shambo met him walking in
the direction of Middlebury from Rut-
land and gave him a ride in their ma
chine. He described himself to them
as an ex-service man of the 4th Divi-
sion and inquired particularly about
the fishing qualifications of the local
streams His home was in the south,
on a ranch on the Texas border, he
said, and he was touring the country.
Very soon after he was engaged by
John Eagan of New Haven to help on
his farm and since had made several
trips to Middlebury.
Douane, as he called himself, is 6
feet, l inch tall, weighs about 175
pounds, has blue eyes and light hair
that he combs back on his head with
out a parting. He had drawings of
woman tattooed on his arm and chest.
His age was estimated at from IS to
80 He told various stories about his
home. To some he was a Texan, son
of rich rancher. To Others his par
ents lived in Arizona, while third
story connected him with Whitehall,
n. Y.
The Addison County Trust Com
pany checkbook was stolen by Douane
on Friday or Saturday. Mr.. Ea
gan remembered how on Friday he re-
Continued on page FOUR