Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-11-18
SWINDLER SPENT SUMNER IN
WILDWOOD

The swindler now in Woodbury. Jail
known as Robert Otis, is believed to
be the same young mar who spent
the past summer at the Hotel Reading
in Wildwood. He swindled Mrs.
Frances Maxwell, Of West Maple ave-
nue., out of $500, and ne has victims
galore in South Jersey, according to
the following taken from the Elmer
Times:
The man claiming to be Robert
Otis, who was arrested at the Elmer
Times Office last week and taken to
Woodbury. Jail, is believed to be the
same nan who swindled Mrs. Ella
Bishop, of neal Woodstown, out of
$500 last summer. He called at her
home, told her he knew her brother
well in California, and said that her
brother had told him to call on her
when in the Woodstown vicinity, and
if he needed a check cashed she would
help him out. Mrs. Bishop was i'm
pressed by what he said and gave him
her personal check for $500, and as
the stranger thought he might have
trouble in getting it cashed at a
Woodstown bank, sent her son to
bank with him to identify him.
Mrs. Bishop at once wrote to her
brother in California about the trans
action and he replied that he had
never heard of the man before; he also
inquired of the bank there, where it
was learned no man by that name was
known.
This swindler about whom banks
were warned in a circular letter early
in October, appears to have pursued
practically the same tactics wherever
he went. First he would learn of some
person with a bank account who had
relatives or friends in California.
After obtaining all the information
possible he would call on the person
and talk about the Californian. When
he stopped at the Times Office last
week he said he was looking up af-
fairs of some persons in California,
who had resided at or near Elmer.
He had obtained some information,
but not enough to enable him to work
his game when the officer who had
been on his track arrested him.
Otis is said to be the man who
operated in Bridgeton and Millville
last spring and posing as the friend
of City School Superintendent D. C.
Porter, passed worthless checks on
the j. j. Nolan and Brotman stores at
Bridgeton. At Elmer he gave the
name of Robert Otis, but the same
day is said to have passed as Richard
Otis.
At Bridgeton sometime ago., under
the name of Fred E. Salton, he sue
ceeded in having a draft cashed on a
Los Angeles bank for $3.50, after a
lady school teacher had identified him
and placed her name ON the draft. He
had called on her, representing that
he was a friend of a Bridgeton young
lady who had married and gone to
New York state. When the lady was
married the teacher had been a guest
at her wedding. Otis, or Salton, posed
as a relative of the bridegroom, and
the teacher readily consented to ac-
company him to a local bank to iden-
tify him and when requested by the
cashier, Endorsed the paper which
came back dishonored and she dis
covered that the slick imposter had
swindled her.
1t is claimed that a young Millville
woman was swindled in the same
manner.
Otis swindled a Wildwood woman
out of 5000 last summer and got a
similar amount from a Mays Landing
woman. Woodbury. officials have re-
ceived telegraphic information that he
is wanted at San Jose and Santa Anna,
California, where he posed as Robert
J.. Baker and M. E. Morris. A swim
died woman from Lambertville called
at Woodbury. Jail and identified him as
the man she was looking for.
-O-