The Little River news., 1922-07-05
True Detective Stories ROLAND, ALIAS
 GARDNER

ROLAND, ALIAS ] ! GARDNER I *s***%*****s.*a.*-s**<ses' Copyright by The Wheeler Syndicate. Inc. WHEN % Hyman n.s and l,;i1s Hess, sn dealers stets street, Albany, N. Y., sent check for $3877 to Refs and Blum, |, garment manufacturers in New York city, they didn't have the slightestl idea that they were starting a chainI of evidence which would land one of the cleverest crooks in America behind the bars. 4.
 A few days later, before the New York firm had had time to report the nonarrival of the check and thus per init Hyman and Hess to look into the matter, young man came into the National Commercial bank in Albany and presented a check for $39O. made out to "Bearer." The date on the check. filled in with a rubber stamp, corresponded to the day on which 1t was presented, and the man who hand ed 1t to the paying teller mentioned casually that the check twas to cover an option" and that he had to hurry back to New York In order to complete the transaction. The paying teller, feeling certain that the signature was genuine, cashed the check, and the man who had presented it walked out of the bank with $980 in his pocket. When Hyman and Hess had their ac- count balanced they found that they were exactly $3SO short-for the orig inal check had never reached it's New York destination, but had been lifted out of the mail box by one of a gang of clever criminals, the body of the check erased with an ink eradicator and the date and amount filled in on top of the original signature.
 "Only one man in the country could have done that and gotten away with it," growled George A. Fuller, assistant superintendent of the Pinkerton Detec- tive agency, when the bank called the details of the case to his attention. Its Boland's work!'
 "Yes, Boland," replied Fuller. Tor Gardner, as he sometimes calls him. self. He's got regular organization for this sort of thing. Trains boys to loot the mail boxes, washes the checks with an acid preparation of his own invention, writes in a higher amount, makes them payable to Bearer and then another of his tools cashes them"
 If you know so much about the man," asked the amazed banker, "why hasn't he been arrested long before this?'
 Its easy enough to arrest a man," was Fuller's reply, "but it Is sometimes very difficult to convict him. So far as the actual check-raising goes, Roland plays a lone hand. Whats more, he pays his men well, and takes care of them if they happen to get caught. So far, none of 'em has turned states evi- dence, and until they door until we catch Roland red-handed-there's noth- ing to do but be careful. We've got our eyes on him. He can't move with out our knowing 1t.
 Warned by Lyman and Hess check that the Roland outfit was once more conducting operations in New York state, the PinkertOn man kept close watch on all persons suspected of be- longing to the organizations, with the result that three men were arrested and sentenced to terms in prison. But all of them steadfastly refused to inn plicate the "man higher up."
 Finally Roland and three of his as- sOciates were arrested in Boston, aft CT Fuller had shadowed a boy whom he suspected of robbing mail box Dano, the boy, and Devine, another of the organization, drew short terms for petty larceny, but Roland escaped on account of technicality, and moved to New York where he tried to continue his operations. But the New York police and particularly Con- missioner George s. Dougherty, made things so difficult, that he was soon re- duced to the expedient of securing checks wherever he could-a neces- sity which led to the fatal slip which Fuller had predicted.
 Out of the mail box of an uptown apartment house, one of Boland's ap- prentices secured check for $50, made out to real estate company in pay ment of the rental for one of the apart ments. It was child's play for Roland to wash off the original name and amount and to write in the words Bearer" and TWO Hundred and Eleven Dollars" Once that was done, he had a perfectly good check (ap- parently) and he sent one of his men down to the bank on which the check was drawn, with minute instructions as to the cashing of 1t. But the cashier. being suspicious of check of that size being made out to "Bearer"-par- ticularly as he knew that the woman whose signature appeared upon it was very careful in her financial dealings