The New York herald., 1922-03-08

had habit OF dating his letters in the
following fashion:
January
Twenty-eight
1919,
That form characterized his corre-
spondence through four or five de-
frauding schemes, even to the comma
after the year date.
Cats Only CIew to swindler.
A rather remarkable case is that of
a defrauder who lad operated for
years all over the country and whose
downfall finally was accomplished be-
cause his wife happened to be fond of
cats.
The crook In that case operated the
false credit statement and fraudulent
bankruptcy game across the country
and back for years, even though he
was Handicapped by an imposing
prison record. Finally his operations
became so fragrant that it was de-
cided to land him at all costs.
Investigation Of the premises Of his
bankrupt business revealed only a
medicine bottle and a railroad time
table as clews. He had vanished ut
terly. Persistent questioning of the
physician who had issued the pre-
scription on which, the bottle had been
filed finally revealed that the crook
was possessed of a wife and that one
of her characteristics was that che.
was very fond of cats and usually had
a large collection Of them about her.
The simple expedient of setting the
time table on end and allowing it to
fall open repealed that it was disposed
to open at a certain page. That led
10 the probability that that page fire.
quently had been bent back and
scanned. If that meant anything It
meant that the crook and his wife lad
hit southwesterly train. Investiga
ton along TIE line of the railroad
showed that train employees and hotel
people remembered the woman with
the collection of cats. At each hotel
they had used a different name, but
the direction they had taken was es-
tablisted. Their wanderings were
finally centered. by process of elimina-
ton, to certain rather small terri
".
began to be found.
Trunks Hnd Pet Names.
Both the crook and his wife were
wide wanderers, and kilograms which
went from husband to wife-such as
where is Mabel?" "Come and bring
Amyi" TELL Leo to visit us!"-later
proved most interesting. 1t developed
that the fraudulently obtained goods
were stored in various cities about the
country in large trunks, and that each
of these trunks bore a name similar
to those used in the kilograms. One
trunk would contains furs, another
shoes, another ladies' coats, &c. When
ever the crook found place where he
could get rid of some of the loot he
identified what he desired to have sent
or brought to him by the name OF the
trunk used in the telegram.
At length a man believed to be the
right one was located and was fol-
lowed from his place OF business to
his home, which was in an apartment
house. Inquiry Of the milkman, ele-
vator operator and others revealed
that one Of the tenants of the house
was lawfully fond Of cats had
a dozen or 'em."
That, of course, was the beginning
OF the end of the story.
The relentless pursuit OF crooks in
dicated in these illustrations and the
educational work done among GUS
toners of wholesalers and manufac-
turers, however, is having its result.
Crooks perhaps are not greatly fewer.
but the small dealer who otherwise
might slip, by negligence or even by
temptation to do wrong. is learning
that honesty Is the best policy after
all. This is shown graphically in the
decreasing number of attempts TO pre-
fer creditors in legitimate bankrupt
cies.