Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-03
TRAIL Of CRIME
CITED IN OPPOSING
NJ GAVIN PARDON

"A IS1lld1 p14oOAL 4SNOA0 Nc@9
placed before the Georgia prison
commission Saturday in connection
with the application of Elmer j.
Mccain for a pardon
Mccain is serving an indeter-
inmate sentence of two to five years
on a charge of passing worthless
check on an Atlanta bank. He re-
Gently applied to- the prison commits
sion for a pardon. An official of
the Atlanta bank he is charged with
defrauding wrote the commission a
letter Directing to clemency in his
case and giving his record as
culled from the files of The bank.
According to this bank officials
letter, the prison record of McCann
is as follows:
In November, 1917. while serving
in the army at Camp McClella I
as a sergeant, Mccain passed a
worthless check on an Admission,
Ala, bank under the name of War
rem A. Gray.
Sometime thereafter he came to
Atlanta and registered at a leading
hotel under the name of Lieuter
ant William A. Jennings and posed
as a nephew of William j. Bryan
and as the son of a wealthy manu-
facturer. .t
Welded Atlanta Girl
He met several army officers and
an Atlanta girl whom he persuad-
ed to marry him IN spite of her ex-
listing engagement to another man.
She married him and they went to
Jacksonville in December, 1917, and
embarked On a steamer for New
York. Mccain left in his wake a
trail Of worthless checks. ccording
to the bank official.
Soon after arriving in New York
with his bride, Mccain was arrest
ed by Pinkerton agents, was con-
victed III the federal court and sent
to the Atlanta federal prison for a
year and a day.
On being released from the fed
eral prison at the completion of his
sentence, Mccain made the &C.
quaintance of a handsome widow in
a downtown cigar store in Atlanta,
persuaded her after five days court
ship toN marry him although his 9th.
er bride was living and undivorced>,
and they went OF New York on their
honeymoon, taking with them the
widows two-year-old child.
Mccain put up at a first-class no.
tel, employed a French maid for
the child, gave checks right and left
on the Atlanta bank in question, and
all the checks went back. McCann's
alias as that time, according to the
banks record, was E. Hendricks
Richeson.
In February, 1919, Mccain was
arrested in New York by Pinkerton
agents and convicted in the federal
court and sent to the Washington
asylum Jail for a year. After serv.
ing that sentence he was brought to
Atlanta and indicted for his wort
less check operations in this city.
FOrfeits His Bond
He was released on a bond of 3d..
500, forfeited his bond when the case
came to trial, and a third time was
arrested in New York by Pinkerton
agents.
This time the New York hotel and
other concerns which had cashed his
checks, on his second honeymoon
were the prosecutors, and he was
sent to Sing Sing for a year.
On completion of that sentence he
was brought back to Atlanta and
given a sentence of two to five years
for the Atlanta operations.
During the cource of the above
described adventures, the bank Of
fetal further stated, Mccain on one
of his sojourns in Atlanta posed as
a consulting engineer with an office
in the Gambler building.
He seems to have represented him.
self to the prison commission as a
consulting engineer, for the com.
mission assigned him to the Jasper
county convict camp to be used as
an engineer in road building. After
serving there some months he was
transferred to the state farm at
A1illedgeville.