Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-19
Indictments Set Forth At
tempt to Rob Government
Files of Fingerprints.
FORMER CONFEDERATE
OF FACTOR NAMED
Bride Suspect Once Worked With
Man Held for Prince of Wales
Swindle, It Is Claimed.

Arthur J. Klein, alias Abraham Jacob
Klein, who Is said to have been a con-
federate OF Jake the Barber Factor,
who Is accused of duping the Prince OF
Wales and other prominent Englishmen
OF S2,250.000, was indicted today by
the Federal grand jury On charges of
conspiracy and bribery. Named with
him in the two indictments are Will
liam Bleet of New York, said to be his
financial agent, and Frank T. Plowrnan,
former employe of the Department of
Justice in New York.
The trio are charged in the conspir-
acy indictment with conspiring to cb-
tain by bribery the finger print identi-
fcation card Of Klein from the secret
files of the Bureau of Identification Of
the Department of Justice here.
Plowman is said to have received
500 from Klein, which the latter had
received from Beet, and to have come
to Washington May and to have given
S35 to Edward e. Lockout, an officer of
the United States, employed as a tech
n1cal expert and administrative assist
ant in the local identification bureau,
to turn over to Plowman the card
describing Klein. Plowman is said to
have known the card was in the local
files because he had taken the finger
prints of Klein while he was in the
Amounts Are Given.
The second indictment charges the
three men with bribery in two counts,
The first count deals with the payment
by Plowman to Lockout of SIS, May 6,
when he first approached the clerk on
the matter. The second count relates
to the payment of an additional $40.
which the clerk accepted after he had
notified his superiorS, and had been told
to go through with the proposition
The arrest Of Plowman followed the
payment of the second amount In the
presence of witnesses. Klein and Bleet
are named in the indictment as aiding
and abetting" in the procuring of the
offense of bribery
Five overt acts are alleged In the con-
spiracy indictment, which charges its
existence between November Is, 1880.
and May 6, 1881. William Bleet is said
to have given Klein 500 May 4. 1881.
in New York City, where the latter is
under arrest on extradition proceedings
instituted by Great Britain, it is stated.
Klein is then said to have turned the
money over to Plowman May at New
York, whence Plowman is alleged to
have Travelled to Washington on the
same day. The fourth overt act charges
that on May Plowman gave Lockout
S25 as first payment and the fifth overt
act deals with the second payment of
$40.
Waited for Bleets Arrest.
1t Is set forth in the conspiracy in
dictment that 1t was the lawful duty of
Lockout to treat all fingerprint cards
and records as permanent secret and
confidential documents of the Depart
ment OF Justice, not to be removed from
the bureau where they are kept or sold
or given to any person not connected
with the Government of the United
States, and certainly not to the persons
whose fingerprints were recorded on
these cards.
None of the accused were connected
with the Government, it is pointed out.
ana Klein's fingerprints were in the
records so that the accused were >en-
gagged, 1t is alleged, in an unlawful con-
spiracy to bride Lockout to fail to do
his lawful duty.
The attempted bribery was made pub
lie in the late afternoon of Nav z when
Plowman was arrested and taken before
United States Commissioner FURNACE
where he was committed to iaiI in de-
fault OF bond of $4,000 to await the
action of the grand jury. Agents of
the Department of Justice went before
the grand jury and obtained present.
ment against the three men indicted
today. The indictments were prepared
Dut have been withheld awaiting the
apprehension of Beet, it is reported,