The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-17
Fascinating Story Of Great Swindler Told
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(Continued lost now that he was dead.
 Through the maze of his salse- hoods, authorities had traced the pattern of his life.
 Brought to this country when a child, from Italy, he grew up in New York's Italian slums. His parents were semi-literate and his formal education was slight. He had hardly reached his 2os when he went crooked, finally involving his father and his brothers in cheese stnl1g- gling.
 Devoted to Family
 Then appeared the devotion to those of his own blood which was to characterize all his career. His fam fly was more of hindrance than 8 help to him, but he demonstrated always the tenderest devotion to all members of it. In 1909, he pleaded guilty to smuggling and passionate ly absolved his father and brothers. As a result, he went to prison and they went free.
 In 1910 he was out of prison and was learning fast. He became a dandy, he had learned how to act and talk in cultured society, he inn pressed the smart men of Wall street with his financial and busi- ness ability. But he was an 1tal- ian then, hght-hearted, charming, exquisitely courteous. It was not many years before he involved his father. and brothers in the $1,000,- 900 human hair swindle. Rather than flee alone-alone he would had a good chance of getting away he, assured the safety of his broth CTS and sisters by taking them along and they were all caught in New Orleans. There, he displayed the volatile emotionalism of the Latin by trying to kill himself. Returned, he again absolved his family and took all the blame and spent three years in prison before he got sus- pended sentence.
 Changed To German
 The. began the slow transforms tiun of the Latin Musica into the German Coster. He adopted the Nordic name of Johnson and be- came an investigator for the attor- ney-general's office serving in that capacity until 1920 when he was charged with creating the perjured testimony which almost sent an in- nocent man to the electric chair.
 Disgraced as the Latin, Musica, and as the Nordic, Johnson, he popped up a year or two later as the Germanic Coster. He was rln- ming 2 hair tonic business in Mount Vernon, a New York city suburb, which permitted him to make large withdrawals of alcohol. Federal eu- thorities suspected he was bootleg ging. but couldn't prove it. All they knew was that he started with $2,- 900 and in 1925 had pyramided 1t into several hundred thousand dol lars, more than ordinarily is made in a small hair tonic business. He borrowed enough to make this $l,- 100000 and bought the drug firm of McKesson & Robbins.
 During these years he had main tained his tender relations with his brothers and sisters, and his broth CTS had been associated in one way or another with his hair tonic busi- ness. Authorities were struck by the fact that their aliases had the sane Germanic stamp as his-Dietrich and Vernard. They did not doubt but that he selected and imposed them and was as ScrupulouS in creating new identities for them as for himself.
 Started Up in 1925
 In 1925 began his career as cor porate head which made him irl- creasingly prominent in the busi- ness and financial world as he con- solidated scores of drug houses with 1t end built up its assets until they reached the towering height of ST. 100000. He was dealing with the smartest of money men then-ba1k- CTS, brokers. executives. They bare ly saw him-he dealth usually through highly respectable agents. They, and the agents, too, were ut terly deceived. They thought of him as man with ice-water in his veins and praised his thoroughness, his analytical mind, his lack of emo- tion-all of which they attributed to his being German.
 Poorly educated though he was, he conversed with physicians and chemists in their own technical language so skillfully that they all thought he was, as he said he was. a graduate physician and chemist. He sprinked his conversation with sufflcient profundities to make high ly educated men believe that he was, as he said, a doctor of philosophy. They marveled it the marvels of the German mind which, calm, rn- troubled by passion and caprice, could absorb and retain so much Knowledge. After his death, inveS-