Newspaper Page Text
Copyright. 19H. by the Star Company- ero.it Britain Rights Reatrre4, WHY CRIME DOES NOTPAY "Bidwell and McDonald had destroyed everything in their lodgings except a piece of blotting paper?and this proved their undoing. When the Scotland Yard detectives discovered this blotter they were able, by holding it up to a mirror, to decipher Austin Bidwell's New York address and also the impressions of several signatures which proved just the evidence needed to send the forgers to prison." O-TTrteht. 1813, by the SUr Oompiny. IF there is one crime on the calendar which might be cxpected "to pay," for gery, on first thought, would seem to be it. Other criminals work for returns which are more or less problematical. When the pickpocket slips his hand into your hip pocket, he risks his liberty for a wallet which may contain little or nothing. The bag-snatcher may secure only a worthless handbag containing loose change and a lew trinkets. The house-burglar takes big chances for loot which may not be ?worth carrying away. This is not the case with the forger. Unlike other criminals, the forger fixes the amount of his booty himself. In this respect ho is restrained only by such limi tations as the circumstances may suggest. In the majority of cases, however, in mak ing out the forged instrument, he may till in any amount he happens to need. Under these circumstances, forgery ought to pay. It doesn't. I have known scores of professional forgers in the course of my own criminal career and there is not a single one alive to day who has anything to show for the years of labor he has put into his criminal career. Many of these criminals are dead. None of those loft any estates. Others whom I knew in the old days are spending their declining years behind prison walls. All the others are in straitened circumstances. Some of them have resorted to less dig nified forms of crime and are living the ?wretched existence of the underworld. There isn't a single forger whom I knew in the old days or who has since come directly or indirectly to my attention who is worth $5,000-?jto-day. And these are the fellows who have cleaned up anywhere from ?t>00 to ?50,000 in a single transac tion. These facts are the more significant when it is remembered that the forger is usually a man of education, refinement and superior attainments. Many of them are college graduates. Certainly the same amount of effort and ingenuity employed by them in their criminal operations would, if legitimately used, have made them wealthy and respected citizens in their old age. My views on this matter are in com plete accord with those of criminal au thorities who are in a hottpr position to judge. WWllam A. Pinkerton, of the Pink erton National Detective Agency, who represented the American Bankers' Asso ciation for years and in that capacity had occasion to run down thousands of profes sional forgers, recently declared that "for gery, like all other criminal occupations, does not pay." "We have in the past twenty-five years had to do with the conviction of probably five hundred forgers," he said, "and to-day I do not know of a single one of them out of prison who has any money, and, like a great many other professional criminals, had they directed their talents in other directions, the majority might have been successful business men." Bank burglars have been regarded as the aristocrats of the underworld. For gers are the underworld's brains. For this reason they have been inclined to hold rather aloof from their fellows-in crime. Nevertheless, they come frequent ly in contact with each other and the ways of the forger are not very different in some respects from those of other criminals. Perhaps the principal respect in which the forger resembles his brother crimi nals is the fact that, despite the great amount of talent and skill he possesses, he frequently slips tip on minor details and thus comes to grief. How big criminals fail through little -things was never better illustrated than in the case of the gang of forgers headed by the Bidwell brothers, George and Aus tin. These criminals succeeded In hood winking the Bank of England out of $300^ 000 and then came to grief through two trifling mistakes. For three months the Bidwells suc ceeded in getting credit at the bank on forged bills of exchange, and then just when they had decided to make one final haul of $75,000, they forgot to put the date of acceptance on one of the bills. This necessitated communication with the supposed acceptor and disclosed the fraud. Even then the Bidwells, who had care fully kept themselves in the background, might have made a successful flight, but for another oversight. In destroying all evidence which might have led to their identification at the rooms where they hajd been lodging, they left a small piece of blotting paper. How that piece of bid ? ting paper brought about their arrest will appear in connection with this accounts their operations. George Bidwell and his brother, Austin, will go down into history, I suppose, as the cleverest forgers who ever victimized a bank, and yet. their operations covered but a comparatively short period of time. George was the victim of circumstances. At twenty-five he was wrongly accused of having stolen ten dollars frorri his employ ers. He was discharged in court, but the incident proved his undoing. He found it imposible to secure honest employment. He started in business on his own account several times but failed time after time. Sometimes he was victimized by people he regarded as his friends. Sometimes ordinary business reverses ruined him. However hard he tried he seemed to be able to make no headway, and then he de cided to do dishonestly what he had found himself unable to do legitimately. Bidwell had the misfortune of making bad acquaintances and he was easily led by them. He embarked in one swindling operation after another and at last he fell Astonishing Careers of the Bid wells, Who Cheated the Bank of England Out of $300,000, and Other Famous Formers into the meshes of the law. He served his first prison term when ho wr.n thirty. Escaping from a Southern jail, George Bidwell visited New York. There he met George Engle, a professional forger, and BidweTl at once commenced his real crim inal career. For several years these two worked to gether in this country cleaning up several thousand dollars a year on forged paper, and then, with his brother Austin and George McDonald, a Harvard graduate of criminal tendencies, went to Europe. Bidwell had a well mapped out plan of campaign. He bought a letter of credit from a big London bank and obtained some of the bank's stationery. He then forged some letters of introduction sup posed to have been signed by the manager of the bank and mailed them to various banks throughout Europe. He also sent letters written on the London bank'B sta tionery to himself in care of these banks. He then proceeded to the various European capitals, asked for his mail at the banks to which he had addressed it. needle Street" In the name of "Warren." Another account was opened in the Con tinental Bank. False bills of exchange for amounts averaging about $20,000 were discounted almost daily at the Bank of England and put to the Warren account. Checks were drawn against that account and tho proceeds invested in American bonds. The success of tho forgers was so great that within a few months they had amassed a fortune of $300,000 in bonds be side several thousand dollars in cash. They decided that to continue the game indefinitely would be running unnecessary risk and a final coup calculated to net them somo $76,000 was planted. It was this coup which proved their un doing. Through pure carelessness the clever Bidwell forgot to insert tho date of the acceptance of the draft. Of course, the bank regarded it as a mere oversight, but they had to communicate with the sup posed acceptor in order to have the omis sion supplied, and thus the forged char acter of the bill was discovered. Very r " U H "The coughing started again. The teller became alarmed. It deemed as if the man's racked frame could not much longer resist the terrific strain his cough ing spells were subjecting it to. One of the officials of the bank appeared on thej scene just in time to catch him as he was falling to the oor. The man's terriblef condition completely disarmed them of suspicion, and the draft he had presented was paid. It called for $2,000. It had been raised from $20." presented his forged letters of introduction and easily succeeded in Retting the hanks to cash the forged checks and drafts he presented to them. In this way he cleaned up hundreds of thousands of dollars. The gang had not been operating long in Europe before they discovered that the Bank of England might prove an easy victim. An account was opened with "The Old Lady of Thread The New Flan to Encourage Love-Makind By Thomas S. McQuajde, Pittsburgh's Superintendent of Police. WHY should not the course of true love run smooth? Why should spooning be inter fered with? If all the world loves lovers why should they he forced to do their spooning, their love-making under cover? It is the business of any city to see that lovers are given a place to spoon in. And because 1 was once a lover I am determined that for once the young people of Pittsburgh shall be given every opportunity to spoon to their heart's content. And where else should they spoon, where else should they kiss but in the public parks? Our parks will be transformed every evening into spoonholders where the true lovers can talk their sweet nothings, can embrace each other, and do all the airy trifling lovishnesses that comprise a courtship. But, of course, it Is necessary that true lovers bo distin guished from the masher. The former shall not only be welcomed, but encouraged to spoon. The latter will be gi\en a free ride in a police wagon. It's love that makes the world go round, and it is spooning, that is, lovemaking, that is the greater part of love. And young people should be made to feel that they are doing nothing to be ashamed of when they frankly spoon The more open lovemaking there Is under the carelessly careful eye of a cnaperon, the less secret vice there is apt to be. What harm is there in a young couple going into the park of an afternoon or evening, seating them selves on a bench and spooning? What if the young fellow does put his arm around the girl's waist, or even if he embraces and kisses her? There is no wrong iij that. Then why should they be driven out of the park, or perhaps arrested, for doing some thing that the magistrate and the chief of police and everybody else did when they were young, and do still, too? As 1 understand it, the p?.rks are the playgrounds of the people?mostly the common people who haven't the means to provide for themselves the expensive amusements of the wealthy. The parks ehould be made as attractive as possible, especially jto the young people. For If you provide decent, clean amusement for your boys and girls they are not nearly so likely to go wrong. Our park policemen have been instructed to use their discretion in determining between true lovers and mashers. We have twenty-five old, experienced "Policemen must wink to themselves and look the other way when they hear the sound of a kiss between true lovers." park men, who have been there for years. They know the difference between a true lover and a masher every time. These men were young once themselves and they have not forgotten the days of their own spooning. They have been told that they are to let the decent lovers alone, that when they hear the sound that may reasonably lead them to suppose that someone has been kissed, they are to look out of the corner of their eye to sec whether the man in the case is the right sort. If he is, then the police chaperon is to pass on and the lovera may go on with the good work. Of course, we take precautions, tut we try not to have them too apparent. All our benches are along the roadways and not far away from light. All our parks are well lighted. A bashful lover may be as averse to kissing In the open as the masher, but he soon gets over this state of mind when he sees everybody's doing it, too! No man will be allowed to spoon with a different girl every night, nor will he be allowed to enter the park with one girl and leave with another. How do our men tell whether true lovers or mashers are doing the hugging and kissing? Why, in this way: Take Schenley Park, for lnstanco. There are three entrances to it. At each entrance are stationed policemen, trained, experienced men. Those fellows can tell almost at a glance whether a young man is bringing his regular girl to the park or whether he is the sort that brings in a different one each evening. The masher is turned away from the entrance and is not permitted to enter. If he does get through, the policemen watching the benches will get him. If that sort is caught mis behaving, they are bundled out of the park in one of the police automobiles and are fined in the morn ing. Repetition means jail sentences and work house terms. No, I haven't issued any instructions to the park policemen as to what sort of love talk is permissi ble. That is left to their descretion. Lovers all say things that sound silly to the eavesdropper, but we allow for that. Silliness is not a sin. Roughly speaking, my rules are three in number, aB follows: Rule 1?No man will be permitted to bring a dif ferent girl to the park each night. Rule 2?Policemen must wink to themselves and look the other way when they hear the sound of a kiss between true lovers. Rule 3?The girl who does not want to be kissed must do more than say faintly, "Please don't." What about the girl who fusses and says that she doesn't want to be kissed? Well that is a delicate problem, but our men are told to go slow and be sure that the girl means it before they interfere. You know girls have that habit, and yet when the man refrains from the kiss thoy get mad. 1 firmly believe that our liberal attitude toward spoonors will do much to improve the morals of the young people of the city. I have a great sympathy with lovers, and this year determined that all bars should be let down and that they should go as far as thoy like within reasonable bounds of decency. Spooning is the birthright of the young. I am. with the 6poonera heart and soul. cleverly the bank kept its discovery to It self, and when Noyes, one of the members of the Rang who had been used to do the actual presenting of the drafts, appeared at the Continental Bank to draw some ol the gang's money he was arrested. Word reached Bidwell at his aristocratic quarters, in the West End of London, that the game was up and ho and McDonald, who boarded with him, at once set to work to destroy all Incriminating evidence. Not an iota of evidence apparently was left to identify them or to characterize the work in which they had been engaged. Every label was carefully cut out of their clothes and other belongings, all papers were burned and, of course, the engraving blocks were thoroughly destroyed. While the work of destruction was going on, McDonald wroto a letter to Austin Bid well in New York, whence he had fled, and he asked George to save a piece of blot ting-paper so that he might blot the letter when he got through. Some days later when the detectives from Scotland Yard had so far followed the forgers' trail that they came to the abandoned quarters of Bidwell and Mc Donald, they ran across that piece of blot ting-paper. Holding it up to a mirror they were able to decipher Austin Bid well's New York address. This piece of blotting-paper also contained Impressions of some of the forged signatures them selves and proved one of the principal links in the chain of evidence which the Government was able to present against the forgers. All four were convicted and sent to prison. George served some fourteen years and worked for live years in an ef fort to secure his brother Austin's re lease, which he then succeeded in doing. The two brothers went West. Austin died poverty-stricken a few years later. Qeorge delivered a lecture in an effort to raise enough money to bury his brother! A few weeks later George blmself died. George Bidwell had cleaned up over a million dollars In the course of his com paratively short criminal career, but after years of suffering and privation he died a pauper. In all the history of crime there never was a better example of the futility of a life of crime than this. But there are many others. There was "Steve" Broad well, referred to so often as "the man with the cough." He was a member of the notorious Wilkes gang of forgers. George Wilkes, regarded as the most expert freehand forger of his time, was the penman Of the gang, and Broad well was one of the "presenters." Every gang of forgers consists of a capitalist or backer, an actual forger, known as the "penman" or "scratcher," a middleman, ?who acta as the forger's representative, Sophie Lyons. ??? often getting the llon'n eh*. ' !? Presenter "?} *X2??fn'?" * lied nearly three^quarter^'f t0 haTa real, .are a, J?g? J* he was Implicate ti,? In which city in the countrv In hardlT a operated at one Mm, *h,ch he had not method was un?que! ?r anothcr? Hia a Boa^o^bank^ne'rfl?80' Walked Into fore the\ounr^?ecSaf HrftnOOQ JU8t be" draft drawn by a Sou thorn k pr,csented a bank In New York hi J ?? bank upon a bank to pay L j,!' ?1 lba **? Y?r* Broadwell was Rnnli^06 8?mo *2,000. rain, and as ha h?nH ig.Wet from the Paying teller ho commenwd'a Ittof t0 'ba Ing which seemed as tbourh 1, of, cough him apart. The teller * d 8p,,t coughing man hnrf ? *?lted until tho then explained that h-0rnen, ,8 ,resP'te and draft becaus<f it was drawn" xCash th* bank. ? 11 *aB dra*n on a New York S:?Sr~ss Southern bank whLl , CaPhior ?r ?ho teeing James Lane s endn? MUr? gUaran* (he back of thn drtn ?ndor8ernent was on could cash the draft aa^Pi? <hat h* bank as In New York Boston a specialist?" 'he ZZ'lf'Z 7Vk to - 1 11 never get anv fnrffc ?u>U m afraid That's ^whjfI came here. than th,s to*? became0 alSm'ed61^^^'"' Tbe te,,*r man's racked framo " .*jeCm 88 if th* ? resist the terrific strain h|DUCh lon* spells were subjecting itto"a ??Ilghln* grew deathly nale ami ? . 1 flc man collapse. One of (hp ftfri m" about to attracted by thn 0,8,8 of the bank. Paroxysms, appeared nr ?v,?f tho man'a time to catch him as h? i ?C?no J,,3t in floor. m Rs he was filing to the hausted'mi;" ,and wb"? "" ?? SfftsSSs gsssssss it at A ?Vu wh,ch made them he's ? Banwl0 ,r"*?larlly or the proceed ing and bank official, are tbe o mo\e out of tho regular rut. Re gafat-^ experiences have taught them that safety lies in following precedent. It seemed that the Boston bank had car hienvca , f? deposlt of ^e New York banks funds, and could, of course, safely have cashed the draft If so inclined, a fact temni. ^ Broadwell was. of course, familiar. Again the man commenced hia deadly cough, and tho teller, after con sulting with the cashier and fearing that further argument with tho apparently dying man might bring about his death fin any counted out the money and handed rnin Broadwe11 went out into the a?aI?* worked tho same trick at four other banks before three o'clock that after "??? ?nd cleaned up some eighteen thou, sand dollars on the day! The drafts he used in this way were genuine drafts issued for small amounts in the regular way and skilfully raised to severe hundred times their actual amount. wL*e9(?a8e menUonad the original amount was $?0. Broadwell collected 52,000 on it Broadwell died in a Bowery lodging J*?"8?- had made fortunes In his time, but he died a pauper. The strain he ex perienced in executing his ingenious fraud undoubtedly hastened his end. He was a most finished actor and would havo crfmA the stage. But he chose a life of SmL 5? reaped the criminal's inevl table reward?misery and poverty. George Wilkes himself, who at one time or another worked with most of the bie forgers of his time and cleaned up hun dreds of thousands of dollars In this coun try and in Europe, died penniless in the Bellevue Hospital In New York City The accomplices of tho actuul forcers becomo involved in the meshes of the law more frequently than the principals them selves. Thus, William PInkerton has pointed out that eight of the associates of Charley Becker, the forger, were caught and sent to prison, and the same fate be iell ten of George Wilkes' associates, five of Jack Brush's, six of Jim Farrell's aud eight of Alonzo J. Whiteman's. i No one who Is at all familiar with tho careers of the big forgers will ever con tend that forgery pays. On the contrary like every other crime, it has never broucht anyone any real happiness. p0r a few years, perhaps, it may enable those who pursue it as a means of livelihood to Hv? well, but in tho long run the life of th? forger is fujl of wretchedness and misery Forgery does not pay because no crS pays. 1Ui9 SOPHIE LYON?, i