Part 27

Most of the concerns, of which there are at least twelve, all declared to be fraudulent, are in Chicago.

LIST OF BOGUS FIRMS.

The following is a list of the concerns, the names of which have been learned by the police:

National Fire Proofing Company, New York and Chicago. Federal Trust Company, New York and Chicago. Keystone Structure Cleaning Company, Philadelphia. McGuire, Johnston & Co., New York and Chicago. Hessley, Johnston & Co. Hessley & Johnston, Chicago. A. A. Hessley, Chicago. George F. Johnston, Chicago. C. F. McGuire, Chicago. F. L. Cunningham, Chicago. Chester E. Broughn, Chicago. Lincoln Gas Light & Coke Company, Lincoln, Neb.

Another concern dealing with alleged spurious bonds of Custer County, Idaho, the police declare, was under the direction of these men.

It was the old-time favorite method of kiting checks and drafts among the banks and private individuals of the city and country that was used, and there is no doubt that it proved successful in this instance. Although it is believed the men did not obtain great riches in their operations in Chicago, it would have been only a question of time when they would have become wealthy, so apparently easy was it for them to get funds.

OPENED MANY BANK ACCOUNTS.

Accounts in banks in Chicago and other cities were opened and then exchanges of checks were made among them. Only the over-boldness of their operations caused their downfall.

An instance of their methods would be the following: The Federal Trust Company, one of their "paper" concerns, would deposit a check in a Chicago bank made by the Keystone Structure Cleaning Company of Philadelphia, another of their alleged firms. The check would be sent east for collection, and in a few days it would be returned marked "No funds."

OFFER BOND IN A SETTLEMENT.

Meanwhile the trust company had checked against its account, to which the Keystone Structure Cleaning Company's check had been credited. When the check was returned from the eastern bank the Chicago bank would notify the Federal Trust Company of the non-payment of it. The Chicago firm would then offer explanation and apologies and give a 5 per cent to concerns that cashed the checks.

When they came back, the men who got the money were shocked beyond measure and at once offered stock and bonds of twice the face value of the money involved as security. This quieted the fears and enabled the schemers to go on.

FIVE MEN ARE ARRESTED BY DETECTIVES WOOLDRIDGE AND BARRY.

Five men were arrested by Detectives Wooldridge and Barry, charged with operating twelve concerns. The Commercial National Bank was one of the victims. The men arrested are as follows:

Chester A. Broughn, broker, 218 LaSalle street.

S. L. Cunningham, 56 years old. 1009 West Jackson boulevard.

C. F. McGuire, 40 years old, arrested at the Great Northern Hotel.

George F. Johnston, 36 years old, arrested at 185 Dearborn St.

Alvin A. Hessley, 48 years old, arrested at 185 Dearborn St.

TOOL TELLS TRUTH--USHER OF CHURCH IN CRIME CLOUD.

At the age of 50 years, S. L. Cunningham, vestryman and Sunday School teacher and chief usher in the Jackson Boulevard Christian Church, has come to the conclusion that he is "just an old fool, after all."

Mr. Cunningham was arrested recently on the charge of being one of a gang of forgers and "get-rich-quick" men who have been swindling Chicago and New York business houses and banks during the last few months. He says his only connection with the gang was in selling stock until a short time ago for the National Fireproof Paint Company, one of the concerns raided, and lending his bank account to George F. Johnston, said to have been one of the prime movers in the gang.

Mr. Cunningham looks like a bishop. His hair is white and his appearance distinguished. His story is an illustration of the manner in which swindling concerns procure one or two men of weight and respectability in a community to act as their advance agents and establish confidence.

As he sat on the white-pillared porch of his residence, surrounded by his wife and sympathetic neighbors and church members, his face in the gaslight showed the marks of grief through which he has passed since his arrest.

CUNNINGHAM TELLS THE STORY.

"Yes," he said, "we of the fold often go astray, but I am innocent. I have a Sunday School class of young girls that I am going to take out into Lincoln Park tomorrow. I hardly know what to say to them. I can't bear to think of taking my place as head usher on Sunday, although my pastor tells me to march down the aisle with my head erect. I am getting to be an old man, you see, and I have never wilfully wronged a person in my life." His voice trembled, but his wife laid her hand on his arm and he straightened up.

"I know nothing of these men except Mr. Johnston," he said. "I was introduced to him by a friend of mine three months ago. I have sold stock and insurance for the last twenty years, and I thought he had a good thing in the National Fireproof Paint Company, so I started selling stock for him. I could not sell the stock, as I could not show enough assets, so I quit two weeks ago. I was a fool, and a dupe, all right.

BANK ACCOUNT OVERDRAWN.

"Johnston, a young man, told me he was hard up and asked to use my bank account at the Commercial National. I let him and endorsed his checks. My wife told me not to do it, but I thought he was all right then. Well, he overdrew the account, the check was protested, and when my name was found they arrested me. I never knew any of the other men, although I saw them around the office. They did too much whispering, and I thought it did not look well."

Then, in a simple way, he went on to tell of his wife and his work in the church. He produced a letter from the pastor of his church, the Rev. Parker Stockdale:

"This introduces Mr. Cunningham, a member of my church. He enjoys among us the reputation of a thorough gentleman and a conscientious business man. He is a highly respected and useful citizen. His honesty is beyond question."

He also had a letter from Col. Jonathan Merriam, former United States pension agent, which was along the same lines.

OFFER OF BRIBE ALLEGED.

Broughn, the broker, is a man of a different stripe, according to Detective Barry, who arrested him. When he was informed of his arrest he is said by the detective to have replied:

"Come down to the saloon next door. I will settle the case at once. Name your price."

When arraigned before Justice Cochrane the cases were continued until September 24. All the men were released on $1,200 bonds each, with the exception of Broughn, whose bail was fixed at $800. The bonds were signed by a professional bondsman at the Harrison Street Police Station.

C. F. McGuire forfeited his bond and fled to New York City, where he was apprehended and arrested by New York authorities at the request of John M. Collins, the Chief of Police. The information which led to his arrest was secured by Detective Wooldridge, WHO WAS MADE A SPECIAL MESSENGER BY CHARLES S. DENEEN, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS.

C. F. McGuire was a powerfully built man, weighing 240 pounds and standing over 6 feet tall. He was turned over by the New York authorities to Detective Wooldridge, who slipped on him a pair of handcuffs and crossed over to Jersey City on a ferry, and from there took a section in a Pullman car on a fast train on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

McGuire was put to bed in the upper berth, after he undressed. Detective Wooldridge told him he was bringing him back like a gentleman, but the first law of nature was self-protection. The detective then requested him to turn over all his clothes except his night shirt, which was done. Wooldridge then placed the clothes under the mattress in the berth below, which he was to occupy. He then took out a pair of leg irons, tied a strong cord to them, placed the leg irons on McGuire, threw the cord back behind the berth below, and this was tied to his hands after he had buttoned the berth curtains and pinned them with safety pins all the way down. The curtains were then stuffed in under his mattress. After all this was done Wooldridge then laid down with his clothes on and laid awake until morning, but managed to get some rest by laying down.

Chicago was reached in safety. After taking McGuire to the bureau, where Bertillon measurements were taken and his finger prints recorded, he was turned over to the sheriff of Cook County.

The trial was set, which lasted five days. Witnesses were brought from the banks in New York City and Philadelphia which had been victimized.

February 7, 1908, found guilty.

CHECK "KITERS" HEAVILY FINED--GEORGE F. JOHNSTON AND C. F. MCGUIRE ASSESSED $2,000 EACH.

A jury in Judge Kersten's court later returned a verdict finding George F. Johnston and C. F. McGuire guilty of swindling and imposed a fine of $2,000 each. If the fine be not paid the defendants will be compelled to serve the amount at the rate of $1.50 a day in the Bridewell. Chester A. Broughn and A. H. Hessley entered pleas of guilty at the last minute and their cases will be disposed of later by Judge Kersten. State's Attorney John J. Healy and Assistant State's Attorney Barbour expressed themselves as pleased over the outcome of the trial.

QUACKS.

RASCALS WHO PREY UPON THE IGNORANT.

The "Specialist," the "Optician," the "Doctors' College"; All Frauds.

Blackmail Helps Medical Scamps--Poor Girls Victims of "Doctor" Thieves.

The history of quacks and quackery includes some of the most glaring frauds ever perpetrated on a credulous people. In all ages of the world's history down to the present day, these humbugs have cut an important figure in their day and generation. They are numerous in almost every line of business, serving God when it pays them to do it, and assisting the devil when their interests demand it. In these pages I propose to deal with medical quacks only.

The advent of every discovery in medicine, slight though it may be, has brought to the front a ring of pretenders in the healing art. These fellows catch the multitude. The poor, the ignorant and the credulous are their followers. It has been so in every age of the world's history. The man or woman with broken health will catch at every straw that offers hope of recovery, and so they drift from one quack to another, until ruined in fortune and oftentimes made worse in their physical ills, they at last pass to the silent home where the pain and joy the cunning and simplicity of the world are alike of insignificance.

The desire to live lurks in the heart of nearly every human being. And no matter how wretched they may be, how poor in pocket, broken in spirit, whether suffering from real or imaginary ills, thirsting for relief, they have gone from quack to quack, giving of their meager savings for some vaunted elixir which in all probability only hastens their journey to the grave.

One reason why quackery flourishes is the fact that medicine is not a science. Ask any honest physician and he will tell you the same. A drug that will help one person will have no effect on another. There are in the realm of medicine no such things as "cures." People who are sick recover, but they would do so whether they took "dope" or not. All disease is self-limited. The doctor who talks of curing smallpox, measles, typhoid fever, is a fool. Natures cures, not the doctor. People get well of these complaints, and many others who take no medicines and employ no physicians.

PHYSIC TO THE DOGS.

Followers of the late "Elijah Dowie" relegated physic to the dogs, where it properly belongs, and yet enjoyed good health. Mrs. Eddy's converts take no drugs, not even simple household remedies.

Here is a body of people numbering millions, entirely repudiating physicians, yet their health is as good, if not better, than those who continually take drugs. Doctors make war on them. Why? It interferes with the medical graft.

Don't think for a minute that advertising doctors are the only grafters in the medical profession. Many of them are bad, very bad, but there are men right here in Chicago, as well as other big cities, who never advertise in papers, yet they are as notorious swindlers, and will as quickly take advantage of the ignorant and credulous, as the man who flaunts his skill in the daily press. To fall into the hands of these fellows is to be despoiled in pocket and ruined in health. Operations that are uncalled for and not needed are performed almost daily.

Only a short time ago I heard a doctor boast of having removed the ovaries of two thousand women. How many of these operations were actually necessary? Probably very few, but each case enriched him to the extent of several hundred dollars.

Women more frequently than men are the victims of unscrupulous doctors. People do not often question the skill or the opinion of the fashionable physician; they take for granted the truth of all he may say, forgetting for the time that he has a pecuniary interest in the work that may possibly result in the death of the patient.

UNNECESSARY OPERATIONS.

How many people die from wholly unnecessary operations? Only the hospital records and the immediate friends of the patient can tell.

These words are written to put people on their guard. Dishonest doctors are everywhere, especially in big cities. Chicago is full of them. They may be strictly ethical and affect to despise the advertiser. They do so, however, only from a business standpoint. They hate opposition, and somehow the advertising doctor manages to get a goodly share of the business, and is oftentimes the superior in skill in his particular line or specialty to his ethical brother.

There are good doctors and bad ones, just as there are good and bad men in every walk and business of life.

In my experience as a detective I have met with both kinds. In these pages I will deal with the advertising doctor only. I will do, and have done, what I can to drive the dishonest ones out of the business.

The eye doctor, professing to cure blindness or other diseases of the eye without the knife, is one of the most dangerous and dishonest men in the medical profession. Chicago has its full quota of this form of quackery. There are two men in this city--Dr. M---- and Dr. O----, who are national advertisers.

Both have been exposed in a recent New York weekly paper at the instigation of the American Medical Association. It is noteworthy, however, that this same paper accepted a full-page advertisement from Dr. O---- only a few months before the expose, thus deluding thousands of its readers. The price paid for one page and one issue was fifteen hundred dollars. This sum, paid to but one paper, will give the reader some idea of the vast expense to which the quack is put to place his name before the public in his effort to rob the blind. This same Dr. O---- pays out annually sixty thousand dollars for advertising alone. He employs twenty typewriters--mostly girls. The correspondence is handled entirely by the clerks, the doctor rarely ever seeing a letter.

He employs but one assistant, a young man fresh from college. No personal interviews with patients are asked for or desired. It is a mail order business almost exclusively. Occasionally a patient comes to the city to see this great oculist.

Dr. O---- himself is hardly ever in evidence. He spends most of his time in summer resorts and European capitals.

The only medicine used is a solution of boric acid in water. The same can be bought at any drug store for a few cents. His charges are ten dollars per month.

This man's mail is enormous. I have known him to take in twenty thousand dollars a month. One of the catchy lines in his advertisement says he cures crossed eyes without the use of the knife. This is true, but he uses scissors instead. Cross-eye can only be straightened by severing the muscles of the eye. All physicians know this, but the people do not; hence the success of this robber of the blind.

Dr. O---- is a devout church member. He is one of the largest contributors to the Christian Church, to which he belongs. Nearly all church papers carry his advertisements, though they must know him to be a fraud of the first water.

SLEEK AND UNCTUOUS CHURCH MEMBER.

Personally he is sleek and unctuous, is always found among the godly, takes more interest in foreign missions than the every-day affairs of life, and fully expects to occupy a seat in the parquet of the New Jerusalem.

The money wrung by the basest of false pretenses from his poor unfortunate blind victims, does not disturb his slumbers. If he has any conscience at all he fortifies himself with the thought that "Jesus will bear it all," and lets it go at that.

Blind people, or those with failing eyesight, beware.

A close second to the above-named grafter, and in the same nefarious business, is Dr. M----.

This man's advertisements read very much like those of others in the same line of work. He also cures without the knife, but uses the scissors. His treatment is the same--boric acid and water.

This can do no possible good except in slight inflammations. It cannot cure cataract. It may be set down as a truth (ask any honest physician) that cataract is incurable except by surgical operations. Yet these men continue to advertise its cure, claiming to have a specific remedy that will absorb it. Dr. M---- is wealthy, all made out of the blind. While other men are giving of their wealth to ease the lives of these poor unfortunates, they are being systematically robbed in the most heartless and shame-faced manner.

Priceless is sight. A man or woman threatened with loss of it will give up their last dollar for a prospective cure. In this way these so-called "eye doctors" fatten on the credulity of their victims, doing them absolutely no good and quite often a serious injury.

Dr. M---- is also a devout church member. He can be seen hanging over the pew of a fashionable West Side church every Sunday. There he is hailed as a good brother by his fellow members, many of whom are as great, if not as successful, a grafter as he is. They use the cloak of religion in which to serve the devil.

THE "OPTICIAN" FAKE.

In connection with this subject let me warn you of the existence of an army of "Opticians." These men are often swindlers of the first water. Their misrepresentations as to the money value of glasses amounts to grand larceny. They charge all the way from ten to seventy-five dollars for a pair of lenses that usually cost seventy-five cents each. There are honest men in the business, but beware of the grafter.

There are many lesser lights engaged in the eye business, but the examples given above will serve to place you on your guard. Take no treatment by mail. Less can be done for the eye than any other organ of the body, unless it is the ear. Both are so complex in their anatomy and the symptoms so obscure that it is an impossibility to make a correct diagnosis without seeing the patient and using the best instruments that science can bring to the aid of the physician.

CONSUMPTION CURES.

A few years ago Dr. Koch, of Berlin, Germany, announced that he had discovered a cure for consumption. The same announcement has been made thousands of times before by more or less illustrious physicians.

Dr. Koch's cure was a gas, requiring more or less elaborate apparatus. Several years' trial of this supposed cure convinced the medical profession, and Dr. Koch himself, that he was mistaken.

He retracted his statements and acknowledged he had been in error. Yet in every large city of the country, Chicago, of course, included, there are established "Koch Institutes" for the cure of consumption.

A more brazen fraud was never perpetrated on an ignorant public than the claims which these so-called institutes advertise. They are patronized chiefly by the poor--those who have been told by honest physicians that they are incurable. Having no means with which to take trips to the mountain or sea shore, they grasp at every quack medicine or institute that offers hope of recovery.

I have visited the Chicago branch of this miserable fraud. Invalids who can scarcely walk are to be seen there daily inhaling mixtures of nauseous gases that have no more effect on the germ of consumption than a popgun on one of Uncle Sam's ironclads. By means of paid-for testimonials and a couple of "cappers," people from all parts of the country are brought here, oftentimes taking the last dollar of the family exchequer to pay for the so-called treatment. These frauds have been exposed time and again. However, a new crop of victims are gathered in every day and the game goes merrily on.

HUMAN GHOULS.

The human ghouls in the guise of doctors are meantime living in luxury, and fattening on the misfortunes of their already half-dead victims. You might ask why does not the law step in and protect the sick. If you had seen as much of the law as I have you would discover that it too frequently protects the doctors and not the patients.

The men running this and other similar frauds are all licensed physicians, and have the authority of the great State of Illinois to pursue their calling. If you have consumption spend your money in getting good air, not dope. Drugs never yet cured consumption. That is the testimony of all honest doctors, and there are still a few of them left.

THE MORPHINE CURE.

Forty years ago Dr. C----, of Laporte, Indiana, a bricklayer by profession, conceived the idea of selling morphine as a cure for the opium habit. Morphine is the essence of opium, just as cocaine is the essence of the coca leaf. It was a brilliant idea and brought Dr. C---- (he afterward bought diplomas galore) a mint of money. C---- constructed himself a mansion in Laporte, which stands today, a splendid specimen of the builders' art. He was the first man to put on the market an opium cure.

The poor wretches who are addicted to this habit would make any kind of a sacrifice for a cure. The whiskey habit is not a circumstance to the opium or morphine fiend. There is no habit which so enslaves the victim as the drug habit, and they are seldom cured. C---- ran along for many years with but few imitators. The many victims of morphine whom he has gathered into his net were pouring in their wealth until it amounted to thousands daily. As long as they took the C---- remedy they had no desire for morphine. The "remedy" contained morphine--more, usually, than they had been taking before.

"Dr." C---- had thousands under treatment, but made no cures. At last the so-called remedy was analyzed and its true nature discovered.

At once an army of imitators sprang into existence in all parts of the country, and morphine cure became as common as other cures. They all had and have as a basis opium or some of its salts. The extent of these drug addictions is hardly realized. Chicago alone has thirty thousand of these unfortunates, and the trade in opium and allied drugs is immense.

ENCOURAGING THE MORPHINE HABIT.

Many of these victims date their downfall from some sickness in which a physician prescribed the drug--perhaps to allay pain or produce sleep. When they recovered they found they still had to have it. The habit grew and finally fastened itself with such a deathlike grip that they were unable to shake it off, and so they totter through life, unfitted for anything except to beg, borrow or lend some of the dope. Men and women once high in the business and social world are frequently found in the police dock accused of some petty theft in order to satisfy their craving for these destructive drugs.