TRUE STORIES OF CRIME FROM THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

BY ARTHUR TRAIN

FORMERLY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, NEW YORK COUNTY

1908

PREFACE

The narratives composing this book are literally true stories of crime. In a majority of the cases the author conducted the prosecutions himself, and therefore may claim to have a personal knowledge of that whereof he speaks. While no confidence has been abused, no essential facts have been omitted, distorted, or colored, and the accounts themselves, being all matters of public record, may be easily verified.

The scenes recorded here are not literature but history, and the characters who figure in them are not puppets of the imagination, but men and women who lived and schemed, laughed, sinned and suffered, and paid the price when the time came, most of them, without flinching. A few of those who read these pages may profit perhaps by their example; others may gain somewhat in their knowledge of life and human nature; but all will agree that there are books in the running brooks, even if the streams be turbid, and sermons in stones, though these be the hearts of men. If in some instances the narratives savor in treatment more of fiction than of fact, the writer must plead guilty to having fallen under the spell of the romance of his subject, and he proffers the excuse that, whereas such tales have lost nothing in accuracy, they may have gained in the truth of their final impression.

ARTHUR TRAIN.
CRIMINAL COURTS BUILDING,
  NEW YORK CITY,
    April 20, 1908.

CONTENTS

PREFACE
CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I—THE WOMAN IN THE CASE
CHAPTER II —FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS
CHAPTER III—THE LOST STRADIVARIUS
CHAPTER IV—THE LAST OF THE WIRE-TAPPERS
CHAPTER V—THE FRANKLIN SYNDICATE
CHAPTER VI—A STUDY IN FINANCE
CHAPTER VII—THE "DUC DE NEVERS"
CHAPTER VIII—A FINDER OF MISSING HEIRS
CHAPTER IX.—A MURDER CONSPIRACY
CHAPTER X—A FLIGHT INTO TEXAS
CHAPTER XI—A CASE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

ILLUSTRATIONS

Envelope on the back of which Parker's forged order was written

Parker's order on Rogers, Peet & Co., in the name of Lang

A letter-head "frill" of Mabel Parker's

Examples of Mabel Parker's penmanship, regular and forged

Practice signatures of the name of Alice Kauser

The check on which the indictment for forgery was brought

Parker's copy of the signature of Alice Kauser

One of the sheets upon which Mabel Parker illustrated her skill

One of Miller's Franklin Syndicate Receipts.

Ammon's deposit slips and a receipt signed by Mrs. Ammon.

A group of H. Huffman Browne's forgeries

Last page of the forged Rice will of 1900

The forged cremation letter

Forged assignment and Rice signatures

First page of the "Black Hand" letter written by Strollo

I

The Woman in the Case

On a sultry August afternoon in 1903, a dapper, if somewhat anaemic, young man entered the Broadway store of Rogers, Peet & Company, in New York City, and asked to be allowed to look at a suit of clothes. Having selected one to his fancy and arranged for some alterations, he produced from his wallet a check for $280, drawn to the order of George B. Lang, and signed E. Bierstadt, and remarked to the attentive salesman:

"I haven't got quite enough cash with me to pay for these, but I have been intending to cash this check all the afternoon. Of course, you don't know me or even that my name is Lang, but if you will forward the check to the bank they will certify it, and to-morrow I will send for the suit and the balance of the money."

"Certainly, Mr. Lang," replied the salesman. "I will hold the suit and the money to await your orders."

The customer thanked him and took his departure. The check was sent to the bank, the bank certified it, then cancelled its certification and returned the check to Rogers, Peet & Company, and the store detectives, having communicated with Police Headquarters, anxiously awaited the arrival of Mr. Lang's messenger.

Their efforts were rewarded a couple of days later by the appearance at the store of a lad who presented a written order (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) inscribed upon the back of an envelope bearing a cancelled stamp and addressed to Geo. B. Lang, No. 13 West Twenty-sixth Street, New York City, which read as follows: