US Swindles in the Nineteenth Century September 23, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
More in our nineteenth-century swindlers series.
Confess: X writes to hundreds of bank clerks across the country saying that he was in receipt of tens of thousands of dollars left by a banker to help bank clerks who had embezzled money. Many bank clerks replied admitting that they had done so at which point X blackmailed them. Port Ev New, 5 Oct 1883, 2.
Counterfeit Swindle: X offers counterfeit money to victims. They write paying for counterfeit money at very good rate. He writes back with a hamper of sawdust filled with metal bits. In subsequent letters explains that he can’t do anything at the police are watching him and the purchaser. At this point the letters dies away… Dub Ev Mai, 28 Dec 1871, 4.
Double Your Money: X advertises with a secret method to double your money. Victims writes in. X replies with a letter explaining how to take a note and fold it in half thus doubling it… Man Cour, 24 Oct 1885, 9.
Dead Man Debts: X sends a letter to grieving family (victims) claiming that dead dad owed money. There is the implication that the money owed was for a clandestine affair (unknown items of jewelry or bouquets). The victims pay quickly to prevent scandal. Ports Eve News, 23 Feb 1880, 3.
Dead Man Family: X sends a letter to grieving family in Europe of son who has died. Apparently he has a family in America and the son, who has his dead father’s name, is dying. Can the family of origin please send some money. Al Mil Gaz, 26 nov 1859, 2
Horse Swindle: Victim buys horse. X and Y come to check on the horse to make sure it is not stolen. X describes a different horse, and is satisfied on seeing it that it is not his missing steed. X then gives a very detailed description to Y who convinces victim that it is his stolen horse. Ports Ev News, 13 Jul 1883, 2
Hotel Case Swindle: X and Y check separately into hotel (victim). They have rooms on the same floor and X secretes his case into Y’s slightly bigger case. X then demands damages after his case is stolen. Dun Ev Tel, 24 Jan 1893, 2
Reeling Bots: X comes to farm for some business and finds that the hogs are ill. He announces that they have the reeling bots, and that he has the perfect medicine. The farmer (victim) pays and the hogs get better. They were jumping around because x had fed them whisky soaked corn the night before. Shef Ev Tel, 20 Febh 1894, 4.
Steel for Gold: Gold grains handed over to a mint or other suitable institution, but found to be, once owner x has been paid, steel balls covered in gold. Ed Ev News, 27 Dec 1884, 2 (Suspicions about this one, but lots of circumstantial details given)
Can any add to these: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
30 Sept 2015: Chris from Haunted Ohio Books writes in with some American examples. Some great stuff here! Thanks Chris!
A MODERN MUMMY
Friends of the Deceased Would Call To Pay Their Respects.
[New York Herald.]
Strange, grewsome stories have been yielded by the old morgue, but what is doubtless the most remarkable tale of all was told yesterday by Undertaker Ferdinand Brown, of Sixth street. Brown has often spoken of the matter, but only now, after 14 years, does the strange incident reach the public.
Mummies are common in Egypt, but they are not looked for in New York City. Yet one could be seen in the morgue in this city from August 12, 1878, to July 5, 1880, sitting in one of the rooms of the deadhouse, placed there on private exhibition by Undertaker Brown, who had not been paid his fees by the relatives of the man. The person whose body was thus disposed of was Otto Berger, a German, who was born in Baden-Baden, and came to this country in 1875.
Berger was an eccentric individual, and when he died, penniless, in the city insane asylum, there was no one to prevent the disposition of the his body made by the undertaker. His father was the head servant for the Grand Duke of Baden in Carlsruhe. The son was wild, however, and some difficulty with a woman compelled him to leave Germany and come to this country. His old habits did not leave him in the new land, and though he worked now and again at his trade of upholstering, he went on frequent sprees.
He continued correspondence with his parents, and often they sent him money in answer to his urgent appeals for help. Finally they wearied of his repeated demands and his father wrote him that he could do no more for him, and that he would have to shift for himself.
Otto then resorted to various expedients to get money. An ingenious friend inserted a death notice in a newspapers and sent it to the father, requesting at the same time that he forward a sum of money necessary to pay the funeral expenses.
The Duke’s head servant was deeply affected by the news of the death of his wayward son, and he promptly forwarded the sum asked; thanking the friend of his son for looking after the body.
The poor old retainer’s money furnished the means for another long spree for Otto. Berger made the acquaintance of Carl Schmidt, a painter, who lived at No. 197 Seventh street. He took up his quarters with him, and they became fast friends. He did not give up his drinking habits, however, and his dissipations finally drove him insane.
Schmidt had him placed in the insane asylum on Ward’s Island, where he died two months after he was admitted, on August 11, 1878.
Schmidt determined to give the body of his friend a decent burial, so he gave it in charge of Undertaker Brown, who embalmed the body, and wrote to Berger’s father, in Carlsruhe, asking what disposition should be made of it. Great was his surprise when he received a reply from the perplexed father to the effect that he had already paid the funeral expenses, but if he had been deceived by a trick he was indifferent as to what became of his son’s body.
The idea then occurred to the undertaker of mummifying the body and putting in the morgue as an object of interest and curiosity.
He received permission from Register Nagle in writing to keep the embalmed body for six weeks, in case no offensive odors arose, until he heard from Germany. After that he readily had the permit extended. Brown then, by repeated embalmings, succeeded in hardening the body until it was like stone.
It was placed in a sitting position in a room in the morgue for two years, and there Brown and Schmidt took their curious friends and those who knew Berger in life.
The body was dressed as in life. Brown one day took a crowd of friends to the morgue. The body had been removed and was not to be seen.
“I didn’t want to have a petrified corpse here,” Morgue Keeper White said to him, “so I had it buried in potter’s field. I didn’t think it was right to exhibit such a thing in the morgue.
Brown never wrote Berger’s family of the disposition he was making of the son’s body, and for two years hundreds of persons gazed at the mummy in the New York Morgue. When I saw Mr. Brown last night he said he had grave doubts that the body was buried. He thought it had gone to some museum.
The Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer 13 October 1894: p. 14
PAYS FOR LIVE MAN’S BURIAL
Doctor Sends Money and Later Finds Father Also Victimized
New York, Jan. 4. Ten years ago Dr. Marie E. Megill of Asbury Park, N.J., was informed by a black sheep relative that her father, Thomas Megill of Waco, Tex., was dead, and to this relative she sent money for the burial and to erect a monument. In due time she received a photograph of the tombstone. Meanwhile the same relative had informed the father that Dr. Megill was dead, had collected money from him for her funeral, and had sent a photograph of her tombstone. A comparison of the pictures showed the graves and the headstones to be identical.
Recently Dr. Megill was much surprised to receive a summons from Waco advising her that her father was still alive, but ill. She at once started for Texas to nurse him back to health.
The whereabouts of the relative with a fondness for burial fees is not known.
Indianapolis [IN] Star 5 January 1912: p. 4
And a couple of other ones–I’m not sure if these are really classifiable as scams:
A man was denouncing newspaper advertising to a crowd of listeners. Last week, said he, I had an umbrella stolen from the vestibule of the church. It was a gift and, valuing it very highly, I spent double its worth in advertising, but have not re covered it.” How did you word your advertisement?” asked a merchant. “Here it is,” said the man, producing a slip out from the newspaper. The merchant took it and read, “Lost from vestibule of—— church, last Sabbath evening, a black silk umbrella. The gentleman who took it will be handsomely rewarded by leaving it at No__, San Fernando-Street.” “Now,” said the merchant, “I am a liberal advertiser, and have always found that it paid me well. A great deal depends upon the manner in which an advertisement is put. Let us try for your umbrella again, and, if you do not acknowledge then that advertising pays, I will purchase you a new one.” The merchant then took a slip of paper from his pocket and wrote, “If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the vestibule of the church, last Sabbath evening, does not wish to get into trouble and have a stain cast upon the Christian character which he values so highly, he will return it to San Fernando street. He is well known.” This appeared in the paper, and on the following morning the man was astonished when he opened the front door of his residence. On the porch lay at least a dozen umbrellas of all shades and sizes that had been thrown in from the side-walk, while the front yard was literally paved with umbrellas. Many of them had notes attached to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser to keep the little affair quiet.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer’s Monthly Journal, 1879
And
I have no idea where this originated, but it is a classic:
A wag sends a group of his friends telegrams reading simply, “Fly! All is discovered.” They promptly all leave town.
