Part 3 (2/2)
This done and the writing cleaned off the face of the draft, check, letter of credit, or bill of exchange, with only the genuine signature left and the tints on the paper restored, the forger is prepared to fill up the paper for any amount decided upon.
The backer or capitalist is rarely known to any member of the band outside the ”go-between,” whom he makes use of to find the forger. He very rarely allows himself to become known to the men who ”present”
the forged paper at the banks. If the forgery scheme is successful, the backer receives back the money paid out for the preparation of the work as well as any amount he may have lent the ”band” to enable them to open accounts at banks where they propose placing the forged paper.
He is also allowed a certain percentage on all successful forgeries, this percentage running from 20 to 30 per cent; but where the backer and forger are working together, their joint percentage is never less than 50 per cent.
It is an invariable rule followed by the backer and forger that in selecting a middle man they select one who not only has the reputation of being a ”stanch” man, but he must also be a man who has at least one record of conviction standing against him. This is for the additional protection of the backer and forger, as they know that in law the testimony of an accomplice who is also a former convict must be strongly corroborated to be believed.
Out of their first successful forgeries a certain sum from each man's share is held by the middle man to be used in the defense of any member of the band who may be arrested on the trip. This money is called ”fall money” and is used to employ counsel for the men under arrest or to do anything for them that may be for their interest.
When a ”middle man” is exceedingly cautious and not entirely satisfied with the ”presenters” he will sometimes have an a.s.sistant. This is where the ”shadow” comes in. This shadow will under the direction of the ”middle man” follow the ”presenter” into the bank and report fully on his actions. He sometimes catches the ”presenter” in an attempt to swindle his companions by claiming that he did not get the money, but had to get out of the bank in a hurry and leave the check or draft, as the paying teller was suspicious.
A ”presenter” caught at this trick is sometimes sent into a bank to present a forged check where the bank has been previously warned of his coming by an anonymous letter. This is done as a punishment for his dishonesty and as a warning to others against treachery.
That the professional forger eventually profits but little by his ill-gotten gains is well ill.u.s.trated by the fate of the most of them, who end their days in prison.
In the case of a forgery there are a dozen methods for detecting it--in the quality of the ink, in the quality of paper, in microscopic examination of the irregularities in penmans.h.i.+p, in ”labored” tracings that show exaggerated tracings, in composite photography, and by a dozen little common-sense observations that scarcely can be controverted.
Some forgeries have been detected by the mere water-mark in the paper.
Sittl of Munich is quoted as having had referred to him a possible forgery of a doc.u.ment dated 1868. Holding the paper to the light, he found as a water-mark in it the figure of the eagle of the German Empire--a symbol which had not been adopted at all until after the French war of 1870.
The magnifying gla.s.s is depended upon for many disclosures of forgeries. The unduly serrated edges of the ink lines are quickly marked in a forgery, though under certain circ.u.mstances a situation may be such as to force a person into this laborious writing; he may be cramped up in bed, writing on a book held in his lap, or he may be in a mental strain that produces it.
There are minds so easily impressed with a sense of responsibility that the writing or signing of any paper important in its bearing on the writer or his property will cause him to disguise his hand to some extent involuntarily, as many persons disguise their features involuntarily when being photographed.
As to signatures especially, attention is called to the ”tremor of fraud,” which is to be detected by the microscope, and stress is laid upon the necessity of observing just where this tremor falls. If it is in a difficult flourish of the signature and not elsewhere it indicates fraud; or if it be tremulous to the eye, in imitation of the signature of an aged person, a smooth, curved line may be the index of ”the difficulty experienced by a good penman in feigning to be a bad one.”
The microscope is useful and valuable in determining whether erasures have been made on paper. Also it will discover which of two crossed lines was last written. It may determine whether the ragged edges of the ink lines are those of fraud, illiteracy, or old age.
The practice of forging the names of depositors in banks to checks, drafts, notes, and in fact to all papers representing a money value, has been practiced, probably, since the creation of man. Of course the law recognizes forgery as a serious crime, and everywhere the punishment is severe. In the seventeenth century it was a capital offense in England, and there were more persons executed for that crime than there were for murder. Notwithstanding the rigorous penalty prescribed in every state in the Union, forgery is carried on to an alarming extent, sometimes by trusted employees, as well as professionals.
The raising of checks and drafts is the princ.i.p.al method employed by the men who make a business of defrauding the unwary. The simplest way of explaining the operation of raising a draft or check is as follows:
Two men are necessary for success at any given point, and hence they are not so liable to detection as if a number of confederates were engaged. It is the business of one of these men to enter a bank, and purchase a draft on New York City, for a certain amount of money, usually about fifteen hundred dollars, and a short time after this another draft would be procured from the same bank for a small amount, seldom over ten dollars. These drafts procured, they are handed to the ”raiser,” or the man who is to alter the paper for their dishonest purposes. In a short time the small draft is raised to be a perfect duplicate of the large one, in every sense of the word, both as regards number, amount, place of presentation, etc.
This work of alteration being fully completed, one of the men would then remove to another city, and forward the ”raised” draft to New York, by express, for collection, or else would go to that city himself, and have it cashed through some respectable person.
Immediately on receiving the money he would telegraph his companion, in words previously agreed upon, informing him of the successful result of the first move. The other confederate, upon the receipt of this information, would at once go to the bank where the drafts had been procured, and presenting the genuine draft for the large amount of money, would request that the money be refunded, giving as an excuse for not using it, either that he could not be identified in the New York bank, and for that reason could not collect it, or that the business he had procured it for had not been consummated. The bank officials would recognize him as the person who purchased the draft, and would unhesitatingly hand him back the money which he had paid. Of course he would quickly disappear from the locality, never to be seen in it again--and the forgery would not be discovered until, in the due course of ordinary business, when the other draft for the same amount would be returned for payment.
A favorite trick of forgers, and check and draft raisers, who operate on an extensive scale, is for one of them to open an office in a city, and represent himself as a cattle dealer, lumber merchant, or one looking about for favorable real-estate investments. His first move is to open a bank account, and then works to get on friendly terms with the cas.h.i.+er. He always keeps a good balance--sometimes way up in the thousands--and deports himself in such a manner as to lead to the belief that he is a highly honorable gentleman, and the bank officials are led to the belief that he will eventually become a very profitable customer.
Occasionally he has a note, for a small amount to begin with, always first-cla.s.s, two-name paper, and he never objects--usually insists--in paying a trifle more than the regular discount. At first the bank officials closely examine the paper offered, and of course find that the endorsers are men of high standing, and then their confidence in the ”cattle king” is unbounded. Gradually the notes increase in amount, from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars, and from fifteen hundred to two or three thousand. The notes are promptly paid at maturity. After the confidence of the bank people has been completely gained, the swindler makes a strike for his greatest effort. He comes in the bank in a hurry, presents a sixty-day note, endorsed by first-cla.s.s men, for a larger amount than he has ever before requested, and it generally happens that he gets the money without the slightest difficulty. Then he has a sudden call to attend to important business elsewhere. When the note or notes mature, it is discovered to be a clever forgery. This has been done time and again, and it is rare that the forger has been apprehended.
The forgery of checks is a common offense. It takes more than one man to successfully perform this operation. The forger himself is known as the ”scratcher,” or the expert penman of the party. The ”middle man”
is the fellow who conducts the business negotiations, ostensibly as a merchant, and the ”layer-down” is the man who presents the check to the bank and secures the cash. The middle man must have a pleasing address, and be thoroughly posted on the commercial news of the day, and it is requisite that the layer-down be well dressed, quick witted, and possessed of an unlimited amount of polite a.s.surance, a cheek that never pales and an eye that never droops. In selecting a person to fill this important position, the forger prefers to have a man who has, at some time or other, been convicted of crime, so that in case of discovery, and the turning of state's evidence by the layer-down (who is always the man caught) his evidence will not have weight with a jury. The latest mode is for the forger to imitate a private check by the photo-lithographic method, after having obtained a signed check.
<script>