ARTHUR.T Stories ------The Last of the Wire-Tappers --IV---Page 22

Finally he managed to push his envelope containing the five

ten-thousand-dollar bills into the "trusted cashier's" hand. The latter marked it "Old Stone, 5 to 1 to win!" and thrust it into his pocket. Then "Whitney" or somebody bet $70,000 on Calvert.

"They're off!" shouted the man at the tape.

How he lived while they tore around the course Felix never knew. Neck and neck Old Stone and Calvert passed the quarter, the half, and the
three-quarter post, and with the crowd yelling like demons came hurtling down the stretch.

"Old Stone wins!" cried the "booster" at the tape in a voice husky with

excitement. "Calvert a close second!" Felix nearly fainted. His head

swam. He had won a quarter of a million. Then the voice of the "booster" made itself audible above the confusion.

"What! A mistake? Not possible!--Yes. Owing to some confusion at the finish, both jockies wearing the same colors, the official returns now read Calvert first; Old Stone second."

Among the zitherns Felix sat and wondered if he had been schvindled. He
had not returned to Wassermann Brothers. Had he done so he would have
found it empty five minutes after he had lost his money. The
millionaires were already streaming hilariously into Sharkey's. "Gates"
pledged "Belmont" and "Keene" pledged "Whitney." Each had earned five
dollars by the sweat of his brow. The glorious army of wire-tappers had
won another victory and their generals had consummated a campaign of
months. Expenses (roughly), $600. Receipts, $50,000. Net profits,
$48,400. Share of each, $16,133.

A day or two later Felix wandered down to Police Headquarters, and in
the Rogue's Gallery identified the photograph of Nelson, whom he then
discovered to be none other than William Crane, alias John Lawson, alias
John Larsen, a well-known "wire-tapper," arrested some dozen times
within a year or two for similar offences. McPherson turned out to be
Christopher Tracy, alias Charles J. Tracy, alias Charles Tompkins, alias
Topping, alias Toppin, etc., etc., arrested some eight or ten times for
"wire-tapping." The "trusted cashier" materialized in the form of one
Wyatt, alias, Fred Williams, etc., a "wire-tapper" and pal of "Chappie"
Moran and "Larry" Summerfield. Detective Sergeants Fogarty and Mundy
were at once detailed upon the case and arrested within a short time
both Nelson and McPherson. The "trusted cashier" who had pocketed
Felix's $50,000 has never been caught. It is said that he is running a
first-class hostelry in a Western city. But that is another story.

When acting Inspector O'Brien ordered McPherson brought into his private
room, the latter unhesitatingly admitted that the three of them had
"trimmed" Felix of his $50,000, exactly as the latter had alleged. He
stated that Wyatt (alias Williams) was the one who had taken in the
money, that it was still in his possession, and still intact in its
original form. He denied, however, any knowledge of Wyatt's whereabouts.

The reason for this indifference became apparent when the two prisoners
were arraigned in the magistrate's court, and their counsel demanded
their instant discharge on the ground that they had committed no crime
for which they could be prosecuted. He cited an old New York case,
McCord _vs._ The People,[2] which seemed in a general way to sustain his
contention, and which had been followed by another and much more recent
decision. The People _vs._ Livingston.[3] The first of these cases had
gone to the Court of Appeals, and the general doctrine had been
annunciated that where a person parts with his money for an unlawful or
dishonest purpose, even though he is tricked into so doing by false
pretences, a prosecution for the crime of larceny cannot be maintained.

[Footnote 2: 46 New York 470.]

[Footnote 3: 47 App. Div. 283.]

In the McCord case, the defendant had falsely pretended to the

complainant, a man named Miller, that he was a police officer and held a warrant for his arrest. By these means he had induced Miller to give him a gold watch and a diamond ring as the price of his liberty. The
conviction in this case was reversed on the ground that Miller parted
with his property for an unlawful purpose; but there was a very strong
dissenting opinion from Mr. Justice Peckham, now a member of the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In the second case, that of Livingston, the complainant had been

defrauded out of $500 by means of the "green goods" game; but this

conviction was reversed by the Appellate Division of the Second

Department on the authority of the McCord case. The opinion in this case was written by Mr. justice Cullen, now Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, who says in conclusion:

"We very much regret being compelled to reverse this conviction. Even if the prosecutor intended to deal in counterfeit money, that is no reason
why the appellant should go unwhipped of justice. We venture to suggest that it might be Well for the Legislature to alter the rule laid down in
McCord _vs._ People."

Well might the judges regret being compelled to set a rogue at liberty
simply because he had been ingenious enough to invent a fraud (very
likely with the assistance of a shyster lawyer) which involved the
additional turpitude of seducing another into a criminal conspiracy.
Livingston was turned loose upon the community in spite of the fact that
he had swindled a man out of $500 because he had incidentally led the
latter to believe that in return he was to receive counterfeit money or
"green goods," which might be put into circulation. Yet, because some
years before, the Judges of the Court of Appeals had, in the McCord
matter, adopted the rule followed in civil cases, to wit that as the
complaining witness was himself in fault and did not come into court
with clean hands he could have no standing before them, the Appellate
Division in the next case felt obliged to follow them and to rule
tantamount to saying that two wrongs could make a right and two knaves
one honest man. It may seem a trifle unfair to put it in just this way,
but when one realizes the iniquity of such a doctrine as applied to
criminal cases, it is hard to speak softly. Thus the broad and general
doctrine seemed to be established that so long as a thief could induce
his victim to believe that it was to his advantage to enter into a
dishonest transaction, he might defraud him to any extent in his power.
Immediately there sprang into being hordes of swindlers, who, aided by
adroit shyster lawyers, invented all sorts of schemes which involved
some sort of dishonesty upon the part of the person to be defrauded. The
"wire-tappers," of whom "Larry" Summerfield was the Napoleon, the
"gold-brick" and "green-goods" men, and the "sick engineers" flocked to
New York, which, under the unwitting protection of the Court of Appeals,
became a veritable Mecca for persons of their ilk.