Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1912 — THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR. [ARTICLE]

THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR.

Fake Promoter Defrauds Merchant* at Oxford and Lafayette Lafayette, Ind., December 6. ing as a factory 1 promoter, a swindler who used the names of E. C. Earl and E. M. Curtis, operated with success in this part of Indiana. He defrauded a clothing store, yesterday, at Oxford, a small town west of here of SIOO, and a few months ago he swindled a haberdashery here in the same manner. The naan’s game was to visit a town and look up real estate dealers. He said he was a factory promoter see Ming good site. Then he would pretend to lose his baggage and say that lie was ex-1 pecting a check from his company, lie needed money, however, while waiting the remittance. The next day he would sa/y he had not received his check, but had a draft on a Chicago bank. In each instance the merchant cashed the draft and gave the man not, only merchandise, but cash in change. The swindler would then disappear and the draft would be found worthless. At the store here he obtained SSO. He had a draft on the Ft. Dearborn Bank at Chicago. At Oxford he used a Chicago Trust Co. draft. Earl is de-

scribed as being about fifty years old, broad shouldered, weighing perhaps 180, black mustache closely cropped. He wore eyeglasses and had a black stiff hat and a black overcoat with silk lapels.