Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1902 — FRANK ANDREWS IS FOUND GUILTY [ARTICLE]

FRANK ANDREWS IS FOUND GUILTY

Convicted of Looting the City Savings Bank at Detroit, Michigan. DECLARES VERDICT IS UNJUST Outline of the Financial Career of a Country Boy, Whose Ambitious Speculation Made Him a Millionaire and Led to a Felon’s Cell. Frank C. Andrews, former vice president of the City Savings bank of Detroit, was convicted of looting that institution of $1,576,000, wrecking the bank and sweeping away the savings of hundreds of persons in moderate or poor circumstances. When the verdict was announced Andrews became deadly pale. “It’s a terror,” he gasped. “It is unjust. I never intended to defraud or cheat any one. God knows it.” The trial had been in progress four weeks. Only two ballots were taken. The first stood ten for conviction and two for acquittal, but the latter two soon joined the majority. Lived in Fine Style. A few months before the crash came which swept away his fortune and left him in a felon’s cell, Andrews was one of the richest and most prosperous men in Detroit He lived in magnificent style in a house on Woodward avenue, which cost him $100,000; he was police commissioner, he owned stock in half a dozen banks, in several electric railroads and in numerous valuable properties, was the vice president of the City Savings bank, controlled a leading newspaper and was the treasurer of three trolley lines. Lost His Wealth. Within six months he had lost every farthing of his wealth, and to feed his passion for speculation had robbed others of very nearly $2,000,000. Andrews was born about thirty years ago in the little town of Romero, near Detroit, and until 1890 his ambition had not enabled him to rise above a clerkship in a country store. In 1890 he went to Detroit with $5 in his pocket and secured a job as a ' clerk in a real estate firm. His push, his tireelss energy and his Inordinate love for work won him quick promotion, and at the end of his first year of service he had $3,000 in bank. Makes Money Fast. Then he went home, married his sweetheart and returned to Detroit te begin “real work.” At the end of two years Andrews had cleared $25,000 and was still winning. He was placed at the head of the loan department of the real estate firm and his third year in Detroit as a full partner in the house. In 1895 the rising young capitalist and financier first felt the fever of speculation which was ultimately to prove his ruin. Thus far he had wisely invested his savings in bank stock, and was now a power in the financial world of Detroit. Fortune Grows. . His fortune waxed larger and larger untjl in 1900 he had acquired so much of the stock of the City Savings bank that he succeeded in getting himself elected vice president. The president of the bank was Frank C. Pingree, a brother of the late Hazen Pingree, but the actual management of the institution was largely in the hands of the daring young financier from Romero. Andrews had by this time proved himself a successful speculator, and he was open in his advocacy of that method of getting rich. 1 Falls on Amalgamated. He Speculated freely, bet on stocks with the coolness of a veteran, and as was generally believed, won some millions in his ventures. But the day on which he was drawn into the betting on Amalgamated Copper stock was the beginning of his downfall. The banker played copper heavily, and by degrees he added property after property to the burning pile. His railroad stocks went, then his real estate, then his home, then his stock in the banks of other cities, and finally he saw ruin staring him In the face. Overdrew His Account. One day In January last President Pingree took a little trip to New York to he gone a week or so. The first day that Andrews was left alone he overdrew his account at the bank for $1,000,000 and cashed worthless checks for $600,000 more. Then came the explosion, but the buoyant young financier did not seem to care. He was cheerful In his prison cell, and did not worry about the mean things said of him in the papers. Although he had many friends before his fall, it was only with the greatest difficulty that he secured bondsmen for the SIOO,OOO at which his bail was fixed.