Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1903 — A BOLD SWINDLER. [ARTICLE]

A BOLD SWINDLER.

In JalKHere tor Getting Money Under False Pretenses.

Frank Wempe, fifty-six years of age, is in jail here charged with obtaining money under false pretenses, and he will be lucky if he does not land in the penitentiary. In’the latter part of January he appeared in Rensselaer, and represented himself as a traveling salesman for a Louisville distillery. He was an acquaintance of|G. A. Strickfaden, both being raised in the same town. After talking over old times, he took Strick’s order for a barrel of whiskey, and just before leaving town, he said that his?money was running low, and askedJStrick to go to the bank and identify him, so that he could make a sight draft on the firm for which he was supposed to be working. Having every confidence in the man, Mr. Strickfaden did not hesitate to identify him, and Wempe secured SSO at the bank. In a few days the draft came back, protested, the total amount having grown to $52.27 by the addition of protest fees. Having identified the man Strick of course was the loser of the $52.27. The firm on whom the draft was drawn sent back word that this was the fourth or fifth draft of this kind that he had drawn oil them; that Wempe was not in their employ nor had he been.

Like all swindlers Wempe made a fatal mistake which caused his undoing. After leaving here he wrote to Strickfaden from some point in Indiana saying that he had left the employ of the firm, and that the draft might come back protested, in which case he would make it good. He said that the firm yet owed him enough co pay the draft, however. He directed Strick if he desired to write to address him at Chicago. Strick then set a trap to catch the swindler. He addressed a letter to Wempe at Chicago and had the Chicago police watch for him at the post office. The officers discovered that Wempe had left orders at the post office to forward his mail to Huntington, and a telegram to the police of that place caused Wempe’s arrest Saturday. Sheriff Hardy went after him Sunday and returned with him that night. At Huntington the prisoner admitted that his name was Wempe, butclaimed to be traveling for a hardware firm and denied ever having been in Rensselaer. Wempe begged the sheriff not to handcuff him, saying it would be a great humiliation. His request was granted, and he repaid the kindness of the sheriff by attempting to escape.

They reached here about six o’clock Monday morning and Wempe was taken to the jail. He was left in one of the rooms of the residence part of the jail while the sheriff stepped to another room to get a match. The sheriff had hardly passed from sight, when instinct caused him to return

for a look at the prisoner, but the latter had already got outside. The instant the officer’s back was turned Wempe had made a break for liberty and had passed through two doors, opening and closing them noiselessly, and had passed outside the jail and was making down the toad towards the east. Without a word Sheriff Hardy was after him through the deep snow and was gaining on the prisoner, when he stumbled in the snow and fell his fall length in the road. This made him mad and when he got on his feet he took two shots at the prisoner, aiming to shoot just near enough to give him a scare.

At the sound of the shots Wempe dropped to the ground and lay motionless. When the sheriff reached his side, Wempe oooly asked him what all the row was about and clainfed to have gone outside to get a little exercise before being locked up. He was uninjured and had dropped to the ground hoping to escape further bullets. Upon his arrival here Wempe was identified as the right man and is pretty sure to take a trip over the road.