Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1881 — SWINDLER AND BIGAMIST. [ARTICLE]

SWINDLER AND BIGAMIST.

The Most<feeinarkabie Career of a Moot Hfiamarkable Scoundrel. ’^gjheeto New York Tltoea. * The Times will to-morrow print the subjoined r^parkabtestory of the man with many wives, or the industrious bigamist and swindler who during the last few yean has married and deserted no lees thsttßight or nine Women, and who at lafHias bden placed under arrest: “For Store than a year at tolerably regular interval!), there have appeared inie daily papers dispatches from varioaficities between Boston and Richmond, ahd as far Crest as Missouri or Kansas, giving the particulars ofthe aehievetacuts of a professional bigam inwin dler, who operated under the uatnae of Marvin, Morton, Adame, and fther fictitious appellations. His tnetMkJsln almost all Ills adventures pearly alike, and the deeoHptlous orthe man have so cloeely tallied’Hurt as fast as the announcements of his .achievements were mad#^“^" * ( f. r HIS PREVIOUS VICTIMS rccogfftted him as being still on his traWksA This rechlesi individual was arrested ftt Ljmi, Mass., through tjie eflotlS-of Pinkerton’s detectives,to-day and is now In jail awaiting extradition to \flrgthfa, wnere he is charged with forgteryrbigatny, ami obtaining money under false pretenses. Capt. Bob Pinkerton, who is in charge of the New York office, and has directed the detectives’ movements agaiust thes windier, says the man who is widely known as Marvin is a most remarkable fellow.

He is about fifty-seven years old,about five feet nine* inches tall, and weighs . about 150 pounds. . His head, which is w*il formed, is covered with a growth of white hair, rather thin at the crown and he wears a white moustache and long, aids-whiskers. Home eight or nine wives have already been traced to bis transitory possession, aud with no one of whom he has ever lived longer than * week, while his forged or fraudulent o«mmereial notes are too numerous to be catalogued. ftE HAS BEEN HUNTED DOWN mainly through his Virginia escapades. May-last the Hartford, Conn., Chureiihiau contained an advertisement from whidh It appeared that one Thomas A. Marvin was in need of a governess, he being a widower, for bis eight year old daughter. Among others who replied to tm.*} advertisement was a Miss Turpiu, of Richmond, Va, a lady of good in moderate circumstances, ttocnlivlng with her mother. Miss TurmuLwaa about 20 years old. She refrom Marvin,.dated at! NewTfciYt p, ih v.’hichjbe said he was very. jftvcnably impressed with her application aud would like to see hpr, out he wished to know liy termp. • Again she wrote, giving her terms, to whiuh he responded, saying the tfrjms were rather high, and asking h«creferences. Sheanswcred, giv- j ng lam.the name of a Judge and a • minister iu Richpaond r and a.-ked him • fer / ?. . HIS REFERENCES. Iu return he gave the name of Judge Cowufc-of Germantown. Pa.; W. -A. Tayldt, of Camden,N. J.; and the Rev. John Dinforth, of Media, ‘ Pa. Miss Turphr wrote to these parties, and received from them mo9t <blogUiic indorsements of Mr. Marvin as a gentleman of wealth, culture, aud respousibilftyr In a few days Miss Turpin receiveWa note sayiug- Mr- Marvin was about wing to loch mo nd to visit her. He called on her accordingly, appeared to jpilf ft~l* rconcluded an- enher as a governess, "ying he had some bus-iii(-to in New York, and woulu beback in a week to take Miss T'u.: fi£fo N4w Haven. The letter of recoawendatirm from W. A. Taylor was by Mrs. Taylor, who said she her husband’s letter i ca JS W was home, aud silt INDORSE MR. MARVIN. ward Marvin turned up in Richita!!tfi‘'Prftpo9e;l to Miss Turuin, wcepttoAaad on July 20 they were married. fi‘vK* *the day of the his wife an instrument meriting by which he settled ofrtMtoHMrriage'gift of $30,060. Not long after the wedding Marvin went to A. M. Brownell,JMisa Turpin’s bmttwio-iawi and got him to go to a bankreirßiehmond aud ideutify nim as the holder of the drafts drawn by the Firrft National Bank of Madison, Wis., on thewtrst National Bank of Chicago. The dcjbfa Were in favor of Baird & BradleW. but were indorsed payable to Marviaror.f76s. He received for them $250 inleash aud and the balance in two smalle*- drafts on the Merchants’ National Bank of New York. He • next bormwe'd $l5O from the clergyman \*ho had married hitn to Miss Turpi#/" A few days after he left Richmond 1(N .wife’s relatives found out by the rttkrn of the drafes that They wereAvifltTiiless. and, beginning to suspect Marvin, they,wrote to.ex-Judge Shipman, iu this efre^who put the case in Pinkerton’s bards. Meanwhile Marvin had got as ft ras Jersey City, and left his wi'e.at the Windsor Hotel while he went on to he bought two drafts from Speuoer Trask & Co., hiving oeen introduced to them by a well-known railroad man as General A. I*. Morton, liy wnich name he seemed to be knowu to other people in Albany. Asa part of the value of his Richmond drafts be received two ether drafts, one on Henry C. B.ack, and the other on-a Mrs. Kearney. Leaving Albany he went to Rochester, and his wife was sent for ■to joii| hjm at Albion. The detectives were bow on hi» ? trail, and at Alb’on Pinkerton's men found the wife, HAfcVIN HA VINO DESERTED HER, having probably learned that the authorities were a'ter -him. He failed to meet her, but seut her a bogus notice inserted by himself in the Rochester papery,announcing that her mother had man dangerous! v hurt by being thrown while riding in Richmond. He •dYieod her to goat once to Richmond **y. of Harrisburg, and sent her monfT to pay her fare. She returned and iapow With her friends in Virginia. . WgPt to Buffalo and other around into Canada. The detectives suli foUcwed the clews. 2l! y that H> C> BlAck and r t» irt « nta of New Black knew Marvin _V lm > and he had a In city. -Stack said the General always seemed

to have plenty of money, hot was away from borne at intervals tor weeks or months. About this stage in the case, Pinkerton became convinced that the man he was looking tor was the same that he had sought two yean ago for, under the name of David Lindsay, tor marrying and deserting two young ladies in this city. One of them he took to Washington and there abandoned her. The other be married later j after taking her to Chicago, he borrowed SBOO from her and left her in that city. Mr. Pinkerton, reftises to give the names of these two victims, because they are now both married happily and living in this city. Other ci ran instances also convinced Pinkerton that Marvin was the same man who, under the name of Martin, about three yean ago forged bills of exchange for $8,500 on a private bank at Eufaula, Ala., and who about the same time forged some drafts at Joplin, Mo., under the name of A. Marvin. It appears that in this last transaction Marvin SWINDLED A MEMBER OF^THE MISSOURI LEGISLATURE

out of $2,000. A year ago last miring Margin was recognized by bis Victim in St. -Louis, aud was arrested and held to hail la SIO,OOO. He obtained good bail, and ran away aa soon as be got out of')ail, leaving his boadsman, one of whom was a New York lawyer, to get-out,of tbs responsibility the beet way they could. In hie baggage they found some bdrglan’, counterfeiters’ and forgers’ implements, and some blank checks ana a robber stamp belonging to a bank at Owensboro, Ky., but they all proved to be counterfeit. Chief or police McDonough, however, had already, before hiaflight, compelled the prisoner to sit for a photograph, and another portrait of him was found in bis buggy. These pictures-were multiplied and sent to the police agencies all oyer the country from St.. Louis. When Pinkerton met parties who came on here from Richmond in Mrs. Turpin’s interest, be showed them his rogues’ album. As soon .as the IpartiGfti of whom Mr. A. M. Brownell was one, ‘ SAW MARVIN’S PICTURE, ' taken in St. Louis as that of B. A. Martin, they at once identified the individual as the person whom they were seeking. Arrangements were at once made wiih Cbief of Police Webeter, in New Haven, to keep a lookout for him as well as to watch Marvin’s adopted daughter who was living with Mrs. Kenny. On Wednesday last parties in this city informed Pinkerton that Gen. Marvin was stopping at the Hagamore House, lu Lynn, Mass., under the name of Benjamin F. Adams. Mr, Brownell has been North for a week east assisting in the case, and was at New Haven. Pinkerton telegiapbed to Brownell to go to Lynn and see if he could identify Adams. Brownell got to Lynn at 6 o’clock this morning,and by 8 o’clock be had identified Adams os his old acquaintance, and quondam broTher-in-law, Marvin, and had

PROCURED HIS ARREST. “Marvin, alias Adams, Is now in jail, aud to-day the Governor of Virginia granted a requisition on Governor Long, of Massachusetts, for the extradition of the prisoner to Richmond. Pinkerton this city last night also for Lynn, and will go with his man to Richmond. It now turns out that in the interval, while Martin was abeent from Richmond in July last, he went to Lake Woods,N. J. aud there married a young widow. Mrs. Nellie DeHart, daughter of the ltev. G. L. Hovey, the bride’s father performing the ceremony. Before the ceremony he-tried to get Mr. Hovey to cash a draft for So,UCO for him, but the minister did not do it. After the marriage, however, Marvin borrowed SIOO giving Mr. Hovey his note, payable one day after dale, for the amount* Then Marvin went on bis wedding trip. Arriving at Washington, he, LEFT MRS. MARVIN DE HART,.' in that city, saying that be was going to Fredricbsburg to vi-.it his sick child, but in fact ho went to Richmond ana married Miss Turpin. On his way North with her he stepped off the train at Washington and Miss Turpin was carried along toward Baltimore. Marvin telegraphed her on the train, however that he had mused the train at the Washington depot, but would follow in the next train. Going to the hotel in Washington where he had* left Mrs. DeHart—the Lockwood —he brought her with him on that next train, sending her home from Philadelphia, and briuging Miss Turpin, whom he overtook ou the way, to Jersey City. Captain Pinkerton knows of several other women whom Marvin has married at diflereut times, but says there is no need or purpose to be gained in giving their names. A year ago

, ' THIS ARRANT KNAVE married a woman living in Painesyille, 0., under the governess dodge. Ae about the same time ne married a lady in Jersey City, aud another Ip Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, and, before any one of these,, one in Little Rock, Ark. While he was disporting himself in Missouri he became engaged to, and almost succeeded in marrying the daughter of an ex-Governor in that State. His real name is Arthur Merritt, but his birthplace and antecedents are unknown. At various times he has victimized banks in the West and South by forged aud worthless notes for considerable sums of money/’

Dr. Bliss’ Surgical Ability. Chicago Journal Dr. Bii», one of tbe President’s surgeons, is known fn bis profession as a man very quick to see aud equally quick to act iu cases demanding medical and surgical treatment. This was shown iu his first case of surgery, in Michigan, soon nfter his graduation from school. Riding along one day.he discovered a company of toys tossing up beans for sport aud catching them in their mouths. Soon one of them got a bean lodged in his windpipe, aud fell to the ground, black iu the face. The doctor dismounted, held the boyjjp by tiie heels, and tried every ordinary way to dblodge the beau,Jbirt itstuok fast, an<j matters became eerious. Not to let the lad die on bis baikls the young f>hj’sician out witli a case of iustrumeuts, and in an instant, almost, had made an exterior incision and taken out the bean.: He then carried the boy home alive to his parento instead of de-ad. This aptness at surgery made Dr. Bliss a great man in army life during' the war, he coming out of practice in the army with the reputation of having performed more surgical operations than any man of his age iu the country. Since then many lives have been saved by the skillful use of the knife in bis hands. His disregard for precedents in the anuals of his profession has made him at times unpopular among his brethren,,who, as a rule are more conservative than he, both in theory and practice.