Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1902 — ANDREWS IS GUILTY. [ARTICLE]

ANDREWS IS GUILTY.

DETROIT BANK WRECKER IS CONVICTED. He Got Away with $1,576,000 Money Believed to Have Been Lost in Stock * Speculation Plunges—The History of a Sensational Case. Frank C. Andrews, former "Vice-presi-dent of the Detroit City Savings Bank, has been convicted of looting that institution of $1,576,000, wrecking the bank and sweeping away the savings of hundreds of persons iu moderate or poor circumstances. When the verdict was announced Andrew's became deadly pole. “It’s a ter-" ror,” he gasped. “It is unjust. I never intended at defraud or cheat anyone. God knows it.” The trial had been in progress four weeks. Recorder Murphy gave the case to the jury at noon and a verdict was reached at 1:15, but was not brought in until 2 o’clock. Only two ballots w’ere taken. The first stood ten for conviction and two for acquittal, but the latter two soon joined the majority. Attorney Kirchner, representing the defendant, immediately moved for a stay in pronouncing sentence, announcing that an appeal W'ould be taken. Recorder Murphy granted a stay of sixty days to permit the taking of an appeal. 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 vicepresident of the City Savings Bank, controlled a leading newspaper and was the treasurer of three trolley lines. Within six months he liad lost every farthing of his wealth, and to feed his passion for speculation had robbed others of very nearly $2,000,000. Rise Was Sudden. Andrews’ career is an illustration of the proverb concerning the beggar on horseback. He was born about thirty years ago in the little town of Romero, Mich., 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 tireless energy and bis inordinate love for work won him quick promotion, and at the end of his first year of service he" had $3,000 in bank. Then he went hojpe, married his sweetheart and returned to Detroit to begin “real work.” At the end of the 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 began his third year hi 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. His fortune waxed larger and larger, until 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. - X - Methods Were Open. Andrews had by this time proved .himself a successful speculator, and he was open in his advocacy of that methodof getting rich. He speculated freely, bet. on stocks with the coolness of a veteran, and, as was generally believed, won some millions in his But the day on w hich he was drawn into the betting on Amalgamated Copper stock was the beginning of his downfall. r TK-Wlrei •piiri'G 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. Looted the Funds. One day in January last President Pingree took a little trip to New York to be gone a week or so. The first day that Andrews was left alone he overdrew his account at the bank for $1,000,000 ami cashed worthless cheeks 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 SIO,OOO at which his bail was fixed.