“The Plunger’s” Good Time at San Francisco with “Crook” Cheques

Grey River Argus, 2 June 1948, Page 5

“The Plunger’s” Good Time at San Francisco with “Crook” Cheques

(Received June 1. 9.40 p.m.). SAN FRANCISCO. May 31. A former shipping clerk, who was alleged to have posed as an Austra lian shipping magnate, and to have opened negotiations with the Matson Shipping Lin# to buy the liner Matsonia, for three million five hundred thousand dollars, was arrested in a waterfront bar to-day, and wa< charged with passing one hundred and twenty thousand dollars’ worth of bad cheques in two weeks. The police identified him as Mirha"! (“The Plunger’’) Kerrigan. He is 63 years of age. The police said that he arrived in San Francisco a fortnight ago, and he slapped down a one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars cheque to charter a vessel from a coastwise steamship company for “a wood pulp shipment from Canada to San Francisco”. Using the shipping company as a reference, the police said he outfitted himself in luxurious clothing at one of the city’s smartest shops The police said that he then opened negotiations with the Mats"" Line. He was wined and dined, and was provided with a chauffeur and a car, and was installed in a Die He passed a five thousand dollar ehequ" to outfit and to bejewel a woman friend. He also tipped heavily, with chenues, in night clubs ' The police said that, when the cheques began to return marked no funds”, Kerrigan disappeared until he was arrested to-day.