BANKER SWINDLED.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8913, 5 September 1907, Page 4

BANKER SWINDLED.

Mr Dan Davis, a wealthy hanker ) and oil speculator, giving evidence at Pittsburg Police Court, confessed, says the New York correspondent of the Daily Telegrapn, that he had been swindled out ot £15,000 at faro in New York by an ingenious confidence game. I admit,” he said, ‘‘that I am one of 1 the biggest asses alive, ’ ’ and people who read the evidence to-day will not dissent from that judgment. Mr Davis was so eager for the game that, after having lost £IO,OOO at two sittings, he chartered a special train to go to his homo in Macietta and get £SOOO more to recoup his losses and win the fortune promised him. W. J. Adams and Frank B. Banger, of Pittsburg, were arraigned on a charge of conspiracy to defraud brought by Mr Davis. Frank Thompson, of Now York, was accused by Mr Davis. lu telling bio . tale of woo Mr Davis related how I Ranger approached him with a story about a friend named Thompson, employed as a faro bank dealer in a gambling house run by a rich and powerful syndicate of gamblers. Mr Davis showed interest, and Banger, with many cautions of absolute secrecy, unfolded an easy scheme tor finick wealth. Mr Davis was to get £30,000 in one coup. Banger told how his friend Thompson, smarting under unfair treatment at the hands, of the faro syndicate, wanted to get oven. ‘‘Thompson, ” said Banger, ‘‘is the syndicate’s right hand man, and in full charge of the biggest faro hank game in New York. He can’t afford to win their money himself, but ho can make anybody sitting on the other side of the table win any amount while ho is dealing, and it would he better to have a stranger make the winning. o make the piay high enough toljnstity winning £20,000, it would bo necessarv to have at least £SOOO. There is no chance to lose.” To cut along story short, Mr Davis undertook to get the money, and Adams escorted him to the faro house. Ho lost his iirst £SOOO, then another £SOOO, because, as the dealer Banger explained, ‘‘a wrong pack of cards was accidentally dealt out.” Then Mr Davis chartered a special tram to Macietta and got £SOOO more, winch wont the same svaycis tho first. Oug of the confederates ’afterwards confessed that it was a pnt-np job to swindle Mr Davis, whom ho dej scribed as‘‘the biggest mug Amer- { ica has ever known. ”