The Chadwick Frauds.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7756, 7 March 1905, Page 4

The Chadwick Frauds.

\ PARALLEL OF THE HUMBERT Ofe.SE. A few weeks ago cable messages fvero being received regarding some sxtraordinary frauds that had bc-n [>erpetrated in the United Sta-.es l>y Mrs Leroy S. Chadwick, a woman aged 42, who is now on her trial at Cleveland, Ohio, on charges yl forgery and other crimes. The swindling with which this woman is illoged to have perpetrated equals in its way the famous Humbert frauds in France, and it may 'be of interest to the general reader to possess i brief summary of details additional to these somewhat disjointedly furnished cablegrams. It was only in November last that the public of America began to take interest in Mrs Leroy S. Chadwick, then a guest at one of the most fasHionable hotels in New York, because a Boston banker had s tel her for the loan of 192,000 dollars. J "or some years Mrs Chadwick had been prominent in Society in Cleveland In 1894 she married l»r. Leroy S. Chadwick, a widower i.f jjoort iiunily and a local physician. Thereafter she became noted for lavish expenditure, and it was undoi'a'o' l l that she had inherited a very large furl .me. She took with 'her to Europe twelve young women, daughters of leading families in Cleveland. She was accustomed to bring to New York, a | distance of nearly 600 miles), parties of guests in a private car to attend the opera. At one time she distributed a dozen grand pianos among her friends as gifts. Her credit was good for anything in the shops ol New York" or in Cleveland, which if a cjty of much wealth, and culture with a population of 400,000. Foi more thun a year past her ihusbanc and his daughter have been travel ling in Europe. He returned recent ly, and is now in gaol. * * * * The suit brought against Mrs Chadwick by the Boston banker lc< to remarkable disclosures. A smal banker of Obenlin, Ohio, had to close It -became known that the aged Pre sident of the bank had advanced t( Mrs Chadwick from the bank fund: 240,000 dollars, or four times th< (apital of the bank, and 100,000 dol lars oi his own money, upon the se curity of some mysterious notes sign ed by someone whose name he couli not make public. The old ruinet banker is now dead or dying. Hi was on his deathbed last January and he sought to defend his actioi by averring that the signer of th j notes was one of the richest men i: the world. He added that to hi ; Knowledge Mrs" •liadwick possessed i great fortune, having 300,000 dollar in jewels alone. Early in Deceuibe the newspapers became very interesc cd about Mrs Chadwick, and she wa arrested at her hotel in New Yorl and taken to Cleveland. She pre 'tested that she could easily pay nl her idebts, declaring that she wouli still have millions of dollars to th good. | But two days after the true chai acter of her assets was discovered and the secret of a series of exten sive and successful swindles wastJis closed. The notes in the old Oberli: •banker's hands bore the signature c ! Andrew Carnegie. She had told hir 'that she was Mr Carnegie's illegiti mate child, '"and," said he, "1 be lieved her." It irf known now, how ever, that the old man was led int< ,this folly and induced to break th laws by a comfortable bonus i hand, and- a promise that he nhouli be employed at a large salary r t< take charge of Mrs Chadwick's' ai fairs. This was only the beginninj of startling discoveries. Two year previously the woman had deposits .with the Wade Park Hank at Clevc land certain small sealed packngv purporting to contain securities o j the vahic of 15,246.000 dollars. Th bank's chief executive officer. In ]{ey nolds, a man of excellent reputation bad accepted her assertion as to th I value of the packages, and, withou examining the contents, had give; her a certificate of receipt in accor. .with her statement, and bearing hi signature. By means of this ccrtili cate and her social relations sh had borrowed right and left. Fo example, when she applied lor on large loan she was accompanied b the pr Eaton, pastor of the Job v. Rockfeller's Baptist Church, i Cleveland. When the authorities oc cned the packages deposited in th Wade Park Bank, the contents wir found to be n note f o r 5,000.00 i dollars, payable in fifteen months t, this woman, and signed " Andrev Carnegie, and a curious trust ae C T^K b « ri^ thc sauie denature n winch Mr Carnegie acknowlod-e, the rece.pt of the following SO curi ties from the estate of her unc c Frederick Mason ( a fictions ,„ htJ?T c from which "* "'•»»< ' £ Pay *° her wnKßuiiiailv .-2500 shares in the Great We.ner (England), 2,100,000 do lars,; 1800 shares Catalan iuS #*ST - (^ tland >- 1-146,000 d„IlaV & and 7,000,000 dollars in 5 ,!,!, , ■«. . Cftnre BK> uses in his ]argjft. for Varies and othermsS g»ries Co Mt°r the si^ were Im had never even heard of her Ho, devices. T.X.ZttK she employed a lawyi to draw ° an agreement similar to that in th the carriage, with a signature fi course, it wns also a f™™*- ° iw?T S a B ««**"»I w» in h vet he U^f S - and had bwn a J'"'« rLI , - T" S lm P°sed upon, and Air out 0T , i5007 i | , dlCd JJim" im out oi 1000 dollars. By means <>f th Park Bank - already a lwled tc confidential stories he supposed relations with Mr Sfrnoßic t Va « O " S oU,er «uPPorts to he '^ , 4o M Z I Cha<,,Vick ° btained «»oS .WO.OOO dollars. Of all fhc mone he woman secured by swindling la tic remains. Much of it was lost i speculation-thc rest in wild extmva f a "n ' aD< ! nothin « is l« ft l>ut th costly contents of Mrs Chadwick' nCr? iD S lCVe,and and «>ne Too, mortgage deed in the , Wade Par Bank parcel, for 1800 dollars. Th,, there is as little in the Chadwic scaled package as there was £, th Humbert safe. * » * . The final sensation of this sons;, the woman Chadwick", concealed' f„ several years. She is a convict wh ( was released on parole bv the lot President McKinley, when- he wa Governor of Ohio. The history o her career before she met her presen husband ,s not the least remarkabi, part of this curious affair. The wo man was born of honest and hum<bl< parents m Ontario (Canada), am her name was Betsey Iteglev. \ Woodstock, in that province, whei she was 17 years old, she was tric( for forgery, and acquitted, becaus. she feigned insanity. Three vearlater, in Cleveland," she married' i)r Springsteen,' from whom she wa' soon divorced. After a lapse of fom years she appeared in thc neichbouring city of Toledo, under the .name of Madame Lydia de Vcre is ft professional clairvoyant and spiritualist. There she was convicted of forgery, and sent to thc penitentiary for nine and a half years That was m 1890. Having been re . leased on parole in 1893, she took o residence in Cleveland, as Mrs H'oo VC I- .""? in 1894 (although even then r(/qjuircd to report at stated times to the prison authorities) she married Dr. Chadwick, who believed her to be a wealthy widow of good repute » » # » In a narrative of the 1 frauds a New York correspondent says :—,".\H this about the woman's criminal experience has but come to light. Even when the large commissions and bonuses which she offered and gave are considered, the conduct of the bankers and business men' I whom she deceived and rolled seems inexplicable, and one is inclined to credit the reports that the woman was able to exert a powerful hypnotic influence. How did it come about that, with seven brothers and sisters living respectn|rty, this dnugh-. ter of an honest and obscure Canadian farmer became a swindler so inveterate ami so accomplished ?"