GREAT SWINDLER'S SUICIDE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81894, 26 November 1906, Page 4

GREAT SWINDLER'S SUICIDE.

UKAMATIC END OF A DUPED KUGI'E. ' N<w Voik, October i. There was, n dramatic oud o a remarkable criminal career thi in-inuig. when A. L. Adams, gamber and -windier on a Uiige scale, •i i'ji(vid and reputed millionaire, btfiv ou. his brains in hi:, room in a taihiouabl'.' Ausunia Intel. With a heavy revolver in his hand Adam- called his wite by telephone and bade her "good bye.' Then he rang up an Ud asiuciate named i and bad 6 him farewe.l. Taen, placing this weapon to nis umple, ne pulled tne niggtr, and died ins'snily. The old man was reputed fo be Aorth half a million s.erling, accumiiaied through leng years of swindi'ng. He committed =uioide in a fit of rage and despondency, because at- had recently fallen into the haud> uf younger, clevcter, and more ingenious sharpers. He had himself been swindled of a large sum.

Adam 's career began in the days of "Boss" Tweed, whet under the piotection of' Tammany, he ran -emi-publicly a series of what were crfled "policy shops"—a peculiarly dishonest foim of lottery wtiich wa so manipulated that the bank itself ,von all the prizes. It was the dead.iest form of gambling, because it appealed to small gamlfer-, women, boys, and employees, and proved re--ponsible for many crimes, suicides and widespread ruin among its victims. Eventually a society was formed co suppress it. Adams, who was proved to have conducted it with uu/arying di-honesty—parting with noihing of the public's money "staked except sums paid through Tammany for the coruption of officials and poice—was prosecuted and sent to Sing Sing prison a- a fe'on. Although enormously wealthy, A-hen he was released he sought some new means of exploiting the popular gambling instinct, and engaged with 1 gang already establi-hed in running "bucket shops.'' It was represented to him that a ;imple safe manner of duping the public 1 was by manipulating quotations -o that punters who covered always lost. On this understanding he advanced the capital for extending' the business on a large scale, opening up branches in all the large centres. He found, too late, that instead of ni fleecing the public, his associates, imong whom, was his own son, had planned to fleece him. The "bucket shops" began to make a surprising series of losses, af tenvard- explained by bogus buying orders. AftcT paying largl' losses Adams discovered the swindle, and vvhen the recent rise in Harriman stocks involved tremendous losses he repudiated them. Since then ne has been despondent and compained, pathetically, that there was not an aonest man in the world.

He brooded over his losses, and hilast act was characteristic. He had spent some houti before his death in arranging his affairs, and he left in a conspicuous position on the table a bundle of i.o.u. papers and memoranda showing the policemen, politicians, and others who had been bribed in order to obtain protection in his swindling career.