KING OF THE FORGERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1918, Page 8

KING OF THE FORGERS.

ONCE A MILLIONAIRE. I ARRESTED FIFTY-SEVEN TIMES'. ''King of the Forgers." Quite a few amai't criminals have wou such a title by Iheir cleverness in imitating other people's handwriting and signatures, but it remained for one Aluu/.o J- Whiteiuau to rise to the position of pastmaeter, or supermaestro, of the forger's art. Alonzo, now a convict at lifty-eig'lit, and the same in earlier periods of his crooked career, appears to have been a natural born champion in the game of separating other people from their monetary possessions It is a remarkable story, bis life tale, and some of its leading events are here related. Alonzo J- Whiteman was -born in .Dansville, New York, 58 years ago, the son of a wealthy man of the region. He was educated at Hamilton College and afterwards at Columbia University, where he received a law degree. When he was twenty-one his father determined to send him West to manage some of his properties. Io that way young Whiteman arrived at Dnluth, Minn.. 117 years ago. He made a success of business, the properties nourished, and his father soon rewarded him wit,h a gift of £12,500. On his twentyfifth birthday anniversary the father made him a second gift: this time of .125,000. In 188S the older Whiteman died in New York, and divided his property between his son and only daughter. This division netted each of the two heirs £3-25,000. '[lis sister, who received an equal share, long since became estranged from her brother, lost her reason, and is now said to be in a sanatorium.

WHEN THE CLIMAX CAME. " Before he received this inheritance yiung Whiteman already liad been active in Minnesota politics. He was first a member of the State Legislature, and when only 20 years old was made a State Senator, the youngest man in the country to hold such an office. He was thus in Minnesota Legislature for four years, and left it when he was nominated for Congress- In the election which followed lie was, however, defeated.

The climax and turning point of his career came about this time. He had begun gambling both in Wall Street and on the Chicago Board of Trade. He was one of those who were unmercifully equeezc-d in the collapse of the Leiter wheat corner, and a great share of his fortune went into the sink in this venture. In the following year or two he managed to dissipate the rest of his money in vain efforts to recoup his losses; and in ISD7, nine years after he came into his fortune, he was pennjless. The man had lacked that discretion which is wise for the strong and imperative for the weak. Alonzo Whiteman, millionaire by inheritance, had to go to work in a hank at small pay. He held his place for some time; but years of independence, wealth, and leadership had unfitted him for service. He gave up his hank place and went to New York City to see what he might do there to rehabilitate himself.

"Before I knew it I got in with New l'ork crooks," said Whiteman to the Court, when recently on trial in Cincinnati. "That was the beginning of the end." An agent of the, Pinkerton Detective Agency was allowed to give the rest of the man's story. It sums up in his record: Arrested 47 times. Convicted .and served time twice. Called "King of the Forgers." Whiteman himself then supplied the explanation of his misery. He had never needed to work for money, and had not known the value of it. As a result lie had been utterly unable to conform himself to circumstances. When his own fortune failed he tried to live on the little he could earn, but ho found it galling. Then he set out adventuring, fell in with men hardened in crime, and tried to get money by shady transactions. Almost like a rat in a corner, he forged a Cheque when lie was desperately in need of money. Arrest and a term in Sing Sing followed, as they always do for tho man without friends and means to aid him in the legal battle. When Alonzo ,1. Whiteman, once, millionaire and politician, stepped Wit of Sing Sing, the rest of his life had already been decreed for him. Prison had broken what remained of the moral fibre. Bad food and bad conditions had wasted his health. He had his first touch of epilepsy in Sing Sing, and his first signs of physical debilitation appeared, which was to wear him out in after life.

IF it is a problem to-day for the man just released from prison to find employment, it was an insuperable task fifteen and more years ago. The world lias been much enlightened in two decades, and the general attitude towards crime and its commitants has softened and changed. Alonzo Whiteman found no doors open to 'him. Just as the "boys" in Sing Sing had told him, he was "in for the life.'' A few months of the world outside the walls made his lot manifest. Whiteman, the one-time millionaire, was "become Whiteman, the "ex-con.'' but not oven such small clerical jobs as the one he had thrown up in Minnesota, were now open to him. Ono stratum alone of life offered him a chance of subsistence. ,

MIND FOR BIG THINGSTliis man Wliitcman fame to be a consummate operator. His crimes were of the subtlest and most intricate character. His handling of the police, showed a.n understanding and finesse so great that lie was on occasion able to use the officers themselves to help him out of the net. That he was arrested fortysix times after his first experience (that is Sing Sing), and was convicted only once, and then of a minor offence, will need no more to show his skill than the fact that he has operated for more than fifteen years, and wears the title of "King of Forgers" iby common consent. Whiteman had a mind for big tilings and long Chances. It worked in his criminality as it had in his business. Jle committed big jobs and ''got awav with them." For years he managed to go along at his handicraft without paying any undue penalty. lie baffled the police; lie made other forgers wonder at his skill.

But his undoing had been planted in him, and was coming to fruitage. The epilepsy that first showed itself in Sing Sing—that common and horrible prison malady—was slowly getting the upper hand. It shook the strength out of his body and finally out of his brain. At last his old skill and subtlety no longer stood him instead. He degenerated to petty offences and finally lie wa? convieted in Cincinnati for trying to restore for a reward bond, which had itgw l .stoles/" Vowser s&& tolder men.

who were using him as an agent, "Two years in the Federal prison at Atlanta," said the- court with pitying emphasis—and went home to a hearty meal The palsied hands of tho aging man went to his face. His shaking body slumped into a chair, and hia old enemy shook him| convulsively.