BIG AMERICAN FRAUD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9091, 18 May 1908, Page 3

BIG AMERICAN FRAUD.

FAMOUS CASE RECALLED.

At Chicago recently, Benson'Bidwell, brother of George and Austin Bidwell, who in the seventies defrauded the Bank of England of a quarter of a million sterling, and his son Charles, were found guilty of operating the confidence game. The case'was a curious one. Two years ago the pair launched a company .the prospectus of which declared that they had discovered an electric motor which would not "burn out." The elder Benson ir.cidently claimed that he had invented a trolley car and an electric fan. Investors in all parts of the United States answered the advertisements. The capital consisted of half a million sterling. The prosecutor alleged that the .Bidwells sold their private stock in the concern to persons who thought they were buying Treasury bonds. This charge was made by Miss Ida Palmer, private secretary to the younger Bidwell, who was general manager of the company. The trial lasted nearly a month, and expert electricians swore that the motor was impracticable. ' A model of the machine was exhibited in Court, and thoroughly entertained the jury. The defence, in operating it, pumped carbonic acid gas into the apertures, with the result that the expanding gas caused the outside of the machine to be coated with frost; but the prosecution successfully contended that the armature was not affected, and was as likely to burn out as in an ordinary motor. Miss Palmer, whom her former employers accused of selling the company's secrets, testified that during a public exhibition the apparatus became so hot that fames curled out of it, Charles Bidwell taking the precaution of sitting near the motor and vigorously blowing cigar smoke about, in order that the spectators might not find out that the exhibit was no "cold motor" after all. Wh'ls the aged Benson Bidwell denounced the prosecution as part of a plot to wreck the company for the benefit of a rival flotation, the son declared that Mi 33 Palmer was vindicative because he did not make love to her. Afetr seven hours' deliberation the jury found both defendants guilty of obtaining money by false pretenses.' Sentence was deferred.