The Con Man Who Wore a Partner's Identity
A clever grifter posed as a prominent Seattle businessman to swindle New York merchants, leaving local partners to clean up the mess.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
E.C. Cheasty, of the firm Dimock & Cheasty, discovered that because he was not personally acquainted with a firm he did business with in New York, they had become the victim of a clever swindler. Two checks signed by E.C. Cheasty were received from New York by the First National Bank, one for $100 cashed by Miller Bros., and the other for $60 by Foster & Co. As Mr. Cheasty had no account at the National bank, the checks were referred to him; he identified them as forgeries, and they were returned. Mr. Cheasty had previously found a letter at his office addressed to 'My dear wife,' which struck him as odd, as he was a bachelor. It turned out a young man with dark hair and glasses had visited Miller Bros. in New York, introduced himself as Edward P. Cheasty, and, after gaining their trust, successfully forged checks and made off with cash and jewelry. The swindler seemed to have intimate knowledge of the Seattle business circle, including Cheasty's partners and local business connections, suggesting either a well-informed criminal or a local confederate.
“Sure of his celibacy, he thought it must be meant for some other person and looked at the address. Then he smelt a rat.”
Identity theft and business fraud via remote impersonation remains a modern anxiety, though the tools have shifted from forged paper checks and letters to digital spoofing and AI. This 1892 report highlights the vulnerability of the growing, interconnected commercial world of early Seattle.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.