The Bold Swindler of Port Angeles Captured in St. Louis
After organizing fraudulent banks and fleeing his legal consequences, Benjamin P. Schwartz has been finally apprehended through the diligent reporting of the Post-Intelligencer.
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.
The bunko banker, Benjamin P. Schwartz, formerly of Port Angeles, has been arrested in St. Louis, where he is now held in jail awaiting requisition papers. The Post-Intelligencer proved the medium through which the arrest was made. Some two weeks ago, it was learned that Schwartz was in Chicago, living at the Palmer House. Sheriff Morse at once began to investigate, and after Schwartz fled Chicago, he was located in St. Louis and arrested yesterday by the chief of police. Schwartz was known as the boldest swindler in Port Angeles, organizing the First National Bank and later the Bank of Port Angeles under false pretenses. He maintained he was backed by a syndicate of California capitalists, but his operations were entirely fraudulent. After being convicted of embezzling trust funds and sentencing to eighteen months in the penitentiary, he escaped on December 29th, the jailer claiming he ran out the door while a fire was being tended.
“He maintained, however, with much effrontery that he was backed by a syndicate of San Francisco and other California capitalists.”
Bank fraud and white-collar crime remain a perennial issue in the Pacific Northwest's growth cycles. Schwartz’s ability to move between cities and rebrand his operations mirrors the persistence of modern investment scams in a digital age.
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