The Rogue of Seattle
A serial con artist who targeted the generous, leaving friends to pay his debts.
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.
Mr. W. H. Carr, who was arrested some time ago on a charge of obtaining money under false pretenses, narrowly escaped appearing in another court. It seems that Carr, running short of funds, drew a check on Fairweather & Brooks, of Sprague, W.T., and asked a commercial traveler to cash it for him, which was done; but the drawees refused to honor it. Coming to Portland, the check was put in the hands of a constable, but a friend of Carr's appeared and endorsed the check, making it satisfactory. This check-drawing trick seems to be a favorite device of Carr's. Several months ago, he came to Seattle with a letter of endorsement from a gentleman who had known him in the army and had every confidence in him. Carr approached a young man in this city, claiming he was taking up timber land and needed to identify himself at the bank. His friend signed a bill of exchange to help him. Carr got the money and left. In a few days, the bill was returned dishonored and protested, and the young fellow who went as an accommodation to identify Carr had to pay the full amount plus costs. With this and other fraudulent transactions recently coming to the surface, he certainly is a rogue.
“With this and other fraudulent transactions recently come to the surface, we can answer the query... very emphatically: He certainly is a rogue.”
Identity-based financial scams were a hallmark of frontier life, where credit often relied on personal reputation and letters of introduction. Today's digital phishing and wire-transfer frauds represent the evolution of the same impulse to exploit the inherent trust in local civic networks.
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