The Forger Who Called Himself 'Apache George' Dies in the County Jail
George Wendelin, a smooth-talking check passer who left Seattle firms holding worthless paper, is struck down by apoplexy before his case can go further.
George Wendelin, who styled himself 'Apache George,' and who created a sensation by giving checks to the MacDougall Southwick Co., Hyams, Padace Co., Mrs. M. D. Pease and Rev. K. Krupp when he had no money in the bank, was stricken with apoplexy at the county jail yesterday morning at 3 o'clock. Jailer Burkman was with him all day, and City Physician Palmer and Dr. Ogilvy Askam gave him medical assistance. The doctors declared that the unfortunate man could not survive the seizure. He became unconscious at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon, and at midnight died. The coroner took charge of the remains.
Ever since Wendelin was taken in charge by the city and county officials he had been complaining that his heart was troubling him and that he was afraid he would die. Before being taken to the hospital ward in the county jail he had two or three fainting spells, and each time spat blood.
At midnight Saturday he told Jailer Burkman that he was going to die. Burkman steadily refused to believe that he was having only a passing spell. Burkman thought at first that he might be under the influence of morphine, a drug that he had used considerably to assuage pain, but he replied that he did not desire it.
“He had been complaining that his heart was troubling him and that he was afraid he would die.”
A small-time forger's death in custody would still raise questions today about jail medical care and who gets remembered as a local character. In 1895, the press turned Wendelin's fear and sudden collapse into a cautionary tale about a man who lived by false paper.
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