The Treasurer's Bond and the Asylum Signature
A Tacoma bondsman says her name was forged on ex-City Treasurer George W. Boggs's bond while she was confined at Steilacoom—and that she never authorized the defense filed in her name.
TACOMA, May 20.—Special.—Mrs. Sophia Jaeger, whose name, with that of her husband, Gottlieb Jaeger, appears on the bond of ex-City Treasurer George W. Boggs, filed a peculiar answer today in the superior court. She, with the others on the bond, are defendants in the suit brought by the city against Boggs to recover money in the busted banks. She alleges that at the time her alleged signature was affixed to the bond, June 15, 1893, she was an inmate of the insane asylum at Steilacoom, having been committed by Judge Parker. She denies having signed the bond or having authorized any one to sign for her. Some time ago an answer was filed by some of the bondsmen to which answer her name was affixed. She declares this answer was made without her knowledge or consent, and hence it was withdrawn so far as it concerns her and the new answer substituted.
“She denies having signed the bond or having authorized any one to sign for her.”
The Boggs case turned on the smallest piece of paper in a municipal scandal: a signature on a public official's bond. Today, public-finance accountability still depends on verified signatures, audits and surety bonds—though the asylum detail is a reminder of how easily vulnerable people could be used as legal cover in the 1890s.
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