The Hobo 'Capitalist' Who Ran Palouse on Credit
A smooth-talking Swiss convinced butchers, brewers and saloon men to hand over shops and goods — some $1,200 worth — on the promise of a fortune still sitting back in Switzerland.
Jacob Ratz, the man about whom so much has recently been published, is undoubtedly one of the smoothest swindlers that ever visited the Palouse country.
After successfully working various people at Palouse he decamped, leaving divers and sundry merchants, butchers, brewers and others in the lurch to the tune of from $900 to $1200 all told.
The scheme in which he bilked so many people was that of a capitalist seeking investments, but his money was still in Switzerland and people were asked to wait until he could receive a sum of money from his vast estate in the little republic.
Ratz had a passion for buying business houses in Palouse and contracted for a butcher shop, the brewery, one or two saloons and a livery stable, and on the strength of these purchases — the money to pay for which was supposed to be on the way from Berne, Switzerland. This jovial investor also had a passion for liquor and on one occasion was arrested by the city marshal on charge of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, but a local saloon keeper paid the fine of $5 and costs and he was again free to continue his game of bilking the people.
June 12 came and as the money had not yet arrived the people were growing anxious, but Ratz had made himself scarce. As soon as his absence was known a committee came to Colfax to consult the officials in regard to making an effort to capture the swindler. About this time it was also learned that he had previously 'worked' successfully Vollmer and Juliaetta. On complaint of Albert Kwart, a butcher of Palouse, a warrant was sworn out for Ratz charging him with obtaining money under false pretenses. The swindler was arrested at Cheney and brought in Saturday by Deputy Carter. In the superior court he pleaded guilty to the charge of obtaining goods under false pretenses and expected to be landed in the pen, but the court could find no warrant in law for sentencing him to the pen, and he was given six months on the county chain gang.
Ratz is a Swiss and a genuine hobo in appearance. Really it is surprising that such a fellow could beat any one.
“Ratz is a Swiss and a genuine hobo in appearance. Really it is surprising that such a fellow could beat any one.”
A stranger sells a town on a fortune that is always 'on its way' — the same engine behind today's wire-fraud and advance-fee scams, which still work because trust outruns verification. Ratz's victims weren't fools; they were merchants extending credit to a man who looked the part of an investor. The detail that he got six months on the chain gang because the law had no better fit is a small window on how thin the fraud statutes were on the 1900 frontier.
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