The Cruelest Con: Fake Letters From the Sickroom
Police say an Englishman charmed strangers, learned their children’s addresses, then mailed desperate pleas for medical money.
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.
SEATTLE, Feb. 17.—Edward Stubley, an Englishman, was arrested here yesterday and is now held at police headquarters charged with being the man who has for months been playing upon the feelings of almost penniless fathers and mothers in far away towns and country hamlets, and thereby procuring money upon which he has lived in luxury.
His alleged method was to make friends with a man or woman in the lowly walks of life and from him or her learn the home address. Then, using cheap notepaper, he would write a letter to them telling of the pitiable plight of son or daughter, and begging that money be sent at once to secure necessary medical aid.
Requests from sheriffs in many states asking for the apprehension of a man of Stubley’s description have led the local police to believe that the swindle has been extensively worked.
According to the officers, Stubley has served jail sentences for burglary here and in British Columbia.
“Using cheap notepaper, he would write a letter to them telling of the pitiable plight of son or daughter, and begging that money be sent at once to secure necessary medical aid.”
This is the ancestor of the grandparent scam and the phishing email: a stranger learns a family’s tender spot, then impersonates crisis to extract money. The technology changes; the emotional leverage is identical.
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