The Check Passers: Seattle Sheriff Breaks Up a Coastwide Confidence Ring
Four alleged ringleaders—including a man known to police in three cities and a woman wanted in Everett for a jail break—are arrested in Seattle.
Seattle—In the arrest of Joseph Gladner, J. E. Davidson, Mrs. Grace Gilman and H. Hardy, Sheriff Hodge says he has in custody the ringleaders of an organized band of confidence operators and passers of worthless checks. Gladner, alias J. E. Davidson, is believed to have operated in Pacific Coast cities for four years, and is said to be known to the police of San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland. He boasts that his operations have been extensive. Mrs. Gilman is wanted in Everett for alleged complicity in a jail-breaking escapade some months ago.
“He boasts that his operations have been extensive.”
Bad checks and confidence tricks have moved online, but the playbook is familiar: a plausible story, a false name, and a trail across city lines. The brief also shows early police networking, as Seattle's sheriff tallies a suspect's known operations in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland.
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