The Art of the Con: How a Swindler Sold 'Rare' Books to Seattle’s Elite

The operations of a very clever swindler who worked Spokane Falls, Tacoma and Seattle have just come to light here. The man, 'Doc' O'Calligan, reached the city in October and immediately began a canvass among the leading society women, trying to sell them four volumes of Gustave Doré's pictures. He represented the work to be a rare one and the edition as limited. In Chicago he had sold his last copy to Mrs. Marshall Field for $100, but he had now secured a number of extra copies, which he was disposing of for the ridiculously low figure of $36, or $9 a volume—less than half the real worth of the set of books. He suggested the set would make the finest Christmas present imaginable for the husband and head of the family. The elegant edition would be delivered at Christmas time, and the women could pay $6 a month. The whole matter could be kept a secret from the husband—indeed, that would be the best way—and the loving wife could surprise him with a beautiful present, purchased on easy terms. O'Calligan showed an agreement for the payment, which the women were asked to sign as a matter of form. Some women he talked into the bargain; others he frightened into it by storming around and acting as a crazy man when they declined to buy. In all he found some 120 victims, among them Mrs. Angus Mackintosh, Mrs. Jerome Catlin, Mrs. W. A. Harrington, Mrs. M. D. Pease, Mrs. E. Lobe, Mrs. Otto Ranke and Mrs. Captain Ballard. The books were delivered, but the 'agreement' proved to be a note which O'Calligan got discounted in town before leaving. Of all the husbands who received the present, Mr. E. Lobe was perhaps the most disgusted, for he had exactly the same set of books on sale in his own store at $1.50 a volume. The women have their books and fully $30 worth of experience.