The Clerk Who Stole His Boss’s Fortune to Gamble Away
Leander Miller returns from a political trip in Olympia to find his confidential clerk, J.H. Corcoran, has drained his accounts through gambling debts.
HIS EMPLOYER'S CASH Corcoran Invested It in Gambling and Traveling. A CLERK'S SUDDEN DOWNFALL. Leander Miller Returns From Olympia to Find Himself $700 Poorer—Louis Pelté a Gainer.
The confidence he placed in his confidential clerk, J. H. Corcoran, has cost Leander Miller, the truckman, about $700, or, deducting the loss which will have to be borne by the banks, something over $500.
Corcoran is a young man about 5 feet 10 inches high, with a sandy complexion, and is about 28 years old. During Mr. Miller's absence at Olympia at the senatorial election Corcoran seems to have engaged in gambling and to have used three checks belonging to his employer in paying debts he incurred at the game. The checks were drawn for $175.00 on the Boston National bank by J. H. Calvert & Co., for $124.95 on Dexter Horton & Co., by Fischer & McDonald, and [text cuts off].
This 1891 account of white-collar embezzlement highlights how quickly trust can be betrayed in the absence of modern banking safeguards like real-time fraud detection. It mirrors contemporary anxieties about employee theft and the vulnerability of small business owners who rely on a single trusted individual for financial access.
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