In their investigation of this sort of swindle the police discovered
that almost invariably the victims were bed-ridden persons or women
in straitened circumstances who were in frantic search of some means
of keeping the wolf from the door. Many instances were found where
some unfortunate had taken up a collection in the neighborhood in
order to raise the necessary dollar to send for the "outfit." Persons
were found who were actually starving and who had pawned their last
possession to get the money that was to start them on the road to
affluence.
Of all the offices raided Detective Wooldridge did not find record of
one instance where a victim had been able to keep the requirements of
the swindlers. The supposed letter sent to be copied was generally
about 800 words in length, full of words difficult to spell, of
rude and complicated rhetorical construction and punctuated in a
most eccentric manner. The task imposed was practically a life-time
job, and even if anyone had fulfilled it there were a hundred
loop-holes whereby the thieves could escape payment by declaring their
specifications had not been heeded to the letter.
The "outfit" consisted of a cheap penholder, a pen and a box of fake
pills.
Imagine the joyous anticipation with which a starving cripple would
await the arrival of the "outfit" that was to give him the opportunity
of prolonging existence! The bright hopes of the work-worn widow who
expected by this genteel means to keep her little ones in bread!
Think of the despair of both upon discovering they had paid out
money so sadly needed--money which probably had been begged or
borrowed--only to discover that they had been victimized instead of
benefited!
"OPERATORS" CRINGING COWARDS.
Trembling, cringing, whining specimens of humanity were found in
charge of each of these fakers' dens when Detective Wooldridge swooped
down upon them. They were typical of their graft--small, mean,
snake-like, cowardly. None among them was found who would bid defiance
to the officers, who would resist intrusion by the law or who would
go into court and fight. All were cheap and dirty in mind, loathsome,
shrinking, snarling, but not daring to bite.
Among those driven out of business by Detective Wooldridge were the
Twain Novelty Company, the Leslie Novelty Company, the Illinois
Industrial Company and Blackney & Company.
"I have raided all classes of swindling institutions," said
Wooldridge, "but it gave me more pleasure to run down these fellows
than all the others put together. They did not dare try to get money
out of people who could afford to lose it, or who were out in the
world where they could talk with others of more experience. Their
dupes were in almost every instance the most pitiable objects of the
communities in which they lived. The facts disclosed by these raids
were enough to fill the heart of the blackest grafter with indignation
and a desire to trounce the perpetrators."