United States Inspector of Mails at Chicago Postoffice R. W. McAfee
compelled John H. Harris to furnish him with the names and addresses
of the two women heiresses who were worth $40,000 and $500,000,
respectively, who were just dying for the want of a good, kind husband
to spend their money for them, and were seeking marriage through his
paper and matrimonial agency.
[Illustration: (Interest in Science; Marriage)]
Harris gave the name of Mrs. H. R. Adams, at Huntington, Md., as the
$40,000 woman and Jennie Ziehler, Lawrence, Mass., as the $500,000
woman. Upon investigation it was found that neither of the women was
worth a dollar. The $500,000 woman was in the insane asylum.
This letter, together with The Pilot, marriage paper and its printed
advertisements, was plainly intended to draw the unwary and deprive
the ignorant of their savings.
John H. Harris then appealed to ex-Mayor Edward F. Dunne of Chicago,
under the alias of A. Ingird, taxpayer, citizen and reputable business
man, to have Detective Wooldridge stopped from further interfering
with him or his business. Men who operate these frauds pretend to
be honest and high-minded; by constant practice of their wiles upon
others they develop self-deception and come to believe in their own
honesty to such an extent that when questioned they assume a good
counterfeit of honest indignation.
Mayor Dunne upon investigation learned the large mass of evidence
gathered, and ordered the investigation to go forward, which, resulted
in the arrest and holding over of John H. Harris to the Grand Jury.