Drugs Worth $30,000 Seized.
War on Makers of Imitations of Medicines Begun by the Chicago Police
in Charge of Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge.
In all the history of fraud, imposture and graft, there is no story to
parallel that of the "fake drug clique." There is no means of finding
out how many thousands of lives are annually sacrificed in consequence
of its nefarious practices, and the strong arm of the law while it can
reach out and prevent further crime, can not call back to life those
who have been offered up on the altar of greed.
Sensational raids made in the effort to clear Chicago of its numerous
"Fake" patent medicine concerns, occurred on the morning of Nov. 29,
1904.
The raids followed a long conference between Chief of Police Francis
O'Neill and Col. James E. Stuart, Chief Inspector of Chicago Postal
Department, and for the first time in the history of the city, the
Federal and City forces worked in unison. They decided that Chicago
should be cleared of "Fake" Patent Medicine Concerns which for years
had been using the mails to defraud hundreds of thousands of sick and
weak persons.
George G. Kimball, U. S. Inspector of Mails, and Detective Clifton R.
Wooldridge were assigned to gather the evidence and prepare the cases
for prosecution. The work was no easy task. Both officers went about
the work of gathering the evidence in a thoroughly systematic manner.
Inspector Kimball discovered the mails were employed extensively by
the agents in disposing of their spurious drugs. Investigation proved
that large orders were sent to small suburban towns and cities weekly.
The correspondence, circulars and goods were secured.
The breaking up of the drug ring, however, was a delicate task. It was
strongly backed financially, and it was aided and abetted, throughout
the United States, by political rings galore. Chicago was the
headquarters, and it was natural that to the police department of this
city, ever-famed for its hatred of "grafts" big and little, should
fall the lot of exterminating the traffic.
Detective Wooldridge gathered the information in Chicago, the names of
the firms, location and the men who owned them.
The men are charged with making and selling a spurious preparation of
aristol, a product made in Germany, and valued as a substitute for
iodoform. Their products were represented as genuine, were said to
differ from those handled by the wholesale drug trade, only in the
fact that they were imported from Canada and England instead of from
Germany.
Here are a few of the things discovered in the course of the
investigation by Detective C. R. Wooldridge. The statements are
printed from an interview with the great detective.
"As we have progressed the work has broadened and grown
to proportions never anticipated at the start. Among the
goods seized were found boxes, the labels of which bore the
chemical name and formula of trional, and which gave an
exact description of the chemical and physical properties
of trional and the medicinal indications of this drug.
"On examination it was found that these boxes contained
pure acetanilid. The dosage of drugs recommended upon the
label was fifteen to twenty grains, and it was stated 'that
night sweats of phthisis are promptly arrested by eight
grains."
"I am informed that it is within the professional knowledge
of every druggist as well as every physician that the
substitution, grain for grain, of acetanilid, for trional,
is a most reprehensible fraud, which might cause the death
of the patient to whom the drug was administered.
"As indicating the commercial fraud connected with this
substitution, it should be stated that the price charged
for this drug by the defendants in this case, as shown by
the price list, was 95 cents per ounce, commercial value of
acetanilid is one and one half cents per ounce.
"But by far the largest fraud found was in the counterfeit
label business. There were 2,400 metal caps for bottles
stamped with the name of a Swiss manufacturer. There were
also labels purporting to be German or Swiss labels. A
number of half filled bottles, waiting for the adulterants,
showed conclusively the use to which these labels were to
be put.
"We were fortunate enough to find certain cards and bills
in this place indicating that the makers of these metal
caps and labels had never been nearer Switzerland or
Germany than Clark and Harrison streets. Acting upon this
information we secured evidence that these articles were
made in Chicago and never imported.
"These entire preparations including the mixing, boxing,
labeling and placing upon the market was done by these
parties here in Chicago, and the goods, much of it
undoubtedly, placed in the hands of innocent purchasers,
who were deceived by the external appearance of
genuineness, into purchasing the adulterated and fraudulent
goods, without analysis or investigation of any kind.
"The great public, the individuals who use these drugs when
prescribed by their physician, are themselves in total
ignorance of the fact, not only that they have defrauded
and cheated, but perhaps placed in jeopardy of their lives.
"There were found among these boxes seized, certain
receptacles which bore labels stating that aristol was
contained therein. On examination by reputable chemists at
the Columbus Laboratories, the powder in these boxes was
found to be fullers earth, colored with oxide of iron,
not containing a single trace of aristol. The aristol,
which was quoted on the price lists as 'equal to Bayer's'
was sold at 80 cents per ounce, at which almost a ton of
fullers earth and oxide of iron could be purchased.
"The evidence was procured and chemical tests made which
proved the presence of alien matter in the prescriptions
which called for pure drugs. In nearly 20 per cent of the
samples obtained there was not even a trace of the drug
called for in the prescription; Acetanilid as a substitute
for trional-aristol, which is an antiseptic wash much used
by surgeons.
"Prescriptions were sent to 139 druggists signed by Dr. J.
Scott Brown, calling for pure aristol. Dr. J. A. Wesener of
the Columbus Laboratories conducted the tests.