Sometimes there are victims in enterprises of this sort where
there probably was no deliberate intent to deceive or to defraud.
Not long ago, in Boston, one Henry D. Reynolds, formerly
president of the Reynolds Alaska Development Company, was brought
before the United States Circuit Court on the charge of using the
United States mails with intent to defraud. Three alienists are
said to have declared him insane. In 1907 ex-Governor John G.
Brady, of Alaska, endorsed Reynolds and his schemes, and is
reported to have collected in New England about $450,000 for
these Reynolds projects. Brady gave "lectures" and stereopticon
exhibitions in New England churches. Reynolds took out an
excursion of Boston and New England investors to Prince William
Sound, at one time, and showed them the seacoast of Alaska,
practically all of which he claimed to own. At Boulder Bay he
took his party into a long tunnel, the face of which they were
told was composed of solid copper ore. When they emerged into the
garish light of day, each was given a bright copper nugget, said
to have come from the mine.