True Stories of Crime From the District Attorney's Office   By: Arthur Cheney Train (1875-1945)

THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH.

TRUE STORIES OF CRIME FROM THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

BY ARTHUR TRAIN

FORMERLY DISTRICT ATTORNEY NEW YORK COUNTY

1908

PREFACE

The narratives composing this book are literally true stories of crime. In a majority of the cases the author conducted the prosecutions himself, and therefore may claim to have a personal knowledge of that whereof he speaks. While no confidence has been abused, no essential facts have been omitted, distorted, or colored, and the accounts themselves, being all matters of public record, may be easily verified.

The scenes recorded here are not literature but history, and the characters who figure in them are not puppets of the imagination, but men and women who lived and schemed, laughed, sinned and suffered, and paid the price when the time came, most of them, without flinching. A few of those who read these pages may profit perhaps by their example; others may gain somewhat in their knowledge of life and human nature; but all will agree that there are books in the running brooks, even if the streams be turbid, and sermons in stones, though these be the hearts of men. If in some instances the narratives savor in treatment more of fiction than of fact, the writer must plead guilty to having fallen under the spell of the romance of his subject, and he proffers the excuse that, whereas such tales have lost nothing in accuracy, they may have gained in the truth of their final impression.

ARTHUR TRAIN.

CRIMINAL COURTS BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY, April 20, 1908.

CONTENTS

I. THE WOMAN IN THE CASE II. FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS III. THE LOST STRADIVARIUS IV. THE LAST OF THE WIRE TAPPERS V. THE FRANKLIN SYNDICATE VI. A STUDY IN FINANCE VII. THE "DUC DE NEVERS" VIII. A FINDER OF MISSING HEIRS IX. A MURDER CONSPIRACY X. A FLIGHT INTO TEXAS XI. A CASE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

ILLUSTRATIONS

Envelope on the back of which Parker's forged order was written Parker's order on Rogers, Peet & Co., in the name of Lang A letter head "frill" of Mabel Parker's Examples of Mabel Parker's penmanship, regular and forged Practice signatures of the name of Alice Kauser The check on which the indictment for forgery was brought Parker's copy of the signature of Alice Kauser One of the sheets upon which Mabel Parker illustrated her skill One of Miller's Franklin Syndicate Receipts. Ammon's deposit slips and a receipt signed by Mrs. Ammon. A group of H. Huffman Browne's forgeries Last page of the forged Rice will of 1900 The forged cremation letter Forged assignment and Rice signatures First page of the "Black Hand" letter written by Strollo

I

The Woman in the Case

On a sultry August afternoon in 1903, a dapper, if somewhat anaemic, young man entered the Broadway store of Rogers, Peet & Company, in New York City, and asked to be allowed to look at a suit of clothes. Having selected one to his fancy and arranged for some alterations, he produced from his wallet a check for $280, drawn to the order of George B. Lang, and signed E. Bierstadt, and remarked to the attentive salesman: