Three of a Kind
One of the most startling forgeries of the last century took place in 1886. The principals in this deep laid scheme were William E. Brockway, Luther R. Martin and Nat. Foster, a trio of the most daring crooks that ever walked the streets of New York. They were so foxy in their movements that the police worked upon the case two months before they were able to trap them. One morning Detective Langan, (afterwards Inspector, now deceased), followed Brockway from his lodging house on West Eleventh Street to rooms on the corner of Division and Catherine Streets where he found a complete plant for printing railroad bonds and securities. Detective Cosgrove paid his attention to Martin who had rented a parlor on the corner of Lexington Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street. After his arrest and his rooms searched they found a complete lay-out of four different plates with a numbering machine. Nat. Foster lived in great style at the St. James Hotel on Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street. After his arrest George W. McClusky searched his rooms and captured $54,000 worth of forged bonds of the Morris and Essex Railroad all ready for the market with President Samuel Sloan’s name forged on them. The case against them was clear, all having been caught redhanded. Brockway being an old offender, plead guilty and was sentenced to ten years in State prison by Recorder Smythe. In the case of Martin, who was defended by Lawyer Peter Mitchell, the jury disagreed; he was remanded to the Tombs where he stayed two years. Then he became almost blind, and taking a plea to a minor offence he received a suspended sentence. Nat. Foster was also in the Tombs even longer than Martin, and, strange to say, he also became blind and plead to a smaller offence and he also was given a suspended sentence. How true is that old Bible passage, “The way of the transgressor is hard.”