[CELL TERMS FOR "CON" MEN.]
FOUR ARE SENTENCED FOR LONG "GRAFT" RECORDS.
P. L. Tuohy, Philip Bulfer and L. E. Burnett Are Found Guilty of Systematic Fraud by Means of "Fake" Contracts—Their Clerk Is Fined $250—Many Poor People Appear As Witnesses on Fraudulent Employment Bureau Also Operated.
June 11, 1907, one of the most persistent and systematic "confidence" gangs that ever operated in Chicago was broken up for a few years at least, when Patrick L. Tuohy, Philip Bulfer, L. E. Burnett, and J. C. Daubach were found guilty of obtaining money under false pretenses by a jury in Judge Ball's court.
These men were organizers and managers of the Chicago Mercantile and Reporting Agency, with offices at 171 Washington Street. It was a "fake" employment agency with a side line of swindling by means of getting contracts on carbon paper. Bulfer, Tuohy and Burnett were sentenced to the penitentiary, while Daubach, who was only a clerk, was fined $250. The sentence in prison is from one to five years.
Triumph for Wooldridge.
The conviction was a triumph for Detective Clifton R. Wooldridge who has followed the men for years. The raid which resulted in the present trial was made by Wooldridge and his men on February 11, 1906.
Philip Bulfer. Bulfer's pedigree from his home town is interesting. Philip Bulfer was born and raised at Marshalltown, Iowa. His parents live there and have for forty years. The young man was educated, and when still a young man left for Omaha, Neb. There he started in business with his brother, and in a short course of time they were doing a good business, but finally broke up in a dispute with his brother, resulting in a "skin."
Later on he became a messenger for some express company, operating on B. 7 M. in Nebraska, and he ran through the State of Iowa for a good many years. He left that job or was discharged.