The bold single forger who passes one or two checks is discovered as soon as his paper reaches the clearing house or the bank. But a gang of forgers can work their schemes for months before they are discovered. By that time they are able to get to the ends of the earth where they are beyond the reach of the police, at least for a season.
The roll call at midnight at a New York station house.
Men’s prison.
Women’s prison.
Some of the brightest and brainiest men that ever lived belonged to this class. In private life they were kind and loving and tender and would scorn to do a mean act. And I have wondered often why such men would commit crime and bring shame and remorse on themselves and their relatives, if they were not partly insane.
I have tried to study them—to see wherein they differed from other men—and that is no ordinary task. Whether I succeeded or not remains to be seen. In some cases, after many patient interviews I was able to draw them out of the dark and gloomy past, where I could read their character in its true light. Although many of this class are exceedingly interesting as conversationalists and unusually intelligent on the great questions of the day, I find they are never willing to disclose their true identity or explain their inner life. And they wilfully conceal the past and refuse to come out clearly into the light of day.
Henry A. Leonard, a Wall Street messenger boy, single and alone, was able to forge a check on the Hanover National Bank, (September, 1905) and have it certified, by which he secured $359,000 in negotiable bonds. It is very doubtful if a stranger could have done the same thing. Leonard was known to the banks as a broker’s messenger boy and all the paper he brought to the various banks was received without question.