His home training could not have been better, scion of high-class German parents who seriously sought to imbue him with a love for God, and due regard for the property and rights of his fellow beings. He was sent to the best school in Germany and graduated at the head of his class. He was then, by his own choice, apprenticed to an engraver and early developed marvelous skill at the trade. He was obliged to leave Germany because of his attempt to too closely imitate “the coin of the realm.”
Another noted American crook is R—— R——, now living a straight life. The annals of crime do not furnish another like him.
When he began crime he was a man of fine physique, good address, suave in manner, well educated and an accomplished writer for the press. What led him to become a crook is not known.
R—— first came into prominence in 1882. At that time he played a bold game to fleece several Yale College professors by means of bogus checks which he desired cashed. He introduced himself to them as an Irish nobleman named Lord Rossa, who wished to found a college in the United States and sought their advice in the matter. He was not only a perfect gentleman in manners but he was so scholarly that he readily threw them off their guard. But the scheme fell through when they would not cash his checks.
After this R—— went abroad, visiting Allahabad, Cairo and Paris and left a trail of gigantic swindles in his path. In India he is said to have swindled a prince out of a thousand guineas. Then he visited Cairo, where he was able to swindle the Khedive of Egypt out of $5,000. He came directly to Paris dressed like a Persian prince who could converse in the Arabian language; he had with him several body servants and a cook. The latter was secured to prove that he was a Persian of royal blood. In Paris he had great success and was able to get acquainted with Sadi Carnot, then President of France. After this he swindled several French bankers out of $50,000 and decamped.
At one time he claimed that he was born in England, but this he denies, asserting that he was born in Ohio and that his right name is Powers, and that he was a school mate and an intimate friend of the late President McKinley.
That he is a man of brilliant parts and an able writer cannot be denied. A number of years since he was on the editorial staff of a Philadelphia paper, often acting as its Washington correspondent. During the reign of terror created by the Klu-Klux Klahn in North and South Carolina, R—— was sent to those states and faithfully reported for the paper the status of affairs eventuating from the lawlessness of this well known society which was organized to bulldoze the negroes and prevent their voting, and to drive the carpet-baggers from the South, thereby securing the domination of a political organization south of Mason and Dixon’s line.
Periodical sprees are the cause of all his trouble. He runs short of money and then utters worthless checks to fill his empty purse. In April, 1901, he was sent to Sing Sing for four years for uttering worthless checks. But for the clemency of Professor Hadley, of Yale College, he would have been sent to Wethersfield Prison on the termination of his sentence in New York.
It is his determination to devote the remainder of his life to journalism and to never again collide with the law to such an extent as to be deemed worthy of arrest and imprisonment.