The Richmond Palladium And Sun Telegram

WALLINGFORD WAS MERELY A "PIKER"

In Comparison to Edgar Robert Boyer, Bank Employe Now Under Arrest.

Chicago, June 14.-J. Rufus Wallingford was a "piker" beside Edgar Robert Boyer, former bank note teller under arrest on a charge of operating confidence game and passing forged checks, according to evidence developed by William E. Webster, assistant superintendent of the banking department of the Pinkerton agency, who brought about Boyer's arrest.

Noted Men Named.

Instead of using a "Blackie Daw" as "come-on" in his high finance scheme, Boyer, it is charged, used the forged names of Thomas F. Ryan, George W. Perkins, Mortimer L. Schiff, J. Ogden Armour, Edward Weyerhauser and others. To intended suckers Boyer posed as a business partner of these financiers, it is alleged, and in his effects were found several contracts with the alleged forged signatures of these men attached.

In keeping with the company he claimed to keep, Boyer was no piker in the sums he named in his con-tracts. His pet project was the E. R. Boyer & Co. concern, capitalized at $1,000,000, which he intended to use to hold the stock and for floating the bonds of the Klickitat Irrigation and Power company, a regularly organized concern operating under the laws of Washington.

Large Sums Mentioned.

His partners in this scheme, Boyer claimed, were George W. Perkins, Thomas F. Ryan and Mortimer F. Schin. Their alleged forged signatures were attached to the contract. Among the stockholders alleged by him were J. Ogden Armour, $100,000; Ira M. Cobe, $100,000, and Frederick Weyerhauser, $100,000. Boyer, according to the contract, was to receive 20 per cent of all of the profits accruing to the firm in consideration of "services rendered."

Boyer's energies were not directed solely to the E. R. Boyer & Co. concern, according to the Pinkerton agency.

Passing of Checks

He is charged with having passed five forged checks, aggregating several hundred dollars, on Chicago banks and hotels, within the last week signed with the bogus signature of D. M. Frederiksen, president of the Scandinavian-Canadian Land company. Promissory notes aggregating $10,000, bearing a forgery of Frederiksen's signature, were found in Boyer's pockets, it is claimed, when he was arrested at the cashier's window of the Central Trust Bank Saturday as he was attempting to cash an alleged forged check for $48.

In his room at the Hotel Sherman was also found correspondence showing that Boyer anticipated taking a "flyer" in the affairs of the Siloam Gold Mining Company, a Colorado concern.

Signatures Are Practiced.

In the possession of detectives are twenty or more sheets of paper on which Boyer, it is charged, had been practicing the signatures of various financiers. Efforts are being made to ascertain where he obtained the originals. It is said several other arrests may be made.

In his cell Boyer was extremely reticent. He refused to talk of his schemes, but admitted the signatures attached to the E. R. Boyer & Co. contract were forgeries.

Boyer's father is R. E. Boyer, cashier of the national bank in Creston, Iowa. The son was note teller in the Hamilton National bank up to the time of its consolidation in 1909, with the National City bank.