Tompkins, alias
Topping, alias Toppin, etc., etc., arrested some eight or ten times for
"wire-tapping." The "trusted cashier" materialized in the form of one
Wyatt, alias, Fred Williams, etc., a "wire-tapper" and pal of "Chappie"
Moran and "Larry" Summerfield. Detective Sergeants Fogarty and Mundy
were at once detailed upon the case and arrested within a short time
both Nelson and McPherson. The "trusted cashier" who had pocketed
Felix's $50,000 has never been caught. It is said that he is running a
first-class hostelry in a Western city. But that is another story.

When acting Inspector O'Brien ordered McPherson brought into his private
room, the latter unhesitatingly admitted that the three of them had
"trimmed" Felix of his $50,000, exactly as the latter had alleged. He
stated that Wyatt (alias Williams) was the one who had taken in the
money, that it was still in his possession, and still intact in its
original form. He denied, however, any knowledge of Wyatt's whereabouts.

The reason for this indifference became apparent when the two prisoners
were arraigned in the magistrate's court, and their counsel demanded
their instant discharge on the ground that they had committed no crime
for which they could be prosecuted. He cited an old New York case,
McCord _vs._ The People,[2] which seemed in a general way to sustain his
contention, and which had been followed by another and much more recent
decision. The People _vs._ Livingston.[3] The first of these cases had
gone to the Court of Appeals, and the general doctrine had been
annunciated that where a person parts with his money for an unlawful or
dishonest purpose, even though he is tricked into so doing by false
pretences, a prosecution for the crime of larceny cannot be maintained.

[Footnote 2: 46 New York 470.]

[Footnote 3: 47 App. Div. 283.]

In the McCord case, the defendant had falsely pretended to the
complainant, a man named Miller, that he was a police officer and held a
warrant for his arrest. By these means he had induced Miller to give him
a gold watch and a diamond ring as the price of his liberty. The
conviction in this case was reversed on the ground that Miller parted
with his property for an unlawful purpose; but there was a very strong
dissenting opinion from Mr. Justice Peckham, now a member of the bench
of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In the second case, that of Livingston, the complainant had been
defrauded out of $500 by means